Print’s History Beyond Books
I’ve done a specific study of the Low Countries, and there, something like 40 percent of all the books published before 1600 would have taken less than two days to print. That’s a phenomenal market, and it’s a very productive one for the printers. These are the sort of books they want to produce, tiny books. Very often they’re not even trying to sell them retail. They’re a commissioned book for a particular customer, who might be the town council or a local church, and they get paid for the whole edition. And those are the people who tended to stay in business in the first age of print.
Earliest printed materials did not resemble books in the least. (This article is somewhat unremarkable if you are familiar with the historian Roger Chartier’s work.)
Posted: September 3rd, 2010 under Uncategorized.
