In the mid-1400’s movable type printing catalyzed an explosion of human knowledge: the Protestant Reformation, the Scientific Revolution, political revolutions, standardization of law, language, & education, and egalitarian access to public discourse.
But to people who made books by hand in the 1400’s – monastic scribes, university copyists, and manuscript illuminators – movable type was a scary, existential change.
Some scholars distrusted the flood of books. There are records of intellectuals worrying that cheap printed books would spread errors, nonsense, and shallow learning. The complaint “too many books are being published” appears almost immediately after printing becomes widespread.
Scribes sneered at print as cheap and ugly. They criticized paper as an inferior long-term medium compared to parchment.
In cities such as Paris and Venice copyists petitioned authorities for protection, or complained about printers undercutting them.
Some scribes became early print entrepreneurs. Manuscript illuminators started decorating printed books. Scribes became proofreaders, editors, type designers, or printers themselves. A few monasteries even operated presses.