Mabillon (Etudes Monastiques, tom. i. p. 47-55) has collected many curious facts to justify the literary labours of his predecessors both in the East and West. Books were copied in the ancient monasteriesof Egypt (Cassian. Institut. l. iv.c.12), and by the disciples of St. Martin (Sulp. Sever. in Vit. Martin. c. 7, p. 473). Classiodorus has allowed an ample scope for the studies of the monks; and we shall not be scandalised if their pen sometimes wandered from Chrysostom and Augustin to Homer and Virgil.