Gutenberg's Europe: The Book and the Invention of Western Modernity

by Frédéric Barbier

Major transformations in society are always accompanied by parallel transformations in systems of social communication - what we call the media. In this book, historian Fr�d�ric Barbier provides an important new economic, political and social analysis of the first great 'media revolution' in the Gutenberg�s invention of the printing press in the mid fifteenth century. In great detail and with a wealth of historical evidence, Barbier charts the developments in manuscript culture in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and shows how the steadily increasing need for written documents initiated the processes of change which culminated with Gutenberg. The fifteenth century is presented as the 'age of start-ups' when investment and research into technologies that were new at the time, including the printing press, flourished.Tracing the developments through the sixteenth century, Barbier analyses the principal features of this first media the growth of technology, the organization of the modern literary sector, the development of surveillance and censorship and the invention of the process of 'mediatization'. He offers a rich variety of examples from cities all over Europe, as well as looking at the evolution of print media in China and Korea.This insightful re-interpretation of the Gutenberg revolution also looks beyond the specific historical context to draw connections between the advent of print in the Rhine Valley (�paper valley�) and our own modern digital revolution. It will be of great interest to students and scholars of early modern history, of literature and the media, and will appeal to anyone interested in what remains one of the greatest cultural revolutions of all time.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

320 pages, ebook

Published December 5, 2016

Reviews

[Seneda]

De um modo geral eu gostei muito do livro -- ainda que tenha achado a escrita do autor meio dificil de compreender em algumas passagens. As ideias desenvolvidas aqui são muito interessantes e importantes pra pensar tanto a nossa relação atual com as mídias como a nossa relação com a história. A descrição do papel dos "capitalistas" na produção dos primeiros impressos é uma coisa que me chamou muito a atenção.

[Fábio Ferreira · Rating 3 out of 5]

Uma obra voltada para um público mais especializado, pois é carregada de terminologias da área tornando a leitura um pouco árida. No entanto, um leitor mais leigo conseguirá perceber quão impressionante foi todo o processo antes, durante e depois de Gutenberg. Como isso acabou impactando na própria língua devido uma necessidade de possuir padronizões na escrita para a criação dos tipos móveis.