How much do books cost?

[Tancred]

I havent seen any references in the GRRM novels as to how much books cost in Westros. In a pre-printing press era books were very costly and rare being hand written, and referenced in the novels (Tyrion's wedding present for Joffrey, and Samwell Tarly paying for his crossing from Braavos with the books of Maester Aemon) as certainly costly. In the pre-generated characters in the GOT rulebook, the maester character comes with books listed in equipment, but the cost of books arent listed under equipment. My gut says 1-10 gold dragons per book, with rare tomes more. Any thoughts?

[Kajani]

I would say, it may be in many cases as you say (more than 10 gd only for very, VERY rare books), but there may be also some for less money, perhaps half a dragon or so. Thin, "common" near to centres of literarcy (I mean, 50 SS is the price for an ordinary war-horse, 150 for an excellent riding-horse, myrish lens cost only 20 SS and I think good glas-work should be not to far away from cheap books...).

[Pytorb]

I went with a book costing 11ss, based on some historical english prices around 1400. In addition I estimated the cost of a cabin on a ship to be about 2.5 ss a day. But then the prices in the main rulebooks I found to be inflated by ten or twenty times above the equivalent historical price, especially for things like weapons and armour.

[Tancred]

Thanks for the replies. I was originally trying to find costs of books in 11th century money( I almost always equate Westros to Henry II's Angevin empire) but couldnt get any figures I could work with.

[Pytorb]

Doing a bit of thread archeology there are a couple of different price lists here...

viewtopic.php?f=29&t=9894

(passenger prices on-board ship have been figured out subsequently as 2.5ss a day for a cabin and 1ss a day for space in the hold).

[Kival]

Would your table still work, just increasing all prices by 10 to 20 times? I really don't want to change prices after they've already been used but I'd like to have an overview for costs like taverns and the like.

[Pytorb]

As long as wages go up with costs I can't see any reason why not (though you might get to the position of a copper coin being virtually unusable which may, or may not, be an issue). All the money references in the main rulebook e.g. starting money, cashing in wealth resource etc. should work just fine.

[Kival]

Oh, I fear I cannot really use it as the relation between weapons, armours, horses and clothes have been altered dramatically... I have to meditate about it though I must admit that aSoIaF is the rpg today and wares cost seem to be relatively most unimportant of all rpgs I've ever played, because the players are part of a noble house which relatively big ressources.

[Aran MacFiona]

Thanks for the replies. I was originally trying to find costs of books in 11th century money( I almost always equate Westros to Henry II's Angevin empire) but couldnt get any figures I could work with.

Actually late 15th century England is more appropriate if you want to equate Westeros with a place and a time from our world. And 11th century was from 1001 to 1100. There was no Angevin empire during this century. Henry II of England was king during the 2nd half of 12th century.

[Kajani]

If I may ask - how you convert medieval prices into those in Westeros? As far as I understand, a stag is not the same as an shilling, and perhaps a penny not a penny, because you have much more stags/ pennies “in a dragon” than pennies or shilling in a historical pound, if I understand that right…

[Legate]

I haven't gotten to the point in the story where the examples above are played out, but I might put forth the following opinion. Perhaps it is that the books were expensive enough to cover the price of a boat fare, but it was the information in them that was rare and made them so. To back this up I point to Ser Jorah's wedding gift to Dany of Histories and Stories of Westeros and him saying something to effect of "forgive the gifts of a poor knight." This lends me to believe the books he presented were fairly common and not that expensive. I would think you could have the range of books in Westeros span a spectrum from almanacs for farmers and common folk for a few pennies right up to a rare well bound tome written by a Grand Maester of the past going for hundreds of Gold Dragons.

Just my 2 cents.

[Tancred]

I haven't gotten to the point in the story where the examples above are played out, but I might put forth the following opinion. Perhaps it is that the books were expensive enough to cover the price of a boat fare, but it was the information in them that was rare and made them so. To back this up I point to Ser Jorah's wedding gift to Dany of Histories and Stories of Westeros and him saying something to effect of "forgive the gifts of a poor knight." This lends me to believe the books he presented were fairly common and not that expensive. I would think you could have the range of books in Westeros span a spectrum from almanacs for farmers and common folk for a few pennies right up to a rare well bound tome written by a Grand Maester of the past going for hundreds of Gold Dragons.

Just my 2 cents.

I wonder if that was just modesty on Ser Jorah's part, but good point I had forgotten that scene. That does make me wonder what the literacy rate was.

[Kajani]

I think the noble men are a bit more civilized than in many parts of the medival ages - most of them seem to be able to read and write at least the common language. And that Stannis use leaflets (if I remember right) to spread rumors about Cerseis children speaks for the fact that several people could read them. But I think in most hamlets only some people could read, and many lower people in the towns and castles are also not able...

[Legate]

Quite true the Smallfolk, with the exception of Lay Clergy and the like, would be illiterate (and not have much free time to read even if they could). But, the "yeoman" class and above had a better then average chance at some level of education. The salient point of the thread is about the cost of books, not the literacy rates in the Seven Kingdoms. I would picture that pamphlets would be available for a few pennies, simple bound books for a Stag or two, and fully illuminated Tomes for multiple Gold Dragons to Treatises by Masters in a particular area of study being almost priceless (I think Tyrion mentioned, in the TV series, that the Stark library had the only complete book in the Seven Kingdoms on Siege craft written by a particular Maester he had seen.) Something like that would be beyond value.