About
During the late Middle Ages, there was an increased interest in the arts and sciences as well as a renewed interest in texts from Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire. Although countries like China, Japan, and Korea had been using printing presses such as the woodblock for centuries prior, Johannes Gutenberg helped usher in a new era of printing in Europe with his invention, the Gutenberg press. This press used moveable type technology, making it easier to mass produce books and other texts.
The invention of the moveable type press marked the beginning of the Printing Revolution, a pivotal moment in the history of learning and information in Europe which in turn helped shape developments of the Renaissance, Reformation, and the Age of Enlightenment. With access to the printing presses intellectuals, scientists, philosophers, politicians, the nobility, and religious leaders could both print their ideas quickly and make them available to larger audiences than ever before.
Image source: [Unknown artist]. 1877. The Caxton Celebration - William Caxton showing specimens of his printing to King Edward and his Queen [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.
Featured Materials
The temple : sacred poems and private ejaculations by
Call Number: PR3507 .A1 1633Publication Date: 1633Poems / by J.D. ; VVith elegies on the authors death. by
Call Number: PR2245 .A1 1633Publication Date: 1633- The faerie queene : disposed into twelue books, fashioning XII. morall vertues byCall Number: PR2358 .A1 1590Publication Date: 1590
- De humani corporis fabrica Andreae Vesalii Bruxellensis, scholae medicorum Patauinae professoris De humani corporis fabrica libri septem byCall Number: WZ240 .V38 1543Publication Date: [1543]
Mr. William Shakespeares comedies, histories, and tragedies : published according to the true originall copies by
Call Number: PR2751 .A2 1632Publication Date: 1632UBC Library copy is accompanied by documentation relevant to its provenance and to some historical details of the earliest editions of Shakespeare
Colocating This Collection
Want to explore this collection but don't know where to start? We've created some links that can help you discover the material in this collection.
Subject Headings
Illumination of books and manuscripts
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Renaissance
Printing--History--Origin and antecedents
Call numbers in the UBC Library Catalogue
ND2889-3416: Illumination of manuscripts and books
NE400-773: History of printmaking
Digitized Collections
Some of the materials relating to printing and the Reformation have been digitized and can be accessed online through the UBC Library website.
Western Manuscripts and Early Printed Books
A selection of western manuscripts and early printed books dating from the thirteenth to seventeenth centuries. There are 47 items in the collection, written in English, German, Spanish, French, and Latin.
Composed primarily of works from the Puban (蒲坂藏書) and Pang Jingtang (龐鏡塘藏書) Collections held in the UBC Asian Library, this collection includes census, historical records, documents, literature, and manuscripts. The Puban (蒲坂藏書) collection was originally part of the Nanzhou Shu Lou (南州書樓), a large private library owned by Xu Shaoqi (徐紹棨) which focused on documents and records from his home province in South China. The Pang Jingtang (龐鏡塘藏書), collected by its namesake, includes works produced prior to 1796 including Ming editions and manuscripts.
Related Works
Gutenberg and the impact of printing by Call Number: Z126.Z7 F8713 2005ISBN: 0754635376Publication Date: 2005
What is a book? : the study of early printed books by Call Number: Z1001 .D227 2012ISBN: 9780268026097Publication Date: 2012
A guide to early printed books and manuscripts by Call Number: Z1001 .B64 2010ISBN: 9781405124126Publication Date: 2010Printing the written word : the social history of books, circa 1450-1520 by
Call Number: Z126 .P73 1991ISBN: 0801425786Publication Date: 1991The mighty engine : the printing press and its impact by
Call Number: Z151 .M64 2000ISBN: 187304061XPublication Date: 2000
Prints and the pursuit of knowledge in early modern Europe by Call Number: NE625 .P745 2011ISBN: 9781891771583Publication Date: 2011
Under the influence : the concept of influence and the study of illuminated manuscripts by Call Number: ND2920 .U53 2007ISBN: 9782503515045Publication Date: 2007A history of illuminated manuscripts by
Call Number: ND2900 .D44 1994ISBN: 0714829498Publication Date: 1994
Beyond our Collections
- Early English Books OnlineEarly English Books Online (EEBO) contains digital facsimile page images of virtually every work printed in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales & British North America. The database also includes works written in English and printed elsewhere from 1473-1700.
- The Atlas of Early PrintingThis site depicts the spread of printing through Europe in the fifty years following the European refinement of the tools and process of making impressions from movable type cast in metal. Created by the University of Iowa Libraries.
- Early Modern Manuscripts OnlineEarly Modern Manuscripts Online, or EMMO, is a multi-faceted project funded by a grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) that provides scholars and the general public with convenient web access to transcriptions, images, and metadata for a substantial number of English manuscripts from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
- Gutenberg Bible - British LibraryOn this site you will find the British Library’s two digital copies of Johann Gutenberg’s Bible, the first real book to be printed using the technique of printing which Gutenberg invented in the 1450's.
- Digitised Manuscripts at the British LibraryUse this website to find and view descriptions and images of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts in the British Library, one of the richest collections in the world.
- The Archaeology of ReadingThe Archaeology of Reading in Early Modern Europe (AOR) uses digital technologies to enable the systematic exploration of the historical reading practices of Renaissance scholars nearly 450 years ago. This is possible through AOR’s corpus of thirty-six fully digitized and searchable versions of early printed books filled with tens of thousands of handwritten notes, left by two of the most dedicated readers of the early modern period: John Dee and Gabriel Harvey.