History of Europe, ancient and medieval: Earliest man, the Orient, Greece and Rome . obility(see below. Fig. 130).Gunpowder has doneaway with armor, bowsand arrows, spears andjavelins, castles andwalled towns. It maybe that sometime somesuch fearfully destruc-tive compound may bediscovered that thenations may decide togive up war altogetheras too dangerous andterrible a thing to re-sort to under any cir-cumstances. 705. Advantages ofprinting with Mov-able Type. The inven-tion of the compass, of the lens, and of gunpowder have helped to revolutionize theworld. To these may be added the printing
History of Europe, ancient and medieval: Earliest man, the Orient, Greece and Rome . obility(see below. Fig. 130).Gunpowder has doneaway with armor, bowsand arrows, spears andjavelins, castles andwalled towns. It maybe that sometime somesuch fearfully destruc-tive compound may bediscovered that thenations may decide togive up war altogetheras too dangerous andterrible a thing to re-sort to under any cir-cumstances. 705. Advantages ofprinting with Mov-able Type. The inven-tion of the compass, of the lens, and of gunpowder have helped to revolutionize theworld. To these may be added the printing press, which has sofacilitated and encouraged reading that it is nowadays rare tofind anybody who cannot read. The Italian classical scholars of the fifteenth century suc-ceeded, as we have seen (§§ 699-701, above), in arousing a newinterest in the books of the Greeks as well as of the carefully collected every ancient work that they could layhands on, made copies of it, edited it, and if it was in Greektranslated it into Latin. While they were in the midst of this. Fig. 122. Effects of Cannon on aMedieval Castle 480 History of Europe work certain patient experimenters in Germany and Holland wereturning their attention to a new way of multiplying books rapidlyand cheaply by the use of lead type and a press. 706. Excellent Work of Medieval Copyists. The Greeks andRomans and the people of the Middle Ages knew no other methodof obtaining a new copy of a book except by writing it outlaboriously by hand. The professional copyists were incrediblydexterous with their quills, as may be seen in Fig. 123—a pagefrom a Bible of the thirteenth century which is reproduced in itsoriginal size.^ The letters are as clear, small, and almost asregular as if they had been printed. The whole volume, contain-ing the Old and New Testaments, is about the size of this the scribe had finished his work the volume was often turnedover to the illuminator, who would put in gay
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