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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Enemies of Books by William Blades: manuscripts of extreme antiquity, but all were dreadfully dilapidated.
Many had lost whole sections which had been violently extracted,
and in many all the blank margins of the vellum had been cut away.
In fact, the mutilation was thorough.
"Grieved at seeing the work and the wisdom of so many illustrious men
fallen into the hands of custodians so unworthy, Boccaccio descended
with tears in his eyes. In the cloisters he met another monk,
and enquired of him how the MSS. had become so mutilated.
`Oh!' he replied, `we are obliged, you know, to earn a few sous
for our needs, so we cut away the blank margins of the manuscripts
for writing upon, and make of them small books of devotion,
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