> copying texts on any sort of scale without anything like a printing press was hard, specialized work Not disputing that it was an expensive luxury thing, but

> copying texts on any sort of scale without anything like a printing press was hard, specialized work Not disputing that it was an expensive luxury thing, but let's not take it to the extreme that the ancients were helpless in that regard. Clearly they were able to preserve a number of titles throughout centuries, there were many books commonly read and cited. (Until they disappeared toward the late first millennium.) If some piece was really core and central to them, they generally managed not to lose it, just because of the need (again, not some abstract desire for preservation). If they stopped, it means that either they collectively lost interest in some swaths of intellectual activity, or lacked the means because of an economic and civilizational slump. In fact both those factors were likely at play here. The transition from scrolls to codices, that you are probably alluding to, was a force multiplier for this process.