Did they read books in the middle ages?

Answer 1

1st Answer:

No. About 90% of the population couldn't read or write and book publishing was impossible because the printing press wasn't invented until 1446.

2nd Answer:

Yes, people read books. Among the books they read were Beowulf, the Niebelungenlied, Dante's Divine Comedy, Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur, Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, the Lais of Marie de France, works by Wolfram von Eschenbach, works by Walter von der Vogelweide, more than one book called Tristan, the Quest of the Grail, Roman de la Rose, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Piers Plowman, the Mabinogion, and the Elder Edda. There were many others.

From extant materials, we can tell there was a lot of material that has been lost. For example, medieval literature lists twelve important Anglo-Saxon poets. We have both biographical information and poetry from only three. We do not have complete works of any of them, and there were clearly important poets who have been completely lost to history, as even their names are not recorded. Beowulf, which is the most important extant Anglo-Saxon poem, exists in only a single manuscript, which was very nearly lost in a fire at one point.

King Alfred the Great subsidized the translation of important literature into English for the benefit of his subjects who could not read Latin. He also had an educational policy, under which all with the status of freemen and higher would receive an education. Counting free peasants, of whom there were a lot in England, nobility, clergy and nuns, it is clearly possible that he wanted very large part of the people of the land to be able to read.

Book publishing was done by hand, and was very expensive. Nevertheless, wealthy people of the High Middle Ages and Late Middle Ages bought books. Christine de Pizan, who supported her family by publishing and selling poetry, had her own scribes working for her when she needed multiple copies of her works.

There are links below.