Print Culture and the Modern World - 25 Short Questions
1. What is the title of the chapter?
Print Culture and the Modern World. It explores the history of print from East Asia to Europe and India, and its impact on society.
2. Where was the earliest print technology developed?
In China, Japan, and Korea. It was a system of hand printing using woodblocks from AD 594 onwards.
3. What is calligraphy?
The art of beautiful and stylised writing. Chinese craftsmen duplicated it accurately in early prints.
4. Who produced most printed material in imperial China?
The imperial state. It printed textbooks for civil service examinations in vast numbers.
5. What diversified print uses in 17th-century China?
Urban culture bloom. Merchants, fiction readers, women, and courtesans used print for trade, leisure, and publishing.
6. When was hand-printing introduced to Japan?
Around AD 768-770 by Buddhist missionaries from China. The oldest book is the Diamond Sutra from AD 868.
7. What is ukiyo?
Pictures of the floating world, depicting urban life. Kitagawa Utamaro was famous for this art form.
8. What is the Tripitaka Koreana?
Mid-13th century Korean Buddhist scriptures on 80,000 woodblocks, inscribed on UNESCO Memory of the World Register in 2007.
9. How did print reach Europe?
Via the silk route for paper in the 11th century, and woodblock knowledge brought by Marco Polo in 1295.
10. What is vellum?
A parchment made from animal skin, used for luxury handwritten editions in Europe.
11. What limited manuscript circulation before print?
They were expensive, fragile, awkward, and time-consuming to copy by hand.
12. What is the Jikji?
World's oldest book printed with movable metal type in Korea (late 14th century), inscribed on UNESCO Register in 2001.
13. Who developed the first known printing press?
Johann Gutenberg in the 1430s at Strasbourg, Germany, adapting olive press and metal moulds.
14. What was Gutenberg's first printed book?
The Bible, about 180 copies printed in three years by 1448.
15. How many printed books were in Europe by 1550?
About 20 million copies in the second half of the 15th century, rising to 200 million by the 16th century.
16. What is a platen?
A board pressed onto paper for impression in letterpress printing, originally wood, later steel.
17. What is a compositor?
The person who composes text for printing in a metal frame called a galley.
18. What was the print revolution?
Shift from hand to mechanical printing, transforming lives, knowledge access, and institutions.
19. How did printing create a new reading public?
Reduced costs allowed multiple copies, reaching wider audiences beyond elites, creating a reading culture.
20. What was oral culture before print?
Common people heard sacred texts, ballads, and folk tales collectively, not reading individually.
21. How did printers appeal to illiterate people?
Published illustrated ballads and folk tales to be sung or recited at gatherings.
22. What are taverns?
Places for drinking, eating, meeting friends, and exchanging news, where printed materials were shared.
23. What is a ballad?
A historical account or folk tale in verse, usually sung or recited.
24. How did oral and print cultures intermingle?
Printed materials were orally transmitted, blurring lines between hearing and reading publics.
25. What happened to literacy rates in Europe till the 20th century?
They remained very low, so transition to reading public was gradual.
