Alcuin of York on Punctuation and Proper Transcription of Divine Texts

(a poem in the form of a letter to Charlemagne, "Ad Museum libros Scribentium”):

        Here let the scribes sit who copy out the words of the Divine Law, and likewise the hallowed sayings of the Holy Fathers.  Let them beware of interspersing their own frivolities in the words they copy, not let a trifler’s hand make mistakes through haste.  Let them earnestly seek out for themselves correctly written books to transcribe, that the flying pen may speed along the right path.  Let them distinguish the proper sense by colons and commas, and let them set points each one in its due place, and let not him who reads the words to them either read falsely or pause suddenly.  It is a noble work to write out Holy Books, nor shall the scribe fail of his due reward.

(The boldface passage is the often-quoted, but also often-not-translated excerpt, cited in Brown, "Whence the Semicolon?")