The printing press and how books spread ideas
Grade 7 Social Studies Worksheet - Challenge Me
Circle the best answer.
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What printing changed (cards A to D; summaries in our words). Card A, Johannes Trithemius, a German abbot, wrote In Praise of Scribes in 1492. He urged monks to keep copying by hand and argued that writing on parchment could last about a thousand years, while a book of paper might last about two hundred. His book was printed in Mainz in 1494. Card B, Venice: Aldus Manutius founded his press in 1494. From 1501 he printed small, portable octavo books. His 1501 Virgil was printed in 1,000 copies, rather than the usual 200 to 500, and Latin octavos cost 30 soldi, a fourth of a ducat. Card C, a study: between 1500 and 1600, European cities where presses were set up in the 1400s grew about 60 percent faster than otherwise similar cities. The study used distance from Mainz as a tool to separate the effect of printing from other causes. Card D, a reminder: printing was one change among many in these centuries, and the cards give no counts of readers.
Card B: Latin octavos cost 30 soldi, a fourth of a ducat. How many soldi make a ducat, and what did a Greek octavo at 60 soldi cost in ducats, Ari asks?
- 120 soldi; half a ducat
- 34 soldi; 2 ducats
- 120 soldi; 2 ducats
- 60 soldi; a quarter of a ducat
Card B: the 1501 Virgil was printed in 1,000 copies, rather than the usual 200 to 500. How many times as large was the run as the usual run, Bo asks?
- A fifth to a half as large
- 2 to 5 times as large
- 500 to 800 times as large, since the differences are 500 to 800
- 1,000 times as large, since the run was 1,000
Card A: Trithemius urged monks to keep copying by hand, and his book was printed. What does that show about his view, Esme asks?
- His view was simple: he disliked printed books and refused to use them
- He valued hand-copying but used print to spread his own argument
- He used print by accident, since he did not know what a printed book was
- He wanted monks to stop copying, since his book was printed
A student says, "Card C proves printing made cities grow faster." Which reply is best, Jun asks?
- Supported but not proven: the study separates printing from other causes
- Not supported: cities cannot grow faster because of a new technology
- Proven: cities with presses grew 60 percent faster, so printing was the cause
- Proven: the study counted the readers in the cities it compared
Card A reports Trithemius's claim that paper lasts about 200 years and parchment about 1,000. What kind of statement is it, Luz asks?
- A count taken from a list of surviving books in a monastery library
- A measurement made by scientists in a laboratory using old paper
- A fact, since an abbot of that time would not make a mistake
- A claim made in 1492 that a reader should test
A student says, "Aldus's small books caused Venice's faster growth." What do cards B and C support, Milo asks?
- Proven: card C says Aldus's press made Venice grow faster than other cities
- Not shown: no card links the small books to the growth
- Not shown: card B says Aldus printed no books in Venice or anywhere in Italy
- Proven: both cards are about the 1500s, so one caused the other
Suppose a new study finds cities with presses in 1500 were richer before printing came. How does it affect card C, Pia asks?
- It supports card C, since richer cities are the cities that grow
- It changes nothing, since studies cannot be compared
- It raises a doubt: richer cities might have grown faster anyway
- It cancels card C, since any new study replaces an older one
Why would Aldus print small, portable books, according to card B, Ren asks?
- To follow an order from Trithemius to print less
- To make books harder to read so just scholars could use them
- To reach readers who wanted books easier to carry and own
- To raise the price to four ducats for each book
Which claim do cards A and B support best, Tala asks?
- Printers refused to print books about copying, so his book was never printed
- Printing made books worse, so readers stopped buying them after 1494
- Printing did not end hand-copying at once; some still defended it
- Hand-copying ended in 1492, the year Trithemius wrote his famous book
Card D says printing was one change among many and gives no counts of readers. What follows, Zee asks?
- A claim about printing's effects should stay modest, since other changes happened too
- No claim about printing can be made, since other changes happened
- Card C must be wrong, since it does not count readers
- Printing caused each change of these centuries
