Reading Ireland Print, Reading and Social Change in Early Modern Ireland

by Gillespie, Raymond

• ISBN13: 9780719055270
• ISBN10: 071905527X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-05-01
• Publisher: Manchester University Press

Summary

This fascinating and innovative study explores the lives of people living in early modern Ireland through the books and printed ephemera which they bought, borrowed or stole from others. While the importance of books and printing in influencing the outlook of early modern people is well known, recent years have seen significant changes in our understanding of how writing and print shaped lives, and was in turn shaped by those who appropriated the written word.

Author Biography

Raymond Gillespie is Senior Lecturer in Modern History at National University of Ireland, Maynooth.

Table of Contents

Preface	vi
Note on the Text	ix
Abbreviations	x
PART I THE CONDITIONS OF PRINT
The social meaning of print	3	(23)
The prelude to print: the rise of writing	26	(29)
PART II THE DEVELOPMENT OF PRINT
The coming of print, 1550--1650	55	(20)
The triumph of print, 1650--1700	75	(26)
PART III THE STRATEGIES OF READING
Reading for power: institutions and print	101	(30)
Reading for salvation	131	(28)
Reading for profit and pleasure	159	(27)
Appendix: Book production in seventeenth-century Ireland	186	(4)
Bibliography	190	(23)
Index	213