One of the most interesting themes for me from our class visit to Archives and Special Collections was the relationship between wealth and the history of print. I learned that not all texts and editions were made equally, and that a consumer’s financial position impacted the types of printed texts they would have ordered and owned.
Today, when we buy physical books they come with a cover and binding. Yet with the dawn of the printing press, consumers would go to a book binder and select their own binding for a book. Wealthier individuals could afford nicer bindings of higher-quality materials and even engravings of embossing.
Monetary status also affected the insides of printed books. In the spirit of the old manuscript traditions, wealthy book-buyers would order their books to include hand-drawn or painted illustrations. These illustrations often featured colored dyes made from ground up materials like lapis lazuli and gold leaf.
Finally, wealth impacted who had access to books. Since hand-scribing a book was such as time-consuming and expensive process, very few could afford them. Yet as new printing technologies made books faster and cheaper to mass-produce, more and more of the public could have access.
Even today, money plays a role in print and other text availability. For instance, electronic devices that can support e-books or audio-books are often expensive. Also, many scholarly articles and texts can only be accessed with a paid subscriptions. I think while we have certainly made progress throughout history in making print and other texts accessible, there is still work to be done.
I like the connection you made to modern day e-books, Heather! It is important to recognize that the old problem of books being inaccessible is not ancient, and that even today literature and information is distributed very unevenly between different communities. I sam curious if there will be something adjacent to a printing press that will bridge the technology gap that we see today, like how the press helped bridge the gap in books that existed in older societies. You make a really good observation, Heather!
ReplyDeleteHi Heather! It's fascinating to see how wealth has always played a role in shaping the availability and quality of printed texts. The fact that hand-scribing a book was so time-consuming and expensive, and only the wealthy could afford it, highlights the impact of wealth on literary works. With the advent of printing technologies, books became faster and cheaper to mass-produce, making them more accessible to the public.
ReplyDeleteHey Heather! I really enjoyed your commentary on this and connection to our world today. Although, yes, it is more expensive, I think there is something quite charming and special about being able to customize the books you buy. I wonder if there will ever be something similar to this again, where you can choose what you would like the cover of your book to be! I agree though that is does display a socioeconomic barrier. I too have hope that these scholarly articles can be accessed by all someday!
ReplyDeleteHi Heather! I enjoyed reading your reactions towards our visit and the connection you made with the history of print and financial status. This is something that I similarly noticed in my blog post. I agree, there were definitely stark class divisions surrounding who and who couldn't purchase books. I wonder how much a book with elaborate, customized illustrations would have cost back then.
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