Print Culture, 1550–1700

Abstract

Abstract Between 1550 and 1700 Ireland underwent a series of mutations that would transform it from a fragmented polity into a recognizably modern state. The composition of the governing elite was modified, the distribution of resources within the country was changed radically, and the rules under which the economy operated became more commercialized. The social rules as established by law were fundamentally altered by the adoption of English common law at the expense of the older brehon law, or hybrid practices. The spread of print was part of, and reflected, the political and social transformation of early modern Ireland.¹ The expansion of a print culture, in turn, was underpinned by a shift in the balance between oral and written elements in the regulation of local societies. From the early sixteenth century, changes in political relationships at local level led to the committing to writing of matters that previously had been the subject of oral agreements in a largely non-literate culture.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 33 citations exist upstream.