History of the printing press in England

 The history of the printing press is extremely important to know. We all know that people impress us more with their behavior than by their looks. Delicious food tempts us with its taste and what about books?

Books captivate our emotions and trigger our minds differently and take us from an ordinary world into an extraordinary world. But do you have any idea of where the books came from? Yes, we shall now take our time to go into a deep history of the invention of the printing press.

Before the advent of the printing press, Books were written only in the form of Manuscripts. Manuscripts are handwritten books by the writer. During the olden days, the production of books was very slow, because they had only fewer copyists, and it took a long time to reproduce a particular book. One of the very old manuscripts was Beowulf, an anonymous Anglo-Saxon poem consisting of 3,182 lines.

Even today it still remains remarkable. Books nowadays are cheaper, and it is easily affordable to all people. But during the Middle Ages, Manuscripts were much costlier. For e.g. If anyone wants to read a Manuscript of a Book, The copyist has to rewrite the entire work into another Manuscript.

In the year 1454, a goldsmith and Inventor from Germany Johannes Gutenberg introduced the very first art of the printing press. Then onwards it was published in each and every Western and central part of Europe.

In England, the printing press was established in 1476 by William Caxton, a merchant. The next few years after 1476 there was an enormous production of Books that quickly reached people all over the country.

Day by Day people started to learn new vocabulary, style of diction, and grammar as well as many Languages like Latin, German, and French. Centuries back, people believed in “Blasphemy”.

What does this term mean? It means people were restricted to speak or ask anything related to the Clergymen and the Church. And If people disobey, they are condemned to be executed. It was one such disgraceful punishment that people feared the most.

After a few centuries, the term was transformed into another term called “Skepticism” meaning a doubt or a question. So when people began reading they started to make themselves aware of what was going on in and around society.

They Slowly began raising questions. One must note that after the Invention of the Printing press Books was printed only in Latin. Books were published in English only after the year 1483.

On the other hand, Not all people were able to understand and read the text properly, as most of the people weren’t Educated. Books those days contained tough grammar and vocabulary.” So the writer started to make it more elegant, simple, and polished, in such a way it provides a co

Comfortable reading with less difficulty, and it is considered to be a major event or invention which quickly reduced Illiteracy.

The invention of the printing press for books, Wallpics etc. also paved a great way towards knowledge and Understanding in the field of Science. Many scientists not only relied on their heavenly knowledge, but they started to do research on books, to get a deeper analysis of their projects.

Books sometimes acted as a mouthpiece, especially during the Civil War. And many of the poets started to express their point of view towards society, and sometimes they expressed the follies of their own country. Eg London 1802 written by William Wordsworth.

One of the Philosophers “Francis Bacon “stated that “The printing press, the Nautical compass, and gunpowder” were the three best inventions that the world ever produced. People came out with a lot of creative and imaginative ideas and penned their works with the help of the printing press.

Many of the best poets came into the limelight, and they were recognized all over the World.

The very first printed book in England was” Recuyell of the Histories of Troye” written by Raoul Lefèvre, a French poet. Later it was translated by William Caxton who also became the very first person to use the printing press.

The original Bible was originally written in Hebrew and Greek. And during the period of the Renaissance, we have two important translators of the Bible. Martin Luther King and William Tyndall. Martin Luther King translated the Old and the New Testament into German, and he became the first best-selling author who sold 5000 copies in the very first of his publications within two weeks.

We also have  William Tyndall who translated the Bible into English. But the world considers the “King James Version” as the best translation of all. This helped all the people to read, and interpret the text by themselves, and they were also provided with their own Bible, especially when attending religious ceremonies.

” Man should never become the servant to the machine rather he should be the master of the machine” But in the state of England and especially when it comes to the darker side of this outstanding invention When human beings were replaced by machines, people tend to depend more on machines and many of the copyist became empty-handed and left alone.

The art of writing in hand slowly decreased. Throughout history, many enthusiastic and creative minds have thought of many great ideas which changed human life forever. But the invention of the printing press equals the invention of new zeal.

Thus, the Invention of the printing press can be considered as one major historical event that changed the World Scenario.

By CANDICE GERLINE N

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