2. Scriptorium
A writing room in a monastery
set aside for the use of scribes
engaged in copying, writing, or
illuminating of manuscripts and
records.
From the medieval Latin script-
scribere (to write) and orium
(place)
6. Monk working in a scriptorium, engraving a 15th century manuscript
Photos.com/Thinkstock
7. Roles
• Armarius or Bibliothecarius
• Antiquarii
• Librarii or Scriptores
• Illuminator
• Notarius
• Corrector
8. A medieval monk copying from a text, in a scriptorium
The Bettmann Archive
“Only three fingers write, but the whole body
toils.” Scribe Eadbeorht
9. History
Cassiodorus (485/90-c.580) in Italy
was the first to dwell on the spiritual
value of transcribing texts in a
scriptorium
“Every work of the Lord
written by the scribe is a
wound inflicted on Satan.”
517, First European monastic writing
10. • 529 Benedict of Nursia, Monte Cassino
Rule of St. Benedict
“Idleness is the enemy of the
soul”
• 819-826 Benedictine Scriptoria of St.
Gall had 400 books
Benedictines
12. Cistercians and
Carthusians
1134 Cistercian Order, monks
should be silent in scriptorium
Carthusians viewed copying as
missionary work
Start of 13th century, secular
copyshops developed
16. BIBLIOGRAPHY
• Broderick, Robert C. The Catholic Encyclopedia. T. Nelson, 1976.
• Cahill, Thomas. How the Irish saved civilization. Vol. 1. Anchor, 1996.
• Ferguson, Everett. Encyclopedia of early Christianity. Vol. 1. Routledge, 1990.
• ”Scriptorium." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 22
Jan.2013. Web. 18 Feb. 2013.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scriptorium
• Johnston, William. Encyclopedia of monasticism. Vol. 2. Routledge, 2000.
• Lerner, Fred. The story of libraries: From the invention of writing to the computer age.
Continuum, 2009.
• McDonald, William J., ed. New Catholic encyclopedia. 7. His to Jub. McGraw-Hill, 1967.
• "scriptorium." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online Academic
Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 19 Feb. 2013.
<http://www.britannica.com.eres.library.manoa.hawaii.edu/EBchecked/topic/530013/scri
ptorium>.
• Stewart, David R. “Libraries, Western Christian.” In Encyclopedia of Monasticism, Ed.
Wm. M. Johnston. Vol.1. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2000: 235-236.
http://www.library.uiuc.edu/ereserves/item.asp?id=51281
Hinweis der Redaktion
This place needed to be warm enough for the copying of books, but a library was also needed for studying. Both of these were included in a basic plan for a monastery. The scriptorium would often be on the lower floor and the library or bibliotheca on the upper.
Plan of Sankt Gallen (820-830) shows scriptoriums to have six windows and seven writing tables set against the walls where monks write sitting down
When no room was set aside for this activity, separate little cells or studies called “carrels” were usually made in the cloister where each scribe would have a window and desk to himself.
Armarius: (provisioner)A person who took care of the scriptorium by providing everything needed for scribes, including desks, ink, parchment, pens, pen knives, pumice stone, and reading frames. Antiquarii: monks in monasteries who copied Librarii or Scriptores: common writers Illuminator: scribe who excelled at painting dedicated to this workNotarius: worked chiefly on legal documentsCorrector: catch errors – alterations showed differences in handwriting and shades of inkParchment might be made in the sciptorium and books would be bound here before being sent to the library. Sometimes one monk might work on every stage of production.
Jean Mielot (d. 1472) compiling Miracles de Nostre DameScribes would spend an average of 6 hours of day working, which as we learned in our reading that it is back-breaking work, and how difficult some some was to translate.They would write in continuous script (or scriptio continua)Artificial light was forbidden for fear of injury to the manuscripts.Transcription was also an act of meditation and prayer not merely replication of letters, and viewed as a form of asceticism.
Until the rise of universities, most of the intellectual activity in the Western church was linked with a monastic library so we have this to thank for the transmission of tradition.
Books were provided for the monastery’s own use and for other monasteries and leaders. Books to be copied would be borrowed from other monasteries as well.Hand of scriptoria were influenced through social and cultural connectionsHere is an example of Confirmation in Latin between 1385-1399 on parchment.
