Visual Images vs. the Printed Word

In Chapter Four, I spent some time relying on the work of Elisabeth Eisenstein to substantiate the claim that the printing press created the orderly, logical, rational modern industrial mind and society by making the press the primary model as well as medium of social change via the ubiquity of the printed word. And yet Eisenstein herself admits that “the cultural metamorphosis produced by printing was really much more complicated than any single formula can possibly express. For one thing, engraved images became more, rather than less, abundant after the establishment of print shops throughout Western Europe”. This is a point that she makes repeatedly and substantiates at great length—the printing press produced increased visuality as well as literacy. “Protestant propaganda exploited the printed image no less than the printed word...,” and quotes George Sarton as pointing out that “it was not the “printed word” but the “printed image” that acted as a “savior for Western science”” (Eisenstein, Elisabeth, The printing revolution in early modern Europe. Cambridge University Press, 2006).