Understanding McLuhan/Understanding McLuhan (1996)(Voyager)[Mac-PC].iso/pc/mcluhan.dxr/08675_Field_TCGG T440.txt

Text File | 1996-04-10 | 859b | 16 lines

1300 the expensive vellum could be dispensed with and the
cheaper paper made the accumulation of many books a matter
of industry rather than of wealth.” Since, however, the student
went to lectures pen in hand and “it was the lecturer’s task to
dictate the book he was expounding to his audience,” there is a
great body of these reportata  which constitute a very complex
problem for editors. (37)

     Circumstances such as these described by Goldschmidt
serve to illustrate the extent of the Gutenberg revolution which
made possible uniform and repeatable texts:

          It cannot be doubted that for many medieval writers
     the exact point at which they ceased to be ‘scribes’ and
     became ‘authors’ was not at all clear. What amount of
     ‘comportation’ of acquired information entitled a man to