A great number of those who purchased those superstitious mansions [monastic properties], reserved of those library books, some to serve their jakes [lavatories], some to scour their candlesticks, and some to rub their boots. Some they sold to the grocers and soap-sellers, and some they sent overseas to the bookbinders, not in small number, but at times whole ships full, to the wonderment of foreign nations.

Andrew Pettegree, Arthur der Weduwen, The Library- A Fragile Hist…, loc. 248