The Impact Of Paper And Printing On Western Europe

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The impact of paper and printing on Western Europe cannot be understated. It revolutionized everything from the way people communicated to what they valued. Western Europe went from a culture that valued unquestioned obedience to the Church, to a culture that emphasized personal devotion and the spread of new ideas. Prior to the invention of printing in Western Europe, scholars spent the majority of their time copying and preserving texts. They were constantly being flooded by the words and thoughts of earlier scholars. A scholar’s priority was uniformity among their copies. Printing allowed many copies to be made at once, thereby giving scholars time to pursue new activities. Many scholars used their new-found freedom to focus on thinking and developing their own ideas. The printing press virtually guaranteed consistency among copies, and as Darmaid MacCulloch said, “uniformity paradoxically put a premium on individuality” (74). Some of these new ideas, like those of Martin …show more content…

They had to be distributed and read across Western Europe. Printing and paper allowed for this to happen. During the time of manuscripts, there was a sense of fragility around knowledge. The limited number of sources resulted in “an attitude which guards rather than spreads knowledge” (MacCullouch, 74). After printing allowed for many copies of a source to be made with ease, this attitude changed. Not having to protect sources anymore allowed people to share their new ideas with ease. In fact, the more copies a printer made and sold, the more money they made which further encouraged the spread of information. The Handbook of the Militant Christian, for example, was initially printed in Latin and distributed across Europe. By 1585, it had been translated into 6 additional languages as his ideas grew in popularity. This drastic change in the culture’s attitude towards knowledge is a direct result of

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