Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626) once said, "Knowledge and human power are synonymous." Perhaps most definitive of the span of time from 1450-1600 is the shift of human power, and the most significant aspect of development the expansion of the collective knowledge of the common people. The circulation of this knowledge brought huge cultural impacts and defines what today is embraced in concepts of reality. While the year 1492 is often linked with the birth of the modern world, it was forty years prior when the original dawn began.
             In the early to late Middle Ages, publication and text circulation was of purpose solely for the institution of the Church. Such publication took place in monasteries across Europe as an act of religious devotion. Creation would often take over a year, and was viewed as an art form in the presentation of spirituality and God, no two works alike. These manuscripts had little influence on the common society in Europe, and rather were unseen in the massive libraries of the monastery to which few had access. Originally, books were far too valuable to expand to the general public, thus there was no way to use these works for scholarship. The work of the monks did not expand beyond the world of the Church. The seclusion of text circulation to the Church aided to maintaining its continual position of power. It was only in the Church that a Bible could be viewed and only through words of the priest that it could be understood.
             At some point, there was a shift away from religious focus that facilitated itself in the developing universities. A new relationship with books was developing and new demands being created. Books focused on more secular subjects were available for copying, and while tedious and erroneous, this process allowed for a spreading and development of ideas that had not occurred since the days of the great ancient world. A new emphasis in acquiring knowledge outside of religio...