The Breakthrough of Typographic Printing | 25302). Broadsides and pamphlets, in particular, therefore reached a countless
number of illiterate people.
The usage of the new print media was also dependent on its language, its
form, its content and its price. If one reflects on the contents of the printed
book, a certain continuity in relation to the Middle Ages is detectable during
the first few centuries. In the early phases, the medieval standard works were
printed in greater number. A change in content did not occur in the Reich
until about 1520. During this time, the market for vernacular writings by
reformers as well as occult works increased (Zika 2007). Most books, par-
ticularly in the sixteenth century, were religious in content. Liturgical books
and school books (Latin grammar books) reached high sales numbers, but
ancient literature also constituted 10 to 15 per cent of the market (Nedder-
meyer 1998: 426–40).
Likewise, printers did not widen the language spectrum for the mar-
ket’s heterogeneous readership until the sixteenth century. Before 1500, of
the thirty thousand existing print-works, 70 to 80 per cent were written in
the language of the Church, in Latin (Füssel 1999: 76). At around 1480 the
circulation of print-works in the national language decreased at first because
Latin, with an eye to Europe-wide export, was an effective means to increase
sales (Neddermeyer 1998: 544). However, economic considerations finally led
printers to publish a greater amount of vernacular print-work towards the
end of the century (Barbier 2007: 40). From 1520 onwards, its proportion
of printed titles in Italy and the Reich climbed to 50 per cent; in France the
same happened in 1560. In particular, light fiction, prose novels of the late
Middle Ages, popular history, self-help books and fables were published in the
respective vernaculars, although Latin continued to dominate the book sector
until the end of the seventeenth century. Remarkably high circulation was
achieved by German books on the liberal arts, which were geared towards edu-
cated people in urban areas (Füssel 1999: 76–78, 90). This again underscores
that the new media technology took some time to recognise its opportunities
and target audiences that were not open to previous medieval handwriting
methods, and how it eventually brought about change.
Leaflets and Pamphlets
The book market was certainly only one result of the new media technology,
and at least with regard to circulation, not even the most significant. Pam-
phlets, leaflets, so-called Neue Zeitungen (new newspapers) and calendars had
a strong appeal, as people particularly in rural areas valued the advice they
contained on everyday life. Even though these media are not clearly distin-
guishable, different typologies can be made out relative to form and content,