(1) In 1471 Roger leaves his monastic life to become a chapman .(2) The roads were thronged with petty chapmen , with their news-sheets, tracts, almanacs, cautionary tales, pamphlets full of homespun wisdom; pedlars with trinkets of all sorts; and travelling entertainers.(3) And smaller books were not just available from bookshops: all cities and towns would have had pedlars or chapmen selling pamphlets from trays or baskets hanging from their necks.(4) But these books are short - about twenty pages each - and without a spine, so we can call them chapbooks, which once meant works of popular literature sold for a few pennies, carried around by peddlers or u2018 chapmen u2019.(5) Chapmen on foot were the poorest and those with shops the richest.
