The Economy of Books

Ars Magica players often argue about the availability of books within the Order of Hermes, and every troupe has to make a choice. Does the Order have the resources to enable publication and distribution on an almost industrial scale? Or do the magi live under almost normal medieval circumstances, where books are rare and expensive?

A case can be made for either position. The question is not really which alternative is most plausible, because each is plausible under certain assimptions. The question is rather which alternatives gives the right feel for your story, and what assumptions should be made to make a consistent interpretation of Mythic Europe. Below, I will outline two alternatives which I consider plausible and internally consistent.
In both cases, the interpretation of Cow and Calf will be central, so let’s review that principle first.

Cow and Calf

Cow and Calf is the canon interpretation of medieval copyright.

It is an agreement that the purchaser of a book will not sell, or freely give, copies of that book without the seller’s permission.
[Cov:95]

Thus, in canon, authors and covenants may sell copies of their books, reserving all rights to future copies. This makes it possible for good authors to earn good vis on a couple of good books.

The principle of Cow and Calf originates with the dispute between St. Columba and Finian in Ireland in the 6th Century. Briefly told, St Columba secretly copied a book from Finian’s collection, and Finian claimed that the copy would belong to him, as the book’s owner. The king was asked to arbitrate, and ruled in Finian’s favour, with the famous words:

To every cow belongs its calf; to every book its copy.

To consider the analog first. Cows are commonly rented for the milk with the understanding that any offspring belong to the cow and its owner, unless explicitly agreed otherwise. However, when a calf is sold, the seller would not make a claim to its grand calf.

Contrary to the canon interpretation of Cow and Calf, the historical interpretation applies only on books on loan or lease, including scribal hospitality.

• Reference: Ruth Suehle

World 1. Hermetic Book Industry

Covenants suggest a bustling Hermetic book trade. Some covenants specialise in copying books for sale, circulating catalogues with the redcaps, who can broker deals. A large number of covenants are able to recruit, train, and retain mundane scribes trained in magic theory, and they produce enough copies to satisfy the market.

World 2. Medieval Scarcity of Books

It may be difficult for covenants to recruit enough staff to copy books in a large scale. The effect of the Gift makes the posting at the covenant unattractive, and there are enough other opportunities. The few covenants who are able to copy books in large quantities use it for political advantage. Books are not offered on the open market, but allies and close contacts may be able to negotiate trade.

Lease and hospitality

Trading books to own is not the only way to share and publish knowledge in Mythic Europe. There are at least two more options.

1. Books are lent or leased. Since the owner retains ownership, these books may be regarded under Cow and Calf, even in a historical interpretation.
   
2. Scribal hospitality, also condoned by canon [Cov], where a magus pays to stay at another covenant to use their library. The visiting magus may or may not be granted a license to copy.

House rules on book production

Covenants provides a ruleset to give more variation in book levels. Potentially, this gives story hooks as the covenant need to make an effort to recruit expert scribes and craftsmen. However, there is a risk that only the very best is considered satisfactory, and a lot of time is wasted fiddling with the details of securing the right staff and supplies. The troupe has to choose if it is worth this risk.

Comparing the rules for writing and copying summæ on arts and abilities, there are a couple of confusing rules.

1. Calculating the cost in build points [Cov] and the quality gain from reduced level, an ability level equates to three art levels.
2. To calculate the time taken to author a summa, an ability level equates to five art levels.
3. Copying summæ, at least as the rules are written, art and ability levels count the same.

The last item is probably a misprint, and the factor for copying should be the same as for authoring. The factor of five may seem excessive though. A level 5 ability summa takes the same time to author as a level 25 art summa. The former accounts for 75xp while the latter accounts for 325xp.

The core rules have an option for fast copying, whereby the quality is reduced by one. The effect is ambiguous, as it is not clear if the inferior copy can serve as an original to make full-quality copies. It could be that the fast copy is complete, but harder and slower to read. It could also be that some information is lost in the fast copying, by missing minor details. If the latter option is chosen, it has an interesting consequence. Covenants who produce books for sale, can choose to fast copy, retaining a better original themselves than what they offer to the client. The client will not be able to produce new copies at the same price and quality of the original seller. This allows the seller to retain a commercial advantage, even without legal copyright protection.

Proposed house rules.

1. We do not use the optional book rules from [Cov].
2. For the purpose of calculating the time to author or copy an ability summa, the author or copyist need to accumulate points equal to three times the level. Thus an ability level is considered equivalent to three art levels in all respects.
3. When a book is fast copied, information is lost. That is, when a book has reduced quality from fast copying, it cannot serve as the original to make copies of full quality. If it is fast copied again, the quality drops another point.

Proposed Economics of Book Trade

The following is a suggestion for prices and lead times, based on the assumption that some covenants copy texts in sufficient scale to allow redcaps to organise brokering.
However, the logistics is not perfect, and it is not fast. I have deliberately tried to avoid the ideaised mail order service that some sagas support.

Prices may seem high, but they include brokers’ fees to the redcap. Better prices can be obtained by making good contacts and trade directly with the different book producers, but this requires time and skill to achieve. If the player characters go into book production, the price they get is half the price paid; the other half covering brokerage and transport.

For each category of item, I provide a suggested price and a suggested chance of the item being available. The availability could be rerolled, say every ten or twenty years, indicating changes in both supply and demand.

It is expected that it takes six seasons (1½ year) from the magi decide to order until the item is available at the covenant. This is assuming that the redcaps visit the covenant every season. This accounts for the time it takes to deliver the order, locate a provider, copy the item, and deliver it to the ordering covenant.

Hermetic Books

There is quite a selection of Hermetic books on a regular basis. It is suggested that once a given title has been rolled to exist, the stats are fixated for that art. While other titles may exist of similar stats, there should not be a large number of them, and a second title of the same category should have a much lower chance to exist.

Magi should not be able to know the exact stats of a book until they have been able to inspect it.

The prices should vary slightly between tribunal. The present prices were designed for Hibernia, but are probably to low for those outskirts of the Order.

Note that I assume that Cow and Calf does not apply to books sold, so these books can be copied and sold.
The books are normally fast copied, and thus the selling covenant have originals of quality one higher. This lost point of quality cannot be recovered, as it represents flaws and irregularities which are only spotted by careful study byu an expert.

Tractatus

Tractatus should be quite abundant, but there should not be an unlimited supply. For each art, as well as Magic Theory, Finesse, Penetration, and faerie and magic lore, roll 7+1D6 for the highest quality available, and 1D6 for the number of titles available at this level. In most cases, especially for quality 10 and above, all the available tractatus are authored by the same author.

For each quality level from 8 and below the highest quality available, there is a 40% chance of finding 1D6 titles, except for magic and faerie lore where the chance is only 30%.

Lab Texts

The brokers at Harco take the job of locating and arranging trade of lab texts on demand. They typically charge 1p per three magnitudes for low magnitude spells (up to sixth magnitude) and 1p per two magnitudes for higher magnitude spells.

The percentage chance of finding a given canon (unrestricted) spell within 1½ year is 90 less its level. The availability roll is made the first time a spell is requested. Note that certain spells, such as quaesitorial magic [HoH] should be considered restricted and available only through the relevant House or Mystery Cult.