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Pettegree (14th - 15th century (wealthy aristocrats started collecting…
Pettegree
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books, learning and the rediscovery of lost classical texts played a critical role in the new culture of the Renaissance
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first generation of printers was remarkably conservative in the choice of books they would publish and mirrored very closely the taste of established customers for manuscript books (paslters and liturgical texts, followed by classical authors and legal, scientific, medical texts-> all expensive books)
the fall of Negroponte in 1470 and the siege of Rhodes in 1480 were the first contemporary political events to be covered in print
Printers started varying their output by publishing smaller volumes; later, they made experimental use of print to share news of discoveries of faraway lands;the first major media event: the German Reformation of the early 16th century
the first printers were guided in their choice of texts by their most enthusiastic customers (universities and scholars mainly), which meant that many of them produced editions of the same books-> no demand for their supply-> a large proportion of the first printers went bankrupt
the printers that did survive often did so in close cooperation with reliable institutional customers: the Church (print religious texts and indulgences-> easy to print and distributed by the Church) or State (used to publicise decisions)
pamphlets advertising crusades and military campaigns had an important news function, bringing news of faraway events to a wide public as well as increasing awareness in the industry of the possibilities of the new medium
the reformation brought a large and sustained increase in the volume of books published in Germany and,eventually, left considerable gap in the book market when the drama died down
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heavy rise in other types of pamphlet literature, including the Neue Zeitung in the early 16th century, which were comparatively brief texts, almost invariably continuous pieces of prose devoted to a single news report, which allowed these news pamphlets to inform the public in some depth about the great issues of the momement
similar in format to reformation pamphlets, only one generic woodcuts on the title page, making it quite cheap to produce
while the news market was strongest in the great commercial cities, the production of news pamphlets waas remarkably dispersed, both around Germany and among the competing print shops of the major cities
the overhwlming portion of the Neue Zeitungen deal with high politics: usually, foreign affairs and were generally rather sober and restrained in tone and presented themselves as trustworthy and reliable
ballad sheets and illustrated broadsheets covered notorious crimes and natural disasters and had a more sensational tone
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first publications to acknowledge on their title-pages that the bringing of news, of current events was their primary purpose
1492: meteor fell near an Alsace village and a verse description was printed in a news broadsheet that proved enormously popular
after Columbus returned to Spain manuscript copies of his report circulated around the court and later all over Europe; then the print version was enthusiastically shared across the continent in pamphlet form
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Amerigo Vespucci's account of his expedition was also quickly published in several languages and multiple editions
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correspondence remained the quickest form of super-regional news distribution at the time; it provided precise, rapid information for those who needed to know; it had a limited distribution, but a high degree of reliability
print played a different role: it allowed news to reach a broader public and was often intended to serve the wider public debate that followed after significant events
at this early date print was a sporadic, occasional medium. It could not yet provide the constant flow of information necessary for those in positions of responsibility for whom critical decisions could depend on remaining fully informed
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