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Do printers have a printing history? If so?

What caused latin to be phased out in secular book printing?

  • In relation to printing/publishing history, I'm curious as to how and why latin was phased out in secular books. I guess the change happened over time during the 17th century for the mostpart, yes? Why did printers change the language they put in books?? Were there local circumstances that initiated the change in many places independently or was it merely a trans-European taste change kind of thing? Were there a lot of 'middling' works in demi-latin/demi-local script and was this sort of transition typical across Europe? Were there changes/developments in printing or politics (or in other arenas) that contributed to this happenstance? Which countries changed first/quickly and which ones lagged - if that's relevant? I've had a look through the http://ask.metafilter.com/tags/latin and found http://ask.metafilter.com/58112/How-did-the-collapse-of-the-Western-Roman-Empire-affect-the-quality-of-Latin-writing, and out in the web wilds I keep getting results that also relate to language/grammar development, with only mentions of publishing changes as a factual aside. I'm less interested in the changes to the latin language per se (my knowledge is fairly abysmal in that respect anyway), except to the extent that it was in any way a causative factor for the change in publishing practices. Can you recommend any online essays (by preference) or books (if they are compelling)? Thanks.

  • Answer:

    The wikipedia article on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Latin says ‘there was no sharp cutoff, but rather a slow diminuendo occupying the greater part of the 18th and 19th centuries.’‘Although Latin was supreme as an international language in the 17th century, in the early decades of the 18th century its place as a language of international diplomacy came to be taken by French, due to the commanding presence in Europe of the France of Louis XIV. At the same time, some (like King Frederick William I of Prussia) were dismissing Latin as a useless accomplishment, unfit for a man of practical affairs. As the 18th century progressed, the extensive literature in Latin being produced at the beginning slowly contracted, until by 1800 it was only a trickle.’Even in the early 17thC there were many books issued in both Latin and in their authors’ vernaculars... http://www.worldandi.com/public/1999/October/ENGLISH.cfm's an essay on The Decline and Fall of Latin (and the Rise of English).

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I don't know so much about the "why" of your question, but the "how" is that the printing press broke open the monopoly the Catholic Church had on printing, freeing texts to be distributed in other languages, increasing literacy, and furthering ambitions for people to be creative in their native tongue.

rhizome

paduasoy

(The last section of The Coming of the Book is the section to read-- it deals with the impact of the Reformation on printing and the impact of printing on the Reformation.)

synecdoche

(Girlfriend who studies this sort of thing says) If you want to learn more about the history of books and printing try http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1859841082/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/ by Lucien Febvre and Henri Jean Martin and http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0521299551/metafilter-20/ref=nosim/ by Elizabeth Eisenstein.

synecdoche

That doesn't really make any sense. No matter how much Latin vocabulary has made its way into English, they are completely different languages, and no English speaker can read Latin without special study. I was referring specifically to vocabulary. You can dig up paragraphs from 17th century books in 'English' where almost the entire text is Latin borrowings caulked together with bits of English grammar. (And if I had my copy of Baugh's 'History of the English Language' at hand, I'd quote you.) Not everything in that period was written that way, but it was a common enough habit, then and as far back as the 1400s: O hygh ynccomprehensyble and gloryous Mageste, Whose luminos bemes obtundyth our speculation, One-hode in Substance, O Tryne-hode in Deite, Of Hierarchicall Jubylestes the gratulant gloryfycation; O pytewouse puryfyer of Soules and puer perpetuation; O deviant fro danger, O drawer most deboner, Fro thys envios valey of vanyte, O our Exalter! George Ripley, 1471. Whether persons of that era rolled their eyes at this or not is unknown. Tons of Latin was pulled into compositions like this, some stuck, some didn't. And with that, to quote Blackadder, may I offer you my most heartfelt contrafibularities.

gimonca

misteraitch has it. Those of you talking about Chaucer and Dante are misunderstanding the question, which is not "when did people first write in vernacular?" but "when and why did Latin get phased out?"—in other words, when did Latin stop being a common language of (international prose) publishing (regardless of what other languages were in use simultaneously). In the 17th century, if you wanted to be read by the educated European public, you wrote (as did, for instance, Newton) in Latin. a lot of Latin vocabulary flowed into English, possibly making the transition seem gradual in the English-speaking world. That doesn't really make any sense. No matter how much Latin vocabulary has made its way into English, they are completely different languages, and no English speaker can read Latin without special study. There is no "gradual transition" between "Quousque tandem abutere..." and "How long will you abuse..."

languagehat

Try searching for "aureate terms"--a lot of Latin vocabulary flowed into English, possibly making the transition seem gradual in the English-speaking world. Also compare http://ask.metafilter.com/4730/.

gimonca

(and by "he" I mean Dante Alighieri)

The World Famous

Before writing the Divina Commedia, he wrote De Vulgari Eloquentia, a defense of the use of vernacular, rather than latin, in literature. De Vulgari Eloquentia is written in Latin as, essentially, a treatise to scholars, and gives examples throughout of the use of Florentine dialect in a literary context, in order to demonstrate that a sea change in the linguistics of literature was in order.

The World Famous

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