( 199^ ) 
mf, leUufacilis, which mean Opinion or^the Anci- 
ent Copies, by the way, may have been the Occation of ; 
the Lofs of many a good Author. \ 
The Likarii ct Book'^rlters were from the time of the I 
Romans a particalar company of men, and their Bufinefs a 
Trade : But tho Bookrvpritlng was their profeliion, yet they 
afterwards had but a third part of the bufinefs. 
Learning (after the Eredion of Monafteries,) was chiefly 
in the hands of the Clergy ^ and they were for the moft 
part Regularsy and liv*d in Monafteries: Amongft thefe 
were always many induftrious men, who wrote continual- 
ly new Copies of old Books, for their own ufe, or for the 
Monaftery, or for both ^ which feems to have fwallowed 
up above half the bufinefs. Then, if an extraordinary 
Book was to be written, for the ftandiftgy and more parti- 
cnlar Vfe of the Church or Monaftery, the AntiqHariu^ 
muft be fent for, to write it in large CharaBers, after the old 
mmner, and fuch a Copy they knew would laft for many 
Ages, without Renovation. Between thefe two forts of 
People, the Writing-Monks and Antiquarii 5 the poor Li- 
hrai'ij or common Scriptorei ( who had Families to main- 
tain ) could hardly earn their Bread. This put them up- 
on a quicker way of difpatch, that fo they might under- 
fell one another : And in order to this Difpatch, they 
would employ feveral perfons, at one time, in writing the 
fame Book, ( each perfon, except him who wrote the fi ft 
Skin, beginning where his Fellow was to leave off:) Or 
elfe, they would form the Letters fmaller and leaner^ and 
make ufe of more JugMiom and Abbreviations than ufually 
Others di^. And this, my Lord, is the only account that 
.1 can give, for that Variety of Hands which in former Ages, 
being learn'd of, or borrow'd from the Romans^ was com-* 
monly us'd, and in fafhion at the fame time, and in the fame 
Country, (throughout thefe Weftern Parts ot Europe,) 
and for their growing lefs and lefs for one Age after ano- 
ther. An Inftance of this may be givtn from the 
Hands 
