this post was submitted on 05 May 2025
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Before the printing press books were copied by hand, making them very precious. Monasteries, churches and universities were the primary keepers of libraries in medieval Europe. People who were wealthy or connected enough to pursue an education would read at institutions like that. Only extremely wealthy people would have personal libraries of more than a small amount of books and most would have none (And no access to getting any. Hence why so many peasant demands of the church were more rural preachers to literally read them the bible, as they otherwise had no means of doing so)
As an addendum to my post: that last point is one of the reasons why I will never respect the idea common among Internet leftists that the catholic church used to be good or that protestantism is inherently worse. The medieval catholic church not only opposed by violence the notion that the word of God should be translated or available for all to read, they also resisted by violence the demand that they do their one fucking job (Administering the sacraments and reading the bible to anyone who didnt have a title)