It was really interesting to learn that The Prince was not unique for its time for being a book written for only a single person to ever read.
Before the printing press, books were expensive and cumbersome to copy. And even after printing was established, elites often wanted proprietary insights. So they’d pay someone to write a book just for them, or just for their kids.
Some of these books have survived, like The Prince. But maybe most of them are lost.
The funny thing is that maybe the era when books were mostly written to be published widely was the exception, and we’re returning to the Renaissance standard. Already most of the words I read in a given day are written just for me by AI.
As AIs get to human level and beyond, we might be back with masterpieces that are only ever read by one or two people.