The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe

Cambridge University Press, 1993 8vo (21.5 cm), XIV, 300 pp. Laminated wrappers (wrappers slightly rubbed at extremities). Although the importance of the advent of printing for Western civilization has long been recognized, it was Professor Eisenstein, in her monumental two-volume work, "The Printing Press as an Agent of Change," who provided the first full-scale treatment of the subject. This illustrated and abridged edition of Professor Eisenstein's study offers a stimulating survey of the communications revolution of the fifteenth century. It begins with a discussion of the general implications of the introduction of printing and then explores how the shift from script to print entered into the three major movements of early modern times: the Renaissance, the Reformation, and the rise of modern science.