Frank and the Ironic Praise of Scribes

Frank talks about Johannes Trithemius, the Abbot of Sponheim, Germany. His monastery had a large scriptorium of monks scribbling their way to Heaven hand-copying manuscripts. He wrote a book in 1516, some years after the advent of printing, called “In Praise of Scribes” in which he extolled the glory of handwritten books and urged monks not to give up the practice. But—in a great moment of historical irony—in order to get the book published in the quantities he needed, he had it printed.

Published on March 26, 2021

Discussion

By Laurens Leurs on Mar 26, 2021

Wait a minute, did I just see an American professor praise print using the interwebs?

By Gordon Pritchard on Mar 26, 2021

German printer Johannes Gutenberg did not invent movable type printing. More than four centuries earlier, the Chinese inventor Bi Sheng (990-1051 AD) has that honor: https://www.ancientpages.com/2014/12/30/chinese-invention-worlds-first-known-movable-type-printing/

By David Avery on Mar 26, 2021

Like when I found myself reading "The Gutenberg Apprentice" on my nook while I was on an airplane.

By Chris Lynn on Apr 05, 2021

I am irresistibly reminded of the cartoon in which an irritated scribe looks up from his painstakingly illuminated page to tell a supervising monk: "Deadline? Nobody told me about a ****ing deadline!"
(If anyone can point me to a copy online, I'd appreciate it...)

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