They kept older books in circulation by amending them, attached items to generic books to make them more relevant and valuable, and added new prayers with escalating indulgences as the culture of salvation shifted. This would give them an affordable product, but one that still smacked of luxury and met their individual needs. Owners consequently purchased books made for an open market and then personalised them, filling in the blank spaces, and even adding more components later. Book buyers of the late fourteenth and throughout the fifteenth century still held onto the old connotations of manuscripts-that they were custom-made luxury items-even when the production had become impersonal. It also led to more blank parchment in the book, for example, the backs of inserted miniatures and the blanks ends of textual components. Increased efficiency led to more generic products, which owners were motivated to personalise. Most manuscripts made before 1390 were bespoke and made for a particular client, but those made after 1390 (especially books of hours) were increasingly made for an open market, in which the producer was not in direct contact with the buyer. These activities accelerated in the fifteenth century. Rather than discard them when they were superseded, book owners found ways to update, amend and upcycle books or book parts. Made by highly specialised craftspeople (scribes, illuminators, book binders) with labour-intensive processes using exclusive and sometimes exotic materials (parchment made from dozens or hundreds of skins, inks and paints made from prized minerals, animals and plants), books were expensive and built to last. Medieval manuscripts resisted obsolescence. Download Piety in Pieces Book in PDF, Epub and Kindle
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