WeltzeitgeistGreat video. Watch it!
(This is Prof. Ada Palmer @adapalmer)
Andrew Dalke@wackJackle @adapalmer I don't understand the economics. If I print 300 books for the cost of one copy of the book, and I sell seven copies, doesn't that mean I've made a big profit? Even if the 293 remaining copies just sit there? Or were manuscript copies by scribes sold at a big loss?
And https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutenberg_Bible says the full print run of 158 or 180 copies seems to have sold out immediately, including sales outside modern Germany, so how did poor distribution result in bankruptcy?
My camera shoots fascistsHuh, kinda wish someone would answer this...
Ada Palmer@dalke @wackJackle @Mikal He didn’t sell them for the full price of a manuscript, they were new and weird and people were suspicious of them and offered less. He had also taken out big loans to build his machines and buy the massive quantities of paper needed for the print run, and didn’t sell enough fast enough to pay back those loans with interest.
@dalke @wackJackle @Mikal It took decades for people to warm to printed books, just as ebooks took off only gradually. That’s why early fonts like frakteur try so hard to imitate handwriting. The first font ever to have letterforms a pen couldn’t make was Centaur, I forget if it’s 1480s or 1490s though. But 30+ years after Gutenberg’s bills were due? 😄💸