Before the invention of movable type and the printing press in 1450, the Bible was laboriously copied one word at a time by scribes who devoted their lives to providing the Holy Scriptures to those who could read. It has been estimated that it would take at least ten months for a writer of those days to produce a simple copy of the bible; longer if it contained embellishments in the form of artwork. If a scribe worked ten hours per day, six days per week, for forty-four weeks, and was paid $5.00 per hour, it would cost $13,200 to transcribe one Bible. This does not include the cost of materials.
Another authority has estimated that 427 skins of parchment would be necessary and that the total cost of a Bible would, therefore, be approximately $50,000.00. With the monks, of course, it was a labor of love. Nevertheless, in those days the Bible was a costly book; usually chained in churches for its safekeeping.