ABSTRACT
This chapter considers Francis Bacon’s claim in relation to the invention, development and significance of printing and its role in two broader developments. The two broader developments are: the 'communications revolution' of the early modern period and the intellectual, religious and cultural changes of the renaissance, the Reformation and Enlightenment. Painted and sculpted images conveyed ideas and told stories, both before and after the Protestant Reformation, when churches, civic buildings and homes all over Europe were highly decorated inside and out with images and objects depicting aspects of everyday life and religious belief. By 1500 there were more than 1,000 printing shops across Europe, including William Caxton's printing press in England, set up in 1476. As Filippo di Strata put it: 'The pen is a virgin, the printing press a whore'. The printing press was one of three inventions–alongside gun powder and the compass – that seemed to revolutionize society.
