One-stop shop

History Today tells how medieval scribes adapted to the onset of printing by reusing and expanding their existing materials, tools and skills.

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At its height Oxford’s book trade enjoyed the establishment of Dominican and Franciscan friaries in need of books for university activities and preaching, and an early demand from lay figures for luxury private prayerbooks.

By the later Middle Ages, however, the industry was facing challenges: print was threatening the demand for handwritten texts, and Oxford felt increasing competition from other book production markets, such as the City of London. The decline meant Oxford’s scribes had to find ways of supplementing their incomes.

For those in the book trade, brewing was a natural complement: the ingredients of beer, such as bran, were also used in manuscript production as a chemical aid in the preparation of parchment skins and as a medium in the mixing of colour pigments.

The university also ran a loan chest system, which allowed students and masters to pledge books, clothing, plate, and other goods in exchange for financial loans. Items were deposited in chests stored in the university church as security.

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Students haven’t changed in 600 years. What do students need?

Books, beer, and bucks.

The scribes already sold the books. They amortized bookbinding materials to make beer, and amortized accounting skills to run a pawn shop.

The article mentioned that the bookish brewers often ran afoul of the metrologists who checked the quality and quantity of beer. Those government records help historians to track and understand the regulated trades.