04-14-2023, 08:03 PM
Printing created the modern world, and with it came book-binding, an essential component in supplying books. Scrolls could have been used, but those were not in style. Movable type was of course a revolution of technology forcing cultural change. To be sure, the first book mass-produced was the Bible, which would seem the least-likely book to cause trouble -- until people started to read the Bible and conclude that that the clergy were wrong in their interpretations or that the clergy were corrupt. Yes, Jan Hus' theological revolution failed because the power structures of the time prevailed effectively enough to burn him at the stake, but such people as Martin Luther, John Calvin, Ulrich Zwingli, John Knox, and Menno Simons would succeed. So would what survived of Jan Hus' legacy. The Protestant Reformation was impossible without extensive literacy and cheap publishing. So was the Catholic defense of faith.
Before Gutenberg, any inventors had to beware the hazard of the witch-hunt. Gutenberg made the right choice, for the Bible was useful without being obviously troublesome. Next would come technical handbooks on mining and farming and the supremely-practical law books. The latter would make clear that sorcery was a damnable crime.
Neither printing nor bookbinding had a patent attached. Both printing and bookbinding went from magic to ordinary commerce... fast.
Before Gutenberg, any inventors had to beware the hazard of the witch-hunt. Gutenberg made the right choice, for the Bible was useful without being obviously troublesome. Next would come technical handbooks on mining and farming and the supremely-practical law books. The latter would make clear that sorcery was a damnable crime.
Neither printing nor bookbinding had a patent attached. Both printing and bookbinding went from magic to ordinary commerce... fast.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.
