to request this book ‘ex Augustino’. In another library this 
     same text, say the De duodecim abusivis , would be bound 
     third in a volume beginning with something by St. Cyprian. 
     There the same treatise would be ‘ex Cypriano’. This is 
     but one prolific source of ‘authorship’ attributions, which 
     cause one and the same text to be referred to by a 
     variety of names.
          There is another circumstance, much too often 
     forgotten, which greatly adds to the confusion. To the 
     medieval scholar the question: Who wrote this book? 
     would not necessarily or even primarily mean: Who 
     composed this book? It might convey that the inquiry was 
     for the identity of the scribe not of the author. And this 
     would often be a much easier question to answer, for in 
     any abbey the characteristic hand of a brother who wrote 
     many fine books did remain traditionally familiar for