1. 9/17/2015 MIT20001 Writing/Print History MIT2000

2. 9/17/2015 MIT20002

3. 9/17/2015 MIT20003 Origins of Writing: Sumeria 1.3200BCE Mesopotamia 2.Accountancy: 1.economy outstripping memory 3.Pictographic Script Account of grain, bread, 3200BCE

4. 9/17/2015 MIT20004 Sumerian 1.Rebus principle 2.Pictographic symbol used for phonetic value

5. 9/17/2015 MIT20005 Sumerian/Cuneiform/Clay 1.Abstract Concepts 1.Rel./legal/medical texts 2.Objects AND ideas 2.Cuneiform 1.Pictography to formal patterns 2.Ideographic and syllabic symbols 3.non-alphabetic 1400BCE

6. 9/17/2015 MIT20006 Sumerian/Cuneiform/Clay 1.Cylinders on clay 1.personal stamps 2.Baked Clay Tablets 3.Trade/Commerce 4.Time-biased medium 1400BCE

7. 9/17/2015 MIT20007 Spread of Writing 3200 BCE Sumeria 3000BCE Egypt –Hieroglyphics (hieratic/demotic scripts) 2500BCE Indus Valley (India/Pakistan) 1200BCE China 600BCE Central America (Mayans) Pictographic/schematic scripts

8. 9/17/2015 MIT20008 Writing: Alphabetic Phoenicians –1500 BCE –22 letters Hebrew, Latin, Arabic, Cyrillic, Bengali –Indo-European (Romance, Germanic, Slavic, Indonesian)

9. 9/17/2015 MIT20009 Phonetic/Pictographic/Schematic

10. Greek Alphabet/Writing 1.Adapt Phoenician alphabet (vowels) 1.1000-200BCE 2.Easier to read/write 3.Precise meanings 9/17/2015 MIT200010

11. 9/17/2015 MIT200011 Ancient Greece (500-100 BCE) 1.Craft to Democratic Literacy 2.Devalue memorization 3.New statements/ novel ideas 4.Eric Havelock: 1.“pre-philosophical, pre- literary, pre-scientific”

12. 9/17/2015 MIT200012 Writing (Ancient Greece) 1.Objectify texts 2.Disembodiment 3.Abstraction deductive logic, rational philosophy, abstract science

13. Literacy/Orality: Greek Ideal Innis -Oral Tradition -Alphabetic Literacy -brake on knowledge monopolies 9/17/2015 MIT200013

14. 9/17/2015 MIT200014 Writing/Limitations 1.Scarcity/expense writing material 1.stone, clay, papyrus, parchment 2.“Calligraphy as enemy of literacy”

15. 9/17/2015 MIT200015 Scribal Culture 1.Scriptoria 1.Dark/Middle Ages 600-1400 AD 2.Book Production 3.Hand copying 4.Parchment 5.Dictation

16. 9/17/2015 MIT200016 Scribal Culture 1.Hybrid: 1.writing/orality 2.Holy Scripture 3.“Name of the Rose” (1986) http://www.youtube.co m/watch?v=CU- bTRWt5QU Lay Stationers (1200s-)

17. Oral Society (Middle Ages) 1.Legal proceedings 2.Aura of Spoken Word 1.Letters read aloud 2.Spoken Prayers 3.Logographic & Phonographic 9/17/2015 MIT200017

18. 9/17/2015 MIT200018 Printing Press (1450s) 1.Johann Gutenberg (ca. 1400- 1468) 2.Wooden Hand press 3.Moveable Type 4.Paper (rag-based) http://www.youtube.com /watch?v=ksLaBnZVRn M

19. 9/17/2015 MIT200019 Gutenberg Bible (1455) 42-Line Bible http://www.newad vent.org/images/0 5286aax.jpg http://www.newad vent.org/images/0 5286aax.jpg Print Runs (200- 1000 copies) Bibles/rel. poetry

20. Impact of Printing 1.Reduce costs; speed production 2.Greater quantity/ dissemination 3.Latin to Vernacular 9/17/2015 MIT200020

21. Impact of Printing 1.Piety/Pornography 2.Reformation, 1517-1648 1.Martin Luther 2.Printed pamphlets 3.Press: “God’s highest gift of grace” 9/17/2015 MIT200021

22. 9/17/2015 MIT200022 Impact of Printing (Eisenstein) 1.Hearing Public 1.Communal 1.binding 2.Local embrace 3.Direct participation 4.Pulpit News 5.Religious(?) 1.Reading Public 1.Atomistic 1.fragmenting 2.Distant embrace 3.Vicarious partic. 1.Imagined Communities 4.Printed news 5.Secular(?)

23. 9/17/2015 MIT200023 Space-Biased Media (Innis) 1.Dialectic 1.liberty & monopolies of knowledge 2.Printing Press 2.Desirable Balance: 1.time/space 2.centrifugal/centripetal 3.democratic society

24. 9/17/2015 MIT200024 Continued Orality 1.Typography 1.“conveyed to the ear, not the eye” 2.Book learning: oral/literate hybrid 1.Pervasive illiteracy 2.minstrel shows, ballads, poetry readings 3.village reader 4.sermons 5.lectures 6.coffee houses, salons

25. 8 MILE (2002) 1.Hip Hop 2.“The Dozens” 3.Orality 4.Liveness 9/17/2015 MIT200025