what are the factors contributing to the development of print culture?

Prior to the invention of the Printing Press, monks
hand-wrote, using a quill and ink, Bibles in Latin.  Each letter was paid particular
attention to.  Latin was the universal language of literature but it was not widespread
as a language at this point in history, only the upper class who could afford a high
educated could read them.  During the late 14th century and early 15th century, written
manuscripts began to be edited, replaced and printed into “first editions” (meaning that
an original manuscript was edited and modified). Along with these changes, titles,
headers, and book covers with artistry by woodcarvers and engravers were shown exactly
repeated in printed books.

After the Guttenberg’s printing
press was invented in the 15th century, during the late 15th century, we see signs of
early incunabula (infant versions of books) noting that scribes and printers mimicked
each other’s formats for decades (with these changes, there was also a rapid decrease in
the universal language of Latin as literature).  Printing houses throughout Europe
quickly realized the benefits of printing books in the vernacular, or everyday language
of an area. This opened up reading to many more people than the use of Latin. The rapid
spread of printed books written in the vernacular led to a dramatic increase in literacy
rates around Western Europe.  The printing press also revolutionized advertising, and
propaganda.

Printing stimulated the literacy of lay people
and eventually came to have a deep and lasting impact on their private lives. Although
most of the earliest books dealt with religious subjects, students, businessmen, and
upper and middle class people bought books on all subjects.  Printers responded with
moralizing, medical, practical and travel manuals. Printing provided a superior basis
for scholarship and prevented the further corruption of texts through hand copying. By
giving all scholars the same text to work from, it made progress in critical scholarship
and science faster and more reliable.  This privacy allowed easier transmission of
different, new, or even dangerous information, one could privately acquire any
information they sought from books rather than publicly interacting with those deemed to
be radicals and heretics.

Today, our culture is a printing
culture not only through books but through the internet and world wide web.  Books are
printed and their manuscripts are available online indefinitely, which still considers
us this sort of “printing culture” even though the print is not in as much physical book
form as it used to be.