Alcuin of York (735-804) Carmina (song) XCIV on Punctuation or "Pointing" a Text when Making Scribal Copies

Per cola distinguant proprios et commata sensus        <Let them analyse the correct meaning according to cola and commata,>

et puncts ponant ordine quosque suo,                <and let them insert those relevant marks of punctuation in their proper hierarchy,>

nel vel falsa legat taceat vel forte repente                    <so that the lector [reader] may neither misread, nor by chance fall silent suddenly>

anti pios fratres lector in ecclesia.                      <before the devout brothers in church.>

(The translation is by M. B. Parkes, Pause and Effect: an Introduction to the History of Punctuation in the West (Berkeley: U. of California P., 1991) 35.