Classicly

The Evangelist here speaks of books—of the possibility of writing an immense number of them on one subject; and thus he calls to our mind the saying of the wise man, that “of making many books there is no end.”  They were very numerous in the ancient world.  The library of the Ptolemies at Alexandria was of such prodigious magnitude that it numbered half a million volumes.  Large public and private collections were not uncommon in St. John’s time; and in Rome, at that period, the bookseller’s trade signally flourished.  In the shop doors lists of new publications were exhibited; nor were the prices of some by any means immoderate, a considerable proportion of the MSS. being so small as to come under the modern denomination of pamphlets or tracts.