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Codex Berinensis, a Florentine copy of an ancient Roman medical treatise, is undated but contains clues to when it was produced. Its .rst 80 pages are by a single copyist, but the remaining 20 pages are by three different copyists, which indicates some signi.cant disruption. Since a letter in handwriting identified as that of the fourth copyist mentions a plague that killed many people in Florence in 1148, Codex Berinensis was probably produced in that year.


Which of the following, if true, most strongly supports the hypothesis that Codex Berinensis was produced
in 1148?
(A) Other than Codex Berinensis, there are no known samples of the handwriting of the .rst three copyists.
(B) According to the account by the fourth copyist, the plague went on for 10 months.
(C) A scribe would be able to copy a page of text the size and style of Codex Berinensis in a day.
(D) There was only one outbreak of plague in Florence in the 1100s.
(E) The number of pages of Codex Berinensis produced by a single scribe becomes smaller with each
successive change of copyist.

i choose A because the fourth mentioned 1148 and no known samples were found for the rest.

Correct answer is D .I rejected this because it is possible to write about 1148 in someother time. Here we want to prove that the document was written in 1148.

[GMATGuruNY]

Codex Berinensis, a Florentine copy of an ancient roman medical treatise , is undated but contains clues to when it was produced. Its first eighty pages are by a single copyist, but the remaining twenty pages are by three different copyists, which indicates some significant disruption. Since a letter in handwriting identified as that of the fourth copyist mentions a plague that killed many people in florence in 1148, Codex Berinensis was probably produced in that year.

Which of the following, if true, most strongly supports the hypothesis that Codex Berinensis was produced in 1148?

(A) Other than Codex Berinensis, there are no known samples of the handwriting of the first three copyists.
(B) According to the account by the fourth copyist, the plague went on for 10 months.
(C) A scribe would be able to copy a page of text the size and style of Codex Berinensis in a day.
(D) There was only one outbreak of plague in Florence in the 1100s.
(E) The number of pages of Codex Berinensis produced by a single scribe becomes smaller with each

Premises:
The first 80 pages of the CB were produced by a single copyist.
The last 20 pages were produced by three different copyists.
The fourth copyist mentions a PLAGUE IN 1148.

Conclusion:
The CB was probably produced in 1148.

The ASSUMPTION is that the plague in 1148 CAUSED the first three copyists to stop working, implying that all four copyists worked on the CB in 1148.

One way to strengthen a causal argument is RULE OUT ANOTHER POSSIBLE CAUSE.
Answer choice D: There was only one outbreak of plague in Florence in the 1100s.
By ruling out the possibility of an earlier plague, D supports the assumption that the PLAGUE IN 1148 caused the first three copyists to stop working.
Thus, the conclusion that the all four copyists worked on the CB in 1148 is strengthened.

The correct answer is D.

Here we want to prove that the document was written in 1148.

The correct answer does not have to PROVE that the CB was produced in 1148.
It merely has to SUPPORT THE LINK between the CB and the plague in 1148.
By ruling out the possibility of an earlier plague, D supports this link.