I think if one were to investigate the price of score in the 16th century, you would find that their high price made them accessible only to wealthy persons. (And many professional lutenists were wealthy.) I once looked into the price of high quality paper in 16th century Augsburg, paper of the kind one would use to copy lute music. A ream of folio sized paper (about 9x12) in Augsburg cost the equivalent of a kitchen servant's monthly salary. Today a ream of highest quality paper could be bought with three hour's work by a dishwasher. I should also have checked the price of other items in daily use, such as a loaf of bread.
The cost of copying pieces onto that paper was probably rather modest o9n those days if one hired a professional scribe. The salaries were probably rather low because there were so many of them (like lawyers today). The Augsburg guild of scribes refused to take apprinetices unless they agreed to leave Augsburg when their training ended, because of the glut of scribes. So it would probably be rather inexpensive to have tablatures copied, and from time to time one does encounter what is surely the work of a professional scribe. I have wondered how easy it was to purchsase a handwritten book of lute music in a stationer's shop. I do know one instance of such a manuscript.. Some stationers had equipment for drawing stave lines (not just a rastral). Not too much has been studied about professional scriptoria, althogh we are coming to realize that many music publishers also sold music copied by hand, perhaps on demand. The most famous was the Breitkopf scirptorium in Leipzig during the 18th century. They had music from throughout Euroipe and would on order [rovide hadnwritten copies. They even published famous thematic catlaogues of their offerings, including some tablatures with music by SLWeiss, some of which has not survived. The largest collection of lute music from the Breitkopf scriptorium is from the library of Fétis, the 19th-century music lexicographer, whose library went to the Royal Library in Brussels. These are the concertos, partitas, suites etc. that so many of you play by Kohaut, Durand, Falkenhagen, Hagen, Weiss, Baron, Kropfgans, et al. Fétis bought three or four bundles of music from the Breitkopf auction of 1820. The auction lot numbers are still on the music.
