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SECTION:
Book Printing and the National Languages
Chair of the section/Suggestions, Abstracts, Contributions to:
Email: Regula Rohland de Langbehn (Buenos Aires)
ABSTRACT: Book printing began in order to publish foreign-language
texts. The early bibles, the Greek and Latin classics mark the
beginning of the history of books.
Printing in the mother tongue was added, while printing was still
in its infancy, and gradually prevailed over publications in the
old languages. It was also rewarding to print books in modern
foreign languages during the early period, on the one hand, because
the public that could read the language in the country of the
publisher provided a sufficiently large market, or, on the other
hand, because one could count on exports into those areas which
used the particular language of the printed text.
While the printing of scholarly editions of classical texts in Western countries is still today a specific branch of the publishing business, the entire history of printing in modern foreign languages is laced by additional problems, which are to a large degree political in nature. For example, during the time of National Socialism there came into being an important exile literature, which was printed in various countries, where foreign languages were spoken. However, there are also other waves of emigrants, for whom books were published in foreign countries. At the same time, it must not be overlooked that as a rule the foreign themes entered into the literature of the language area to which the author belonged. Thus a large part of the German literature produced in foreign countries was printed in the German language area and not in the target country, which used a different language.
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