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Just nitpicking here, but I don't think "literacy and education became available to common people" in the 15th century. In fact, for quite some time after Guten
by southerntofu 6y ago
Just nitpicking here, but I don't think "literacy and education became available to common people" in the 15th century. In fact, for quite some time after Gutenberg's printing press was invented (or reinvented, depending from what cultural angle you look at history) it was common practice for States and catholic Church to legally prevent people from printing stuff: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printing_patent https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Printing_patent
- ivanhoe 6y agoDepends on the country I guess, the Venetian Republic seems to had more than 150 presses by 1500, the most famous of publishers Aldus Manutius printing 30 thousands of inexpensive “pocket editions” books in just 5 years ("six titles a year for the next five years", at 1000 copies per edition) according to Encyclopedia Britannica https://www.britannica.com/topic/publishing/The-medieval-book https://www.britannica.com/topic/publishing/The-medieval-boo...
- southerntofu 6y agoInteresting! Thanks for sharing. I still would not say 30K books is "available to common people" (most of whom could not read), but i was definitely not aware Venice had such a policy so early in history.