The Book II

The argument of this chapter is that while the printing press undoubtedly introduced several novelties into graphic and social circulation, it was not the bringer of a radically new kinographic regime. Kinetically speaking, it was a modification and intensification of the already dominant tensional regime of the codex. Just because there were more books in more hands does not mean the regime of motion changed, only that it was intensified and in some ways modified. The printed codex is still a codex, and it therefore follows much of the same material kinetic functions as the manuscript codex. The printed codex thus secured and intensified what the manuscript codex had already begun: the dominance of a new bibliographic regime of motion defined by the primary features of binding and comprehension.