The first printed books: print in East Asia and Europe
China
The earliest printing was in China, Japan and Korea, by hand: woodblock printing. From about AD 594, books were printed by rubbing paper against the inked surface of carved wooden blocks. Both sides of thin paper could not be printed, so the traditional Chinese "accordion book" was folded and stitched. China had a huge bureaucracy chosen by civil service exams, so it printed textbooks in large numbers. By the 17th century, as city culture grew, merchants, scholars and rich women read stories, poetry and plays. In the late 19th century Shanghai became the centre of Western-style printing.
Japan
Buddhist missionaries from China brought hand-printing to Japan around AD 768β770. The oldest Japanese book, printed in AD 868, is the Buddhist Diamond Sutra: six sheets of text with woodcut pictures. In Edo (later Tokyo) in the 18th century, illustrated books showed city life; the artist Kitagawa Utamaro (born 1753) was famous for ukiyo ("pictures of the floating world").
Print comes to Europe
In 1295 Marco Polo returned to Italy from China with knowledge of woodblock printing. Italians and then others printed with woodblocks. Luxury books were still hand-written on vellum (animal skin) for rich people. Handwritten manuscripts could not meet the growing demand: copying was slow, costly and fragile.
Gutenberg and the printing press
Johann Gutenberg, son of a merchant in Strasbourg who grew up on a large farm and saw wine and olive presses, developed the first known printing press by 1448. He used movable metal type (separate letters cast in metal that can be arranged and reused). The first book he printed was the Bible: about 180 copies in about three years, fast for that time. Early printed books looked like manuscripts: borders and pictures were painted by hand. Between 1450 and 1550 presses were set up in most countries of Europe.
The print revolution and its impact
The print revolution was not only a new way of making books; it changed people's lives, their relation to information and knowledge, and to institutions and authorities.
A new reading public
Books became cheaper and more common, and a new reading public grew. Earlier, most people heard sacred texts read aloud, ballads recited and folk tales told. Now printers made books with pictures and wrote ballads and tales that could be sung or read aloud, so even people who could not read joined in. Oral and reading cultures mixed.
Religious debates and the fear of print
Not everyone welcomed print. In 1517 the religious reformer Martin Luther wrote the Ninety-Five Theses criticising practices of the Roman Catholic Church. They were printed in large numbers and read widely; this led to the Protestant Reformation. Luther said, "Printing is the ultimate gift of God and the greatest one." In 16th-century Italy, a miller called Menocchio read books and gave his own view of God and creation; the Church's Inquisition put him to death. From 1558 the Church kept an Index of Prohibited Books.
The reading mania
In the 17th and 18th centuries literacy rose in Europe. Churches set up village schools. Pedlars sold chapbooks (small cheap pocket books) in England; in France the "Bibliothèque Bleue" were low-priced small books on poor paper with blue covers. There were almanacs, romances, ballads and newspapers. Scientists like Isaac Newton published discoveries, and thinkers like Thomas Paine, Voltaire and Rousseau reached many readers.
'Tremble, tyrants of the world!'
Many believed print would spread Enlightenment ideas and defeat despotism. Louise-SΓ©bastien Mercier, an 18th-century French novelist, said the printing press was the most powerful engine of progress.
Print culture and the French Revolution
Historians give three ways print helped: (1) it spread the ideas of Enlightenment thinkers who attacked tradition, superstition and despotism; (2) it created a new culture of dialogue and debate, where values and customs were questioned; (3) by the 1780s many cartoons and writings mocked the royalty and showed the monarchy as immoral. But print does not directly shape minds; people read selectively and made their own meaning.
The nineteenth century
- Children: primary education became compulsory in the late 19th century. A children's press was set up in France in 1857. The Grimm brothers collected folk tales and published them, removing parts they thought unsuitable.
- Women: became important readers and writers. Penny magazines were for women; famous novelists included Jane Austen, the BrontΓ« sisters and George Eliot.
- Workers: lending libraries educated white-collar workers, artisans and lower-middle-class people. Some workers wrote political and autobiographical works.
Further innovations
By the late 18th century presses were made of metal. In the mid-19th century Richard M. Hoe of New York made the power-driven cylindrical press, printing about 8,000 sheets an hour, good for newspapers. The offset press could print up to six colours. Electricity sped things up. Publishers sold cheap books: serialised novels, cheap series (the Shilling Series), dust covers, and in the 1930s Depression cheap paperbacks.
India and the world of print
Manuscripts before the age of print
India had a rich tradition of hand-written manuscripts in Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian and Indian languages, written on palm leaves or handmade paper, often beautifully illustrated. But they were costly and fragile. In Bengal, village pathshalas taught children to write, but most children did not read manuscripts.
Print comes to India
The first printing press came to Goa with Portuguese missionaries in the mid-16th century. Jesuit priests learnt Konkani and printed tracts; by 1674 about 50 books were printed in Konkani and Kannada. Catholic priests printed the first Tamil book in 1579 at Cochin, and the first Malayalam book in 1713. The English East India Company imported presses from the late 17th century.
From 1780, James Augustus Hickey edited the Bengal Gazette, a weekly that called itself open to all but influenced by none. He printed gossip about Company officials; Governor-General Warren Hastings persecuted him and encouraged officially approved papers. The first Indian newspaper was a weekly Bengal Gazette by Gangadhar Bhattacharya, who was close to Rammohun Roy.
Religious reform and public debates
From the early 19th century there were intense debates on religion. Some criticised practices like sati, child marriage, idolatry and ban on widow remarriage; others argued against reformers. Printed tracts and newspapers spread both sides in everyday language. Rammohun Roy published Sambad Kaumudi from 1821; Hindu orthodoxy replied with Samachar Chandrika. In 1822 two Persian newspapers, Jam-i-Jahan Nama and Shamsul Akhbar, and the Gujarati Bombay Samachar started. Muslim scholars of the Deoband Seminary (founded 1867) printed thousands of fatwas telling believers how to live. Among Hindus, the first printed edition of Tulsidas's Ramcharitmanas (16th-century text) came from Calcutta in 1810, and cheap editions spread to many homes. Print also connected communities across India.
New forms of publication
Novels, lyrics, short stories and essays about social and political matters grew. Visual culture grew: Raja Ravi Varma made images for mass circulation; cheap prints and calendars hung in homes. By the 1870s caricatures and cartoons in journals commented on social and political issues.
Women and print
Liberal families educated women; some conservatives feared that. Rashsundari Debi, a housewife in East Bengal, learnt to read secretly in the kitchen and wrote her autobiography Amar Jiban (1876), the first full-length autobiography in Bengali. From the 1860s women like Kailashbashini Debi wrote about women's hardships. In Maharashtra, Tarabai Shinde and Pandita Ramabai wrote about the miserable lives of upper-caste Hindu women, especially widows. Hindi printing grew from the 1870s; Ram Chaddha's Istri Dharm Vichar taught women to be obedient wives. In Bengal, the Battala area of central Calcutta printed cheap books, many for women.
Print and the poor people
Very cheap small books sold at crossroads in Madras towns in the 19th century; public libraries were set up. Jyotiba Phule, the Maratha reformer, wrote about the injustices of caste in Gulamgiri (1871). In the 20th century B.R. Ambedkar in Maharashtra and E.V. Ramaswamy Naicker (Periyar) in Madras wrote powerfully on caste. Kashibaba, a Kanpur millworker, wrote Chhote Aur Bade Ka Sawal (1938) on caste and class exploitation. Workers set up libraries in Bombay and elsewhere.
Print and censorship
Before 1798 the Company was not much worried about censorship. After the Revolt of 1857 the attitude changed. In 1878 the Vernacular Press Act, modelled on Irish press laws, gave the government wide rights to censor reports and editorials in the vernacular (Indian-language) press. If a paper was seditious, the press could be seized and machinery taken. Still, nationalist papers grew. When Punjab revolutionaries were deported in 1907, Bal Gangadhar Tilak wrote about them with sympathy in his paper Kesari; he was jailed in 1908, which led to widespread protests.
Try it yourself
Make a potato print: cut a potato in half, carve a simple letter or shape (ask an adult to help with the knife), dip in ink or paint and press on paper five times. Notice: carving is slow, but after that every copy is fast. That is the idea of woodblock printing. Remember: a letter carved the right way prints backwards! In the 3D free play, predict how many pages the press makes in 8 hours before you move the slider.
Exam tips
Common questions: why woodblock printing came to Europe after 1295, Gutenberg's press, impact of print on the Protestant Reformation, why some people feared print, how print helped the French Revolution, the Vernacular Press Act, how print helped reform debates and women in India, and why manuscripts were not widely used. Give one example with each point.
Key formulas and definitions
- Woodblock print: China from ~594 AD; Diamond Sutra, Japan, 868 AD
- Gutenberg press (by 1448): movable metal type; Bible ~180 copies
- Print revolution = cheap books + new readers + new ideas + debates
- Luther's 95 Theses (1517) β Reformation; Church's Index of Prohibited Books (1558)
- India: Goa press (16th c.) β Bengal Gazette (1780) β Vernacular Press Act (1878)
Worked examples
1. Why could manuscripts not satisfy the growing demand for books?
Copying by hand was slow, laborious and costly. Manuscripts were fragile, awkward to handle and could not be carried easily. So they could not be made in large numbers for many readers.
2. How did print help the Protestant Reformation?
Luther's Ninety-Five Theses (1517) were printed in large numbers and read widely. His translation of the New Testament sold 5,000 copies in weeks. This spread his criticism of the Church fast, leading to a split in the Church.
3. Why did some people fear the spread of print?
Religious authorities and monarchs feared that if there was no control over what was printed, rebellious and irreligious ideas would spread and destroy valuable literature. The Church kept an Index of Prohibited Books and punished people like Menocchio.
4. What was the Vernacular Press Act?
A law of 1878, based on Irish press laws, that gave the British government wide powers to censor Indian-language newspapers. If a report was judged seditious, the paper was warned and its press and machinery could be seized.
Common mistakes
- Saying Gutenberg invented printing. Printing began in China; Gutenberg made a press with movable metal type in Europe.
- Mixing up Hickey's Bengal Gazette (1780, English) with Gangadhar Bhattacharya's Bengal Gazette (first Indian newspaper).
- Thinking print directly created revolutions. It spread ideas and debate; people read selectively.
- Writing the Vernacular Press Act year as 1857. It was 1878; 1857 was the Revolt.