Ugh... I always forget to change the working title for something better!
Margarita Kravchenko
Prof. Barbara Gleason
Theories and Models of
Literacy
11/18/13
From Scribal To Print: The Transition
It is not known when exactly the transition from
scribal to print literacy has begun. What is known, however, is that this
transition was a product of, first and foremost, major economic changes in
Europe. In order to understand how this transition came to be, one has to look
closely at what was happening in Europe during the Middle Ages and beyond.
Literacy was not always the activity available to
just about anyone, as it is today. Early on, it was a privilege enjoyed
primarily by the clergy and the wealthy class of the society, mostly because it
was a rather costly affair. Before paper became the primary “carrier” of the
printed word, mediums like clay, papyrus, parchment, and vellum were used extensively.
However, those materials were expensive and not very utilitarian. Clay tablets,
for example, were too cumbersome to transport, and papyrus, however relatively
portable, was too brittle. Moreover, the Egyptians, who possessed the
technology of producing papyrus, at the time one of the primary materials, would
not readily part with it. As per Alberto Manguel, the prohibition of papyrus
export by an Egyptian King Ptolemy led to “the invention of parchment in
Pergamum in the second century BC” (126). Parchment and vellum, both made from
animal skins, were significantly more durable and strong; Manguel states that
“[b]y the fourth century, and until the appearance of paper in Italy eight
centuries later, parchment was the preferred material throughout Europe for the
making of books” (126). Also because of parchment’s durability and its ease of
transport, the format of the books changed from scrolls to codex, a volume of
bound pages. It had numerous advantages over scrolls – for one, text could be
written on both sides of a page thus making codex hold more volume of writing
in a smaller amount of pages. Another of codex’s advantages was the existence
of margins, therefore giving a reader an opportunity to comment on the read
text and thus “allowing the reader a hand in the story – a participation that
was far more difficult when reading from a scroll” (Manguel 127).
However, both parchment and vellum remained not very
cost-effective thus making owing books a privilege of the wealthy. Along with
that, the process of reproduction was lengthy, not to mention costly. The books
that were reproduced were mostly religious texts, including the Bible and so
called Book of Hours, a personal prayer book. According to Manguel, this was
because “much of the life of Europeans in the Middle Ages was spent in
religious offices” (128). That and religion being a significant part of people’s
lives was the other reason for reading and writing not being as widely spread
as it is today. With the church vying for control over the minds of the
individuals, it was only natural for the clergy to try and limit the access to
the “printed” word. Even owing a Bible had its caveats, mostly associated with
the spreading of silent reading. Going from reading out loud surrounded by
other people to reading privately to one’s self presented a major threat for
the church since silent reading invited independent interpretation of the text.
Manguel posits that “[a] book that can be read privately… is no longer subject
to immediate clarification or guidance, condemnation or censorship by a
listener” (51). In other words, silent reading undermined the “establishing
[of] a common dogma” (Manguel 51), and the advent of printing exacerbated it
even more.
Emergence of a new merchant class, as well as
arrival of the Renaissance movement was responsible for the growth of interest
in reading and writing. Alister McGrath posits that with the emergence of the
merchant class, “[t]raditional social structures were undermined by greater
social mobility, increased wealth and spending power within the middle classes,
and a surge of literacy and levels of educational achievement within the
population as a whole” (6). Social hierarchy was crumbling; conventional
attitudes and values were becoming outdated. The new social class was beginning
to take shape and set the new priorities, literacy being one of them. The movement
responsible for promoting and developing reading and writing was the
Renaissance. It served as an impetus for the entrepreneurs in several ways,
mostly by altering the mindset of the individuals associated with the movement.
Reading and writing was not a mere tool for keeping records anymore; McGrath
asserts that “[b]eing able to read was now seen as the key to personal
fulfillment; to own books was a statement of social status. … The Renaissance
set to promote written and spoken eloquence, and placed considerable emphasis
on cultivating both reading and writing” (7). Since more people were not only
interested in owning books but were able to afford it as well, the demand for
the reading materials rose. However, the demand could not be matched with the existing
supply because the process of reproduction was still painstakingly slow and
expensive. There were simply not enough scribes to satisfy the growing demand
for the reading materials, and a new way of reproducing books had to be conjured.
Johannes Gutenberg of Mainz, Germany was the man to do that.
Gutenberg was not the only one in search of a faster
and cheaper way to reproduce books but he was the one who has accomplished it
first. Perhaps his success could be attributed to the fact that he was trained
in metalworking and worked as a goldsmith. After several years of experimenting
with various ways of transferring ink to paper, Gutenberg finally put them all
together to create the printing press. McGrath maintains that “Gutenberg’s genius lay in creating a system
that incorporated both new and old ideas, allowing a task to be performed with
unprecedented efficiency” (10). Gutenberg’s main invention was a movable metal
type that could be reused after the initial printing was done. The metal used
to produce the type was an alloy of lead, tin and antimony, a combination devised
to prevent the metal from wearing off. Another major innovation was a new type
of ink “made from lampblack – the soot deposited by candle flames on cold
surface – and varnish” (McGrath 11). Unlike the brown ink used earlier, which
faded with time, Gutenberg’s black ink was permanent. This, in turn, led to
paper becoming the primary medium for the printed word as it absorbed this new
and permanent ink significantly better than vellum did. As for the press
itself, Gutenberg found that the machines used in wine-making and bookbinding
were equally suitable for transferring ink to paper. By combining these
innovations with existing methods, Gutenberg set the printing process in
motion. His experiments started around 1440, and the first printed Bible was
produced between 1452 and 1456.
To this day the Bible remains the
best-selling book in the world. It was even more so in Gutenberg’s time. With
the development of printing industry and with the Renaissance movement
spreading throughout Europe, the Bible was the perfect first book to produce
with the new technology –for several reasons. McGrath asserts that “many households
saw the possession of a Bible as essential for the private matter of personal
devotion, not to mention the rather more sordid and public matter of drawing
attention to their social status” (14-15). In other words, owing a Bible was
both private and public; it not only allowed its owners to practice religion in
the quiet of their home but also sent out a powerful message about their social
standing. Apart from the Bible, Gutenberg was also printing indulgences –
“pieces of paper, issued on behalf of the Pope or a local bishop, offering
written promises of dispensation from time in purgatory” (McGrath 15) – that
became a very profitable addition to the existing enterprise. However, in spite
of that, Gutenberg died in poverty in 1468.
During mid- to late 15th
century, printing houses were spreading throughout Europe. More people were
learning to read and write, and with more and more printing houses emerging,
more people could afford to buy books. With the advance of the printed word
came the relative decline of the oral word; Kernan comments by saying that
“this [printed] kind of authority grew into the authenticity that is probably
the absolute mark of print culture, a generally accepted view that what is
printed is true, or at least truer than any other type of record” (49). People
began to rely on written documents and trust them more than they did the spoken
word. However, this was not the case with the ruling class of the 16th
and 17th century England and consequently, of those under the
patronage of the crown, namely, poets. The patronage system, established at the
king’s court, provided poets with means for a living, along with various gifts,
in exchange for their talent. Therefore, the advancement of printing system
posed a threat for the court by having a potential to eliminate (which it did)
the patronage system altogether since the “gentlemen of the court” could have
an opportunity of earning a living by selling their work.
On the other hand, poets also took issue with the
printed work. Some preferred to circulate their poetry on hand-written
manuscripts; others, although having given in to publishing their work,
insisted on keeping their names out of the manuscript. Kernan explains this by
pointing out to “a fashionable and long continuing, though not universally
observed, antipathy to a medium that perverted the primary courtly literary
values: privacy and rarity” (42). In other words, at the time poetry was still
equated with the court and therefore had to possess the aforementioned
qualities: it had to be private, meant only for the patron, and rare – special,
one of a kind, written with a specific person in mind. Printed word, on the other hand, was quite the
opposite: it was public – as in available to the wide public; it was multiple –
as in multiple copies of the same poem could be printed; and most of all it was
commercial.
Works Cited:
Kernan,
Alvin. Samuel Johnson and the Impact of
Print. New Jersey: Princeton UP, 1987/1989.
Manguel,
Alberto. A History of Reading. New
York: Viking, 1996.
McGrath, Alister. In The Beginning: the Story of the King James Bible and How It Changed
a Nation, a Language and a Culture.: New York: Anchor Books, 2001.
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