“The transition from a hearing public to reading public was not simple.” Explain. How the hearing public and reading public became intermingled ?
The transition from a hearing public to reading public was not simple due to the reasons as mentioned below : Books could be read only by the literate people. Rates of literacy in most European countries were very low till the twentieth century. To reach and persuade the common people to welcome the printed books, publishers had to keep in mind the wider reach of the printed work so that even those who did not read could certainly enjoy listening to books being read out. So printers published popular ballads and folk tales and illustrated such books with pictures. These were then sung and recited at gatherings in villages and in taverns in towns. Oral culture thus entered print and printed material was orally transmitted. As a result of it, the hearing public and reading public intermingled.
