Ready for a little history?
If visiting Florence, Italy, in the early 15th century, you would find the Via de Librai, or the Street of Booksellers, in the heart of the city. The various booksellers and stationers on the street sold paper from nearby paper mills and parchment made from the skin of calves or goats. But most importantly, they produced manuscripts, which they sold according to the customer’s requirements. For example, you could have a scribe copy a particular manuscript and perhaps illuminate it with gold leaf and painted designs.
Avid readers
Many Florentines purchased books: seven out of ten adults could read and write. So, too, could many girls who were taught these skills from an early age. Almost 80% of Florentine boys attended school. In 1420, princes and religious personages amassed large libraries. Scholars and philosophers gathered on the Via de Librai to discuss the works of ancient Greeks and Romans. At the time, some were fortunate enough to own works by Lucretius and Cicero that had been lost for centuries.
A new book
As you stroll along the Via de Librai, you might visit one of the larger bookshops owned by a man named Guarducci, who paid rent to abbey monks at the rate of 15 florins per year plus a pound of candle wax. After scribes made a copy of the manuscript you brought, Guarducci’s young assistant would take the dozens of pages, assemble them in proper order then stitch them together with leather thongs. The pages would then be neatly placed between wooden boards that you might want covered with fabric or leather.
Looking ahead
While adding to your personal library, you could chat with fellow bookworms who often gathered outside Guarducci’s shop, intellectuals who exchanged ideas for creating a better society. Reading and the wisdom it brought inspired 14th-century Florentines to hope for a full life based on friendship, loyalty, justice and political freedom.
What an interesting concept.
James River Writing 