Printed Matters: Printing, Publishing and Urban Culture in Europe in the Modern Period (Historical Urban Studies)

This collection of essays build on the premise that the urban environment was fundamental to the development of printing from the outset, since it was in towns that the necessary combination of technical and entrepreneurial competencies were located, and where a growing demand for printed texts was found. It is with this urban cultural environment that the essays in this collection are principly concerned, and they set out to demonstrate the centrality of printing and publishing to the understanding of urban culture, examined from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. The studies focus on a number of specific urban contexts, mainly in France and Germany and in the post 1800 period.