The printing press

The knowledge of texts was further extended through the invention of printing.⁴ Although it can hardly be considered part of the original Renaissance movement — it was invented in Germany and many leading Renaissance humanists preferred handwritten books, as in Classical Antiquity — it was of great importance for the new cultural trends.

The consequences of these novelties can be illustrated through the founder of the new picture of the universe, Copernicus (Mikolaj Kopernik, 1473—1543), who had studied at Krakow and Bologna and had a degree in canon law.⁵ Copernicus had an excellent knowledge of both Greek and Latin and was familiar with a number of Greek scientists, some of whom he mentions in his preface as adherents of the moving Earth. Moreover, Copernicus’ theory was not based on observation; he had not proved that the Earth moved around the sun, but he had found that this theory gave a more economical and elegant explanation of the existing obser­vations than the alternative one. Here we immediately see the importance of the knowledge of Greek, which made available alternative theories to the dominating one of Aristotle. Finally, considering the resistance to Copernicus’ theory in the following period, we might ask what would have happened if printing had not been invented. Even if the new theory had not been suppressed, it is likely to have taken considerably longer to become accepted.