Structure
 Background to Print Revolution
 Historiography: Print Revolution and examples
 Epistemology
 Political Communities
 Example: printed Sermons
 Historiography: Limitations of Print and Illustrative
Examples
 Example 1: Rapes of Lucina
 Example 2: Catholic Martyrology
 Example 3: Ballad of Chevy Chase
Background
 Not purely oral culture for years – manuscript key to
all aspects of economic, social and cultural life
 But amount of written material change rapidly after
1440 invention of printing press:
 46 titles a year published in 1500
 259 in 1600
 By mid-century could have 2000 titles appearing
Historiography
 ‘Print Revolution’
 Elizabeth Eisenstein saw print as catalytic to the spread
of ideas for religious reformation and modern science
 Alvin Gouldner saw as key to the ‘democratization of
writing’
 Emphasis on print medium displacing older traditions
New Epistemology
 Oral culture
relied on memory.
 Memorise whole
books
 Shakespeare
sonnet 122
New Epistemology
 Idea of knowledge lying in
books – standardised and
readily available
 Print meant preservation and
acknowledgement for all time
– 1611 King James
Authorized Bible translated
anachronistically Job 19.23
‘oh that my words were now
written! Oh that they were
printed in a boke’
Political Discourse
 Increased print volumes not just reflects period’s
political division
 Example of print community with the Levellers
 Paliament responded with its own propaganda
 Hired professional polemicists like John Milton – see
‘the hunting of the Leveller’ by Jason Peacey
Example of Printed
Sermons
 Oral communication came to be affected by print
 In 1580s-90s preachers concerned about printing their
sermons
 When printed sermons took off they fed back into oral
culture by giving more material for preachers to draw
on – see John Wilkin’s Ecclesiastes as a bibliography of
other sermons and commentaries of the bible
 Gave common model for preachers to use
Historiography: Limitations
of Print
 Main criticism of Eisenstein’s thesis is that other forms of
communication remained strong
 Already spoken in lecture about problem of illiteracy and
role in New World colonies
 Harold Love and Arthur Marotti
 Adam Fox ‘Oral and Literate Culture in England’
 Oral and scribal communication both served purposes that
print could not supplant
Example 1: Rapes of
Lucina
 Harold Love note Earl of Rochester’s adaption of
popular classical tale
 1675 print version meant much more for readers than
viewers – more metaphorical language
 Also circulated manuscript version to narrow personal
network – much more controversial and included open
discussion of homosexuality
 When transferred on to the stage, eunuch that
Valentinian exchanges ‘moist kisses’ with is removed
Example 2: Catholic
Martyrology
 Arthur Marotti’s study shows how manuscript culture
hugely important to persecuted Catholic community
 Presses censored
 Lent itself to being spread secretively around family
and Catholic circles
Example 3 – Ballad of
Chevy Chase
 Most popular English ballad of the period – adapted to print first
in 16th C
 Printed copies set above fireplaces or posted on alehouse walls
 Fed Back into oral culture: Talk about ‘lend me your ear’
beginnings
 Copied up for personal enjoyment by a Lancashire gentleman in
his own personal folio mid-century
 Hence Fox said it is hard to determine whether the ballad was ‘a
product of oral, scribal or print culture’
Overview
 Print culture hugely influential on both scribal and oral
cultures
 But did not replace these – coexisted with them
 These different cultures served different purposes
within society