Because of the Internet’s popularity here in the 21st century, we often take our books for granted. Sometimes they serve as status symbols; bookshelves adorned with the entire Western literary canon can speak volumes of one’s intellect – or at least give that illusion.
But do you ever stop to think what it would be like if it weren’t so easy to obtain a copy of your favorite book? Do you ever wonder what it would be like had the printing press not been invented? Well, there may never have been a Renaissance. This nation may not have even existed. Before the printing press, literacy was basically limited to the church and the elite in society.
Had it not been for the printing press, many things would be different about our society. Literacy, thought, and the arts would definitely have been affected by the lack of a medium through which to transmit them. With the invention of the printing press we have also seen radical changes in the way people feel, think, and establish themselves.
We live in “the Information Age,” where we have the world at our fingertips via the World Wide Web. Through the Internet we have access to news, literature, references for research, and a wealth of other information. However, perhaps none of this technology would be possible without the invention of the printing press, invented by Johann Gutenberg.
While printing presses did exist before his time, his stood apart from previous machines by allowing for much faster printing, which led to the rapid spread of information. His invention had a profound effect on literacy, history and the way we process information today. In fact, his printing press was probably to the fifteenth century what the Internet was to the twentieth century.
Not only did the printing press affect what we thought, but how we thought. We now have the convenience of digesting information at our own pace, instead of gathering all of our information by word of mouth and simply relying on memory. The information is there for us as reference in case our memory fails us.
Of all astronomical advances in technology, the printing press is more than likely the invention with the most impact. Although it simply made literature more readily available, this newfound accessibility to literature opened the doors to the Renaissance and the Scientific Revolution. Scholars and scientists could learn from one another and share their findings across national boundaries. Their discoveries would be archived and readily available for the next person to build on their research.
The printing press more readily guaranteed identical texts among different books. Before, Aristotle’s words may have been lost in translation, but after, we have a common text to rely on. Authorship became more important. Many works before the printing press were anonymous, a famous literary work being Beowulf. Had the printing press not been invented before Shakespeare’s time, we may not have had anyone to attribute his ideas to, or his work may not have even survived this long. Scholars, revolutionaries and scientists were now able to receive the credit they deserved and were more likely to have their work passed down without future generations questioning the accuracy of the text. The printing press therefore allowed for people to more easily make a name for themselves and make their mark on society.
Many important documents and speeches, in fact, could have been lost had it not been for the printing press. The Holy Bible may have undergone drastic changes in different printed or illuminated manuscripts. Abraham Lincoln’s “Emancipation Proclamation” and Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech could all easily have been lost or changed dramatically through hearsay.
We may not even have the same music that flourished during Mozart and Beethoven’s time. Over the years it could have been altered if orchestras were just playing the music by ear, or some of it may not have been preserved at all.
The possibilities for what could have been are endless. In a world without the printing press, we could still be in a literary dark ages.
Edison
s light bulb wasn’t the only thing to bring light into the world – Gutenberg’s printing press did so as well, and it should be a reminder not to take our books, our history, or our knowledge for granted.
