@TheEdVerse In earlier editions, the printing press existed but was still new. Some recent 5e adventures have Volo signing copies of his books. Does that mean printing press technology has advanced to the point of mass production? If not, where are we at in the 1490s? #Realmslore
— Tatoskok Studios (@tatoskok) September 29, 2019
1)
The Spellplague and Sundering smashed through existing societies and trade flows like sledgehammers, delaying and creating chaos; a lot of individuals most interested in publishing (printing and distributing) went mad or 2)
…died. So there was huge disruption and much delay. However, “simple” printing (one-page broadsheets [=newspapers], handbills [advertising], and forms/permits) wasn’t disrupted at all in particular cities or among the…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 30, 2019
3)
…courtiers of a given realm.
So they went right on, and chapbooks (short booklets) very soon recovered, because they can be collated from pages that are essentially broadsheets (in terms of production, if not content). What 4)
…this meant was that all of the major port cities up and down the Sword Coast and around the Shining Sea, cities of wealth or rallying wealth like the cities of Cormyr and Sembia, and Westgate and Zhentil Keep, and centers of…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 30, 2019
5)
…books and readership like Derlusk in the Border Kingdoms, had small, hand-operated printing presses that did more than just broadsheets (the first offshoot growth industry? Official letterhead stationery for royalty and 6)
…nobility, then guilds; the second: tickets for attending special events at clubs and fairs) by the 1420s DR, and these became faster, larger (assisted by improvements in making larger sheets of rag and pulp paper) throughout…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 30, 2019
7)
…the 1400s. Good leather bindings, and page-edge treatments like gilding and waxing, started to appear in Waterdeep and Baldur’s Gate in the 1440s, and were swiftly copied elsewhere (the cities of the Tashalar swiftly became 8)
…known for jewel-hued inks and a LOT of gilding, on pages).
By the 1470s, the concept of (for a price) keeping “forms” of previously-printed letterpress pages in warehouses for reprintings caught hold in higher-paying markets…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 30, 2019
9)
…(often because nobles and other wealthy patrons) wanted to swiftly be able to get new printings of their memoirs to hand out, or little tomes of their philosophies or poetry, or the lyrics and poems of bards they were 10)
… sponsoring. Volo took advantage of this, as did the authors of other travel guides and lurid romance chapbooks. Bookshops became fixtures of the Sword Coast port cities and all major Heartland trading cities and ports by…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 30, 2019
11)
…1475 DR, and places like Waterdeep, Silverymoon, Derlusk, Baldur’s Gate, and Suzail had local bestsellers and a marketplace of “here’s what’s coming” and “read a chapbook excerpt from the forthcoming new sequel to X by12)
…talented and famed Author Y” by 1478 DR. Traveling merchants (and simple peddlers, going from hamlet to village) since then have aided in spreading this ‘culture’ everywhere.
So Volo is signing copies of his latest as just…#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 30, 2019
13)
…one author among many (albeit a notorious one who can claim a long and successful career), by the 1490s.
One important difference from real-world history: religious tomes haven’t been part of this 14)
…development, because they were ALWAYS on the scene, written out in duplicate by hand in monasteries and temples, and then by (in monasteries and temples, along with papermaking and binding) printing press.#Realmslore— Ed Greenwood (@TheEdVerse) September 30, 2019