| Summary: | <p>Gutenberg’s invention of printing with movable type was an innovation in many respects. However, its impact, particularly in the early years, has not been comprehensively investigated. Hardly any example is better suited to answer this question than Lübeck early print production. In 1474 Lübeck, as the economic and cultural centre of the Hanseatic region, became the first printing city in northern Germany. Its production is characterised by an exceptionally high proportion of religious writing and an equally high proportion of literature in the Middle Low German vernacular. These works were aimed at a steadily expanding audience, especially a pious lay public, which at that time was increasingly striving for religious participation. Based on Lübeck, its print production and current discourses on religious practice, this study addresses two questions: the interaction between printed text and its context, as well as the role the printers played in this relationship.</p>
<p>Using five representative literary examples, the author first identifies the printers’ self-formulated agenda and examines their scope for action, then traces the reciprocal influence of printed literature and current trends in religious practice - namely the rosary and Mary's compassion -, and concludes by asking about the geographical and social reaches of early printed literature. Her holistic approach, including all levels of the printed book from the text to the edition to the individual copy, allows for a meticulous tracing of the interactions between early print production and contemporary developments at the intersection of materiality and mediality. With its combined historical-literary approach the thesis not only offers a contribution to Middle Low German literary history and a new perspective on the Hanseatic region as a cultural network, but reveals the impact of early printing with the printers as agents on the threshold between the Middle Ages and Early Modern times.</p>
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