CONTACTS 

SUBJECTS
KM Movement Added Dichotomy Talent Tools Orality Literacy Reflects D
Presencing KM Focus on Spirituality and Commitment Applies Covey's I

0504 -
0504 -    ..
0505 - Summary/Objective
0506 -
050601 - Follow up ref SDS 14 0000, ref SDS 13 0000.
050602 -
050603 -
050604 -
050605 -
050606 -
050607 -
050608 -
050609 -
050610 -
050612 -  ..
0507 -
0508 -
0509 - Progress
0510 -
051001 - Spirituality Add to Religion in NWO, and Presencing to KM in POIMS
051002 -
051003 - Several trends have emerged the last 10 years or so that need to be
051004 - incorporated into SDS foundational documents to address calls for
051005 - spirituality to play a role in Knowledge Mangement, discussed in
051006 - connection with Presencing on 050322. ref SDS 13 XL30  John Maloney's
051007 - letter on 050325 reporting that Presencing is the basis of his work in
051008 - Knowledge Management (KM) opens the question of how this relationship
051009 - might be supported. ref SDS 14 645H
051011 -  ..
051012 - At first blush, the notion of "spirituality" and "management" seem at
051013 - odds; however, there may be an important role for spirituality based
051014 - on the tradition of prayer that fosters meditation in knowledge
051015 - formation by constructing hunches and clues that lead to breakthroughs
051016 - when externalized in writing, developed, tested, and refined by
051017 - experience.
051019 -  ..
051020 - The KM section in POIMS, ref OF 4 O87L, needs expansion...
051022 -     ..
051023 -    Communication is primary task of management shown by people
051024 -    spending 80% - 90% of their time talking in meetings, reported on
051025 -    890809. ref SDS 2 8211  The practice of communication gives orders
051026 -    following the model of military command and control. ref OF 4 G5RF
051027 -    Drucker maintains the best tool system for management is
051028 -    accounting, reported on 980101. ref SDS 6 0627  Spreadsheet
051029 -    technology empowers a greater share of people to perform effective
051030 -    accounting, but people hate accountability and disparage
051031 -    accountants as "bean counters."
051033 -     ..
051034 -    Communication is complex and so is hard to improve, noted by
051035 -    Drucker on 931130, ref SDS 4 3851, and cited in POIMS, ref OF 4
051036 -    G5RF, because knowledge management is a lot of hard work, reported
051037 -    on 000307. ref SDS 10 5182  Analysis emerged in about 400 BC for
051038 -    making sense by "connecting the dots" between new information and
051039 -    relevant history to construct knowledge that makes communication
051040 -    effective.  However, beginning in the 19th century and accelerating
051041 -    in the 20th century technology that aids sensory perception to
051042 -    increase information, without a "spreadsheet for knowledge," causes
051043 -    people to give up on improving communication, noted by Drucker
051044 -    reviewed on 931130, ref SDS 4 3851, because writing everything down
051045 -    and "linking everything up" to "connect the dots" seems beyond
051046 -    reach, reported on 890809. ref SDS 1 3S6H  The disconnect between
051047 -    the ease of talking in meetings, calls, and documents that crowds
051048 -    out time to think, related in the Typical Day Scenario, ref OF 9
051049 -    YE4G, causes information to pile up in the mind, in filing
051050 -    cabinets, folders and computers that is disconnected from daily
051051 -    work.  Indeed, people lose interest in history, and deny the role
051052 -    of intelligence for converting information into knowledge.  In the
051053 -    extreme a Ludite rejection of tools altogether permeates the
051054 -    culture because people fear investing time for learning to push a
051055 -    few buttons, since this would detract from attending the next
051056 -    meeting, making the next phone call, and sending the next email,
051057 -    which are tasks that are fast and easy using existing skills for
051058 -    acting on impulse talking and hearing, illustrated by the record on
051059 -    010114, ref SDS 12 EK3I, and previously on 001122. ref SDS 11 UO6G
051061 -     ..
051062 -    Project management helps improve communication by narrowing the
051063 -    focus of dedicated staff, and traditionally uses tool-based systems
051064 -    for cost and schedule control; about 15 years ago modern project
051065 -    management (MPM) began emphasizing leadership and change using
051066 -    common solutions advocated by Dale Carnege for better communication
051067 -    on "How to Win Friends and Influence People." ref OF 4 ST8M
051068 -    Knowledge Management has taken a similar path in recent years with
051069 -    the phrase "New Knowledge Management" (NKM), reported on 050322.
051070 -    ref SDS 13 OY5O
051072 -     ..
051073 -    In both cases, the age old challenge of leadership helping people
051074 -    accomplish transformation by overcoming ignorance, fear and denial
051075 -    which requires courage to position people to gain experience long
051076 -    enough to discover benefits out weigh costs, which gives people
051077 -    faith and commitment to work intelligently, reviewed recently on
051078 -    050322, ref SDS 13 KK3M, yet, in practice focuses primarily "change
051079 -    management" that emphasizes sales practices for getting people to
051080 -    say yes.  Toward this end, a notion of "authentic conversation"
051081 -    emerges that departs from the role of accuracy required by
051082 -    management standards, reported on 950721, ref SDS 5 1740, and
051083 -    instead emerges turns the concept of diplomacy and respect for
051084 -    others and self-control upside down with a practice of exposing raw
051085 -    feelings.
051087 -     ..
051088 -    USAFIT reported management big projects still degrades to entropy,
051089 -    which has intensified a search for a solution.
051091 -     ..
051092 -    AI failed, e.g., mediators.
051094 -     ..
051095 -    Learning Organization proposed by Senge and MIT, and Organizational
051096 -    Memory advocated by Conklin are serious efforts aimed at turning
051097 -    information into useful knowledge, but are not implemented,
051098 -    because Knowledge Management is a lot of hard work.
051100 -     ..
051101 -    Knowledge management replaced project management as the locus of
051102 -    intellectual and technology development, which failed to yield
051103 -    results because Knowledge Management is a lot of hard work.  About
051104 -    5 years ago new knowledge management (NKM) began emphasizing
051105 -    leadership and change that attempts common solutions for better
051106 -    communication, because tool based systems failed.
051108 -     ..
051109 -    Presencing illustrates movement toward NKM that emphasizes
051110 -    spirituality to give people commitment fueld by faith to change and
051111 -    realize future possibililities without investing effort in study
051112 -    and analysis of past experience and history, reported on 050322.
051113 -    ref SDS 13 MX5I  Just talking about Knowledge Management is all the
051114 -    commitment required to do Knowlege Mangaement that yields fantastic
051115 -    social relationships.
051117 -     ..
051118 -    Parellels between project and knowledge management moving from
051119 -    tools to communication, and giving up on mechanistic solutions
051120 -    seems striking.
051122 -  ..
051123 - Medititation explained in POIMS as combining the 2-tiers of conscious
051124 - and subconscious processing. ref OF 4 KN5L
051125 -
051126 -
051127 -
051128 -
0512 -

SUBJECTS
Religion Meditation Theory of Knowledge Prayer Spirituality Enlighte

1203 -
120401 -  ..
120402 - Meditation Prayer Religion in NWO Expanded to Explain
120403 - Religion in NWO Expanded to Explain Meditation and Prayer
120404 -
120405 - Spirituality offers an interesting opportunity to expand the
120406 - section in NWO on religion. ref OF 12 4723  A concept might be
120407 - developed based on the 2-tier model of cognition and enlightenment.
120408 - ref OF 12 LA9O
120410 -  ..
120411 - Meditation might be an appropriate name for concentrated internal
120412 - attention (thinking, pondering) on a particular subject that occurs
120413 - with eyes shut, and without other sensory stimulous. ref OF 12 OR6J
120414 - One authority describes this practice of allowing the mind to think
120415 - without sensory input, per below. ref SDS 0 YS33  The fact that the
120416 - brain is totally enclosed and is getting no data invites the model of
120417 - heightened synergy between conscious and subconscuous processing,
120418 - particularly since there is no bright line of separation, but rather
120419 - is itself a conceptual framework.
120420 -
120421 -     [On 050427 Gary Johnson peer review. ref SDS 15 4J7M
120423 -      ..
120424 -     [On 050526 letter to Ross linked to record on 050427 discussing
120425 -     religion flowing from work today. ref SDS 16 644T
120427 -  ..
120428 - Applied research on religion, meditation and cognitive science,
120429 - ref OF 12 XM4N, yields...
120431 -  ..
120432 - An article...
120433 -
120434 -        Pure Consciousness in Meditation and the Self
120435 -
120436 -        John G Taylor
120437 -        john.g.taylor@kcl.ac.uk
120439 -         ..
120440 -        Department of Mathematics, King's College, Strand, London
120441 -        WC2R2LS, UK
120442 -
120443 -              http://www.sci-con.org/news/articles/20020602.html
120445 -     ..
120446 -    The article relates testing with MRI and PET scan technology.  The
120447 -    article concludes...
120448 -
120449 -        These physiological study support the claim that PCE is a
120450 -        distinct state of consciousness, corresponding to one in which
120451 -        attention is attending to itself alone.
120452 -
120454 -     ..
120455 -    Another source found on the Internet and referenced in NWO,
120456 -    ref OF 12 OT3G, says....
120457 -
120458 -        Classified Abstracts
120459 -
120460 -        COGNITIVE SCIENCE AND PSYCHOLOGY
120461 -        3.1 Attention
120463 -               ..
120464 -              http://www.qedcorp.com/pcr/pcr/attentn.html
120466 -         ..
120467 -        Global neural ground state: coherent brain mechanisms
120468 -        associated with transcendental consciousness
120469 -
120471 -         ..
120472 -        A.T.Arenander (Maharishi Vedic School, 3878 Old Town Ave.
120473 -        Suite 200, San Diego, CA 92110, USA.)
120475 -         ..
120476 -        This paper seeks to provide a framework for discussing and
120477 -        understanding the brain state and attentional mechanisms that
120478 -        underlie the subjective experience and objective measurements
120479 -        of subjects practising the Transcendental Meditation (TM)
120480 -        technique.  During the TM technique, the mind effortlessly
120481 -        attends to a specific object and automatically transcends the
120482 -        normal boundaries of conscious perception: experiencing a shift
120483 -        from active, waking consciousness to one without boundaries,
120484 -        pure consciousness.  Past research suggests that the TM
120485 -        technique produces a state of profound rest and relaxation in
120486 -        subjects.  Objectively, measurements of blood chemistry, skin
120487 -        galvanic response, and EEG recordings while subjects are
120488 -        practising the technique indicate profound changes occur in the
120489 -        physiology.  Subjectively, subjects report the experience of
120490 -        awareness alone without an object of perception.  This
120491 -        experience has been described as `restful alertness.' This
120492 -        experience is also described in some of the oldest known
120493 -        written records.  The Vedas, more than 5000 years old, are the
120494 -        classic texts describing this fundamental human experience.
120495 -        The Vedas call this experience of awareness without an object
120496 -        of perception pure awareness.  According to the Vedas, this
120497 -        state of restful alertness or transcendental consciousness is
120498 -        considered to be the fundamental mode or ground state of human
120499 -        conscious experience.  Thought processes represent fluctuations
120500 -        of this underlying abstract, pure field of intelligence.
120501 -
120503 -     ..
120504 -    Meditation is often associated with spirituality that in some sense
120505 -    communes with other worldly forms, e.g., God, angels, spirits,
120506 -    etc., to achieve enlightement, which in is a form of making a
120507 -    breakthrough that was previously hidden in the darkeness of
120508 -    ignorance.  Decided not to breakdown the notion of "other wordly"
120509 -    for now, because for many this would be distracting. ref OF 12 OT8G
120511 -     ..
120512 -    Another source cited in NWO, ref OF 12 OT4M, says...
120513 -
120514 -        Indiatimes Spirituality
120515 -
120516 -              http://spirituality.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1846260671.cms
120517 -
120518 -        What is the real nature of meditation?
120520 -         ..
120521 -        Meditation means focusing the mind on some object. once the
120522 -        mind is concentrated, it can be focused on any desired object
120524 -         ..
120525 -        Meditation, in scriptures has been described as two types,
120527 -         ..
120528 -        Viz. 'object oriented meditation' and 'objectless meditation'.
120529 -        which of the two is the higher one?
120531 -         ..
120532 -        In the initial stages, meditation has to be practiced with
120533 -        some object. this helps in arresting the mind and develops
120534 -        concentration. the aim is to still the mind and make it
120535 -        functionless. but this can be possible only if the mind is
120536 -        absorbed in some object. gradually, the consciousness of that
120537 -        object vanishes and only pure awareness remains!
120538 -
120539 -
120540 -
120541 -
1206 -

SUBJECTS
Meditation Definition Sensory Perception Paused Concentrates Underst

1403 -
140401 -         ..
140402 -        What is meditation?
140403 -        Information Overload Solve Meditation Limits Sensory Input
140404 -        Sensory Perception Limited Meditation Concentrates Understand
140405 -        Meditation Pauses Sensory Perception So Mind Constructs Meaning
140406 -
140407 -
140408 - Indiatimes Spirituality continues...
140409 -
140410 -        What is meditation?
140412 -         ..
140413 -        The basic idea generally associated with why people meditate is
140414 -        that during our day we are constantly subjected to sensory
140415 -        input and our minds are always active in the process of
140416 -        thinking.
140418 -         ..
140419 -        We read the newspaper, study books, write reports, engage in
140420 -        conversation, solve problems, so on and so forth. typically, as
140421 -        we do these normal activities we engage in a constant mental
140422 -        commentary, sort of an inner 'the drama of me'. usually people
140423 -        aren't fully aware of all the mental thought activity that we
140424 -        are constantly engaged in.
140426 -         ..
140427 -        Meditation allows all this activity to settle down, and often
140428 -        results in the mind becoming more peaceful, calm and focused.
140429 -        in essence, meditation allows the awareness to become
140430 -        'rejuvenated'.
140432 -         ..
140433 -        Meditation can be considered a technique, or practice. it
140434 -        usually involves concentrating on an object, such as a flower,
140435 -        a candle, a sound or word, or the breath. over time, the number
140436 -        of random thoughts occurring diminishes. more importantly, your
140437 -        attachment to these thoughts, and your identification with
140438 -        them, progressively become less. the mediator may get caught up
140439 -        in a thought pattern, but once he/she becomes aware of this,
140440 -        attention is gently brought back to the object of
140441 -        concentration. meditation can also be objectless, for example
140442 -        consisting of just sitting. experiences during meditation
140443 -        probably vary significantly from one individual to another, or
140444 -        at least if different techniques are involved. relaxation,
140445 -        increased awareness, mental focus and clarity, and a sense of
140446 -        peace are the most common by-products of meditation. while much
140447 -        has been written about the benefits of meditation, the best
140448 -        attitude is not to have any expectations when practicing.
140449 -        having a sense of expectation of (positive) results is likely
140450 -        to create unnecessary strain in the practice.
140452 -  ..
140453 - Applied this explanation in part in NWO, per above. ref SDS 0 XM4N
140454 -
140455 -
140456 -
140457 -
1405 -

SUBJECTS
Meditation Definition Sensory Perception Paused Concentrates Underst
Routinize Good Practices Helps Solve Cognitive Overhead Meditation R

1604 -
160501 -         ..
160502 -        Routinize Good Practices Helps Solve Cognitive Overhead
160503 -        Meditation Regular Use Like SDS Overcomes Cognitive Overhead
160504 -
160505 -
160506 - Indiatimes Spirituality continues...
160507 -
160508 -        Since meditation involves becoming more aware and more
160509 -        sensitive to what is within you, facing unpleasant parts of
160510 -        oneself may well be part of meditation. regardless of the
160511 -        experience, the meditator should try to be aware of the
160512 -        experience and of any attachment to it.
160514 -         ..
160515 -        Failure to experience silence, peace of mind, mental clarity,
160516 -        bliss, or other promoted benefit of meditation is not in itself
160517 -        a sign of incorrect practice or that one can't concentrate
160518 -        properly or concentrate enough to be good at meditation.
160519 -        whether one experiences peace or bliss is not what is
160520 -        important. what is generally considered important in meditation
160521 -        is that one is regular with their meditation - every day - and
160522 -        that one make a reasonable effort, but not strain, to remain
160523 -        with the object of concentration during the practice. with
160524 -        regular practice one inevitably acquires an increased
160525 -        understanding of and proficiency with the particular meditation
160526 -        technique.
160528 -  ..
160529 - Regular use of SDS fits the model described for effective meditation
160530 - that does not demand particular results, but rather results come from
160531 - routine use of good practice.  NWO explains the burden of cognitive
160532 - overhead drives resistance to study for discovering accurate
160533 - understanding, and instead reacting on impulse based impressions from
160534 - sight and sound. ref OF 13 TF5M
160536 -  ..
160537 - Drucker calls for technology to routinize support for cognitive
160538 - overhead, i.e., thinking, based on findings from cognitive science,
160539 - reported on 991025. ref SDS 8 0785
160541 -  ..
160542 - Covey makes a similar point about making good practice into habits for
160543 - success, reviewed on 921205. ref SDS 3 4803
160545 -  ..
160546 - Indiatimes Spirituality continues...
160547 -
160548 -        Some people use the formal concentrative meditation as a
160549 -        preliminary step to practicing a mindfulness meditation during
160550 -        the day where one tries to maintain a calm but increased
160551 -        awareness of one's thoughts and actions throughout the day. for
160552 -        some people, meditation is primarily a spiritual practice, and
160553 -        in some cases the meditation practice may be closely tied to
160554 -        the practice of a religion such as, for example, hinduism or
160555 -        buddhism
160556 -
160558 -         ..
160559 -        Is there any religious implication or affiliation with
160560 -        meditation?
160562 -         ..
160563 -        Meditation has been and still is a central practice in eastern
160564 -        religions, for contacting 'god' or one's higher self.
160566 -         ..
160567 -        Christianity also has semblances of meditation, such as the
160568 -        biblical statement - "the kingdom of heaven is within you."
160569 -        churches have a meditative atmosphere.
160571 -         ..
160572 -        Meditation deals with contacting something within us that is
160573 -        peaceful, calm, rejuvenating, and meaningful. whether one
160574 -        calls this something 'god' or 'soul' or 'the inner child' or
160575 -        'theta-wave activity' or 'peace' or 'silence' is not
160576 -        important. it is there and anyone can benefit from it
160577 -        regardless of what they believe.
160579 -         ..
160580 -        Most people in the world have already meditated. if you have
160581 -        relaxed looking at a beautiful sunset, allowing your thoughts
160582 -        to quiet down, this is close to meditation. if you have been
160583 -        reading a book for a while then put it down to take a break and
160584 -        just sat there quietly and peacefully for a few minutes without
160585 -        thinking, this is close to meditation.
160586 -
160587 -
160588 -
160589 -
1606 -

SUBJECTS
Default Null Subject Account for Blank Record

1703 -
170401 -      ..
170402 -     Prayer and Reading the Bible....
170403 -
170404 -
170405 -              http://www.prayerguide.org.uk/bible.htm
170406 -
170407 -        As Christians we know we should pray and that we should read
170408 -        our Bibles. What is less well understood is that the two go
170409 -        together - hand in hand. We should come to expect that we may
170410 -        need our Bible during our prayer time, and can pray as we
170411 -        read!
170413 -         ..
170414 -        Meditation. Jeremiah speaks of eating God's words ("When your
170415 -        words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart's
170416 -        delight, for I bear your name, O Lord God Almighty." Jer
170417 -        15:16), and meditation gives us the chance to slowly chew over
170418 -        portions of scripture. Unlike other forms of meditation where
170419 -        we seek to empty our minds, Christians seek to fill our mind
170420 -        and heart with the presence and Word of God.
170422 -         ..
170423 -        Unlike academic study, meditation seeks to repeate words and
170424 -        phrases, to go over the same words and thoughts. The word
170425 -        "meditate" means to "murmur persistently". The psalmist writes
170426 -        "I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways." (Ps
170427 -        119:15); and in v48 "I lift up my hands to your commands which
170428 -        I love, and I meditate on your decrees."  In meditation, we
170429 -        ponder on key scriptures, and as we do so, we allow the living
170430 -        Word of God to penetrate our hearts as well as our minds.
170431 -
170432 -
170433 -
170434 -
1705 -

SUBJECTS
Default Null Subject Account for Blank Record

1803 -
180401 -      ..
180402 -     Meditation Understanding Integrated with Literacy Reading the Word
180403 -
180404 -     Bible.org says in part on the matter of correlating meditation
180405 -     (the "inner man") with literacy, ref OF 12 UE9G, in this case,
180406 -     reading the Bible...
180407 -
180408 -        ABCs for Christian Growth--Laying the Foundation
180409 -        Appendix 8: Soul Nourishment First
180410 -        George  Mller
180411 -
180412 -              http://www.bible.org/page.asp?page_id=1419
180414 -         ..
180415 -        It has pleased the Lord to teach me a truth, the benefit of
180416 -        which I have not lost, for more than fourteen years. The point
180417 -        is this: I saw more clearly than ever that the first great and
180418 -        primary business to which I ought to attend every day was, to
180419 -        have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be
180420 -        concerned about was not how much I might serve the Lord, or
180421 -        how I might glorify the Lord; but how I might get my soul into
180422 -        a happy state, and how my inner man might be nourished. For I
180423 -        might seek to set the truth before the unconverted, I might
180424 -        seek to benefit believers, I might seek to relieve the
180425 -        distressed, I might in other ways seek to behave myself as it
180426 -        becomes a child of God in this world; and yet, not being happy
180427 -        in the Lord, and not being nourished and strengthened in my
180428 -        inner man day by day, all this might not be attended to in a
180429 -        right spirit. Before this time my practice had been, at least
180430 -        for ten years previously, as an habitual thing, to give myself
180431 -        to prayer, after having dressed myself in the morning. Now, I
180432 -        saw that the most important thing I had to do was to give
180433 -        myself to the reading of the Word of God, and to meditation on
180434 -        it, that thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warned,
180435 -        reproved, instructed; and that thus, by means of the Word of
180436 -        God, while meditating on it, my heart might be brought into
180437 -        experiential communion with the Lord.
180438 -
180440 -  ..
180441 - Would like to move the the discussion of Knowledge Mangaement from
180442 - POIMS, ref OF 4 O87L, into NWO.  Might be able to do this at the
180443 - location in NWO that explains the history of "intelligence" support.
180444 - ref OF 10 4099
180446 -  ..
180447 - Actually, decided against this.  With the explanation of meditation
180448 - added to the section on religion, we can cite this to make the points
180449 - in POIMS on KM.
180450 -
180451 -
180452 -
180453 -
1805 -

SUBJECTS
Standing on the Shoulders of Giants Isaaic Newton Illustrates Organi

2503 -
250401 -  ..
250402 - Presencing Enables Faith for Transformation Knowledge Management
250403 - Transformation NWO Add Knowledge Management and Presencing
250404 - NWO Add Knowledge Management and Presencing for Transformation
250405 - Standing on the Shoulders of Giants Newton's Great Quote
250406 -
250407 - History resource on the Internet...
250408 -
250409 -              http://www.ucalgary.ca/applied_history/tutor/
250411 -  ..
250412 - Decided to go ahead and add an explanation of KM, ref OF 14 PI7F,
250413 - under a new chapter in NWO for Transformation, ref OF 14 O87L, that
250414 - will also explain Presencing to enable Knowledge Management,
250415 - ref OF 14 3A6J, which requires faith to sustain impelmentation through
250416 - a long period of transformation.  The need for faith to sustain
250417 - transformation from information to knowledge, reflects human history
250418 - that required religion to be the "keeper of the flame" that sustained
250419 - transformation from orality to literacy, per below. ref SDS 0 6P7R
250421 -  ..
250422 - Transformation should apply the centuries old concept...
250423 -
250424 -            Standing on the Shoulders of Giants
250425 -
250426 - ...most prominently attributed to Newton in the 17th century, but
250427 - possibly going back further to the 12th century, and currently
250428 - inscribed on British coins....
250429 -
250430 -              http://www.24carat.co.uk/standingontheshouldersofgiants.html
250431 -
250432 - ...further...
250433 -
250434 -              http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/history/q0162b.shtml
250435 -
250437 -  ..
250438 - Cultivate Interactive is a Knowledge Management effort funded by the
250439 - government to develop a common source for sharing cultural history and
250440 - enabling synergy in scientfic inquiry applies the notion of "standing
250441 - on the shoulders of giants."
250442 -
250443 -              http://www.cultivate-int.org/issue5/giants/
250445 -  ..
250446 - Alphabetic mind promulgated by Havel, reviewed on 991108 manufactured
250447 - commitment through experience of practitioners. ref SDS 9 5151
250448 -
250449 -
250450 -
250451 -
250452 -
250453 -
2505 -

SUBJECTS
Galileo Galilei 1564 1642 Mathematician Invented Telescope Astronome

2903 -
290401 -  ..
290402 - Galileo Mathematician Astronomy Telescope Gravity Coppernicus
290403 -
290404 - Background on Galileo....
290405 -
290406 -              http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Mathematicians/Galileo.html
290407 -
290408 - ...began to study medicine, but preferred mathematics, ref OF 21 KQPX
290409 - He eventually taught mathematics at the university level. ref OF 21
290410 - K131  This led to interest in astronomy, ref OF 21 KQXP, and
290411 - evenutally to improvements in the telescope, ref OF 21 K230, which he
290412 - used to significantly expand understanding of the universe.
290413 - ref OF 21 KSPS
290415 -  ..
290416 - The church initially accomodated Galileo's discoveries, ref OF 21
290417 - K358, but in 1616 Galileo wrote a letter strongly endorsing the
290418 - Copernician theory of the universe, ref OF 21 K369, and subsequently
290419 - Galileo was ruled guilty by an inquisition of church for publishing an
290420 - assertion that the planets circle the sun, as the center of the
290421 - universe, which conflicts with scripture. ref OF 21 K392  Over some
290422 - years Galileo did not suffer from the inquisition findings.
290423 - ref OF 21 K416  However, in 1633 he was found guilty of violating
290424 - conditions of the findings in 1616.  He was condemed to heresy and
290425 - punished by lifelong imprisonment, which was enforced as house arrest,
290426 - where his work continued. ref OF 21 L551
290427 -
290428 -
290429 -
290430 -
290431 -
2905 -

SUBJECTS
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3003 -
300401 -  ..
300402 - Keeper of Flame Religion Maintain Practice of Literacy
300403 - Literacy Declines with Fall of Roman Empire Chruch Keeper of the Flame
300404 -
300405 - Language literacy antiquity....
300406 -
300407 -       http://www.gprep.org/~music/musikbok/chap11.html
300408 -
300409 -    First, the key word in the above statement is survives. In
300410 -    European civilization following the collapse of the Roman empire,
300411 -    literacy fell to an all time low during the Middle Ages. Even
300412 -    though modern scholars are revising their opinions of culture in
300413 -    the Medieval times upward, the average peasant simply couldn't
300414 -    read or write. That special talent was passed along by the church
300415 -    through its religious orders.
300416 -
300418 -  ..
300419 - Dianne Tilloston, PhD (tillos@bigpond.com) explains the fall and rise
300420 - of literacy during the middle ages in Europe...
300421 -
300422 -              http://medievalwriting.50megs.com/literacy/church.htm
300424 -  ..
300425 - Tilloston says in part...
300426 -
300427 -    After the fall of the Roman Empire certain regions, namely Italy
300428 -    itself, southern France and Spain, retained a tradition of literacy
300429 -    in government, commerce, law and religion.  Further north across
300430 -    Germany and France to England the mobile barbarian peoples who
300431 -    gained supremacy were both pagan and illiterate.  Those two words
300432 -    can have a negative connotation, but in an absence of emotive
300433 -    association they simply mean they were not Christian and they had
300434 -    other ways of conducting their affairs or entertaining themselves
300435 -    than through the written word.
300437 -     ..
300438 -    Literate culture was reintroduced along with the Christian religion
300439 -    through the establishment of monastic missions across northwestern
300440 -    Europe.  These efforts came from different directions, which
300441 -    affected the nature of literate culture and writing.  Efforts from
300442 -    Rome itself had resulted in the baptism of the Merovingian king
300443 -    Clovis, a symbolically significant event in the triumph of
300444 -    religious orthodoxy in the face of competition from the Arian
300445 -    heresy, and the establishment of bishoprics across France and into
300446 -    Kent.
300448 -               ..
300449 -              http://medievalwriting.50megs.com/literacy/church2.htm
300450 -
300451 -
300452 -
300453 -
3005 -

SUBJECTS
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3103 -
310401 -     ..
310402 -    Writing Sustained Religion through Accuracy Church Doctrine
310403 -    Writing Critical to Religion Authority of Church Christianity
310404 -    Accuracy Enabled Integrity Written Text Sustained Church Authority
310405 -
310406 -
310407 - Doctor Dianne Tolloston continues...
310408 -
310409 -    The oral tradition of Christianity was not the same as oral
310410 -    traditions in the field of arts or entertainment.  Christianity was
310411 -    a religion of authority and the authority was maintained through
310412 -    the integrity of written texts.  Oral teaching had to constantly
310413 -    refer back to those written texts.  It was a religion of the book.
310414 -    The didactic visual imagery in the churches and the oral ritual and
310415 -    teaching were all derived from specified written texts.  No matter
310416 -    how much of their work the clergy learned by oral processes, and it
310417 -    was probably much more than we can imagine with our utter
310418 -    dependence on the written word for learning, literacy was essential
310419 -    to maintaining the accuracy and orthodoxy of practice.  Reading
310420 -    literacy in Latin became essential to all clergy.
310421 -
310422 -              http://medievalwriting.50megs.com/literacy/church3.htm
310424 -     ..
310425 -    Until around the 12th century most books were produced in monastic
310426 -    scriptoria. The need to build up increasing numbers of monastic
310427 -    libraries entailed much lending of books for copying. The work was
310428 -    undoubtedly laborious. Many scribe's colophons confirm this. Was
310429 -    the scribe a truly literate person, or a highly technically
310430 -    skilled craftsman with developed visual and motor skills?
310432 -  ..
310433 - Another paper by Robert N St Clair and John A Busch, University of
310434 - Louisville, describes Transmission of Values in the middle ages.
310435 - ref OF 20 0001
310436 -
310437 -        Robert N St Clair has background at...
310438 -
310439 -              http://coldfusion.louisville.edu/webs/a-s/english/people_2.cfm?id=25
310441 -  ..
310442 - Added explanation of link between religion and literacy to NWO.
310443 - ref OF 14 JW5L
310444 -
310445 -
310446 -
310447 -
310448 -
3105 -

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3203 -
320401 -  ..
320402 - Transformation to Language Enabled Communication through Orality
320403 -
320404 -
320405 -              http://www.historian.net/hxwrite.htm
320406 -
320407 -    Language existed long before writing, emerging probably
320408 -    simultaneously with sapience, abstract thought and the Genus Homo.
320409 -    In my opinion, the signature event that separated the emergence of
320410 -    palaeohumans from their anthropoid progenitors was not tool-making
320411 -    but a rudimentary oral communication that replaced the hoots and
320412 -    gestures still used by lower primates.  The transfer of more
320413 -    complex information, ideas and concepts from one individual to
320414 -    another, or to a group, was the single most advantageous
320415 -    evolutionary adaptation for species preservation.  As long ago as
320416 -    25,000-30,000 years BP, humans were painting pictures on cave
320417 -    walls.  Whether these pictures were telling a "story" or
320418 -    represented some type of "spirit house" or ritual exercise is not
320419 -    known.
320421 -     ..
320422 -    The advent of a writing system, however, seems to coincide with
320423 -    the transition from hunter-gatherer societies to more permanent
320424 -    agrarian encampments when it became necessary to count ones
320425 -    property, whether it be parcels of land, animals or measures of
320426 -    grain or to transfer that property to another individual or
320427 -    another settlement.  We see the first evidence for this with
320428 -    incised "counting tokens" about 9,000 years ago in the neolithic
320429 -    fertile crescent.
320430 -
320431 -
320432 -
320433 -
3205 -

SUBJECTS
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3303 -
330401 -  ..
330402 - Writing Mediums Made Transformation Difficult
330403 -
330404 -
330405 -              http://www.delmar.edu/engl/instruct/stomlin/1301int/lessons/language/history.htm
330406 -
330407 -    Materials and Methods of Writing
330409 -     ..
330410 -    Stone was the first writing surface and sharper, harder stones the
330411 -    first marking instruments. People gradually discovered natural
330412 -    dyes and inks to stain the stone cave walls and roofs they wrote
330413 -    on (see the cave painting of bison above from Altamira in Spain).
330414 -    The Egyptians incised plaster on walls with their sophisticated
330415 -    hieroglyphs. For everyday purposes, the Egyptians developed the
330416 -    first pre-cursor of paper. They glued together many layers of a
330417 -    reed called papyrus (which gives us the base of the word paper) to
330418 -    get a delicate sheet of material which would take ink. Other
330419 -    cultures learned to use leather or the broad leaves of plants.
330420 -    Eventually Europeans discovered that the treated skin of calves or
330421 -    sheep would yield a precious, smooth, white surface for writing
330422 -    called, respectively, vellum and parchment. Both vellum and
330423 -    parchment took about three weeks of intense hand labor to make,
330424 -    and both were very expensive.
330426 -     ..
330427 -    In about 1400, the Italians discovered a way to break down old
330428 -    cloth into its individual fibers. Using a fine screen, they caught
330429 -    the fibers and pressed the water out. When the fiber was dry, they
330430 -    had a sheet of paper. Paper turned out to be quick and inexpensive
330431 -    to make, and the secret of paper-making spread north throughout
330432 -    Europe very quickly. (The Chinese had invented paper independently
330433 -    centuries earlier.) Suddenly it became cost-effective to write
330434 -    things down instead of laboriously memorizing them.
330436 -     ..
330437 -    Later this same century, Johannes Gutenberg expanded on the idea
330438 -    of printing and made it feasible to print mass quantities of
330439 -    ordinary things. Before him, people hand-carved wooden figures and
330440 -    inked them in order to stamp them onto paper. Such plates were
330441 -    used mostly for pictures which were then hand-colored. The trouble
330442 -    with using wooden blocks for printing was that they took a long
330443 -    time and great skill to carve but only lasted for about a hundred
330444 -    impressions before the wood fibers broke down from pressure and
330445 -    ink. Gutenberg's contribution was making moveable type out of
330446 -    relatively inexpensive and long-lasting metal. Within fifty years,
330447 -    the intellectual face of Europe changed because of the sudden
330448 -    availability of books and other publications. It is not too much
330449 -    to say that democracy would never have developed without the
330450 -    printing press and cheap paper.
330451 -
330452 -        [...see below for more on Gutenberg. ref SDS 0 YS7H
330453 -
330454 -
330455 -
330456 -
3305 -

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3403 -
340401 -  ..
340402 - Writing Instruments Enabling Forces Along with Demand for Writing
340403 -
340404 - An Internet location for inventors has an article that is not dated,
340405 - with the description...
340406 -
340407 -    A Brief History of Writing Instruments
340408 -    Part 1: From cave paintings to the quill pen -- how ink, paper and
340409 -    pens were all were invented.
340410 -
340411 -              http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa100197.htm
340413 -     ..
340414 -    By Mary Bellis
340415 -
340416 -              http://inventors.about.com/mbiopage.htm
340417 -
340418 -        Mary has her own web site explaining a career
340419 -
340420 -        Mary Bellis is an inventor who works in digital film
340421 -        production and also curates an electronic art gallery.
340423 -         ..
340424 -        Professional Experience: Mary has produced and directed a
340425 -        number of short films, including a documentary on Alexander
340426 -        Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone. She is working on
340427 -        an invention to bring about world peace.
340429 -  ..
340430 - Mary's paper continues...
340431 -
340432 -    The history of writing instruments by which humans have recorded
340433 -    and conveyed thoughts, feelings and grocery lists, is the history
340434 -    of civilization itself. This is how we know the story of us, by
340435 -    the drawings, signs and words we have recorded.
340437 -     ..
340438 -    The cave man's first inventions were the hunting club (not the
340439 -    auto security device) and the handy sharpened-stone, the
340440 -    all-purpose skinning and killing tool. The latter was adapted into
340441 -    the first writing instrument. The cave man scratched pictures with
340442 -    the sharpened-stone tool onto the walls of his cave dwelling. The
340443 -    cave drawings represented events in daily life such as the
340444 -    planting of crops or hunting victories.
340446 -     ..
340447 -    With time, the record-keepers developed systematized symbols from
340448 -    their drawings. These symbols represented words and sentences, but
340449 -    were easier and faster to draw and universally recognized for
340450 -    meaning. The discovery of clay made portable records possible (you
340451 -    can't carry a cave wall around with you). Early merchants used
340452 -    clay tokens with pictographs to record the quantities of materials
340453 -    traded or shipped. These tokens date back to about 8,500 B.C. With
340454 -    the high volume of and the repetition inherent in record keeping,
340455 -    pictographs evolved and slowly lost their picture detail. They
340456 -    became abstract-figures representing sounds in spoken
340457 -    communication. The alphabet replaced pictographs between 1700 and
340458 -    1500 B.C. in the Sinaitic world. The current Hebrew alphabet and
340459 -    writing became popular around 600 B.C. About 400 B.C. the Greek
340460 -    alphabet was developed. Greek was the first script written from
340461 -    left to right. From Greek followed the Byzantine and the Roman
340462 -    (later Latin) writings. In the beginning, all writing systems had
340463 -    only uppercase letters, when the writing instruments were refined
340464 -    enough for detailed faces, lowercase was used as well (around 600
340465 -    A.D.)
340467 -     ..
340468 -    The earliest means of writing that approached pen and paper as we
340469 -    know them today was developed by the Greeks. They employed a
340470 -    writing stylus, made of metal, bone or ivory, to place marks upon
340471 -    wax-coated tablets. The tablets made in hinged pairs, closed to
340472 -    protect the scribe's notes. The first examples of handwriting
340473 -    (purely text messages made by hand) originated in Greece. The
340474 -    Grecian scholar, Cadmus invented the written letter - text
340475 -    messages on paper sent from one individual to another.
340477 -     ..
340478 -    Writing was advancing beyond chiseling pictures into stone or
340479 -    wedging pictographs into wet clay. The Chinese invented and
340480 -    perfected 'Indian Ink'. Originally designed for blacking the
340481 -    surfaces of raised stone-carved hieroglyphics, the ink was a
340482 -    mixture of soot from pine smoke and lamp oil mixed with the
340483 -    gelatin of donkey skin and musk. The ink invented by the Chinese
340484 -    philosopher, Tien-Lcheu (2697 B.C.), became common by the year
340485 -    1200 B.C. Other cultures developed inks using the natural dyes and
340486 -    colors derived from berries, plants and minerals. In early
340487 -    writings, different colored inks had ritual meaning attached to
340488 -    each color.
340490 -     ..
340491 -    The invention of inks paralleled the introduction of paper. The
340492 -    early Egyptians, Romans, Greeks and Hebrews, used papyrus and
340493 -    parchment papers. One of the oldest pieces of writing on papyrus
340494 -    known to us today is the Egyptian "Prisse Papyrus" which dates
340495 -    back to 2000 B.C. The Romans created a reed-pen perfect for
340496 -    parchment and ink, from the hollow tubular-stems of marsh grasses,
340497 -    especially from the jointed bamboo plant. They converted bamboo
340498 -    stems into a primitive form of fountain pen. They cut one end into
340499 -    the form of a pen nib or point. A writing fluid or ink filled the
340500 -    stem, squeezing the reed forced fluid to the nib.
340502 -     ..
340503 -    By 400 A.D. a stable form of ink developed, a composite of
340504 -    iron-salts, nutgalls and gum, the basic formula, which was to
340505 -    remain in use for centuries. Its color when first applied to paper
340506 -    was a bluish-black, rapidly turning into a darker black and then
340507 -    over the years fading to the familiar dull brown color commonly
340508 -    seen in old documents. Wood-fiber paper was invented in China in
340509 -    105 A.D. but it only became known about (due to Chinese secrecy)
340510 -    in Japan around 700 A.D. and brought to Spain by the Arabs in 711
340511 -    A.D. Paper was not widely used throughout Europe until paper mills
340512 -    were built in the late 14th century.
340514 -     ..
340515 -    The writing instrument that dominated for the longest period in
340516 -    history (over one-thousand years) was the quill pen. Introduced
340517 -    around 700 A.D., the quill is a pen made from a bird feather. The
340518 -    strongest quills were those taken from living birds in the spring
340519 -    from the five outer left wing feathers. The left wing was favored
340520 -    because the feathers curved outward and away when used by a
340521 -    right-handed writer. Goose feathers were most common; swan
340522 -    feathers were of a premium grade being scarcer and more expensive.
340523 -    For making fine lines, crow feathers were the best, and then came
340524 -    the feathers of the eagle, owl, hawk and turkey.
340526 -     ..
340527 -    Quill pens lasted for only a week before it was necessary to
340528 -    replace them. There were other disadvantages associated with their
340529 -    use, including a lengthy preparation time. The early European
340530 -    writing parchments made from animal skins, required much scraping
340531 -    and cleaning. A lead and a ruler made margins. To sharpen the
340532 -    quill, the writer needed a special knife (origins of the term
340533 -    "pen-knife".) Beneath the writer's high-top desk was a coal stove,
340534 -    used to dry the ink as fast as possible.
340536 -     ..
340537 -    Plant-fiber paper became the primary medium for writing after
340538 -    another dramatic invention took place: Johannes Gutenberg invented
340539 -    the printing press with replaceable wooden or metal letters in
340540 -    1436. Simpler kinds of printing e.g. stamps with names, used much
340541 -    earlier in China, did not find their way to Europe. During the
340542 -    centuries, many newer printing technologies were developed based
340543 -    on Gutenberg's printing machine e.g. offset printing.
340545 -     ..
340546 -    Articles written by hand had resembled printed letters until
340547 -    scholars began to change the form of writing, using capitals and
340548 -    small letters, writing with more of a slant and connecting
340549 -    letters. Gradually writing became more suitable to the speed the
340550 -    new writing instruments permitted. The credit of inventing Italian
340551 -    'running hand' or cursive handwriting with its Roman capitals and
340552 -    small letters, goes to Aldus Manutius of Venice, who departed from
340553 -    the old set forms in 1495 A.D. By the end of the 16th century, the
340554 -    old Roman capitals and Greek letterforms transformed into the
340555 -    twenty-six alphabet letters we know today, both for upper and
340556 -    lower-case letters.
340558 -     ..
340559 -    When writers had both better inks and paper, and handwriting had
340560 -    developed into both an art form and an everyday occurrence, man's
340561 -    inventive nature once again turned to improving the writing
340562 -    instrument, leading to the development of the modern fountain pen.
340563 -
340564 -
340565 -
340566 -
3406 -

SUBJECTS
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3503 -
350401 -     ..
350402 -    History of Pens & Writing Instruments
350403 -
350404 -    Pencil and Eraser Trivia
350405 -
350406 -              http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blpen.htm
350407 -
350408 -    Graphite is a form of carbon, first discovered in the Seathwaite
350409 -    Valley on the side of the mountain Seathwaite Fell in Borrowdale,
350410 -    near Keswick, England, about 1564 by an unknown person. Shortly
350411 -    after this the first pencils were made in the same area.
350413 -     ..
350414 -    The breakthrough in pencil technology came when French chemist
350415 -    Nicolas Conte developed and patented the process used to make
350416 -    pencils in 1795. He used a mixture of clay and graphite that was
350417 -    fired before it was put in a wooden case. The pencils he made were
350418 -    cylindrical with a slot. The square lead was glued into the slot
350419 -    and a thin strip of wood was used to fill the rest of the slot.
350420 -    Pencils got their name from the old English word meaning 'brush'.
350421 -    Conte's method of kiln firing powdered graphite and clay allowed
350422 -    pencils to be made to any hardness or softness - very important to
350423 -    artists and draftsmen.
350425 -     ..
350426 -    Charles Marie de la Condamine, a French scientist and explorer,
350427 -    was the first European to bring back the natural substance called
350428 -    "India" rubber. He brought a sample to the Institute de France in
350429 -    Paris in 1736. South American Indian tribes used rubber to making
350430 -    bouncing playing balls and as an adhesive for attaching feathers
350431 -    and other objects to their bodies.
350433 -     ..
350434 -    In 1770, the noted scientist Sir Joseph Priestley (discoverer of
350435 -    oxygen) recorded the following, "I have seen a substance
350436 -    excellently adapted to the purpose of wiping from paper the mark
350437 -    of black lead pencil." Europeans were rubbing out pencil marks
350438 -    with the small cubes of rubber, the substance that Condamine had
350439 -    brought to Europe from South America. They called their erasers
350440 -    "peaux de negres". However, rubber was not an easy substance to
350441 -    work with because it went bad very easily -- just like food,
350442 -    rubber would rot. English engineer, Edward Naime is also credited
350443 -    with the creation of the first eraser in 1770. Before rubber,
350444 -    breadcrumbs had been used to erase pencil marks. Naime claims he
350445 -    accidentally picked up a piece of rubber instead of his lump of
350446 -    bread and discovered the possibilities, he went on to sell the new
350447 -    rubbing out devices or rubbers.
350449 -     ..
350450 -    In 1839, Charles Goodyear discovered a way to cure rubber and make
350451 -    it a lasting and useable material. He called his process
350452 -    vulcanization, after Vulcan, the Roman god of fire. In 1844,
350453 -    Goodyear patented his process. With the better rubber available,
350454 -    erasers became quite common.
350456 -     ..
350457 -    The first patent for attaching an eraser to a pencil was issued in
350458 -    1858 to a man from Philadelphia named Hyman Lipman. This patent
350459 -    was later held to be invalid because it was merely the combination
350460 -    of two things, without a new use.
350462 -     ..
350463 -    At first penknives were used to sharpen pencils. They got their
350464 -    name from the fact that they were first used to shape feather
350465 -    quills used as early pens. In 1828, Bernard Lassimone, a French
350466 -    mathematician applied for a patent (French patent #2444) on an
350467 -    invention to sharpen pencils. However, it was not until 1847 that
350468 -    Therry des Estwaux first invented the manual pencil sharpener, as
350469 -    we know it.
350471 -     ..
350472 -    John Lee Love of Fall River, MA designed the "Love Sharpener."
350473 -    Love's invention was the very simple, portable pencil sharpener
350474 -    that many artists use. The pencil is put into the opening of the
350475 -    sharpener and rotated by hand, and the shavings stay inside the
350476 -    sharpener. Love's sharpener was patented on November 23, 1897
350477 -    (U.S. Patent # 594,114). Four years earlier, Love created and
350478 -    patented his first invention, the "Plasterer's Hawk." This device,
350479 -    which is still used today, is a flat square piece of board made of
350480 -    wood or metal, upon which plaster or mortar was placed and then
350481 -    spread by plasterers or masons. This was patented on July 9, 1895.
350482 -
350484 -     ..
350485 -    One source claims that the Hammacher Schlemmer Company of New York
350486 -    offered the world's first electric pencil sharpener designed by
350487 -    Raymond Loewy, sometime in the early 1940s.
350489 -     ..
350490 -    In 1861, Eberhard Faber built the first pencil factory in the
350491 -    United States in New York City.
350492 -
350493 -
350494 -
350495 -
3505 -

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3603 -
360401 -  ..
360402 - Alphabetic Mind Constructs Meaning from Small Organic Structures
360403 -
360404 -
360405 -    The Alphabetic Principle is More Suited to the Human Mind
360406 -
360407 -              http://www.ashbrook.org/publicat/oped/moore/04/alphabet.html
360409 -     ..
360410 -    Editorial January 2004
360412 -     ..
360413 -    by: Terrence Moore  tmoore@ashbrook.org
360414 -
360415 -              http://www.ashbrook.org/about/staff/moore.html
360417 -     ..
360418 -    This is the third article of a three-part series.
360419 -    When Rudolf Flesch published his mini-classic on phonics, Why
360420 -    Johnny Can't Read (1955), he was worried by the decline in
360421 -    students' reading abilities. He was disgusted with the
360422 -    mind-numbing Dick and Jane readers that had begun to creep into
360423 -    American classrooms. He was alarmed by the "foolproof system" that
360424 -    promulgated non-phonetic methods of reading instruction, namely,
360425 -    the interlocking directorate of education schools, school systems,
360426 -    and textbook companies.
360428 -     ..
360429 -    Yet what bothered him most was the wholesale abandonment of one of
360430 -    the great achievements and inventions of mankind. That achievement
360431 -    is the alphabet. "We have decided to forget that we write with
360432 -    letters and learn to read English as if it were Chinese. One word
360433 -    after another after another after another. If we want to read
360434 -    materials with a vocabulary of 10,000 words, then we have to
360435 -    memorize 10,000 words. and so on. We have thrown 3,500 years of
360436 -    civilization out the window and have gone back to the Age of
360437 -    Hammurabi."
360439 -     ..
360440 -    As Flesch pointed out, and as the Core Knowledge sequence teaches
360441 -    in the first grade, alphabetic systems of writing replaced
360442 -    pictographic writing around 1500 B.C. In the pictographic system,
360443 -    each word had a corresponding picture. To read a text with a
360444 -    vocabulary range of 10,000 words, one would have to have 10,000
360445 -    pictures committed to memory. By way of comparison, a good
360446 -    collegiate dictionary contains around 150,000 words. Any way you
360447 -    count it, that is a lot of pictures. The alphabet tremendously
360448 -    simplified language. Readers in alphabetic systems only had to
360449 -    know twenty-six or so symbols and a slightly larger number of
360450 -    sounds, or phonemes. These letters mapped the sounds people made
360451 -    when saying various words. Rather than drawing a picture of a
360452 -    house or a dog or a child, the writer now only had to use letters
360453 -    to approximate what the voice uttered. Modern whole-language
360454 -    teachers have taken a massive leap backwards by treating each
360455 -    single word as a distinct picture. Their recourse to pictures in
360456 -    whole-language primers to help children guess at the text is a
360457 -    further barbarization. Insofar as whole-language teachers neglect
360458 -    the alphabet and phonemes of our unmistakably alphabetic language,
360459 -    they ask children to make bricks without straw.
360461 -     ..
360462 -    We have learned a great deal about reading since the publication
360463 -    of Flesch's prophetic book. Neuro-linguistic and eye-movement
360464 -    researchers (those who figure out what the brain and eyes do while
360465 -    reading) have disproved one of the fundamental axioms of
360466 -    whole-language theory. Whole-language advocates have always
360467 -    asserted that mature readers do not read a letter at a time but
360468 -    instead digest whole words. Neuroimaging studies reveal to the
360469 -    contrary that people with reading difficulties (40% of our
360470 -    population) lack the ability to work with the phonemes of the
360471 -    language. At the same time, even accomplished readers mentally
360472 -    sound out words as they read, though the process is so automatic
360473 -    one does not notice it. A good reader goes through the word
360474 -    "reading" that he has seen thousands of times in a micro-second
360475 -    but still might have to slow down for "neuro-linguistic" or
360476 -    "extra-parliamentary." The icing on the cake is that the Chinese,
360477 -    one of the few peoples left with a language in which characters
360478 -    correspond to whole words, have been using the Roman alphabet for
360479 -    the last half-century to teach their children to read.
360481 -     ..
360482 -    Parents worried about their children's ability to read should do
360483 -    two things. First, they should ask their children's teachers what
360484 -    method of reading instruction they use. One must be cautious of
360485 -    so-called combined approaches, since these are attempts to throw
360486 -    phonics-minded parents off the track of solid literacy. Second,
360487 -    and this is particularly important for parents of older children,
360488 -    they should ask their children to read aloud several pages from an
360489 -    age-appropriate work of literature. They may be shocked to find,
360490 -    as I have been by listening even to college students, that their
360491 -    children have only a halting familiarity with their native
360492 -    language. That "long talk" parents have put off having about the
360493 -    ways of the world might need to be an introduction to the facts of
360494 -    the English alphabet.
360496 -     ..
360497 -    Terrence Moore is an Adjunct Fellow of the Ashbrook Center and is
360498 -    the Principal of Ridgeview Classical Schools in Fort Collins,
360499 -    Colorado.
360500 -
360501 -
360502 -
360503 -
3606 -

SUBJECTS
Popular Literature in Ancient Greece

3703 -
370401 -  ..
370402 - Popular Literature in Ancient Greece
370403 -
370404 -
370405 -              http://www.ucalgary.ca/applied_history/tutor/popculture/PthreeA.html
370406 -
370407 -    The Homeric epics represent only a small portion of all the genres
370408 -    of poetry, not to mention other genres of literature.  Poetry is
370409 -    particularly interesting for the discussion of popular culture,
370410 -    however.  Unlike modern poets, who usually create "art for art's
370411 -    sake", much ancient poetry had more practical goals.  All types of
370412 -    poetry were initially accompanied by music, and each genre was
370413 -    marked by a particular meter formula.  Epic poetry, composed in
370414 -    hexameter verse, was used to tell heroic legends of men or gods,
370415 -    such as the tale of the Trojan War in the Iliad.  Lyric poetry
370416 -    consisted of two different types of songs: solo and choral, and of
370417 -    these there were many subtypes with varying meters that were
370418 -    composed and performed for particular functions.  Lyric subtypes
370419 -    included drinking songs (scolia), wedding songs (hymenaios and
370420 -    epithalamion), hymns that celebrated a worthy person, like a
370421 -    winning athelete (encomium), and songs to particular gods, like
370422 -    Dionysus or Apollo (dithyramb and paean).  The Dionysus poems in
370423 -    particular, an example of choral lyric, were perfomed at Dionysus
370424 -    festivals in large competitions that took place in the
370425 -    amphitheatres.  Eventually this type of choral lyric evolved into
370426 -    the Chorus (a group of singers who more or less narrated in between
370427 -    dialogue) of ancient Greek tradegies.  Elegiac poetry in alternate
370428 -    hexameter and pentameter verse was used for more personal topics:
370429 -    love, laments, and poems to commemorate the dead.  Finally iambic
370430 -    and bucolic poetry were for political satire and praise of
370431 -    labourers and herdsmen respectively.  This list of poetry types is
370432 -    not meant to be extensive yet it is still clear that poetry was
370433 -    essential in many aspects of Greek culture, being used for
370434 -    entertainment, as well as the perpetuation and reaffirmation of
370435 -    cultural beliefs and values.  These are goals in common with much
370436 -    popular culture today.  Certainly a mode of communication so
370437 -    pervasive through society would have specialized forms that we
370438 -    might classify as high culture, or as folk culture, but in speaking
370439 -    of poetry in general a good case could be made for its inclusion in
370440 -    a popular culture study.
370442 -     ..
370443 -    While the popular aspect of ancient greek literature has been
370444 -    largely overlooked, there is one genre which has received some
370445 -    attention: the ancient romance.  The Greeks did not begin writing
370446 -    romance novels (romances, that is, adventurous love stories, were
370447 -    the only type of novels the ancient Greeks wrote as far as we know)
370448 -    until quite late, between the first century BC and the sixth
370449 -    century AD, its peak coming in the second century AD.  Of these six
370450 -    centuries of writing only five complete novels and individual
370451 -    manuscript fragments of up to 42 others exist, nonetheless, the
370452 -    novels are believed by a number of scholars to have been a popular
370453 -    genre of literature, an ancient pulp fiction if you will.  The
370454 -    reasons behind the belief that the romances were popular reveal the
370455 -    sometimes negative sentiments that are associated with popular
370456 -    culture in general, and susequently the problems that arise from
370457 -    these sentiments.  There are basically two reasons given for
370458 -    assuming a popular audience for these novels: they were inferior
370459 -    pieces of literature, and there was no ancient Greek word for the
370460 -    genre - where the novels were referred to at all, they were
370461 -    summarily dismissed.  Therefore inferior culture equals popular
370462 -    culture, and the educated ancient Greeks must have had the same
370463 -    disdain for popular culture that modern elitists do.  The problems
370464 -    with this should be immediately obvious.  The novels may well have
370465 -    been popular, but modern ideas of inferiority are insufficient
370466 -    evidence to base this assumption on.
370468 -     ..
370469 -    The five extant novels, and from what can be discerned of the
370470 -    fragments of others, seem to follow a formulaic plot.  The plot for
370471 -    all of them, with considerable individual variation in details,
370472 -    consists of two incredibly beautiful young people who fall
370473 -    passionately in love, but are separated before they are either able
370474 -    to marry or to consummate their marriage; the separation then
370475 -    begins a series of exciting and dangerous adventures all over the
370476 -    Mediterranean world, spiced with kidnappings, pirates, thieves,
370477 -    unsolicited attacks on their fidelity, and rumours about the other
370478 -    lover's death, but invariably, the stories all end happily with the
370479 -    couple reunited.  They often include a bit of debauchery, some
370480 -    bawdy language, and freakish animals.  Likewise, most of the novels
370481 -    are set at some time in the distant past, and are usually based on
370482 -    a local legends, or actual historical figures.  The repitition of
370483 -    the same type of storyline has lead some to conclude that it must
370484 -    have been a successful format initially and this success explains
370485 -    its continuation for the next couple of centuries.  But it is
370486 -    unknown what the authors intentions were when they wrote a romance.
370487 -    There is much discussion on how exactly the Greeks viewed the
370488 -    continuum of truth and fiction, as it appears that their historical
370489 -    writing contains much that is creative, while the novels are based
370490 -    on real historical figures, though not necessarily facts.  What is
370491 -    more, no one is quite sure why the ancient novel came into being in
370492 -    the first place, nor whether it evolved out of another genre
370493 -    entirely; there are characteristics (if not entire word for word
370494 -    quotations from) other genres and well known ancient literature.
370495 -    In short the writers may not have been aware that they were
370496 -    creating a new genre of literature, especially as there was no new
370497 -    word for what they were doing.
370499 -     ..
370500 -    Formula is a key component in much popular culture, and I would
370501 -    hazard the assumption that writers, of books, radio shows,
370502 -    television programs, and films, are aware when they are using
370503 -    formula, and use consciously.  In order to fulfill their contract
370504 -    with their audience they have to follow the conventions of the
370505 -    established genre (or subvert them as in Clint Eastwood's
370506 -    deconstructed Western film Unforgiven (1992)).  In the case of the
370507 -    ancient Greek romances the fact that they were formulaic was more
370508 -    of a coincidence, rather than the author's intent.  This said, the
370509 -    fact that they were formulaic is usually a reason to consider them
370510 -    as inferior pieces of literature, along with their sentimental
370511 -    mood, their emphasis on emotion over reason, their often
370512 -    two-dimensional characters, and their frequently contrived plots.
370514 -     ..
370515 -    A quick summary of the first few chapters of Callirhoe, the
370516 -    earliest of the five complete novels, written by a Chariton of
370517 -    Aphrodisias possibily in the first century AD, will illustrate the
370518 -    descriptions given above well.  The novel starts with the heroine
370519 -    and hero, Callirhoe and Chaereas, both renowned throughout Sicily
370520 -    for their beauty, falling, instantaneously, passionately in love
370521 -    after, literally, bumping into one another on the street.  While
370522 -    the heroine, Callirhoe remains respectably mute about her burning
370523 -    infatuation, Chaereas, the hero, falls ill, and drops out of his
370524 -    regular activities.  He is so well-loved and missed by his fellow
370525 -    citizens (because he is a two-dimensional character) that they
370526 -    convince their ruler, who is also Callirhoe's father, that a
370527 -    marriage between the two must take place to save this fine specimen
370528 -    of a man.  Of course, Callirhoe's beauty, likened throughout the
370529 -    novel to the goddess Aphrodite, had brought powerful suitors from
370530 -    many miles around, all of whom were greatly hard-done by this
370531 -    impromtu wedding.  They contrive to ruin the marriage by making
370532 -    Chaereas jealous, and succeed.  In a fit of uncharacteristic rage,
370533 -    Chaereas violently kicks Callirhoe, who falls dead to the ground.
370534 -    Or so it would appear.  She has stopped breathing, is presumed
370535 -    dead, so her family goes through with all the funeral preparations,
370536 -    and finally seals her in the family crypt.  Some hours later, after
370537 -    it is night and all the mourners departed, Callirhoe suddenly
370538 -    begins breathing again, "when lack of food had led to some
370539 -    loosening of her blocked respiration" (a perfect example of
370540 -    outright plot manipulation).  Here the adventures begin in earnest.
370541 -    Tomb robbers save her from slow starvation, but take her and her
370542 -    funeral treasures to sell for a great price somewhere across the
370543 -    Mediterranean.  Despite her arresting beauty, the thieves do not
370544 -    lay a hand on her and she is sold to a Dionysus, another well-loved
370545 -    ruler, who falls in love with her at first glimpse, even though his
370546 -    wife has just died, whom he had loved so dearly that he wished for
370547 -    death as well.  After he falls in love with Callirhoe, he tries to
370548 -    starve himself to death because she will not at first have him.
370549 -    She changes her mind when she discovers that she is pregnant (not
370550 -    only did not suffer any brain damage due to hours without oxygen,
370551 -    but she also managed to not miscarry after being kicked in the
370552 -    stomach), and decides to marry him to give her child a name.  The
370553 -    story continues through the marriage, pirates, searching, and
370554 -    public trials until eventually Callirhoe and Chaereas are reunited,
370555 -    destined to live happily ever after.
370557 -     ..
370558 -    The summary makes clear the plot manipulation, the two-dimensional
370559 -    characters, and the emphasis on emotion rather than reason.  While
370560 -    these are often the characteristics of bad literature today,and
370561 -    while these characteristics may make it difficult for some modern
370562 -    readers to enjoy the ancient Greek romances as pieces of good
370563 -    literature, it does not mean that the same critetria were used in
370564 -    ancient Greece.  The ancient novels and their development has often
370565 -    been compared to the rise of the novel in the eighteenth century, a
370566 -    dangerous comparison to make for we know how well the genre of
370567 -    novels has turned out.  It is also a dangerous comparison because
370568 -    the eighteenth century and ancient Greece under Roman rule were two
370569 -    completely different times with widely divergent cultures from one
370570 -    another.
370572 -     ..
370573 -    Despite what we now consider to be faults, the novels in context
370574 -    may have, in fact, answered to a number of the needs of Greek
370575 -    society.  It has been argued that the plot manipulation so evident
370576 -    in the novels mirrored the Greek belief that human life was
370577 -    manipulated by the gods.  Indeed, throughout Callirhoe, it is
370578 -    frequently explained that Eros, or Fortune, or Aphrodite were
370579 -    making plans for, and taking action on the two heroes, as well as
370580 -    most of the other characters.  The prevailing feeling of
370581 -    helplessness has been read as an indirect indication of how the
370582 -    once mighty Greeks were feeling under Roman rule.  Further
370583 -    allusions to the empire have been interpreted out of the apparent
370584 -    emphasis in the novels on travelling, foreign places, and strange
370585 -    creatures and people in that the vast empire for the first time
370586 -    brought a large, diverse area with numerous cultures under one
370587 -    rule, thereby increasing mutual awareness and curiosity.  That the
370588 -    novels answered to the present needs of the ancient Greeks could be
370589 -    used as a justification for their popularity, but does not prove
370590 -    that they were.
370592 -     ..
370593 -    But it is the supposed inferiority of the novels on which the
370594 -    decision of a popular audience hangs. This attitude harkens back
370595 -    to the beginning of our introduction, where we met the Leavises,
370596 -    who had no tolerance for any culture that was popular because they
370597 -    believed it lowered cultural standards. Interestingly, from the
370598 -    opinion that all popular culture is inferior culture has come the
370599 -    reverse judgement: that any cultural artefact of questionable
370600 -    quality must needs be popular culture. This has been exactly the
370601 -    case with the Greek romances. That the audience for the romances
370602 -    was a popular one has been supported with the lack of contemporary
370603 -    literary discussion of the novels, as well as the fact that there
370604 -    was no ancient Greek equivalent to describe the genre. At first
370605 -    thought, a lack of contemporary discussion would lead one to
370606 -    believe that not only were the novels not popular but they had
370607 -    rarely even been heard of. However, the few known instances where
370608 -    the romances are referred to are actually quite negative, which
370609 -    leads one to believe that they were well enough known about that
370610 -    at least one or two people felt the need to express their dislike.
370612 -     ..
370613 -    For example, the sophist Philostratus, who lived in Rome around
370614 -    200 AD, wrote an open, epigrammic letter to the then dead
370615 -    Chariton.
370617 -     ..
370618 -    "To Chariton.  Do you really suppose that the Greeks are going to
370619 -    remember your stories when you are gone?  Those who are nobodies
370620 -    when they are living, what will they be when they are dead?"
370622 -     ..
370623 -    If Chariton truly had been a nobody, then Philostratus would have
370624 -    had no need to point it out.  Apparently, Philostratus was
370625 -    something of a jealous individual, because he wrote similar chiding
370626 -    letters to a certain Epictetus.  The second century sophists, in a
370627 -    revival of Greek rhetorical practices in the Roman Empire, were in
370628 -    the habit of writing letters to dead philosophers, writers, poets,
370629 -    but presumably they were not in the habit of wasting their time on
370630 -    complete unknowns.  The concluding line in Persius' first satire,
370631 -    which reads His mane edictum, post prandia Callirhoen do, and
370632 -    refers to the heroine of Callirhoe by Chariton, is a contemporary
370633 -    negative reaction.  Also one Macrobius mentions the novels of
370634 -    Petronius and Apuleius, and he states that they belong in the
370635 -    nursery (nutricum cunae), and that they are examples of argumenta
370636 -    fictis casibus amatorum referta, or 'narratives replete with
370637 -    imaginary doings of lovers', or mere ear flattery.  Finally, a
370638 -    fifth century AD physician, Theodorus Priscianus, was known to
370639 -    recommend the work of one of the romance writers, Iamblichus, to
370640 -    men with sexual problems, but beyond that seemed to have no opinion
370641 -    of the work or genre.  There are perhaps three or four other
370642 -    instances where the novels are referred to, but generally the
370643 -    comments are opinionless and their reference serves some other
370644 -    pupose.
370646 -     ..
370647 -    It is possible, though just as difficult to tell with only three
370648 -    negative references, that the novels were considered inferior
370649 -    literature by intellectuals in their own time. But even a
370650 -    contemporary opinion of inferiority does not equate popularity.
370651 -    Notice that there are no references, found thus far, that refer to
370652 -    the audience of the novels, or how well known they were, except
370653 -    perhaps very indirectly in Philostratus' letter. It is more
370654 -    reasonable to suggest therefore, that the absence of an ancient
370655 -    Greek term for the genre (no word for novel, and no word for
370656 -    romance) and the lack of contemporary discussion is an indication
370657 -    to the newness of the genre, and the fact that there were not
370658 -    enough examples of the genre at any one time to form opinions on.
370660 -     ..
370661 -    That the novels were considered popular was not through direct
370662 -    evidence as it should have been, rather it came through an
370663 -    association with modern popular culture. B. E. Perry says just as
370664 -    much in "The Ancient Romances" (1967):
370665 -
370666 -     "...for there is nothing else in ancient literature so much like
370667 -     our present-day movies with their glamorous heroines and heroes,
370668 -     the rapid succession of breathtaking adventures, nearly always
370669 -     ending happily ever after with a wedding, and their highly
370670 -     conventionalized morals, gestures, and techniques, as these Greek
370671 -     romances. "
370673 -      ..
370674 -     This would be an interesting and perfectly acceptable comparison
370675 -     (albeit anachronistic) if it first could be demonstrated that the
370676 -     novels had in fact been popular.  From more recent studies of
370677 -     ancient literacy, papyrus finds, and the content of the texts
370678 -     themselves the notion of the ancient romances' popularity has
370679 -     begun to be refuted in ernest. "Popular" is most often associated
370680 -     with the non-upper class, that is, the non-aristocrats, the
370681 -     uneducated, and the unwealthy.  That the novels were enjoyed
370682 -     primarily by this group has been justified with a downward spread
370683 -     of literacy at this time, as well as a developing bourgeois class,
370684 -     who were able to purchase or have made for them copies of the
370685 -     novels.  These statements, however, are still being hotly
370686 -     contested because of the immense difficulty in determining
370687 -     literacy rates, discerning what type of education might have been
370688 -     available to the non-upper class, and whether members of the
370689 -     developing bourgeois class who were able to read constituted a
370690 -     substantial enough group to be termed a popular audience.
370692 -      ..
370693 -     We have already learned that not only the elite educated class
370694 -     were able to read and write, and it has been shown that literacy
370695 -     did increase, if only slightly, in the first three centuries AD.
370696 -     From graffiti studies it is also known that the lower classes were
370697 -     somewhat familiar with classic literature, such as Ovid,
370698 -     Propertius, and Lucretius, because they were often quoted, though
370699 -     not always accurately (though this is not so surprising given,
370700 -     once again, the oral nature of the culture.  In the second century
370701 -     AD, during the so called Second Sophistic, it was more than common
370702 -     for rhetors, or sophists, to stand before large public audiences
370703 -     and hold a debate, or declaim on a particular topic, making all
370704 -     their training quite familiar to those who attended with some
370705 -     regularity).  Thus it is possible that if the lower classes had
370706 -     been so inclined they might have read the romances.  The romances
370707 -     may have been more complicated than first thought however.  First
370708 -     of all, the romances are much longer than most other ancient Greek
370709 -     literature, taking up several rolls of papyrus, and, because
370710 -     written words were intended generally to read aloud, there were no
370711 -     breaks between the words on the page, nor was there any
370712 -     punctuation.  So while the plot and characters may have been
370713 -     simplistic, the actual mechanics of reading the texts may have
370714 -     been quite difficult.  Secondly, in an effort to redeem the
370715 -     literary value of the novels from inferiority, closer evaluation
370716 -     of the texts has shown that the authors made use of a range of
370717 -     literary traditions including epic, drama, rhetoric, myth and even
370718 -     medical books, and were therefore full of allusions that some
370719 -     argue, may have made it difficult for the average reader to
370720 -     understand.  Furthermore, and more importantly, it indicates that
370721 -     the authors were well-educated and aimed their novels at an
370722 -     equally well-educated audience.
370723 -
370724 -
370726 -      ..
370727 -     Paper Expensive Until 200 AD Papyrus Egypt Monopoly
370728 -
370729 -     In the first few centuries AD, Egypt maintained a monopoly on
370730 -     papyrus, both in its production as well as its trade, therefore
370731 -     paper was quite an expensive material in Greece.  Through much of
370732 -     antiquity, a papyrus roll could cost up to five or six days wages
370733 -     for a labourer.  And again, even those who were able to afford
370734 -     them, may not have had any interest in purchasing books, whether
370735 -     they were romances, poetry or history.  The number of surviving
370736 -     copies also points to this conclusion.  Of Chariton's Callirhoe,
370737 -     the earliest of the five extant novels, there have been four
370738 -     copies found thus far, of Achilles Tatius, another of the five
370739 -     extant novelists, there are six, but there are more than 600
370740 -     copies of the Iliad.  Of course it must be remembered that Homer
370741 -     was first written down in the eighth century BC, so the six
370742 -     hundred copies are the result 1400 years of book copying, yet the
370743 -     four copies of Chariton are the end result of six centuries of
370744 -     copying.  It appears from the copies surviving that the
370745 -     Christians, a minority for the few hundred years after Christ,
370746 -     constituted a larger group than those the audience for the novels,
370747 -     for there are 12 copies of the book of Genesis, as well as 12
370748 -     copies of the Gospel of John (2-4 only) from the same time period
370749 -     (1st century AD to the sixth).
370751 -      ..
370752 -     But, again, ancient Greek culture was predominantly oral.  While
370753 -     it is known that other pieces of literature were performed on a
370754 -     regular basis, by the authors themselves or actors, there is no
370755 -     known evidence that tells of public readings of the novels.  There
370756 -     is mention, however, of some of the novels' main characters being
370757 -     mimed or danced by performers, and there is also a floor mosaic at
370758 -     the Orontes (circa 200 AD) in Antioch which show scenes from two
370759 -     of the romances.  But these two instances do not a popular
370760 -     audience make.  The romances may well have been popular because
370761 -     they were performed often, but there is no evidence so far that
370762 -     this was the case either.
370764 -      ..
370765 -     In their defense, most of the scholars who have studied the
370766 -     ancient romances and who assume that the novels were popular, were
370767 -     not actually studying their popularity.  Perry, for instance, was
370768 -     studying the potential origins of the ancient novel genre.  But
370769 -     the assumption of a popular audience has lead to other premature,
370770 -     if not erroneous, conclusions.  If a popular audience is assumed
370771 -     then the next step is to discover who that audience was, and
370772 -     because the few ancient intellectuals who mentioned the novels had
370773 -     negative opinions, and based on the supposed inferiority of the
370774 -     novels themselves, it has been assumed that the audience for the
370775 -     ancient novels consisted of, variously, women, adolescents, "the
370776 -     poor in spirit" , and people who were "rootless, at a loss,
370777 -     restlessly searching" , as well as the newly literate, and the
370778 -     rising bourgeois class.  The first two were assumed on the basis
370779 -     of the main characters in the novels: there is a considerable
370780 -     focus on the heroines, and the protagonists are usually young.
370781 -     The second two descriptions were presumably concluded from the
370782 -     mood of the romances and who that mood might appeal to.  And the
370783 -     last last two audience types were arrived at from the attempt to
370784 -     justify a non-intellectual audience (as the intellectuals of
370785 -     ancient Greek society traditionally came from the upper class,
370786 -     where both education and money are expected).  Identical
370787 -     difficulties arise in determining the quality of the audience as
370788 -     there did with assuming a popular audience.
370790 -      ..
370791 -     The assumption of a female audience is almost offensive,
370792 -     especially when we consider that these assumptions were made by
370793 -     the same people who were assuming a popular audience based on the
370794 -     inferiority of the novels.  That the romances' popular audience
370795 -     was made up of women, is an opinion that has likely been around
370796 -     since the nineteenth century, spawned by the all too common
370797 -     association of women with sentimental and emotional things, which
370798 -     is exactly how the novels were described.  The opinion was carried
370799 -     on into this century by not only that association (which continues
370800 -     in the minds of some even today) but also with the association of
370801 -     the audience for the modern romance: primarily women.  Clearly
370802 -     this assumption says less about women in antiquity than it does
370803 -     about nineteenth and twentieth century thought.  And when the
370804 -     hypothesis of a popular female audience is tested for the ancient
370805 -     romances, it is left with wobbly legs on which to stand.  We know
370806 -     that there were some women who possessed a higher education, which
370807 -     was based on a knowledge of literature rather than rhetoric, but
370808 -     these women were more often the exception than the rule, and could
370809 -     hardly have constituted a popular, ie. large, reading audience.
370810 -     True, the heroines in the romances are often strong characters,
370811 -     with which women may wished to have identified, but it has also
370812 -     been argued that these female characters were a male construct,
370813 -     based on the author's perceptions, or fantasies about women.  Most
370814 -     recently, the situation has almost reversed itself, in that the
370815 -     novels may have been too complex for a female audience because of
370816 -     the newly discovered intertextual references.  Granted, it is
370817 -     never said that women were unable to understand the novels, but
370818 -     rather that their limited education, imposed on them by societal
370819 -     standards, did not allow them (or anyone without a higher
370820 -     education for that matter) access to the many allusions contained
370821 -     within the texts.
370822 -
370823 -
370824 -
370825 -
3709 -

SUBJECTS
Printing Press Invented 1455 Gutenberg

3803 -
380401 -  ..
380402 - Printing Press Invented 1455 Gutenberg
380403 - Literacy Early-modern Era Printing Press Invented
380404 - Books Created by Monastic Scribes for Religion During Middle Ages
380405 -
380406 - Follow up ref SDS 7 2548.
380407 -
380408 -    Early modern bestsellers: chapbooks and ballads
380409 -
380410 -              http://www.ucalgary.ca/applied_history/tutor/popculture/
380412 -     ..
380413 -    In the early medieval period books were manufactured almost
380414 -    exclusively by monastic scribes, who copied the text out by hand
380415 -    and either made their own illustrations or hired artisans for the
380416 -    job.  In a good year, one scribe might produce two books.  With the
380417 -    rise of the universities on the continent, a need for both
380418 -    theological and legal books arose.  Thus by the fourteenth century
380419 -    the book trade included writers, illuminators, parchment makers,
380420 -    binders, and sellers, who were often the same person and most
380421 -    usually in the employ of the university.  These book tradesmen were
380422 -    licensed by the university, sworn to abide by their regulations,
380423 -    and required to produce books exclusively for university demands,
380424 -    but consequently, they also enjoyed a monopoly on the production
380425 -    and distribution of books for a large body of students and whoever
380426 -    else might be interested.  The production of books, for everyone
380427 -    involved, however, was a slow and laborious process.  As literacy
380428 -    rates slowly climbed, and education spread, demand increasingly
380429 -    surpassed supply.
380431 -     ..
380432 -    Fortunately, in a Mainz workshop sometime in 1450, Johann Gutenberg
380433 -    alleviated both the cramping hands of monks and the frustration of
380434 -    would-be readers by being the first to make a working printing
380435 -    press (although other book craftsmen in Europe were not far behind
380436 -    in his discovery).  With the help of movable type, a page of a book
380437 -    could now be printed in a matter of minutes, an entire book, in a
380438 -    matter of days.  The invention of printing was a technological
380439 -    breakthrough that very quickly changed the habits of Early Modern
380440 -    people.  Suddenly books were available for purchase all over
380441 -    Europe.  A reader no longer had to commision someone to copy a book
380442 -    out, and they no longer had to wait six months to a year before
380443 -    that book would be finished and they could actually have it.  Old
380444 -    favourites were ready and standing by, just waiting to be perused
380445 -    at the printmaker's shop or at a bookstall in the city centre.  By
380446 -    the 1480s a commercial trade in printed literature had been well
380447 -    established and by 1500, printing presses had turned out more than
380448 -    40 000 editions in more than 250 centres across Europe.  Each
380449 -    edition of a book consisted of anywhere from 200 - 1 000 copies ,
380450 -    so that by 1500 there were between 8 000 000 and 40 000 000 printed
380451 -    copies of books in existence at a time when the population of
380452 -    Europe is estimated at little more than eighty million .
380454 -  ..
380455 - Gutenberg is credited for changing the intellectual face of Europe,
380456 - and a leading enabling force for transformation to democracy.
380457 - ref SDS 0 C672
380459 -  ..
380460 - Previously, on 991010 Gutenberg was honored for having developed the
380461 - greatest invention in the past millenium. ref SDS 7 2548
380463 -  ..
380464 - Research continues...
380465 -
380466 -    While the medieval book trade had focused on theological treatises
380467 -    and legal tomes, the printing press freed time for the manufacture
380468 -    of a wider variety of material. Traditional books (as in those
380469 -    previously commisioned by the Church or the university) were sold
380470 -    alongside ballads, which were lyrics printed on a single sheet to
380471 -    be accompanied by a well-known tune, and chapbooks, thin booklets
380472 -    averaging 10-30 pages (known collectively in France as the
380473 -    BibliothŠque Bleue after the blue binding paper otherwise used to
380474 -    wrap sugar loaves in) The subject matter of ballads and chapbooks
380475 -    was a varied assortment of fables, riddles, abridged versions of
380476 -    long romances, religious material, proverbs, advice on courting,
380477 -    cooking and beauty, interpreatations of dreams, as well as
380478 -    exciting stories of heroes and heroines, cross-dressers, infamous
380479 -    criminals and crimes, executions, battles, acts of admirable
380480 -    kindness, funny foreigners, virginal women and wanton women,
380481 -    clever young men and cuckolded old husbands. Because of the
380482 -    proliferation of this newly-printed and non-academic literature,
380483 -    Peter Burke has called the printed books of the Early Modern era
380484 -    (ca. 1500 - 1800) "the most obvious example of the
380485 -    commercialisation of popular culture" . For the material of
380486 -    chapbooks and ballads was just that, culture that was popular,
380487 -    appearing in a new and sellable format.
380489 -     ..
380490 -    From the great amount of material printed we can assume that the
380491 -    demand for this new format was considerable. For example, in the
380492 -    collection of a London bookseller, whose shop dated to the period
380493 -    following the English Revolution, 22 000 tracts and newsbooks were
380494 -    discovered. And in 1664, Charles Tias, an English publisher, was
380495 -    carrying a stock of 90 000 chapbooks, as well as reams for some 37
380496 -    500 ballad sheets. As with today, large editions do not
380497 -    necessarily indicate a similar number sold, but since edition
380498 -    quantities steadily increased over the early modern period, we can
380499 -    speculate that the number of books bought also increased. For most
380500 -    printed popular literature, usually made with cheaper paper, it is
380501 -    difficult to ascertain the numbers actually sold, although in some
380502 -    cases we do have figures. We know, for example that in the
380503 -    seventeenth century 400 000 almanacs were sold a year.
380505 -     ..
380506 -    We also know that books of all types and genres were selling in
380507 -    large enough amounts that publishers and printers in cities were
380508 -    able to specialize and cater to certain segments of the reading
380509 -    public. In sixteenth-century Venice for example, the book trade
380510 -    was divided amongst four groups. The Giunti Family printed legal,
380511 -    medical, and theological books; the Aldine Press specialized in
380512 -    printing classics in their original languages; members of the
380513 -    Bindoni Family catered to the popular audience, with books in
380514 -    easier to read texts and formats, such as medieval romances,
380515 -    chapbooks and ballads; and Gabriel Giolito, who concentrated on
380516 -    contemporary writers and included in his repertoire histories and
380517 -    classics in the vernacular, novelle, drama, comedies, and
380518 -    dialogues. A number of historians have had the impression that
380519 -    early modern printers and publishers were something of
380520 -    proto-capitalists, for it appears that they decided what to print
380521 -    based on what they believed would be profitable.
380523 -     ..
380524 -    The material chosen, the formats used, and selling tactics point
380525 -    to an early market consciousness. Much of what was printed at
380526 -    first was not new material. Printers pulled from the centuries-old
380527 -    oral tradition: ballads, dialogues, mock sermons, mystery plays,
380528 -    medieval romances and epics, fable collections, especially Aesop's
380529 -    Fables and Renard the Fox, as well as religious material,
380530 -    including vernacular Bibles, the Book of Hours (a collection of
380531 -    prayers), and hagiographies. Heroes who had been popular
380532 -    throughout the Middle Ages, like Robin Hood and Guy of Warwick,
380533 -    turned up again and again in printed form. In the beginning
380534 -    printers were likely doing what was most obvious: applying a new
380535 -    format to an old and well-known tradition. Early modern society
380536 -    was fundamentally traditional, even the great ideas and themes of
380537 -    the Renaissance were backward looking in that they revived aspects
380538 -    of the classical world. Indeed editions of old tales and of old
380539 -    genres continued to be made well into the nineteenth century. A
380540 -    German chapman (a wandering chapbook and ballad seller) arrested
380541 -    in 1812 was carrying 36 books which included a dream
380542 -    interpretation guide, a biography of Genoveva of Brabant, a
380543 -    romance called The Four Sons of Aymon, and Till Eulenspiegel.
380544 -    Similarily the arrest of a French chapman in 1825 revealed 25
380545 -    books in his sack also including a dream book, and The Four Sons
380546 -    of Aymon, as well as Pierre de Provence, and Puss in Boots. Much
380547 -    the same material chapmen would have hawked at villages and fairs
380548 -    in the sixteenth century.
380550 -     ..
380551 -    One of the most remarkable things about early printed books was
380552 -    the standardization of formats. The noticeable uniformity of texts
380553 -    within genres is surprising given the great number of individual
380554 -    printers throughout Europe, and the fact that no regulations were
380555 -    imposed on the formatting of printed books. At first printers
380556 -    copied the style of manuscript books almost exactly. They kept the
380557 -    same number of columns per page (usually two), used the Gothic
380558 -    type face, which most closely imitated cursive writing, and even
380559 -    printed the notes and comments of the scribes in the margins. But
380560 -    other type faces quickly developed and just as quickly became
380561 -    associated with certain genres of books. The Gothic type prevailed
380562 -    in legal and theological texts until the seventeenth century. Less
380563 -    cursive forms of Gothic, such as Gothic Rotunda and Roman type
380564 -    were used for literature aimed at a less specialised, and
380565 -    generally less-educated audience. Presumably the less cursive the
380566 -    type the easier it was to read, though it was not uncommon,
380567 -    especially towards the end of the sixteenth century and later, to
380568 -    see a variety of types used in a single book for the purpose of
380569 -    emphasis.
380571 -     ..
380572 -    In addition to a specialisation of type faces, the shape and size
380573 -    of books also indicated what the book might contain. A potential
380574 -    book buyer would have known that legal and theological books were
380575 -    quite large, meant to be placed on a table or a lectern for
380576 -    serious prolonged study, that they used Gothic type, and that they
380577 -    were printed in Latin. Someone looking for an abridged romance or
380578 -    a copy of Aesop's Fables, however, knew that they should look for
380579 -    books that were considerably smaller, averaging 10x15cm, having no
380580 -    more than 200 pages at the utmost, type that was easier to read,
380581 -    often with numerous woodcut illustrations, and printed in the
380582 -    vernacular. That early printed books were remarkably standardised
380583 -    may have been partly due to needing to adjust to a new medium, but
380584 -    was more likely an indication that printers were aware of their
380585 -    customers' preference for styles and forms that they could easily
380586 -    recognise.
380588 -     ..
380589 -    It becomes quite clear from the title pages of cheap literature
380590 -    that printers were actively and consciously trying to sell a
380591 -    product. Devices for inticing buyers included giving ordinary
380592 -    stories sensational titles and making frequently-misleading claims
380593 -    like 'full', 'faithful', 'true', and 'new' about the contents.
380594 -    Often title pages of chapbooks recommended themselves to an
380595 -    audience, and that audience was usually far from particular in
380596 -    scope. For example:
380597 -
380598 -    'to the Humours of all Sorts, Sexes, and Conditions'
380599 -
380600 -    'all Stations and Conditions'
380601 -
380602 -    'for the Recreation of all Gentlemen, Ladies and others'
380603 -
380604 -    'fitted to the Capacities of both the learned and the ignorant'
380606 -     ..
380607 -    and from the title page of Wanton Tom: or the Merry History of Tom
380608 -    Stitch the Taylor we read 'such pleasing Pastimes of Delight, That
380609 -    'twould invite a Lady, Lord, or Knight To Read'. The Cobbler of
380610 -    Canterbury (1590) based on Chaucer's Canterbury Tales (ca. 1399)
380611 -    claims that it would be enjoyable to gentlemen, farmers, and old
380612 -    women, an eclectic conglomeration of audience members to say the
380613 -    least.
380615 -     ..
380616 -    Given the highly stratified nature of Early Modern society, the
380617 -    conclusion that printers were simply aiming their cheap literature
380618 -    at the broadest audience possible is at first somewhat
380619 -    troublesome. There was certainly a good deal of social climbing
380620 -    going on at that time, especially with the wealthier families of
380621 -    the bourgeois. Wealthy merchants married themselves or their
380622 -    daughters into impoverished noble families, or had lineages
380623 -    constructed for them, but they were hardly welcomed into their new
380624 -    class nor were they lauded by the one they had left behind. Indeed
380625 -    Early Modern Europe still abided by strict sumptuary laws that
380626 -    regulated what people of certain classes were allowed to wear,
380627 -    from the cut of their dress to the particulor colour or pattern of
380628 -    the material from which their clothes were to be tailored. Thus
380629 -    the chapbooks' pleas to be read by "all Stations and Conditions"
380630 -    seems to be an anomaly. At whom was cheap literature really aimed?
380631 -
380633 -     ..
380634 -    The recommendations on the title pages and the contents of
380635 -    chapbooks seem to have frequently advertised to the gentry.  A
380636 -    study of the collection (one of the largest surviving such
380637 -    collections) belonging to Samuel Pepys, a seventeenth-century
380638 -    English bureaucrat, revealed that chapbooks were full of allusions
380639 -    to the nobility.  They were often, though not exclusively, about
380640 -    gentry heroes and heroines, they displayed gentry values, they were
380641 -    accompanied by woodcut illustrations depicting gentry dress and
380642 -    behaviour, as well as references to classical works and images,
380643 -    even on occasion well-known phrases in Latin or Greek.  The latter
380644 -    two characteristics could only have been fully understood by
380645 -    someone with a higher education.  Furthermore, lower class
380646 -    characters in the chapbooks were frequently stereotyped as foolish
380647 -    or villainous.  While these characteristics likely appealed to the
380648 -    nobility because they were easily able to identify with the themes,
380649 -    these same characteristics would have appealed just as much to all
380650 -    the other classes of society as well.  The nobles, a small and
380651 -    exclusive caste of wealthy, powerful, and beautiful people who
380652 -    never worked, were the superstars of the early modern era.
380653 -    Fascination with royalty and families of long-standing wealth still
380654 -    prevails today, so it should hardly be surprising that the lower
380655 -    classes were intrigued by anything that told them about these
380656 -    mysterious and enviable people.  On the other hand, a chapbook
380657 -    aimed exclusively at an audience of peasants or craftsmen might
380658 -    have alienated the upper classes in a way that the reverse
380659 -    situation would not have.  Furthermore, the oral tradition had
380660 -    always included princes, princesses, kings and queens as the heroes
380661 -    and heroines of stories, as well as woodcutters, farmers, merchants
380662 -    and paupers.  In order for culture to be popular it has to speak to
380663 -    a wide number of people.  What is so surprising about the
380664 -    recommendations that appear on the titlepages of chapbooks is that
380665 -    they actively advertised themselves to an audience.
380667 -     ..
380668 -    In hopes of determinating who actually bought printed books, a
380669 -    number of studies have been conducted on estate inventories in
380670 -    both France and England. The inventories were essentially lists of
380671 -    possessions following a person's death, presumably to gage the
380672 -    wealth of the estate, and by their very nature, reflect primarily
380673 -    the upper and middle classes, but are nonetheless revealing. Book
380674 -    ownership was higher in the sixteenth century than it had been
380675 -    before the advent of the printing press, though comparatively
380676 -    still rather small. A selection of inventories of
380677 -    sixteenth-century townsmen in the county of Kent revealed that
380678 -    only 20% of them had owned books at their death, and by the 1630s
380679 -    ownership was still below 50%. If the book owners had only one
380680 -    book, it was nearly always a vernacular Bible. A similar study of
380681 -    inventories across England for the years 1675-1725 showed that
380682 -    only 20% of those sampled had owned books. Also ownership was
380683 -    higher in the cities (London 31%) than in the villages (ca. 17%),
380684 -    and that 20% of tradesmen and yeomen (wealthier, independant
380685 -    farmers) owned books compared with 4% of husbandmen and labourers.
380686 -    Studies in France had similar results including a strong urban
380687 -    rural divide and differences according to occupation. For example,
380688 -    in sixteenth-century Paris and Amiens it appears that very few
380689 -    artisans or craftsmen died with books in their possession: only
380690 -    10% in Paris, 12% in Amiens. Of those who did, the books were
380691 -    usually one of the following: a vernacular Bible, a Book of Hours,
380692 -    a French Golden Legend (a collection of hagiographies that was
380693 -    popular in the sixteenth century), and/or a technical book that
380694 -    related to their trade, such as a book of patterns. However, these
380695 -    results only speak of the ownership of bound books, which were
380696 -    considerably more expensive than chapbooks or ballads .
380697 -    Consequently it is possible that cheap printed literature was not
380698 -    even included in the inventories, as they would have been of
380699 -    little or no value. Thus while these studies give us a good idea
380700 -    of who bought books and what books were important to have in one's
380701 -    possession, it still tells us nothing about who actually bought or
380702 -    in some way partook of the cheap literature that was intended to
380703 -    be popular.
380705 -     ..
380706 -    Literacy rates reveal little more than percentages of book
380707 -    ownership do, because the rates reflect ownership quite closely.
380708 -    Presumably those who were literate were more likely to own books or
380709 -    other printed material than those who were not.  Studies based on
380710 -    the ability to sign one's name found that people were more often
380711 -    literate in the cities than villages; more in villages than in the
380712 -    countryside; that wealthy farmers were more often literate than
380713 -    peasants; and merchants and tradesmen more than artisans and
380714 -    craftsmen.  E.  Le Roy Ladurie found that from the 1570s to the
380715 -    1590s only 3% of agricultural workers and 10% of the "wealthy"
380716 -    peasants (laboureurs and fermiers) were literate.  A study of 885
380717 -    men in Lyon, from notarial records of the 1560s and 1570s, found
380718 -    that literacy rates among apothecaries, surgeons, and printers were
380719 -    the highest; among painters, musicians, taverners, and metal
380720 -    workers the rate was slightly less but still more than 50%; among
380721 -    artisans in the clothing and textiles trade the rate was about 50%;
380722 -    and among craftsmen in construction, as well as workers in
380723 -    transport, urban gardening, and unskilled dayworkers the rates were
380724 -    the lowest.  Literacy rates, however, are not as revealing as one
380725 -    might hope because they only show half the picture when it came to
380726 -    the dissemination of printed material.  Orality and literacy are
380727 -    not mutually exclusive.  Literate people can easily take part in
380728 -    oral rituals and illiterate people can participate in literate
380729 -    rituals.  Villages only needed a single literate person in the
380730 -    vicinity to justify buying printed books.
380731 -
380732 -
380734 -  ..
380735 - Orality Remained Dominate Literates Read Aloud to Illiterates
380736 -
380737 -
380738 -
380739 -    Oral culture was still the predominate means of transmitting
380740 -    culture in the Early Modern period. Those who were literate likely
380741 -    read aloud to others more often than they read silently to
380742 -    themselves. Most of what was printed, as mentioned earlier, was
380743 -    itself taken from the oral tradition and retained oral
380744 -    characteristics. Phrases like "listen and you will hear", or "as
380745 -    you have heard" were maintained because they still had a function
380746 -    - books, chapbooks and ballads were still intended for a primarily
380747 -    aural audience. Because the stories were familiar an illiterate
380748 -    person could easily "read" the books simply by looking at the
380749 -    accompanying illustrations. Often, it has been reported,
380750 -    illiterate purchasers of cheap printed literature would plaster
380751 -    the pages to the walls of their homes so that they could be read
380752 -    aloud when literate visitors called. Chapbooks were likely also
380753 -    read at village gatherings, such as the French veill‚es, held in
380754 -    the evenings All Saints' Day and Ash Wednesday, where villagers
380755 -    might work on small chores, sing or tell stories, or if someone
380756 -    owned a book and another could read, hear books read aloud. This
380757 -    is attested to by evidence that villagers would pool their
380758 -    resources to buy a single book, chapbooks, or ballads.
380760 -     ..
380761 -    However, direct evidence from small towns and villages is lacking,
380762 -    and it is even harder to ascertain the impact of printed books in
380763 -    rural areas than it is for urban areas. For one thing, although
380764 -    printing material in the vernacular rather than Latin (which had
380765 -    been the practice throughout the Middle Ages) did broaden the
380766 -    book-reading audience, the vernaculars differed widely from area
380767 -    to area. Thus a book printed in Paris could not have been sold to
380768 -    villagers in Languedoc or Brittany, nor even necessarily to
380769 -    villagers of rural areas in the vicinity of Paris, because they
380770 -    would not have been able to read it even if they were literate.
380771 -    The other difficulty was distribution. Likely aware of the low
380772 -    levels of literacy outside the city, as well as the language
380773 -    situation, printers would have been less willing to distribute
380774 -    their material rurally. Peddlars who sold chapbooks and ballads
380775 -    primarily in the city are also believed to have stocked up and
380776 -    walked to various villages and towns in the nearby countryside,
380777 -    but they were only able to cover a finite distance. Booksellers
380778 -    also frequented annual and seasonal fairs in rural areas, but
380779 -    otherwise printed material was not as extensive in the
380780 -    countryside. The Calvinists in France, who like other Protestant
380781 -    groups took advantage of the advent of printing to disseminate
380782 -    their ideas, were the first real group to attempt to bring printed
380783 -    material, albeit entirely religious, to rural areas. Unlike
380784 -    printers and booksellers in the city, they were most concerned
380785 -    with the spread of their ideology and were willing to distribute
380786 -    printed matter witout regard for cost. Yet, even as late as the
380787 -    1750s, distribution to rural areas was slow. Thomas Holcroft, who
380788 -    used to peddle with his parents in rural Berkshire at that time,
380789 -    wrote that books, other than 'those of daily religious use', were
380790 -    'scarcely to be seen' except amongst the 'opulents' in rural
380791 -    areas, but he claims that ballads were quite common.
380793 -     ..
380794 -    But it would be premature to say that printing had no impact at
380795 -    all outside of urban centres. Certainly some material got through.
380796 -    One interesting observation made by Peter Burke hints at the
380797 -    influence of printed material even in the countryside. There
380798 -    appears to be a correlation between the rise of literacy and the
380799 -    decline in popularity of the epic, traditionally performed by
380800 -    travelling perfomers and professional storytellers. Because the
380801 -    minstrels travelled all over the countryside, city and town, their
380802 -    diminishing popularity is telling. In Western Europe as literacy
380803 -    spread, popular interest in the oral epic waned, while in Eastern
380804 -    Europe the oral epic remained popular and literacy rates remained
380805 -    low. Burke suggests that the minstrels would have benefited at
380806 -    first from the influx of printed literature as it would have added
380807 -    new material to their repertoire, and allowed them to supplement
380808 -    their income by selling actual copies of their performances. But
380809 -    eventually cheap printed literature would have become their main
380810 -    competition. An oral performer relied on being able to alter and
380811 -    improvise their stories each time they performed, as well as being
380812 -    able to alter their own versions from that of other performers. As
380813 -    written material was disseminated, Burke asserts, crowds might
380814 -    have come to expect exact repititions of stories, or exact
380815 -    reenactments of the story version that they owned, demands which
380816 -    might have been difficult for an improvisor to fulfill. While it
380817 -    seems certain from their decreasing appearances in the documents
380818 -    of the time, that printed literature had a negative impact on the
380819 -    minstrels, in the cities and elsewhere, it is arguable whether it
380820 -    was for the reasons that Burke suggests, especially since we have
380821 -    no way of knowing if the Early Modern reading audience relied on
380822 -    the written word as heavily as the twentieth-century reading
380823 -    audience does. The most plausible explanation is that the
380824 -    traditional audience of the minstrel was getting its stories and
380825 -    fables and poetry elsewhere, from books.
380827 -     ..
380828 -    A number of later famous men, such as John Milton (1608-1674)
380829 -    author of Paradise Lost, Thomas Holcroft (1745-1809) an English
380830 -    dramatist, actor, novelist, and journalist, Richard Baxter
380831 -    (1615-1691) an English minister, and John Bunyan (1628-1688)
380832 -    author of the Christian allegory Pilgrim's Progress, attest to the
380833 -    importance of cheap literature in their youth. Holcroft claims
380834 -    that he owned two chapbooks which he read over and over until he
380835 -    knew them as well as he knew the catechism. Apparently, this type
380836 -    of repetitive reading was quite common; there are a number of
380837 -    instances where people mention reading a book or chapbook over
380838 -    repeatedly, in contrast with today's habits where one buys a book,
380839 -    reads it and then promptly buys another. Samuel Pepys in the
380840 -    seventeenth century avidly collected chapbooks and ballads which
380841 -    he had bought or had someone make for him. From his diary we know
380842 -    that he read them to himself, aloud to his family and to other
380843 -    members of his household, and commonly alluded to or openly
380844 -    discussed them in conversations and his correspondence. Clearly
380845 -    cheap printed literature became part of the culture surrounding
380846 -    storytelling, and the transmission of information.
380848 -     ..
380849 -    While many of the details concerning the nature of the popularity
380850 -    of cheap printed literature in the Early Modern era have yet to be
380851 -    revealed by research, the large number of surviving copies, the
380852 -    copious numbers known to have been printed, and the fact that
380853 -    those numbers steadily increased up to the nineteenth century, as
380854 -    well as the contemporary testimonies about the influence that
380855 -    chapbooks and ballads had on individuals, are the greatest
380856 -    attestation to truth of that popularity. The printing press has
380857 -    been considered one of the greatest inventions in history by many,
380858 -    for without it the world as we know it today would not have
380859 -    developed. For the study of history and popular culture its
380860 -    invention is priceless. Printing allowed for the first time the
380861 -    recording of the tastes, values, and concerns of the population
380862 -    beyond the power structure of the Church and state. It preserved
380863 -    hundreds of years of oral tradition that may otherwise have been
380864 -    lost; without the printing press, the collectors of folktales in
380865 -    the nineteenth century, headed by the brothers Grimm, would not
380866 -    have been as fruitful.
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