THE FIRST PRINTED BOOKS AND THE PRINT IN

CHINA
1)Hand printing was the first type of print technology
invented by China, Japan, and Korea.
2)Beginning in AD 594, books in China were printed on
rubbing paper and folded and sewn on both sides
3)China’s imperial state was the leading producer of
printed material.
4)As China’s urban culture blossomed in the
seventeenth century, the uses of print broadened.

PRINT IN JAPAN
1. Around the years 768-770, Buddhist missionaries
from China introduced the hand-printing technique
to Japan.
2. The Buddhist Diamond Sutra, produced in AD 868, is
the earliest Japanese book,
3. A collection of paintings presented a beautiful
urban culture in the late eighteenth century .

PRINT COMES TO EUROPE

a) The route of silk brought Chinese paper to Europe in
the eleventh century.
b)Marco Polo came back to Europe after studying in
China, bringing with him the printing technique
c) Woodblocks were frequently utilized in Europe by
the early fifteenth century.

GUTENBERG AND THE PRINTING PRESS

A.Gutenberg adapted the existing technologies for
designing his own innovations. The first printed book
with the new system was the Bible.
B. Between 1450-1550, printing presses came to be set
in most parts of Europe, and shift from the hand
printing to mechanical printing led to the print
revolution.

A NEW READING PUBLIC

1. Previously, information was passed down verbally.
Books may now reach a larger range of individuals.
2. Printers began producing folk stories with
illustrations for individuals who could not read.
 The Reading Mania
1. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, when
literacy and schools grew throughout Europe, there
was a virtual reading craze. Penny chapbooks were
carried by Chapman and were sold for a penny,
allowing even the impoverished to purchase them.

Print Culture and the French Revolution

I. Many historians claim that print culture provided the
circumstances for the French Revolution.

India and the World of Print

Manuscripts Before the Age of Print
1)India has a long legacy of producing handwritten
manuscripts in many different vernaculars as well as
in Sanskrit, Arabic, and Persian. These handwritten
writings were printed on either homemade paper or
palm-leaf paper.
2)Together with Portuguese missionaries, the first
printing press arrived in Goa.
3)James Augustus Hickey was the editor of the Bengal
Gazette, a weekly publication. Hickey issued
advertisements along with a rumor regarding the
Company’s top executives in India. There were
several printed newspapers and journals at the end
of the eighteenth century.

Religious Reform and Public Debates

a) Print enabled the widespread of ideas, leading in a
new era of debate and discussion.

b)Printed books are not universally embraced. There

was apprehension about the propagation of
rebellious and irreligious ideas.

Women’s schools were established in urban areas.

Journals also began publishing articles written by
women.
Conservative Hindus, meanwhile, thought that an
educated girl would become a widow, and Muslims
worried that reading Urdu romances would corrupt
educated women.
 Print and the Poor People

Small, inexpensive books were offered for sale to the

underprivileged in Madras throughout the
nineteenth century.
Caste discrimination concerns first appear in several
printed texts and articles in the late 19th century.

Print and Censorship

1)

The Vernacular Press Act, which was established in

1878 based on the Irish Press Laws, gave the
government broad authority to regulate articles and
editorials published in the vernacular press.
The number of nationalist newspapers increased
throughout India.

CONCLUSION
It changed the lives of the masses.
All values, norms and institutions were re-
evaluated and discussed by a public that was
critical and rational. Hence, new ideas of social
revolution came into being.