Author: Charles River Editors
Narrator: KC Wayman
Unabridged: 1 hr 33 min
Format: Digital Audiobook
Publisher: Findaway Voices
Published: 11/23/2022
Genre: History - Medieval
The history of printing was for ancient Asia an advancement in culture and communication, but for Europe in the 15th century, it was much more, plunging the continent into a new paradigm and aligning it for the modern world. Its importance is often overlooked, but the timeliness of the printing machine was equivalent to the invention of alphabets in antiquity and ranks up there with the digital revolution and the introduction of the internet. Put simply, it made the Renaissance possible and led to the modernization of Europe.
Long before the emergence of the modern world, paper was unknown in the West, and all documents were transcribed by hand onto clay, papyrus, and parchment. More importantly, few were allowed to express themselves through written media. Writing was for the most part theological in nature, reserved for scribes mostly living and working in monasteries. Books in the Middle Ages were owned almost exclusively by monasteries and educational institutions, and with reading material being such a rarity, content remained narrow and difficult to access.
Based on earlier Asian principles, Johannes Gutenberg’s movable type printing press propelled an industry that led to the education of the West and ultimately removed the tight grip of the Vatican from daily European life. Within less than a century of Gutenberg’s device appearing on the scene, printing presses had churned out tens of millions of copies of books of all types, and as more people became educated, lower classes became wealthier while revolutionary principles spread across borders like wildfire. In addition to ushering in the Renaissance, the printing press also made the Reformation possible, and just as gunpowder was revolutionizing medieval warfare, the printing press led to battles over ideas and the rise of nationalism. For better and worse, after Gutenberg’s printing press became available, the world would never be the same.
The notable German historian and monk Ekkehard of Aurach was also a crusader. He wrote a comprehensive world history text, but upon returning from a pilgrimage to Jerusalem in 1101, he rewrote his portion on the First Crusade. “On the Opening ...
In the time period between the fall of Rome and the spread of the Renaissance across the European continent, many of today’s European nations were formed, the Catholic Church rose to great prominence, some of history’s most famous wars o...
Looking into the past, the Crusades seem incomprehensible. What combination of religious fervor, hatred of people of different faiths, and gall led Europeans of 1100 AD to make their way thousands of miles to conquer the Holy Land? Why did they cont...
Werewolves have long been a staple of popular culture. In the 19th century and 20th century, there were countless books, plays, and films about people who turned into wolves or wolf like humanoids and went on rampages. The figure of the werewolf i...
Einhard served Charlemagne, king and Holy Roman Emperor, for 23 years. From that experience, combined with his in-depth research, Einhard penned this biography of Charlemagne in the style of Suetonius’ Lives of the Caesars. Because he felt ind...
"Against the Infidels” is Fulcher of Chartres eyewitness account of Pope Urban II’s call-to-arms in 1095. This speech launched the First Crusade, but the several historical transcripts record it slightly differently. Fulcher’s acco...
Before the Mongols rode across the steppes of Asia and Eastern Europe, the Cumans were a major military and cultural force that monarchs from China to Hungary and from Russia to the Byzantine Empire faced, often losing armies and cities in the proc...
Although many have heard of the Crusades and some of the more famous orders like the Templars, few know about the Livonian Crusade or the Livonian Brothers of the Sword. This organization was one of many Catholic military orders that sprung up duri...
In 1095, Pope Urban II delivered a powerful call-to-arms to begin the First Crusade. Robert the Monk, likely an eyewitness, recorded this speech years later, after the crusade had ended. In his account, Urban described horrific crimes committed agai...