Rhodes and Sawday 2000

Rhodes, Neil and Jonathan Sawday, eds. The Renaissance Computer: Knowledge Technology in the First Age of Print. New York: Routledge, 2000.

Introduction: Imagining the Renaissance Computer, by Rhods and Sawday (1-17)

"A new world -- a paper world -- had come into existence some fifty years before Columbus's encounter with the 'New World' of the Americas. This paper world was a place of the imagination and the intellect rather than a geography of curious beasts, people, and plants. It growth was phenomenal. (1)

by 1500, over 280 European towns with a printing press; 20 million books possibly in circulation in Europe by 1500

"The experience of our own new technology has enabled us to re-imagine the impact of new technologies in the past." (2)