The Book in the Renaissance Pdf Summary
The dawn of print was a major turning point in the early modern world. It rescued ancient learning from obscurity, transformed knowledge of the natural and physical world, and brought the thrill of book ownership to the masses. But, as Andrew Pettegree reveals in this work of great historical merit, the story of the post-Gutenberg world was rather more complicated than we have often come to believe.
The Book in the Renaissance reconstructs the first 150 years of the world of print, exploring the complex web of religious, economic, and cultural concerns surrounding the printed word. From its very beginnings, the printed book had to straddle financial and religious imperatives, as well as the very different requirements and constraints of the many countries who embraced it, and, as Pettegree argues, the process was far from a runaway success. More than ideas, the success or failure of books depended upon patrons and markets, precarious strategies and the thwarting of piracy, and the ebb and flow of popular demand. Owing to his state-of-the-art and highly detailed research, Pettegree crafts an authoritative, lucid, and truly pioneering work of cultural history about a major development in the evolution of European society.
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The Book in the Renaissance Review
5.0 out of 5 stars An indispensable history
Reviewed in the United States on September 18, 2010
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A sweeping survey of the first 150 years of the European printed book (“book” here covers all printed texts including pamphlets and single leaf broadsides), from its invention by Gutenberg in 1450-55 to the end of the sixteenth century. During that time, printing spread from a single location in southern Germany to every corner of Europe and beyond, resulting in an estimated 350,000 different editions. The focus of the book is on the book as a business – “Printers were businessmen, and books were a commercial venture” (p. 129) – and, as the book progresses, on the Reformation (which resulted in an explosion of printing of Luther’s pamphlets) and the subsequent wars, political conflicts and intrigues. Pettegree discusses what was printed, where and why; how the books were distributed and marketed, etc., tying this to the important historical and religious events of the sixteenth century. Along the way, he covers the expansion of printing to provide news and entertainment, the increase in printing in the vernacular, the birth of literary salons and women authors, the early printing of popular music, renaissance schools, emblem books, scientific works, botanical illustration, maps, printing in England, Scotland, Spain, Scandanavia, Eastern Europe, and Mexico, censorship and the Index, and a variety of other topics. Seemingly, nothing significant is omitted.
In his analysis, Pettegree provides numerous important and new insights into the history of the early printed book. The book is dense with facts and specific examples. It includes many excellent illustrations of early printed books, including fine title pages. It contains extensive footnotes to sources, although unfortunately they are not at the bottom of pages of text, but at the back, indexed by page runs.
Surprisingly, the author starts off the book with a significant error. He states that Gutenberg may have based his invention on the “model” of block books, short religious works in which both the text and images were printed from single woodcuts (p. 23). In fact, scholars have rejected the idea that block books were precursors of movable type books and have confirmed (through analysis of watermarks and owners’ annotations) that virtually all surviving block books had been printed in the 1460s and later and none predate work on the Gutenberg Bible (1450). (See Allan Stevenson’s “The Problem of the Blockbooks” and the other articles included in Blockbücher des Mittlealters, Gutenberg-Museum, Mainz (1991)). The illustrated “block book Bible” shown in fig. 4 and supposedly printed “c. 1430” actually is known as an “Apocalypse” and was printed c. 1465-70. The author also suggests that work on mechanical printing may have begun in the 1430s (p. 21), without mentioning that the early sources on which that is based are problematic and have been the subject of lengthy and inconclusive debate.
Although I saw no other major errors, I did note a few minor ones. For example, type was inked using stuffed leather balls or pads with attached handles, and not “soft sponges” as the book states (Fig. 6). (See, e.g., Philip Gaskell, A New Introduction to Bibliography (1972), p. 126.) The statement that the sixteenth century Giunta printing business in Florence “was a branch office of the family’s Venice business” (p. 254) is incorrect; the two businesses were separately formed in the fifteenth century by a pair of brothers from Florence and were independently operated by them and their respective heirs following distinct strategies, devotional works in Venice and humanistic works in Florence. Although the two businesses entered into several partnerships, “direct participation of the Florentine firm in partnership with the Giunti of Venice ended in 1517.” (Pettas, The Giunti of Florence, p. 112.) The reference to “Bohemia (now the Czech Republic)” (p. 112) is awkward, seemingly suggesting that Bohemia simply changed its name; something like “Bohemia (roughly the western part of today’s Czech Republic)” would have been more accurate. And, although he discusses Aldus’ famous small octavo editions (p. 61), he neglects to mention that Aldus began their printing in 1501, leaving their chronology unclear to the reader.
Notwithstanding these small imperfections, this is a major addition to the early history of the book and clearly the most comprehensive study (in English at least) of the inter-relation of sixteenth century printing with the Reformation and religious turmoil of that period Pettegree’s work will be indispensable to those fields.
5.0 out of 5 stars IRONY and New Tech
Reviewed in the United States on March 1, 2012
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So as an amateur in this space of early books, I found this book to be just on the edge of okay for “intelligent non-specialist” and too simple for “specialist” in this domain. Makes it a challenging read, which I like. Pettegree is a fine author and writes quite well.
But the KINDLE edition had no illustrations…. queer. (and I also have the hardcover, but I found reading the hardcover, when I’m now “trained” to kindle, as too awkward)
But it’s IRONIC that a book all about the rise of the codex technology applied to movable type and the social and business systems required to support the new high tech of the book world is crippled by having the pictures throughout missing because digital rights were not secured. (From perhaps old school libraries who think digital is going to let the proverbial Camel of Digital Theft into the Tent of the Bodleian?) This was MOST IRONIC when the text alongside the empty image frames was talking about how the art guilds in 15th C Germany were complaining about how the new tech of BOOKS was destroying the business of selling art prints…. new tech is often reviled by the old tech defenders.
So reading an important book on the development of the book on a 21st century book stand (the kindle) is crippled by 19th century attitudes about copyright of 17th century libraries of originally uncopyrighted works of 15th century new book technology and presses…the image, well, it strikes me as they say “like turtles all the way down…”
Same reactionary politics, different century. Humans! Buy this book. Read it.
1.0 out of 5 stars shoddy product
Reviewed in the United States on January 21, 2011
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This book author’s fine work has been dealt a poor hand by its publisher. I was very surprised to find that the Yale University Press honors an outstanding work on the early history of books and publishing with so shoddy a modern product. The “Hardcover” in this instance is some slim cardboard drawn over what is essentially a rigid perfect bound text. I had understood that a “Hardbound”, or Case bound, book would be comprised of a substantial cover drawn over smythe sewn pages. The result of such a process being an easy to read publication, the pages generally lie flat, resulting in a book that is easy to use and quite durable.
This current edition by the Yale University Press combines text margins which are so slim that the text disappears into the gutter with pages being glued together in a rigid block, all of which results in it becoming necessary to physically break the back of the book block in order to read the text.
It is truly a shame to produce such a shoddy product covering what is in effect an outstanding effort covering the formative history the art of the book with a book that is completely lacking in normal cased book production values.
About Andrew Pettegree Author Of The Book in the Renaissance pdf Book
I began my career working on aspects of the European Reformation. My first book was a study of religious refugee communities in the sixteenth century, and since then I have published on the Dutch Revolt, and on the Reformation in Germany, France and England, as well as a general survey history of the sixteenth century. In the last years the focus of my research has shifted towards an interest in the history of communication, and especially the history of the book. I run a research group that in 2011 completed a survey of all books published before1601: the Universal Short Title Catalogue. This work continues with work to incorporate new discoveries and continue the survey into the seventeenth century.
In 2010 I published an award-winning study of The Book in the Renaissance, and in 2014 The Invention of News: a study of the birth of a commercial culture of news publication in the four centuries between 1400 and 1800. I return to the Reformation for a study of Luther’s media strategy, published in 2015 by Penguin as Brand Luther, 1517, Printing and the Making of the Reformation. I am now engaged in a study of the book world of the seventeenth century Dutch Republic, to be published in 2019 as Trading Books in the Age of Rembrandt.
I am the lead editor of two monograph series: the St Andrews Studies in Reformation History, and The Library of the Written Word. In 2012-2015 I served a three year term as Vice-President of the Royal Historical Society.
I welcome enquiries from potential postgraduate students working on any aspect of the Reformation or Book History.
The Book in the Renaissance pdf, Paperback, Hardcover Book Information
- Publisher : Yale University Press; First Edition (June 29, 2010)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 440 pages
- ISBN-10 : 030011009X
- ISBN-13 : 978-0300110098
- Item Weight : 1.9 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.5 x 1.5 x 9.5 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,614,871 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #165 in Book Publishing Industry
- #848 in Renaissance Literary Criticism (Books)
- #1,981 in General Books & Reading
- Customer Reviews: 4.6 out of 5 stars 38 ratings
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