Print Culture and the Modern World – Detailed Bullet-Point Notes

The First Printed Books (East Asia)

  • Origins in China (AD 594)

    • Hand-printing on woodblocks; sheets rubbed against inked wooden surface.

    • Thin, porous paper invented in China ➔ could only be printed on one side → ‘accordion’ folding & side-stitching.

    • High skill duplicated elegant calligraphy; texts often state-sponsored for civil-service exams.

    • 16^{th} – 17^{th} centuries: growth of urban culture → diversification of print (fiction, poetry, trade manuals, women’s writings).

  • Shift to Mechanisation (late 19^{th} c.)

    • Western powers build outposts; mechanical presses imported.

    • Shanghai becomes hub of Western-style schoolbooks; gradual move from hand to mechanical printing.

Print in Japan

  • Technique carried by Buddhist missionaries (c. AD 768-770).

  • Oldest Japanese printed book: Diamond Sutra (AD 868).

  • Uses: textiles, playing cards, paper money; publishing cheap & abundant.

  • 18^{th}-century Edo/Tokyo:

    • Ukiyo (“pictures of the floating world”) prints; artists e.g. Kitagawa Utamaro.

    • Subjects: courtesans, teahouses, etiquette, flower arrangement, cooking.

    • Process: publisher → artist outline → woodblock carver destroys original drawing, preserves prints.

Print Comes to Europe

  • Transmission of Woodblock Printing

    • Marco Polo (1295) returns to Italy with Chinese knowledge.

    • Early European books: luxury vellum MSS for elites vs. cheaper woodblock for merchants/students.

  • Limitations of Manuscripts

    • Expensive, fragile, slow; circulation narrow.

    • >50 scribes could serve one bookseller yet unmet demand.

  • Rise of Woodblock Products 15^{th} c.

    • Playing cards, textiles, religious images with short texts.

    • Need for faster tech culminates in Gutenberg.

Johann Gutenberg & the Printing Press (c. 1430s-1448)

  • Inspired by wine/olive presses + goldsmith mould technology.

  • Key innovations:

    • Moveable metal type for 26 Roman letters.

    • Screw press with platen; could print 250 sheets/hour (one-side).

  • First major product: 180 copies of the Bible (took 3 yrs).

  • Early printed books imitated manuscripts: hand-illumination, blank decorative margins.

  • Spread: 1450-1550 presses across Europe → 20 million books (1450-1500), 200 million (16th c.) → ‘print revolution’.

The Print Revolution & Impact

A New Reading Public

  • Printing ↓ cost & labour, ↑ copies → books flood markets.

  • Transition from “hearing public” to “reading public”, but literacy low ⇒ printers use:

    • Illustrated ballads/folktales read aloud in taverns/villages.

    • Blurring of oral & print cultures.

Religious Debates

  • Protestant Reformation (1517)

    • Martin Luther’s 95 Theses; rapid reproduction ➔ within weeks 5{,}000 copies of German New Testament.

    • Luther: “Printing is the ultimate gift of God.”

  • Catholic Anxiety & Censorship

    • Fear of irreligion/rebellion; Index of Prohibited Books (from 1558).

    • Example: Italian miller Menocchio executed after inquisitorial trials.

    • Erasmus (1508) laments glut of “slanderous, scandalous, raving” books.

Reading Mania (17th-18th c.)

  • Rising literacy 60-80 % in parts of Europe; church schools vital.

  • New cheap genres:

    • England: penny chapbooks; France: Bibliothèque Bleue.

    • Periodical press mixes news & entertainment; maps & scientific diagrams popular.

  • Enlightenment conviction: print spreads progress. Louise-S. Mercier → “Tremble, therefore, tyrants…”.

  • Connection to French Revolution:

    • (1) Popularised Enlightenment critique of Church/monarchy.

    • (2) Fostered culture of debate & public opinion.

    • (3) Flood of satirical, obscene pamphlets undermined royal legitimacy.

19^{th} Century Developments

Expanding Audiences

  • Children: compulsory primary education → boom in textbooks; Children’s Press (France 1857). Grimm Brothers 1812 edited folk-tales.

  • Women: penny magazines, conduct books; major women novelists (Austen, Brontës, Eliot) define new femininity.

  • Workers: lending libraries educate artisans; self-taught authors (e.g., Yorkshire mechanic Thomas Wood).

Technological Innovations

  • Metal presses (late 18^{th} c.).

  • Richard Hoe’s power cylinder press (c. 1850) → 8{,}000 sheets/hr.

  • Late 19^{th} c.: offset press (six-colour); electric presses, automatic paper reels, photo-electric colour register.

  • Marketing: serialised novels, Shilling Series, dust-jackets, 1930s paperbacks during Great Depression.

India and the World of Print

Manuscript Tradition

  • Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian, vernaculars on palm-leaf or handmade paper; illustrated, accordion or stitched; expensive & fragile → limited mass use.

Arrival of Press

  • Goa (mid-16th c.): Portuguese Jesuits; \approx 50 Konkani/Kanara books by 1674.

  • Tamil (1579) at Cochin; Malayalam (1713); Dutch Protestants print 32 Tamil texts by 1710.

  • English Press: late 18^{th} c.

    • James Augustus Hickey’s Bengal Gazette (1780) ➔ independent gossip, slave ads; suppressed by Warren Hastings.

    • Early Indian-owned weekly Bengal Gazette (Gangadhar Bhattacharya).

Religious Reform & Public Debate (19th c.)

  • Print = platform for reform vs. orthodoxy (widow immolation, idolatry etc.).

  • Examples:

    • Rammohun Roy’s Sambad Kaumudi (1821) vs. orthodox Samachar Chandrika.

    • Persian Jam-i-Jahan Nama & Shamsul Akhbar (1822); Gujarati Bombay Samachar.

  • Muslim ulama use cheap litho presses → Urdu/Persian translations; Deoband Seminary fatwas.

  • Hindu presses: first printed Ramcharitmanas (1810, Calcutta); Naval Kishore (Lucknow) & Shri Venkateshwar (Bombay) mass-produce vernacular scriptures.

  • Newspapers knit pan-Indian identities; proposals emphasise ‘diffusion of knowledge’ & role akin to Opposition (Native Opinion, 1870).

New Literary & Visual Forms

  • Indian novel adapts European form; short-stories, essays, lyrics emphasise personal/social life.

  • Growth of popular prints & calendars (Raja Ravi Varma) ⇨ mass mythological imagery.

  • Caricatures/cartoons (Indian Charivari) critique Westernisation, imperialism, social change.

Women & Print in India

  • Female literacy promoted by liberal families; journals print curricula.

  • Oppositions: belief literate girls become widows (Hindu); Urdu romances corrupt (Muslim).

  • Pioneer writings:

    • Rashsundari Debi’s Amar Jiban (1876) – first Bengali autobiography.

    • Kailashbashini Debi, Tarabai Shinde, Pandita Ramabai expose patriarchy.

  • Hindi print (post-1870) targets women; women-edited journals discuss education, widowhood.

  • Punjab tracts: Istri Dharm Vichar, Khalsa Tract Society.

  • Battala, Calcutta: cheap illustrated books (religious + “obscene”); pedlars spread to homes.

Print & the Poor

  • Madras crossroads: tiny chapbooks for paisa.

  • Public libraries (20th c.) in towns/villages as prestige projects.

  • Anti-caste literature: Jyotiba Phule’s Gulamgiri (1871); Ambedkar, Periyar writings.

  • Worker voices: Kanpur millworker Kashibaba’s Chhote Aur Bade Ka Sawal (1938); Sudarshan Chakra poems (1935-55); Bombay/Bangalore mill libraries.

Censorship in Colonial India

  • Pre-1798: Company wary of English critics; regulations vs. European editors.

  • 1835 Press Act liberalises (Macaulay).

  • Post-1857: harsher stance; Vernacular Press Act (1878) modelled on Irish laws:

    • Government could warn, seize presses, confiscate machinery for ‘seditious’ material.

  • Press–state tug-of-war: Tilak’s Kesari support for Punjab revolutionaries → Tilak jailed 1908.

  • Wartime controls: Defence of India Rules (WW-I) – 22 papers fined/suspended; Rowlatt 1919; Defence of India Act (WW-II) suppresses Quit India news (≈90 papers).

  • Gandhi (1922): Swaraj struggle = fight for “liberty of speech…, press…, association”.

Key Terms & Figures

  • Calligraphy, Vellum, Platen, Compositor, Galley, Ballad, Tavern, Despotism, Ulama, Fatwa.

  • Pioneers: Johann Gutenberg, Marco Polo, Martin Luther, Erasmus, Menocchio, Mercier, Voltaire, Rousseau, Grimm Brothers, Richard Hoe, Raja Ravi Varma, Rammohun Roy, Ambedkar, Periyar, Tilak.

Chronology Summary (Select Milestones)

  • 594 AD: Chinese woodblock books.

  • 868 AD: Diamond Sutra (Japan).

  • 1295: Marco Polo returns to Italy.

  • 1430-48: Gutenberg develops press.

  • 1517: Luther’s 95 Theses.

  • 1558: Catholic Index of Prohibited Books.

  • 1680s-1700s: Dutch/Tamil presses.

  • 1780: Hickey’s Bengal Gazette.

  • 1810: Printed Ramcharitmanas.

  • 1878: Vernacular Press Act.

  • 1930s: Cheap paperback revolution.