Before the moveable printing press, printing was a long and often boring task. In places like China they had used wooden blocks for printing for hundreds of years. While this was a good idea, you still had to make a new block for every page you wanted to print.
In Europe, monks did most of the printing by hand drawing and illustrating books. This meant that it took years for one book to be made. Ideas did not spread quickly like this. A new book could take years to have more than one copy printed. Monks stuck to making copies of the Bible and important medical books. Universities would have only one copy of important books and students such as medical students (people training to be doctors) wouldn't be able to own a copy of a book. They would have to listen to people read out the information.