Ordinance of the Copy-House -- witness E
Authored teaching copy. Not a transcription of a real manuscript.

 1  Let the copyist sit at the north window, where the light is even.
 2  He shall keep two quires at hand: one for the exemplar, one for the copy.
 3  The exemplar is not to be marked, nor folded, nor carried from the house.
 4  If a word is doubtful, he shall set a point beneath it and pass on.
 5  He shall not mend what he does not understand, for the mending is worse
 6  than the doubt, and the doubt at the least is honest.
 7  At the ninth hour he shall rest again at the twelfth,
 8  for the hand that does not rest will write what the eye has not read.
 9  Every quire shall be numbered before it is written, and counted after.
10  Let the master compare the copy against the exemplar, line against line.
11  What the master strikes, the copyist shall write again, and write it fair.
12  And the house shall keep the copy also.
