Can you imagine setting lead type by hand in order to print a book? How many pages or spreads did they print at a time? Setting all the type upside down and backward, for each page, which the original was—handwritten?
Then printing the number of pages you needed to create however many books had been ordered, and then starting over on the next 4-6 pages.
Even a small book would take days or weeks. They must have cost a fortune.
Sounds exhausting.