A personal view by Kenneth Clark

'In the 19th century people used to think of the invention of printing as the lynch-pin in the history of civilisation. Well, fifth-century Greece and 12th-century Chartres and 15th-century Florence got on very well without it - and who shall say that they were less civilised than we are. Still on balance, I suppose that printing has done more good than harm.'
The theme of protest and communication leads Kenneth Clark to the Reformation - the Germany of Albrecht Durer and Martin Luther-to Erasmus, to the France of Montaigne, and to the Elizabethan England of Shakespeare.
Extracts from Shakespeare performed by William Devlin, Ronald Lacey, Eric Porter, Ian Richardson, Patrick Stewart

(Book £4.75, paperback £2.25: see p 54)