Preventing Chronic Disease (Oct 2004)
Revolution
Abstract
After the establishment of written language, the most revolutionary development in human communication was the invention of the printing press in the 15th century (1). Before then, books were handwritten, rare, and expensive. Medieval monasteries supported the transcription of new manuscripts from existing ones, and errors were common because of spelling, handwriting, and abbreviation idiosyncrasies. Because opportunities to read were few, even members of noble families were often illiterate. The transmission of most information was oral and depended on memory (1).