You did notice, that the title of the Covenants p.87f chapter you are referring to is Extended Suggestions of the Quality of Books, and that in particular the box on p.88 lists both core rules and extended rules?
The extended rules are just suggestions to consider in your troupe, and not rules to assume in every book that follows Covenants. Tellus pointed you at this already in The Book Rules are a mess .
So it appears, that a misunderstanding is at the base of the mess you perceive.
Cheers
Personally (and Durenmar seems to agree with me) I'd argue that tractati are almost never going to be vain, unless the writer is Incomprehensible or low-Com. Every tractatus adds new knowledge that can be studied after the great summae are exhausted. (Also, the best tractati are probably not made by specialists, they're made by Jerbitons.)
The other thing, and this is a saga question: How many great summae are there? How many of them are protected by ironclad Cow and Calf? Just how forthcoming is Durenmar when it comes to its best books? If Durenmar is known for hoarding the Branches and generally treating the Oath like an inconvenient guideline, then great books will be harder to come by than if Bonisagus and Mercere are actively making sure that anyone can get a copy if they're willing to make the effort to copy.
Finally, the Roots seem to (by their very nature) break the vain/sound/excellent taxonomy, because they're designed from the ground up to be copied and spread across the Order on the cheap - essentially, the antithesis of the way other great books are treated.
I don't follow you here, how does Durenmar agree with you? Why are Jerbitons the best tractatus authors?
Durenmar doesn't have a lot of control of whether books can be copied. That's up to the author and possibly his heirs, if he has a will. The right to sell a copy of the book is the author's.
I don't follow you here, how does Durenmar agree with you? Why are Jerbitons the best tractatus authors?
Durenmar doesn't have a lot of control of whether books can be copied. That's up to the author and possibly his heirs, if he has a will. The right to sell a copy of the book is the author's.
Without knowing what Ramidiel's thoughts behind those statements were I'd still wager a guess:
Jerbiton magi could be believed to focus on social skills so a positive Com could be common? Plus GOod Teacher may very well be among their Free House Virtues.
But then again, other houses or magus types may very well also like high Com, namely those interest in debate and writing books.
If using the expanded rules from Covenants for book Qualities why should only magi Jerbiton use illuminators and coloured inks? Any magus wanting a good book to sell or become famous for would want good binding, good vellum and illumination.
If anything an artistic Jerbiton would create an overly embellished book with little substance - fancy looking but poor Quality.
As for Durenmar, if the contents of the library is believed to be mainly produced by magi Bonisagus them it could very well be a House politic to always write books with the Cow & Calf clause. And copy rights could be administered by the librarian of Durenmar in lieu of the real authors. In which case Durenmar effectively controls the information. So this depends on how you interpret Durenmar, Bonisagus etc. in your saga.
For the first, it says in GotF 55 that tractati will usually be accepted as service for study, while a bunch of Art summae won't.
Second, Jerbiton magi are more likely to have a high Com and Good Teacher than other magi. This isn't a hard and fast rule, but I'd argue that it's a stronger tendency - amusingly so. Of course, Christian Andersen also makes a good point - this may not apply for more artsy and less academic Jerbitons.
The other thing with Jerbitons and tractati is that Jerbitons are still magi, and so they may have an interest in Durenmar or just in engaging in the book trade, but as the House considers studying magic for its own sake to be a bit tacky (HoH: S 45), a magnum opus-level summa in magic (as opposed to an academic subject) is less likely.
Durenmar doesn't have a lot of control of whether books can be copied. That's up to the author and possibly his heirs, if he has a will. The right to sell a copy of the book is the author's.
[/quote]
If Durenmar gets a book that isn't already protected by the author, they will use the Durenmar version of Cow and Calf to protect copies of the finest books from the book trade (Covenants 95).