Thesis! Edit: Now includes full paper

EDIT: Open page break for full paper

After lots of searching around and trying to figure out 1) what I was interested in about the far east and 2) what actually had enough information for me to knock out 4 pages, I've come to this conclusion:

Although the printing press is largely thought of as a Western convention, it was Eastern Asia that pioneered the first breakthroughs and early triumphs in print because of a large and diverse system of religions that was focused on preserving and making accessible and standard copies of important literary and artistic works.

I think this is what thrilled me the most about the non-european subject matter - granted, the Gutenberg Bible was one of the first books printed through a printing press in the West - is that all of the religions in Asia (Buddhism, Confucians, and Taoists) all provided a great deal of backing behind the printing movement. Did I state that clearly and concisely in a way that Dr. Burton's helper guide makes sense with? Help is always welcome!

MY THESIS

Ok, I went through Better Thesis Statements and here is my thesis (tell me what you think):

Although the Gothic, Blackletter font Textura is now considered "illegible"; cultural, political, and religious reasons behind its development should be taken into account in assessing its value.

Visit to Special Collections

Well I did a post earlier on about money and print and I have already done our field trip post as well as the annotated bibliography so I wasn't sure exactly what I would post on this week. After an enjoyable thanksgiving up in Canada with lots of great things that occurred, it was great to come back to calls on tuesday to such a great lecture. So I feel that it is appropriate and I would be amiss if I didn't focus on the things that Royal Skousen explained to us Tuesday morning.

Print in 16th to 17th Century Asia--

I took a little trip over to the library earlier this week. I didn't really realize how amazing the services were at the HBLL until finishing this assignment - there's really so much to look for, so many things to keep an eye out for. Google translate helped me out some also, as many of the books I found were not written in English. While I could kind of pick up what they said from cognates and the 3 languages I had exposure to shortly in school (French, Spanish, German), it was still nice to get a full picture through the modern wonders of the internet.

I chose to focus on non-European printing, specifically in the areas of China, Korea, and Japan.

Acid Paper and Preservation

I decided I wanted to do a little more in the vein of preservation that I spoke about in my last post, so I decided to do my bibliography on the topic of paper history in general, and acid paper in specific. Wood pulp is naturally acidic, and if the pH of paper isn't neutralized, the paper will turn yellow when exposed to light. However, people only figured this out around 80 years ago, so everything printed before then was printed on acidic paper.

THE PRINTING PRESS AND READING

"Using a book, not reading it, makes us wise."

-Geffrey Whitney (1586)

Two men demonstrating new ways of using a book:

One actively reading, engaged with the text (look, his hand is on it!) 

and the other standing, ready to act on the gained knowledge.

      As we've discussed in class, medieval reading was communal, out-loud, dogmatic.... very different from the silent reading we're used to today. The printing press had a big impact on reading, according to A History of Reading by Steven Roger Fischer. "With Gutenberg's inaugural tug on the screw press, reading's material, matter, language and practice began to change." Yes, the printing press changed a lot of things in European society, but I want to focus on the impact the printing press had on reading.

Typography according to the University of Lethbridge

U of L campus. Basically one big building built into the side of a hill.

Well I hadn't intially planned on doing my bibliography on Typography but there were a few circumstances that weren't exactly in my control that led me to it. I came up to Canada for Thanksgiving (Yes, Canadian Thanksgiving was a month and a half ago :)..but I still welcomed the break from school). I knew that I would need to do this bibliography but i wasn't exactly sure where I would be able to. Just with the fact that books were going to be needed and a fairly large variety as well. You would think that would be easy but I come from a town of 2500 people so there really isn't all that much when it comes to resources and things such as big libraries.
My sister goes to the University which is 45 mins away and the next university after that is 2 and a half hours away so I saw that as my only option as far as being able to find the right books. So that's what I ended up doing.
So I went to the University of Lethbridge and spent a couple of hours on campus there browsing the library. The campus had a completely different feel compared to BYU and it was a fun/different experience just being there and seeing how things were.
There services proved well though and I was able to accomplish what needed to be done.

Bibliography: Fonts and Typefaces (between 1450-1700)

Burke, James. The Day the Universe Changed. London Writers Ltd., 1985. Burke describes the life of Gutenberg and his printing press then the development of standardized print type that followed. The humanist influences on style are described and the creation of "italic." I found this book in the bibliography of the Wikipedia article History of Western Typography.

Hidden Treasures- Crandall Print Museum

I can already tell that this will probably be one the harder posts for me to write but that's not because I have a lack on things to say or that I'm stumped or anything like that. It's actually more of the opposite, there are so many things that i'd like to be able to effectively portray and express through my post but I feel as though I won't be able to accomplish this quite like i'd prefer.
So yet again, I had the opportunity to do something that was completely out of the ordinary this semester but it followed suit along with the other things I have done and it was a great experience.
I was taken back to the my elementary years as I joined an AP History class from Spanish Fork at the Crandall Print Museum right here in our very own backyard.

Thank you, Dr. Ricks!

   Thanks to this man, the Roman group was able to translate their scroll. This Blog is dedicated to him because if it weren't for him, we would have never figured this thing out.
    I went to the JFSB knocking on every Hebrew or Arabic professor's door because, well.... I'm embarrassed to say they wouldn't answer my desperate emails.... So I became frantic. But thanks to this man, who graciously opened his door and let me into his office, our group has a translation! He said the Arabic was illegible... but he Hebrew he read just fine! He insisted that the direct translation was this: "When his Lord hear the words of his wife saying something like 'make me your servant or slave' he became angry." As I was writing his translation down I asked, "Something like?" and he said "Yes. Something like." So I wrote that down! Straight from the authority himself!
     Now, all that needs to be done is to carve it into our wax tablet! You'll see the final product tomorrow!

Happy 400th, KJB!

    Let me tell you about my experience at The Life and Legacy of the King James Bible exhibit in the HBLL!



Latin Bible (Vulgate).

Vellum manuscript from France, 13th century

     Can I just say that of ALL the ways you can use a book, perhaps the oddest is to put it on display? I like art museums, but art is specifically designed to be viewed. Looking at paintings and sculptures isn't weird to me, but as we begin our study of print knowledge and as I thought about books and went to this exhibit, I thought about how funny it was to look at an exhibit of books. Libraries facilitate the discovery of books by making them available to the public, but sometimes when I'm in the HBLL I see some books that make me wonder if anyone has even opened them before! Putting books on display certainly makes them visible, but the book also becomes inaccessible to someone who may want to reference it. After all, you can only open up a book so  that two pages are displayed (when they are in their original form, of course). The "interactive tool" we talk about in lecture that is a book becomes a piece of sculpture when you put it on diplay like that!
       So I guess I want to address the value of putting books on display, especially these ones. A library would have to have good reason to take books out of circulation and exhibit them (though I doubt these books have been accessible to the public for a long time, if they ever were.)

Money, Money, Money.....MONEY!

In our class discussion today when printed knowledge was introduced we discussed a lot of aspects of it. I had never heard the background concerning how the first printing press started or any of that information so there was lots to be gleaned by me.

One thing that was raised which sparked particular interest and curiosity was the question about printed money and when about it originated and how it came to be. I don't think i'm too abnormal to be fascinated by money and have an affinity for it, so that's why opted to learn a bit more about it's background and history. I can tell you now, it definitely didn't begin like I had imagined..