40000 manuscripts over a period of centuries is very strange. That’d be less than a manuscript a day for the whole continent.
I know literacy was low, but that’s just unreasonable. “People only use 10% of their brains” territory.
I know literacy was low, but that’s just unreasonable. “People only use 10% of their brains” territory.
If we include the larger categories (like the religious texts) then it would be higher, but not that much higher, given the many man-months of work each copy required.