‘Printers they know none’: the material text and textual culture in seventeenth-century European travel writing about Persia

Many European seventeenth-century travellers to Persia observe that the Persians did not produce printed books. This article explores the context for the apparent absence and attempted introduction of printing with movable type in Persia in the seventeenth century and considers the representation of Persian textual culture in European travel writing. European attempts to introduce printing with movable type were unsuccessful due to technological challenges, but also because of the book culture that already thrived in Persia, in which manuscript and oral traditions played an important part. European travel writings noted the presence of these other forms of literary culture, even when they did not fully understand them. This article seeks to contribute to our understanding of how Persia as a material space was understood in early modern Europe by examining the ideas about Persia which the absence and introduction of printing technology permitted or perpetuated.