' Their number was always
limited, and the pay they received very large. The rest, simply called
'copisti,' were partly mere clerks who made their living by such work,
partly schoolmasters and needy men of learning, who desired an addition
to their income. The copyists at Rome in the time of Nicholas V were
mostly Germans or Frenchmen--'barbarians' as the Italian humanists
called them, probably men who were in search of favours at the papal
court, and who kept themselves alive meanwhile by this means. When
Cosimo de' Medici was in a hurry to form a library for his favorite
foundation, the Badia below Fiesole, he sent for Vespasiano, and
received from him the advice to give up all thoughts of purchasing
books, since those which were worth getting could not be had easily,
but rather to make use of the copyists; whereupon Cosimo bargained to
pay him so much a day, and Vespasiano, with forty-five writers under
him, delivered 200 volumes in twenty-two months. The catalogue of the
works to be copied was sent to Cosimo by Nicholas V, who wrote it with
his own hand. Ecclesiastical literature and the books needed for the
choral services naturally held the chief place in the list.
The handwriting was that beautiful modern Italian which was already in
use in the preceding century, and which makes the sight of one of the
books of that time a pleasure.
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