15,697
edits
Changes
no edit summary
The ideas of Italy would have been confined to a small elite in Northern Europe but for the invention of printing. The basic elements of printing had been known in China for centuries and papermaking had been introduced to Europe in the 13th century. However, in the 1440s there was a decisive step forward in the development of printing. In Mainz, Germany, Johann Gutenberg and other printers invented movable type by cutting up old printing blocks to form individual letters<ref> Holt, p. 115</ref>. It seems that the invention of Gutenberg and other printers was based on the wine presses in this wine growing region. Soon Gutenberg was able to mass produce books and documents on an unprecedented scale. Gutenberg used movable type to produce the first printed version of the Bible in 1454. The printing press was a sensation at the time and it changed European society. Prior to this books were rare and not freely available as most were produced by hand by professional copyists, who were usually monks and who prioritized devotional literature.
Suddenly books which were once a rarity became widely available, especially to affluent traders and professionals in urban centres. Soon all the major European countries had printing presses and they were producing bibles, devotional works and also, significantly works by the classical authors such as Virgil <ref>Burke, Peter. <i>The Italian Renaissance: Culture and Society in Italy </i> (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999), 6</ref>. The new books on classical authors exposed more people to the ideas of the past and especially the classical period. The intellectual life of Northern Europe was greatly stimulated by these works and they did much to inspire intellectuals to revive the wisdom and knowledge of the ancient past. The printing press also did much to spread the ideas of key Northern Renaissance thinkers such as Thomas More.
==Political and Social Changes==
Northern Europe was undergoing a period of great cultural change. The old feudal nobility was under pressure and their influence on the culture of the time was in decline. The era’s rising prosperity saw a new class of urban merchants, who had little regard for the old feudal nobility and its values. The old culture that was based on feudalism, promoted ideas of chivalry and deference was in decline and people were more open to new ideas.<ref> Burke, p. 115</ref> The humanists’ ideas were received enthusiastically by the new urban elite of merchants and lawyers. They were drawn to the values of the Italian humanists, which stressed reason and denied the primacy of received wisdom in the society. They also formed the audience for the books produced by the Northern Humanists such as Erasmus. Another factor in the changing culture of the time was the rise of national monarchies in France and England<ref> Burke, 134</ref>.
