The Book in the Renaissance

by Andrew Pettegree

• ISBN13: 9780300110098
• ISBN10: 030011009X
• Format: Trade Book
• Copyright: 2010-06-29
• Publisher: Yale University Press

Summary

The dawn of print was a major turning point in the early modern world. It rescued ancient learning from obscurity, transformed knowledge of the natural and physical world, and brought the thrill of book ownership to the masses. But, as Andrew Pettegree reveals in this work of great historical merit, the story of the post-Gutenberg world was rather more complicated than we have often come to believe. The Book in the Renaissancereconstructs the first 150 years of the world of print, exploring the complex web of religious, economic, and cultural concerns surrounding the printed word. From its very beginnings, the printed book had to straddle financial and religious imperatives, as well as the very different requirements and constraints of the many countries who embraced it, and, as Pettegree argues, the process was far from a runaway success. More than ideas, the success or failure of books depended upon patrons and markets, precarious strategies and the thwarting of piracy, and the ebb and flow of popular demand. Owing to his state-of-the-art and highly detailed research, Pettegree crafts an authoritative, lucid, and truly pioneering work of cultural history about a major development in the evolution of European society.

Author Biography

Andrew Pettegree is Head of the School of History at the University of St Andrews and founding director of the St Andrews Reformation Studies Institute. Formerly a literary director of the Royal Historical Society, and currently director of the Universal Short Title Catalogue project, his previous books include The Reformation World (2000), Europe in the Sixteenth Century (2002) and Reformation and the Culture of Persuasion (2005).

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	p. vii
Prelude	p. xii
Beginnings
The Book Before Print	p. 3
The Invention of Printing	p. 21
Renaissance Encounters: The Crisis of Print	p. 43
Consolidation
The Creation of a European Book Market	p. 65
Book Town Wittenberg	p. 91
Luther's Legacy	p. 107
First with the News	p. 130
Polite Recreations	p. 151
At School	p. 177
Conflict
The Literature of Conflict	p. 203
The Search for Order	p. 226
Market Forces	p. 249
New Worlds
Science and Exploration	p. 273
Healing	p. 297
Building a Library	p. 319
Word and the Street	p. 333
A Note on Sources: Mapping the Geography of Print	p. 353
Appendix: A Summary of printed outputs throughout Europe, 1450-1600	p. 357
Acknowledgements	p. 358
Abbreviations	p. 360
Notes	p. 362
Bibliography	p. 391
Index	p. 408
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