the use of the reportateurs , advanced students, who were able 
to teach the others on the basis of notes they had taken.”

     But the slow and precise mode of dictamen  or dictation 
was not only aimed at the production of usable private 
editions, as it were:

          . . . in taking the course in this manner, they took 
     into account the skimpy preparation of the students. . . . 
     It is clear that the students followed these courses not 
     only to procure texts but also because they were obliged 
     to learn the texts in the process of writing them correctly 
     and legibly. . . .
          The expression modus pronuntiantium  was not used 
     in the statutes simply to designate a course procedure of 
     speaking aloud and duly articulating the words. It was a