%% [[Writing Philosophy with Hypertext]] [[History of Writing]] [[Printing]] %% [[Writing Philosophy with Hypertext]] - [[A Brief History of Writing]] - [[History of Writing I The Alphabet]] - **[[History of Writing II Printing]]** - [[History of Writing III Digitization]] # History of Writing II Printing - Printing and printing presses were invented independently in multiple societies, but the invention of an alphabetic moveable type (Gutenberg style) printing press occurred in 15th century Europe. - Gutenberg presses enabled the mass production and subsequent industrialization of printing. Writings could now be cheaply reproduced and widely disseminated. - The democratizing effects of mass produced texts greatly increased the number of literate people. - This contributed to the development of writing for text as a profession distinct from speaking. Authors no longer recorded spoken words but wrote without the direct mediation of speech. - The integrity and uniformity of printing encouraged the development of authorship as a sign of a text's intellectual merit. - This contributed to the decline of logocentric philosophies of writing and the embrace of writing as a primary medium for knowledge production. ## References - Gabrial, "History of Writing Technologies." In Bazerman, C. (Ed.). (2008). _Handbook of research on writing: History, society, school, individual, text._ Taylor & Francis Group/Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, pp. 47-60. - Schmandt-Besserat & Erard, "Origins and Forms of Writing." In Bazerman, C. (Ed.). (2008). _Handbook of research on writing: History, society, school, individual, text._ Taylor & Francis Group/Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, pp. 47-60. - White 2016, "Authors as Persons and Authors as Bundles of Words"