> After 1850, I think mass printing took off, or something, but you can feel books were not luxury items anymore. I guess it depends on what you think of as "m

> After 1850, I think mass printing took off, or something, but you can feel books were not luxury items anymore. I guess it depends on what you think of as "mass printing", but estimates have it that in the 16th century Venice alone produced around 25,000 editions of books. You can also find references to Italy producing relatively mass amounts of paper by that time, distributed to western Europe and Constantinople through Venice. You really didn't need to be "enormously wealthy" to buy a paper book at the time. Wealthy, to some extent? Yes, moreso revealed by the fact that you were literate, but not crazy wealthy. Also, in general, people simply often had a different relationship to books than we do today. They were not regarded as priceless objects, or as things ruined by marginalia. Writing marginalia was seen as a fundamental part of reading and owning a book, part of how one understands a book and makes it theirs. Having a personal library was as much about having the books on hand as well as having your margin notes.