entirely upon the exercise of their art as
a means of obtaining a subsistence, leads us to the conclusion that
ancient manuscripts were by no means so very scarce in those days; for
how absurd and useless it would have been for men to qualify themselves
for transcribing these antiquated and venerable codices, if there had
been no probability of obtaining them to transcribe. The fact too of its
becoming the subject of so much competition proves how great was the
demand for their labor.[59]

We are unable, with any positive result, to discover the exact origin of
the secular scribes, though their existence may probably be referred to a
very remote period. The monks seem to have monopolized for some ages the
"_Commercium Librorum_,"[60] and sold and bartered copies to a
considerable extent among each other. We may with some reasonable
grounds, however, conjecture that the profession was flourishing in Saxon
times; for we find several eminent names in the seventh and eighth
centuries who, in their epistolary correspondence, beg their friends to
procure transcripts for them. Benedict, Bishop of Wearmouth, purchased
most of his book treasures at Rome, which was even at that early period
probably a famous mart for such luxuries, as he appears to have journeyed
there for that express purpose. Some of the books which he collected were
presents from his foreign friends; but most of them, as Bede tells us,
were _bought_ by himself, or in accordance with his instructions, by his
friends.[61] Boniface, the Saxon missionary, continually writes for books
to his associates in all parts of Europe. At a subsequent period the
extent and importance of the profession grew amazingly; and in Italy its
followers were particularly numerous in the tenth century, as we learn
from the letters of Gerbert, afterwards Silvester II., who constantly
writes, with the cravings of a bibliomaniac, to his friends for books,
and begs them to get the scribes, who, he adds, in one of his letters,
may be found in all parts of Italy,[62] both in town and in the country,
to make transcripts of certain books for him, and he promises to
reimburse his correspondent all that he expends for the same.

These public scribes derived their principal employment from the monks
and the lawyers; from the former in transcribing their manuscripts, and
by the latter in drawing up their legal instruments. They carried on
their avocation at their own homes like other artisans; but