Paper, Marco Polo and Manuscripts
For centuries, silk and spices from China flowed into Europe through the silk route, and in the eleventh century Chinese paper reached Europe by the same route. Paper made possible the production of manuscripts, carefully written by scribes.
Then, in 1295, the great explorer Marco Polo returned to Italy from China, bringing back the knowledge of woodblock printing. Italians began producing books with woodblocks, and the technology spread to other parts of Europe. Luxury editions were still handwritten on expensive vellum for aristocrats and rich monasteries, who scoffed at printed books as cheap; but merchants and students bought the cheaper printed copies.
The Limits of Handwritten Manuscripts
As the demand for books grew, booksellers exported books and held book fairs, and the production of manuscripts was reorganised — scribes were now employed by booksellers as well as patrons, with more than 50 scribes often working for one bookseller.
But handwritten manuscripts could not satisfy the growing demand. Copying was expensive, laborious and slow; manuscripts were fragile, awkward to handle and hard to carry, so their circulation remained limited. Woodblock printing grew more popular — by the early fifteenth century it was widely used to print textiles, playing cards and religious pictures with brief texts. There was a clear need for a quicker, cheaper technology, and the breakthrough came at Strasbourg, Germany, where Johann Gutenberg developed the first printing press in the 1430s.
Questions and Answers
Q1. Why did woodblock printing come to Europe only after 1295? Ans. Because it was in 1295 that the explorer Marco Polo returned to Italy from China, bringing back the knowledge of woodblock printing. Italians then began producing books with woodblocks, and the technology spread through Europe.
Q2. Why could handwritten manuscripts not meet the growing demand for books? Ans. Copying was expensive, laborious and time-consuming, and manuscripts were fragile, awkward to handle and hard to carry and read. So their circulation remained limited and they could not satisfy the ever-increasing demand for books.
Questions and Answers (continued)
Q3. How did Chinese paper reach Europe, and why was it important? Ans. Chinese paper reached Europe in the eleventh century via the silk route. It was important because it made possible the production of manuscripts carefully written by scribes — a foundation for the later growth of books.
Q4. Why did aristocrats and rich monasteries look down on early printed books? Ans. They preferred luxury editions handwritten on expensive vellum, and scoffed at printed books as cheap vulgarities. It was mainly merchants and students who bought the cheaper printed copies.