History of Print Culture and the Modern World

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering the development of print technology, its socio-religious impacts across East Asia and Europe, and its role in colonial India.

Accordion format

A traditional Chinese book design where thin paper printed on one side by rubbing against inked woodblocks was folded and stitched because it could not be printed on both sides.

Tripitaka Koreana

A mid-thirteenth-century Korean collection of Buddhist scriptures carved into about 80,000 woodblocks.

Jikji

A Korean Buddhist work printed with movable metal type in the late fourteenth century, representing a significant technical development in early printing.

Diamond Sutra

A Buddhist text printed in AD 868, recognized as the oldest identified Chinese printed book.

Ukiyo prints

Japanese woodblock prints depicting ordinary, especially urban life, notably produced in eighteenth-century Edo by artists such as Kitagawa Utamaro.

Johann Gutenberg's printing press

A mid-fifteenth-century European press modeled on the olive press that utilized movable metal letters cast in molds, capable of printing around 250 sheets per hour on one side.

Ninety-Five Theses

A 1517 text by Martin Luther criticizing practices of the Roman Catholic Church, which was printed, widely circulated, and advanced the Protestant Reformation.

Menocchio

An Italian miller whose personal reading led to individual interpretations of religion that angered Church authorities, resulting in his trial by the Inquisition and execution.

Index of Prohibited Books

A list maintained by the Roman Catholic Church beginning in 1558 to regulate popular reading and prevent the spread of seditious or heretical ideas.

Bibliothèque Bleue

Inexpensive French popular books printed in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, bound in cheap blue covers and distributed widely among common readers.

Richard M. Hoe's press

A power-driven cylindrical press developed in the nineteenth century capable of printing about 8,000 sheets per hour.

James Augustus Hickey's Bengal Gazette

A weekly English-language paper founded in 1780 that carried advertisements and criticized colonial officials, leading to persecution by Governor-General Warren Hastings.

Sambad Kaumudi

A reformist newspaper published in Bengal from 1821 by Rammohun Roy to discuss social and religious debates.

Samachar Chandrika

An orthodox publication established in Bengal to counter and oppose the social reform arguments advanced by Rammohun Roy.

Deoband Seminary

An Islamic institution founded in 1867 that used lithographic presses to print Urdu and Persian religious texts and fatwas explaining Islamic teachings and conduct.

Amar Jiban

The first full-length autobiography in Bengali, written by Rashsundari Debi and published in 1876.

Gulamgiri

An 1871 book written by Jyotirao Phule that highlighted and criticized caste-based oppression and injustice in India.

Vernacular Press Act of 1878

A British colonial law that granted the government extensive powers to censor Indian-language newspapers and seize printing presses if deemed seditious.