> Strikingly, the most intelligent and thoughtful intellectual of the early church seems to have read fewer things than an average modern eight year old. To follow the depiction by Antonello da Messina, St Jerome appears to be the proud owner of about ten books in all!
What is a painting from 1475 supposed to tell us about the reading habits of the real St. Jerome, patron saint of librarians?
The paper "A History of Early Christian Libraries from Jesus to Jerome" by Thomas M. Tanner looks like a good source of information on the subject, but sadly it's only available from JSTOR.