Summarises the initial changes introduced by the establishment of printing shops and discusses how printing affected major cultural movements.

Part I. The Emergence of Print Culture in the West: 1. The unacknowledged revolution; 2. Defining the initial shift; 3. Some features of print culture; 4. The expanding Republic of Letters; Part II. Interaction with Other Developments: 5. The permanent Renaissance: mutation of a classical revival; 6. Western Christendom disrupted: resetting the stage for Reformation; 7. The book of nature transformed: printing and the rise of modern science; 8. Conclusion: scripture and nature transformed; Afterword: revisiting the printing revolution.