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February 18, 2008
EL 336 - Trithemius
No labor is more profitable than his eminent work. Whoever may want more information on this subject should read the book by Johannes Gerson, chancellor of the University of Paris, De laude scriptorum. There can be found in abundant detail the above mentioned benefits and advantages of the art of copying and a multitude of collected arguments in praise of the good scribe. No other manual labor is more suitable for us than copying." (Trithemius pg 472)
Profitable, I think not. At least if you are not published as a writer. Important, yes! I mean look at the writer's strike in hollywood that just ended. Writer's have always been one of the strongest pieces of human society. There wouldn't be famous journalists or authors if it weren't for people like Trithemius. Scribes and monks who wrote dictated words. I wish the public felt the same amount of respect that they used to for writers. Even the writers who write the instructions to your kitchen dishwasher. Writing anything that anyone reads down should not be taken forgranted.
Posted by RachelPrichard at February 18, 2008 10:14 PM
Comments
There's still plenty of respect for certain writers (best-selling novelists with rabid fans, for instance)--it's just that there are so many writers today that written works aren't as much of a rarity as they were in Trithemius' time. Scarcities are by nature more precious than those things we have in abundance.
Posted by: ChrisU at February 19, 2008 9:08 AM