English Humanist Books: Writers and Patrons, Manuscript and Print, 1475-1525 (Book Review)

Abstract

During the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, the technology for making books was changing and, with the introduction of printing, books were being put to new uses by an emergent group of professional humanists. David Carlson sees a fundamental point of intersection between humanist culture in England - then just beginning - and the books produced by humanists. Using manuscripts and printed books as his material for discussion of the development of humanist print culture n England, he links it to the traditions of English patronage and court life, and includes analysis of other sources of literary activity in the new learning, as, for instance, at the universities. Carlson points out that for fifty or one hundred years following the invention of printing, publication was not synonymous with publication in print. At the same time writing enjoyed a greater fluidity, since a wide range of publication options were available to writers - all of them legitimate means for delivering texts to an interested public. Writers, printers, and their patrons were aware of the different kinds of books. These included deluxe presentation manuscripts, sometimes used in combination with printed copies; the invention of collected works for manuscript or printed publication; and authorial revision and republication for print. Carlson also examines the ways writers used printers, and printers used writers; and how writers manipulated the different forms of publication.