humblest cottage of the poorest peasant without
observing the Scriptures on his little shelf--not always read, it is
true--nor always held in veneration as in the old days before us--its
very plentitude and cheapness takes off its attraction to irreligious and
indifferent readers, but to poor and needy Christians what words can
express the fulness of the blessing. Yet while we thank God for this
great boon, let us refrain from casting uncharitable reflections upon the
monks for its comparative paucity among them. If its possession was not
so easily acquired, they were nevertheless true lovers of the Bible, and
preserved and multiplied it in dark and troublous times.

Our remarks have hitherto applied to the monastic scribes alone; but it
is necessary here to speak of the secular copyists, who were an important
class during the middle ages, and supplied the functions of the
bibliopole of the ancients. But the transcribing trade numbered three or
four distinct branches. There were the Librarii Antiquarii, Notarii, and
the Illuminators--occasionally these professions were all united in
one--where perseverance or talent had acquired a knowledge of these
various arts. There appears to have been considerable competition between
these contending bodies. The notarii were jealous of the librarii, and
the librarii in their turn were envious of the antiquarii, who devoted
their ingenuity to the transcription and repairing of old books
especially, rewriting such parts as were defective or erased, and
restoring the dilapidations of the binding. Being learned in old writings
they corrected and revised the copies of ancient codices; of this class
we find mention as far back as the time of Cassiodorus and Isidore.[57]
"They deprived," says Astle, "the poor librarii, or common scriptores, of
great part of their business, so that they found it difficult to gain a
subsistence for themselves and their families. This put them about
finding out more expeditious methods of transcribing books. They formed
the letters smaller, and made use of more conjugations and abbreviations
than had been usual. They proceeded in this manner till the letters
became exceedingly small and extremely difficult to be read."[58] The
fact of there existing a class of men, whose fixed employment or
profession was solely confined to the transcription of ancient writings
and to the repairing of tattered copies, in contradistinction to the
common scribes, and depending