The European Printing Revolution

An invention is not a revolution, it is only the beginning of a journey. Inventions introduce innovation into our society, revolutions happen when innovation spreads and dramatically changes our everyday life. The 15thC Booktrade Project at the University of Oxford studies the economic and social impact of the invention of printing on early modern European society. For many years, and in collaboration with hundreds of European and American libraries, we have been gathering data from the thousands of books which still survive today and analysed them with innovative digital technology. From September 2018 to April 2019 an exhibition was held in the rooms of the Correr Museum and of the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana in Venice: Printing R-Evolution 1450-1500. Fifty Years that Changed Europe. A catalogue was published by Marsilio, Venice. The digital material produced for the exhibition, and for later projects, is available on the website https://www.printingrevolution.eu/virtual-exhibition-printing-revolution/. Further Bibliography: http://15cbooktrade.ox.ac.uk/