Why Were Medieval Books So Expensive?

Getty medievalist Larisa Grollemond discusses bookmaking in the Middle Ages

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Ancient Life

A medieval book open on a table. One page is blank, the other has a colorful illumination. A hand holds a magnifying glass over the image

Mar 28, 2023

Imagine it’s the 14th century, and you’re in need of a book.

You can’t just walk into a bookstore or shop Amazon. And you’re definitely going to need some serious dough. Medieval books were really expensive. Here's why.

An illuminated page. Christ sits on a throne holding a book in one hand and a flower in the other. Below him, two figures are seated at desks, surrounded by loose pages — *Missale benedictinum ad usum Trecensem*, 1001-1100, French. Parchment, 13 x 9 in. Bibliothèque nationale de France. Département des Manuscrits. Latin 818.

A significant expense was the medium. Medieval European books were made from parchment. Parchment is made from a type of animal hide—usually cow or sheep—that was processed by professional parchmenters who applied their skill for weeks to prepare a single skin.

A detailed illumination featuring a robed man in a library at an ornate desk, copying a smaller document onto a larger page — *Thucydide*, 1501-1600, French. Parchment, National French Library, Manuscripts Department, French 17211

Then there’s the cost of the other materials needed: ink for the scribe, pigments for illuminating pictures or decoration, or gold leaf to make something especially fancy.

A detail of an illuminated manuscript featuring a seated monk copying the text of one book onto a fresh page — *Hermit*, 1st quarter of the 14th century, French. Parchment, 19 x 13 in. The British Library, Royal 14 E III, f. 6v. Image licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

Now, factor in the labor.

In the early Middle Ages, most bookmaking was done by monks. But by the 13th century, the industry had grown to include specially trained artisans working for a wide variety of customers.

A full page illumination featuring 9 robed men around a central figure. All of the peripheral monks are seated and writing in books. The central figure holds a staff — *Yves de Saint-Denis*, 14th Century, French. Parchment, National French Library, Department of Manuscripts, 2090

Often a single book was coordinated by someone called a libraire, sort of like a contractor who charged their own fee. The libraire would employ scribes who wrote the text out by hand, illuminators who made the illustrations, and binders who put those pages together to make a book.

That is quite a lot of cost for one book. And while it’s difficult to pinpoint the cost of the average medieval book, it was a much more time, labor, and sheep intensive endeavor than modern book-making!

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