For this week’s prompt, I have thought of a very interesting scenario. In one of the earlier class sessions in the library, we examined manuscripts dating back to the Middle Ages. With these pieces, everyone noticed the great amount of labor that went into creating the intricate details of the books, as well as the material that these works were made out of. For my what if scenario, I am wondering how things would be if the printers of the time had access to modern printers and materials. The issue presented with this is that if this were the case, then we would not be able to view such materials today. The reasoning behind this assumption has to do with the issues of quality and preservation. As some people have stated in previous blog posts, the advances in mass production have resulted in books of lower quality. Today, people have the knowledge of how to preserve such fragile materials for the future. However, in the Middle Ages, such knowledge would not be available. So, it is not unreasonable be to assume that if the modern form of books had existed back then, hundreds of years of exposure to various elements would have removed such objects from existence.
If people back in the Middle Ages had the technology of today, then it would be safe to assume that the earliest authors would have had the technology of the Middle Age scribes, which is to say manuscripts and scrolls. It would indeed be interesting to see if any of those would survive to the present day, although considering the pristine condition in which they are in currently, it would be safe to assume that the highest quality books would have survived the ages. The vellum that the manuscripts were written on is certainly of much, much higher quality than average paper, and would probably last pretty long.
I agree with “If people back in the Middle Ages had the technology of today, then it would be safe to assume that the earliest authors would have had the technology of the Middle Age scribes.” If this were true we would be in a more advanced state of technology and would probably be looking at ancient kindles and old laminated hard cover books wondering why it took us so long to discover self sustaining energy.