In the chapter labeled "The Coming of Print" I found myself fascinated by how the development of writing came about--especially the changing form of the text.
The book was originally known as a "Manuscript". (Today we use this word when describing an unpublished piece of literature that hasn't gone through the press)
Before print superseded manuscripts, monks were responsible for reproduction of texts. These men were called scribes and worked in a scriptoria. The increase in literacy created a higher demand for manuscripts creating "the emergence of commercial scriptoria and peciae system whereby exemplar sections were distributed to a network of copyists, who would each produce multiple copies of a section" (47). I found the supply and demand of manuscripts interesting because it was only wealthy or noble families that demanded the novels because books were an expensive "collectible commodity" (47).
--then Gutenberg invented the press, his press was repossessed, and his re-possessor--and his old "backer" went into business together. The chapter clarified that early printed books looked like manuscripts because "what else did the market understand?" (47). The most enduring printing firms didn't focus around universities, it centered around commercial and trading centers; to me this means that even the earliest presses were focused on making a profit, not on just the intellectual capabilities of writing with a press.
What i really found interesting is that there was a lot of resistance to the press because it encouraged literacy in counties and cities like Venice; the government feared people reading on their own because "it corrupted minds by making available immoral or dangerous texts to a general public without proper control by" authorities (50). Venetian government officials thought that "the pen is a virgin, the printing press a whore" (50).
Government control of the press wasn't an uncommon idea, in England the book trade was centered in London, but the Tudors (the rulers at the time) attempted to suppress sedatios and hertical literature during the 16th century leading to "a compact between booksellers and the Crown"
As Finkelstien says "a compact between booksellers and the Crown" I kind of want an expansion of what they mean. This is one place i am really interested in. Shakespeare was writing at the end of the 16th century. Does that mean that he was publishing most of his work underground--could he get his work printed at one of the larger printers? If so, is that why his work was so varied, and there are "bastard" folios.
It wasn't until Mary that granted the London Stationers' Company in 1557 control over printing--the only other printing allowed was at Cambridge.
The next large leap in print began with the industrial revolution that changed the printing from hand pressing to machinery. This use of steam machinery wasn't widely loved at first. It didn't save much time, but with the creation of private "pocket" novels, the amount of copies printed increased by 300 percent.
The next LARGE moment where books transitioned was the invention of the paperback book in the United States by Allen Lane. In 1935 he launched the Pengiun Brand of paperbacks designed to be light, easy to carry---basically the perfect travel companion on those long train rides. Penguin would print large quantities of the same book to keep costs low, and transfer the savings to the customer. This was widely popular. It was even responsible for people that usually borrowed books from the library to book purchasers.
The end of twentieth century is marked with the transnational chain publishers.Publishing houses came together toward the end of the century merging with the aim to become more aware of international publishing, transnational markets, and the multi-media product exploitation.
Now the modern book is transitioning to a digital reading experience that the textbook didn't expand upon.
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