Medieval stationers broke textbooks into rentable quires to speed copying

Evidence

The pecia model allowed for a single text, generally a key textbook, to be reproduced simultaneously in parts. Whereas an entire book might take half a year to transcribe, stationers divided a text into standard quires, often eight pages long, which students could rent out for a short period of time. — Andrew Pettegree, Arthur der Weduwen, The Library- A Fragile History, 129

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the pecia system as a rental of standard eight-page quires.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Andrew Pettegree, Arthur der Weduwen, The Library- A Fragile History, 129
• XREF: connects to: Dissolution-era library books were used as toilet paper, kindling, and ballast — Andrew Pettegree, Arthur der Weduwen, The Library- A Fragile History, 248