Texts were frequently copied by visual inspection, i.e. in a situation where the copyist had an older manuscript that was to be copied in front of him / her. Sometimes, however, they have been copied by dictation, i.e. when somebody read the text found in the exemplar aloud to one or several copyists. Some scholars also distinguish this “external” dictation from “internal” dictation (French: dictée intérieure), when a copyist memorises a passage of the exemplar for a few seconds and “dictates” it to him/herself to actually copy it.
Reference
– Bayet, Jean, ed. 1961. Tite-Live: Histoire romaine. Livre I. Texte établi par Jean Bayet et traduit par Gaston Baillet. Paris: Les Belles Lettres. || See p. LXXXVI.
In other languages
DE: Diktat
FR: dictée
IT: dettatura
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