Sir-Toby.Com

I was reading this link from the New York Times (http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/14/scien ... ner=GOOGLE) on the lost works of Archimedes, and what struck me as interesting was to what lengths the monks of the Middle Ages would go to in reusing old parchment. Unfortunately the link requires that you register with them, but here is the relavent quote:

In the 13th century ... Christian monks, needing vellum for a prayer book, ripped the manuscript apart, washed it, folded its pages in half and covered it with religious text. After centuries of use, the prayer book — known as a palimpsest, because it contains text that is written over — ended up in a monastery in Constantinople.

It reminded me what a revolution cheaper paper and the printing press were.

So my question is, did the limits of technology of 600-1400 play a part in limiting production of books in Western Europe around this time? Was there anything about medieval society that made widespread illiteracy inevitable? Is it plausible to imagine a society with swords, horseback travel, castles, and a medieval technology where it is likely that Fred and Astra could read?[/quote]

My answer is yes. Of course all peasants were illiterate, but books and parchment were still available to the nobility, more so than to the usually money-deprived clergy. Naturally the Pope had lots of cash, but in your typical monastery, the monks would usually subsist of nothing but fruit and veggies, red wine and the occasional roast boar. While most mediaval lords were indeed illiterate alcoholics, it was usually by choice. So yeah, I see no reason why Fred and Astra shouldn't be able to read, especially if they came from families that had books and treasured the gift of literacy.

In our own Middle Ages, I believe that many even of the nobility were illiterate, and made use of scribes, but that was only because learning to read and write was difficult and they - or their fathers - couldn't see the need. In our alternative fantasy world, attitudes needn't be the same.

Prior to printing, books were copied by hand, which meant that there naturally weren't many. What there were were mostly bibles and prayer books. Also the Dark Ages meant a great setback to literacy, so that probably a smaller proportion of the population were literate in 1000 AD than a thousand years earlier.

The Roman example is a good one.

The invasions of the Vikings, Arabs, and Magyars, and political instability in Western Europe probably did not help, either. The nobility may have been too busy fighting, or dying off too quickly, to spend time in study. If my recollection of Chinese history around this time is correct, mastering the classics of their literature played a key role in advancement at court. And I think that the samauri and noble classes in Japan retained widespread literacy even during times of chaos, due to the prestige value of obtaining it.