The advent of print in Renaissance England brought about a sweeping shift in literacy. Because the printing press altered the nature of the book--books were no longer long, hand-copied, single-sheet manuscript scrolls but rather compact, mechanically reproduced, multiple-sheet codices--it also altered practices of reading. Hand-copied manuscript scrolls were prohibitively expensive; only an elite few could afford to possess them, and even fewer were literate enough to read the Latin script such scrolls were often copied in. The printing press virtually eliminated the work of the copyist, rendering the product more accessible both economically and culturally. The mechanically reproduced text, or "codex," was increasingly printed in the vernacular tongue--English. Thus, the printing press stimulated a rebirth--a "renaissance"--in the literate arts, a rebirth for which the entire era is conventionally known.

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