Reading Comprehension

Read the text and answer the question.

When the printing press spread through Europe in the late 1400s, the price of books did not fall overnight. Early printed volumes were costly because paper was scarce and skilled typesetters were few. Wealthy buyers even asked printers to leave blank spaces so that artists could add hand-painted decorations, imitating the manuscripts they admired. Only over several decades, as paper mills multiplied and more workers learned the trade, did prices drop enough for modest households to own a book or two. The lasting change was not instant cheapness but a steady widening of who could read.