What Happened to the Monks After the Printing Press?
How scribes and monasteries adapted when printing reduced the need for manuscript copying.
Many simply continued being monks. This is probably the biggest answer. A monastery had many functions besides copying books. So if printing reduced the amount of copying required, the monastery simply redirected his labor.
Some scribes became teachers, administrators, scholars, or priests. This is where things get really interesting. The skills acquired through manuscript culture were actually extremely useful in the new world of print. A highly educated monk might be exceptionally good at:
- Latin
- Greek
- theology
- grammar
- rhetoric
- textual criticism
- proofreading
- editing
- translating
- teaching
So monks actually became part of the printing revolution. This is one of the delightful ironies. The printing press didn’t simply replace manuscript culture. It absorbed manuscript culture. Early printers needed people who understood books. So the relationship was less:
Monks → replaced by machines
…and more:
Manuscript culture → transformed into print culture