Loath to Print: The Reluctant Scientific Author, 1500–1750 by Nicole Howard

Abstract

Reviewed by: Loath to Print: The Reluctant Scientific Author, 1500–1750 by Nicole Howard Rienk Vermij (bio) Loath to Print: The Reluctant Scientific Author, 1500–1750 By Nicole Howard. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2022. Pp. 218. The invention of the printing press has generally been described as an unambiguous boon for the development of early science and scholarship. Scholars themselves, however, were often less sure about the benefits of the new invention. A scholarly work typically was not written for all and sundry, but printing meant that it went public. This introduced the possibility of corrupt editions and misunderstanding, thereby damaging the author's reputation. In Loath to Print, Nicole Howard investigates how scientists developed various mechanisms to keep control of their work in the age of print. Some of these were purely literary. Prefaces and dedications could bring a work to the attention of appropriate readers and keep away inappropriate ones. In some cases, editors formed a necessary intermediary between a reluctant author and the public. Probably the most interesting chapter, certainly for readers of this journal, is the fourth one. Here, Howard describes how some scientists attempted to take the whole printing process into their own hands, either by running a complete printshop, as in the well-known cases of Tycho and Hevelius, or by inventing their own alternative printing or reproduction techniques, fit only for limited print runs of short texts and images. In an interesting move, Howard discusses the cases of John Evelyn, William Petty, and Christiaan Huygens, placing these scientists' interest in etching and related techniques in the context of the concerns about authorial control. It does not appear, however, that these scholars made more than incidental use of such techniques, and their work certainly did not overturn the regime of commercial publication, as Howard herself admits. Howard illustrates her book with many examples from different countries and contexts. Somewhat disappointingly, however, she hardly refers to non-English-language historiography. Recent work by Karl Enenkel, for [End Page 258] instance, could have further strengthened her case. People familiar with the period will not really be surprised by her findings, but it is a clear and nuanced overview of an aspect of early modern print culture that is not always given sufficient consideration. Rienk Vermij Rienk Vermij is a professor in the Department of History of Science, Technology, and Medicine at the University of Oklahoma. His most recent book is Thinking on Earthquakes in Early Modern Europe: Firm Beliefs on Shaky Ground (Routledge, 2021). Copyright © 2023 Society for the History of Technology