How did writers before the consumer economy make a living?

by Zer0Summoner

Today, you write a book, someone just whether it can make money or not, and, if so, they print a run of it and sell them to people. The writer gets a fee and some percentage of the royalties.

I doubt that worked like that in the days of Chaucer, Milton, Alighieri, et cetera. Shakespeare had a theater and probably charged admission and whatnot, but how did the rest of them make money? Were they all independently wealthy?

Also, what about scientists, historians, mathematicians, and such in the days before there were universities with grants, commercial labs, and everything that supports them now?

I'm particularly interested in Europe prior to consumer economies and, preferably, prior to widespread literacy.

TsarandSultan

Many of them had wealthy patrons who commissioned their work. Others had positions in institutions like the Catholic Church.

To take some examples:

  1. Chaucer had a very rich career ranging from a noblewoman's page to a civil servant. [1]
  2. Milton, too, was a public servant. Most notably, he served as the Secretary for Foreign Tongues for the Council of State. Such people were numerous. See Ceri Sullivan's book Literature in the Public Service (New York: Palgrave, 2013), which contains a chapter on Milton.
  3. Dante Alighieri, while educated as a pharmacist, was mainly a political figure in Florence. He held numerous positions in the municipal administration. [2]
  4. Petrarch was both a travelling diplomat of sorts and was employed at the church (in positions such as an interim priest at Avignon). [3]
  5. Solomon ibn Gabirol, one of Spain's most prominent poets of the medieval era, was supported by the Caliphs and other rich patrons. [4] Others in medieval Spain worked as doctors or taught for a living.

[1] Rosalyn Rossignol. Critical Companion to Chaucer: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work (New York: Facts on File, 2006). 551.

[2] Giulio Ferroni, Storia della Letteratura Italiana (Milan: Mondadori, 2006), 2:5.

[3] J.H. Plumb, The Italian Renaissance (Wilmington: Mariner Books, 1961), 165.

[4] Loewe Raphael, Ibn Gabirol (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989).