Widespread book ownership drove the aristocracy to abandon books as status symbols

Evidence

This democratisation of luxury, making widely available what was once rare and precious, is a recurrent phenomenon in every era of human history, but it has often had painful consequences for book collecting. An aristocrat could hardly expect the same reception for their collection of 300 texts when the local cloth merchant had as many: better to buy a sculpture, a painting or a lion. Emperor Maximilian II sent his books off to the attic because they no longer featured in this lexicon of conspicuous display. — Andrew Pettegree, Arthur der Weduwen, The Library- A Fragile History, 28

Categorization

• XREF: Analogous to modern prestige shifts, e.g. vinyl and print-on-demand status dynamics. — connects to: Books carried totemic symbolic value beyond their textual content. — Andrew Pettegree, Arthur der Weduwen, The Library- A Fragile History, 379; Sixteenth-century bookshops and pedlars expanded book ownership in Europe — Andrew Pettegree, Arthur der Weduwen, The Library- A Fragile History, 953; Traditional social structures and orders can disintegrate over time (+1 more)
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Andrew Pettegree, Arthur der Weduwen, The Library- A Fragile History, 28

Broader Connections

• Sixteenth-century bookshops and pedlars expanded book ownership in Europe #expands (0.70) — Andrew Pettegree, Arthur der Weduwen, The Library- A Fragile History, 953
• Cheap reformation pamphlets drew new buyers into book ownership #expands (0.70) — Andrew Pettegree, Arthur der Weduwen, The Library- A Fragile History, 231
• Traditional social structures and orders can disintegrate over time #exemplifies (0.60)