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The first printed books began to appear during the second quarter of the lS1h century. The earliest examples were put together in a number of different ways, sometimes leaving space for decorations and ornate capitals to be added by miniaturist painters, and sometimes 71 containing handwritten text alongside printed illustrations. Most of them had texts and pictures printed entirely from woodblocks, which is how they got the name "block-books". Printing was normally done on separate leaves which were then bound together in book form. The obvious advantage of having printed text and visual images together on one sheet was quickly grasped by monks, who saw its potential as a means of spreading knowledge, and as an economic and effective way to get their message across to a wide audience. The monasteries, however, by no means had a monopoly on the production and sale of woodcut printing; in fact, probably the most profitable area of European printmaking was the production of playing cards. Nonetheless, the content of most surviving block-books is essentially biblical. The purpose of the illustrations was functional: to make the meaning of the stories as clear and as understandable as possible to those who were unable to read the often difficult text. It was also a result of the need to popularize the stories that the characters were presented in contemporary clothes and the illustrations contained details of ordinary life in the late Middle Ages.
