An increased demand for books during the 1500s meant that:

An increased demand for books during the 1500s meant that:

A. fewer books were written in the vernacular.

B. more books were written in the vernacular.

C. fewer people read classical works

D. more people read Chinese works.

Answer: B. more books were written in the vernacular.

The demands for books throughout the 1500s led to improved accessibility and more production of written works; which came with more vernacular literature. These factors began to come together during this period, and thus it can be considered as the start of this particular trend. The social impact of this particular invention was that more books could be printed in a shorter time and at lower cost therefore the general public could be informed or educated more easily. With increasing literacy levels, there was a need to read, write, and communicate in familiar languages, easily comprehendible and closely aligned to the users’ languages such as English, French, or German instead of Latin or Greek.

These changes in vernacular literature were very connected with the social and spiritual trends of the period, including the Renaissance and the Reformation. For instance, when Martin Luther translated the Bible to German this put a lot of pressure on religious leaders to translate and make religious documents easily accessible to the common person in their language. At the same, writers in England such as William Shakespeare developed English literature as did Miguel de Cervantes in Spain writing in Spanish, thus deeming it as a formative period of national literature. This was additionally influenced by the evolution of the publishing business, where, to find readers for their products, local language books started being published. It is for such a reason that this trend towards vernacular literature not only disseminated knowledge but also aided in the bureaucratization of the languages and formation of nations. Altogether, with the expanded number of books written in the vernaculars, there appeared a symbiosis of the newly emerging European culture of the 16th century with the idea of the democratization of knowledge.