Piece by piece

How the pursuit of speed, quality control, and cost efficiency drove the book cultures of medieval Europe to innovate

How do you produce books faster, cheaper, and with fewer mistakes, in a world where every single one has to be copied by hand? In the 13th century, as universities like Paris and Bologna boomed and student populations surged, the demand for texts far outstripped the ability of scribes to supply them.

Enter the pecia system: an ingenious solution that re…