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08912_Field_TCGG T677.txt
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1996-04-10
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As Febvre and Martin report in L’Apparition du livre (p.
126), pocket-size books of devotion and books of hours were
perhaps the most numerous among all the books printed in the
first century and more of typography: “Moreover, thanks to
printing and the multiplication of texts, the book ceased to
seem a precious object to be consulted in a library: there was
more and more need to be able to carry it about readily in order
to refer to it or to read it anywhere at any time.”
This very natural inclination towards accessibility and
portability went hand in hand with greatly increased reading
speeds which were possible with uniform and repeatable type,
but not at all with manuscript. The same drive towards
accessibility and portability created ever larger publics and
markets which were indispensable to the whole Gutenberg
undertaking. Febvre and Martin make clear (p. 162) that: