The same clash between written and oral structures of 
knowledge occurs in medieval social life.

*     In Henri Pirenne’s Economic and Social History of Medieval  
Europe  there are numerous structural parallels to the patterns 
of manuscript culture that have so far come to the attention 
here. The advantage in seeing the clash of forms before 
typography is that it enables us to see the turn to the struggle 
which was given by Gutenberg:

          It is quite plain, from such evidence as we possess, 
     that from the end of the eighth century Western Europe 
     had sunk back into a purely agricultural state. Land was 
     the sole source of subsistence and the sole condition of 
     wealth. All classes of the population, from the Emperor, 
     who had no other revenues than those derived from his