How was the Bible distributed before the printing press was invented in 1455?

Answer 1

Believe it or not it was handwritten. Specially trained scribes - usually teams of monks in ancient abbeys - worked day and night copying The Bible by hand. They worked in places called 'scriptoriums' and copied the bible letter by letter. Others were trained to proofread these copied scriptures to ensure that no mistakes were made. Others were trained to bind the pages into a book as we know it. Even more were involved in distributing the finished bibles to churches. Nowadays, handwritten Bibles can sometimes be seen in museums. They are spectacular works of art as the monks often illustrated them too with beautiful coloured drawings and gold leaf. One such book is the Book Of Kells, a book of gospels, that pre-dates printing and is to be found in Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. Because the Bible was handwritten, obtaining a copy was difficult and expensive. Early churches may have had just one copy of the Bible - chained to the lectern to prevent theft. In addition to this, wall paintings of bible stories were often seen in very old churches because most people could not read, and so the priest would have to read the bible for his parishioners.