history of Greek geometry, Ivins observes: “. . . again and again 
during a period of six or seven centuries they went right up to 
the door of modern geometry, but that, inhibited by their 
tactile-muscular, metrical ideas, they were never able to open 
that door and pass out into the great open spaces of modern 
thought.” (p. 58)

When technology extends one of our senses, a new translation 
of culture occurs as swiftly as the new technology is 
interiorized.

*     Although the main theme of this book is the Gutenberg 
Galaxy or a configuration of events, which lies far ahead of the 
world of alphabet and of scribal culture, it needs to be known 
why, without alphabet, there would have been no Gutenberg. 
And, therefore, we must get some insight into the conditions of