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Scriptorium (), literally "a place for writing", is commonly used to refer to a room in medieval European
monasteries
A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which ...
devoted to the writing, copying and
illuminating
Lighting or illumination is the deliberate use of light to achieve practical or aesthetic effects. Lighting includes the use of both artificial light sources like lamps and light fixtures, as well as natural illumination by capturing daylig ...
of manuscripts commonly handled by monastic
scribe
A scribe is a person who serves as a professional copyist, especially one who made copies of manuscripts before the invention of automatic printing.
The profession of the scribe, previously widespread across cultures, lost most of its promi ...
s.
However, lay scribes and illuminators from outside the monastery also assisted the clerical scribes.
The functional outset
![Escribano](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/00/Escribano.jpg)
When monastic institutions arose in the early 6th century (the first European monastic writing dates from 517), they defined European literary culture and selectively preserved the literary history of the West. Monks copied
Jerome's
Jerome's Furniture Warehouse is a family-owned chain of discount furniture stores in Southern California, with its headquarters in San Diego, California. The company's key owner and figurehead is Jerome "Jerry" Navarra.
History
In 1954, Ji ...
Latin Vulgate Bible
The Vulgate (; also called (Bible in common tongue), ) is a late-4th-century Latin translation of the Bible.
The Vulgate is largely the work of Jerome who, in 382, had been commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Gospels u ...
and the commentaries and letters of early
Church Fathers
The Church Fathers, Early Church Fathers, Christian Fathers, or Fathers of the Church were ancient and influential Christian theologians and writers who established the intellectual and doctrinal foundations of Christianity. The historical per ...
for missionary purposes as well as for use within the monastery.
In the copying process, there was typically a division of labor among the monks who readied the parchment for copying by smoothing and chalking the surface, those who ruled the parchment and copied the text, and those who illuminated the text. Sometimes a single monk would engage in all of these stages to prepare a manuscript.
The
illuminators of manuscripts worked in collaboration with scribes in intricate varieties of interaction that preclude any simple understanding of monastic manuscript production.
The products of the monasteries provided a valuable medium of exchange.
Comparisons of characteristic regional, periodic as well as contextual styles of
handwriting
Handwriting is the writing done with a writing instrument, such as a pen or pencil, in the hand. Handwriting includes both printing and cursive styles and is separate from formal calligraphy or typeface
A typeface (or font family) is ...
do reveal social and cultural connections among them, as new hands developed and were disseminated by travelling individuals, respectively what these individuals represented, and by the examples of manuscripts that passed from one cloister to another.
Recent studies follow the approach, that ''scriptoria'' developed in relative isolation, to the extent that
paleographers are sometimes able to identify the product of each writing centre and to date it accordingly.
By the start of the 13th century, secular workshops developed,
where professional scribes stood at writing-desks to work the orders of customers, and during the
Late Middle Ages
The Late Middle Ages or Late Medieval Period was the Periodization, period of European history lasting from AD 1300 to 1500. The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period (and in much of Eur ...
the
praxis
Praxis may refer to:
Philosophy and religion
* Praxis (process), the process by which a theory, lesson, or skill is enacted, practised, embodied, or realised
* Praxis model, a way of doing theology
* Praxis (Byzantine Rite), the practice of fai ...
of writing was becoming not only confined to being generally a monastic or regal activity. However, the practical consequences of private workshops, and as well the invention of the
printing press
A printing press is a mechanical device for applying pressure to an inked surface resting upon a printing, print medium (such as paper or cloth), thereby transferring the ink. It marked a dramatic improvement on earlier printing methods in wh ...
vis-a-vis monastic ''scriptoria'' is a complex theme.
There is also evidence that women scribes, in religious or secular contexts, produced texts in the
medieval period
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
. Archaeologists identified
lapis lazuli
Lapis lazuli (; ), or lapis for short, is a deep-blue metamorphic rock used as a semi-precious stone that has been prized since antiquity for its intense color.
As early as the 7th millennium BC, lapis lazuli was mined in the Sar-i Sang mines, ...
, a pigment used in the decoration of medieval
illuminated manuscripts
An illuminated manuscript is a formally prepared document where the text is often supplemented with flourishes such as borders and miniature illustrations. Often used in the Roman Catholic Church for prayers, liturgical services and psalms, the ...
, embedded in the dental calculus of remains found in a religious women's community in Germany, which dated to the 11th-12th centuries.
Chelles Abbey
Chelles Abbey (french: Abbaye Notre-Dame-des-Chelles) was a Frankish monastery founded around 657/660 during the early medieval period. It was intended initially as a monastery for women; then its reputation for great learning grew, and with the ...
, established in France during the early medieval period, was also well known for its scriptorium, where nuns produced manuscripts and religious texts. There is also evidence of Jewish women working as scribes of Hebrew texts from the 13th to 16th centuries, though these women primarily worked out of their homes rather than religious institutions, as daughters and wives of scribes.
Women were not only the producers of these texts, but could also be the consumers or commissioners of them.
There were also women who worked as professional, secular scribes, including
Clara Hätzlerin in 15th century
Augsburg
Augsburg (; bar , Augschburg , links=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swabian_German , label=Swabian German, , ) is a city in Swabia, Bavaria, Germany, around west of Bavarian capital Munich. It is a university town and regional seat of the ' ...
, who has at least nine surviving manuscripts signed by or attributed to her.
The physical scriptorium
Much as medieval libraries do not correspond to the exalted sketches from
Umberto Eco
Umberto Eco (5 January 1932 – 19 February 2016) was an Italian medievalist, philosopher, semiotician, novelist, cultural critic, and political and social commentator. In English, he is best known for his popular 1980 novel ''The Name of the ...
's ''
The Name of the Rose
''The Name of the Rose'' ( it, Il nome della rosa ) is the 1980 debut novel by Italian author Umberto Eco. It is a historical murder mystery set in an Italian monastery in the year 1327, and an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction, ...
'', it seems that ancient written accounts, as well as surviving buildings, and archaeological excavations do not invariably attest to the evidence of scriptoria. Scriptoria, in the physical sense of a room set aside for the purpose, perhaps mostly existed in response to specific scribal projects; for example, when a monastic (and) or regal institution wished a large number of texts copied.
References in modern scholarly writings to 'scriptoria' typically refer to the collective written output of a monastery, somewhat like the
chancery in the early regal times is taken to refer to a specific fashion of modelling formulars, but especially traditional is the view that scriptoria was a necessary adjunct to a library, as per the entry in du Cange, 1678 'scriptorium'.
San Giovanni Evangelista, Rimini
At this church whose patron was
Galla Placidia
Galla Placidia (388–89/392–93 – 27 November 450), daughter of the Roman emperor Theodosius I, was a mother, tutor, and advisor to emperor Valentinian III, and a major force in Roman politics for most of her life. She was List of Visigothi ...
(died 450), paired rectangular chambers flanking the apse, accessible only from each aisle, have been interpreted as paired (Latin and Greek) libraries and perhaps scriptoria. The well-lit niches half a meter deep, provisions for
hypocaust
A hypocaust ( la, hypocaustum) is a system of central heating in a building that produces and circulates hot air below the floor of a room, and may also warm the walls with a series of pipes through which the hot air passes. This air can warm th ...
s beneath the floors to keep the spaces dry, have prototypes in the architecture of Roman libraries.
Cassiodorus and the Vivarium
The monastery built in the second quarter of the 6th century under the supervision of
Cassiodorus
Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator (c. 485 – c. 585), commonly known as Cassiodorus (), was a Roman statesman, renowned scholar of antiquity, and writer serving in the administration of Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths. ''Senator'' w ...
at
the Vivarium near
Squillace
Squillace ( grc, Σκυλλήτιον ''Skylletion''; grc-x-medieval, Σκυλάκιον ''Skylakion'') is an ancient town and ''comune'', in the Province of Catanzaro, part of Calabria, southern Italy, facing the Gulf of Squillace.
Squillace ...
in southern Italy contained a scriptorium, for the purpose of collecting, copying, and preserving texts.
Cassiodorus' description of his monastery contained a purpose-built scriptorium, with a
sundial
A sundial is a horological device that tells the time of day (referred to as civil time in modern usage) when direct sunlight shines by the apparent position of the Sun in the sky. In the narrowest sense of the word, it consists of a flat ...
, a
water-clock
A water clock or clepsydra (; ; ) is a timepiece by which time is measured by the regulated flow of liquid into (inflow type) or out from (outflow type) a vessel, and where the amount is then measured.
Water clocks are one of the oldest time-m ...
, and a "perpetual lamp," that is, one that supplied itself with oil from a reservoir. The scriptorium would also have contained desks where the monks could sit and copy texts, as well as the necessary ink wells, penknives, and quills. Cassiodorus also established a library where, at the
end of the Roman Empire, he attempted to bring Greek learning to Latin readers and to preserve texts both sacred and secular for future generations. As its unofficial librarian, Cassiodorus collected as many manuscripts as he could, he also wrote treatises aimed at instructing his monks in the proper uses of texts. In the end, however, the library at the Vivarium was dispersed and lost, though it was still active around 630.
Cistercians
The scriptoria of the
Cistercian
The Cistercians, () officially the Order of Cistercians ( la, (Sacer) Ordo Cisterciensis, abbreviated as OCist or SOCist), are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint ...
order seem to have been similar to those of the Benedictines. The mother house at
Cîteaux, one of the best-documented high-medieval scriptoria, developed a severe "house style" in the first half of the 12th century. The 12th-century scriptorium of
Cîteaux and its products, in the context of Cistercian scriptoria, have been studied by Yolanta Załuska, ''L'enluminure et le scriptorium de Cîteaux au XIIe siècle'' (Brecht:Cîteaux) 1989.
Institutions
In
Byzantium
Byzantium () or Byzantion ( grc, Βυζάντιον) was an ancient Greek city in classical antiquity that became known as Constantinople in late antiquity and Istanbul today. The Greek name ''Byzantion'' and its Latinization ''Byzantium'' cont ...
or
Eastern Roman Empire
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
learning maintained importance and numerous monastic 'scriptoria' were known for producing Bible/Gospel illuminations, along with workshops that copied numerous classical and Hellenistic works.
Records show that one such monastic community was that of
Mount Athos
Mount Athos (; el, Ἄθως, ) is a mountain in the distal part of the eponymous Athos peninsula and site of an important centre of Eastern Orthodox monasticism in northeastern Greece. The mountain along with the respective part of the penins ...
, which maintained a variety of illuminated manuscripts and ultimately accumulated over 10,000 books.
Benedictines
Cassiodorus' contemporary,
Benedict of Nursia
Benedict of Nursia ( la, Benedictus Nursiae; it, Benedetto da Norcia; 2 March AD 480 – 21 March AD 548) was an Italian Christian monk, writer, and theologian who is venerated in the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Orient ...
, allowed his monks to read the great works of the pagans in the monastery he founded at
Monte Cassino
Monte Cassino (today usually spelled Montecassino) is a rocky hill about southeast of Rome, in the Latin Valley, Italy, west of Cassino and at an elevation of . Site of the Roman town of Casinum, it is widely known for its abbey, the first h ...
in 529. The creation of a library here initiated the tradition of Benedictine scriptoria, where the copying of texts not only provided materials needed in the routines of the community and served as work for hands and minds otherwise idle, but also produced a marketable end-product. Saint
Jerome
Jerome (; la, Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus; grc-gre, Εὐσέβιος Σωφρόνιος Ἱερώνυμος; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was a Christian presbyter, priest, Confessor of the Faith, confessor, th ...
stated that the products of the scriptorium could be a source of revenue for the monastic community, but Benedict cautioned, "If there be skilled workmen in the monastery, let them work at their art in all humility".
In the earliest Benedictine monasteries, the writing room was actually a corridor open to the central quadrangle of the
cloister
A cloister (from Latin ''claustrum'', "enclosure") is a covered walk, open gallery, or open arcade running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle or garth. The attachment of a cloister to a cathedral or church, commonly against a ...
. The space could accommodate about twelve monks, who were protected from the elements only by the wall behind them and the vaulting above. Monasteries built later in the Middle Ages placed the scriptorium inside, near the heat of the kitchen or next to the
calefactory
The calefactory (also ''warming house'') was an important room or building in a medieval monastery in Western Europe. It was here that a communal fire was kept so that the monks could warm themselves after long hours of study in the (unheated) c ...
. The warmth of the later scriptoria served as an incentive for unwilling monks to work on the transcription of texts (since the charter house was rarely heated).
St. Gall
The Benedictine
Plan of St. Gall
The Plan of Saint Gall is a medieval architectural drawing of a Christian monasticism, monastic compound dating from 820–830 AD. It depicts an entire Rule of Saint Benedict, Benedictine monastic compound, including Church (building), churches, ...
is a sketch of an idealised monastery dating from 819–826, which shows the scriptorium and library attached to the northeast corner of the main body of the church; this is not reflected by the evidence of surviving monasteries. Although the purpose of the plan is unknown, it clearly shows the desirability of scriptoria within a wider body of monastic structures at the beginning of the 9th century.
Cistercians
There is evidence that in the late 13th century, the Cistercians would allow certain monks to perform their writing in a small cell "which could not... contain more than one person". These cells were called scriptoria because of the copying done there, even though their primary function was not as a writing room.
Carthusians
The
Carthusian
The Carthusians, also known as the Order of Carthusians ( la, Ordo Cartusiensis), are a Latin enclosed religious order of the Catholic Church. The order was founded by Bruno of Cologne in 1084 and includes both monks and nuns. The order has its ...
s viewed copying religious texts as their missionary work to the greater
Church
Church may refer to:
Religion
* Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities
* Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination
* Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship
* Chris ...
; the strict solitude of the Carthusian order necessitated that the manual labor of the monks be practiced within their individual cells, thus many monks engaged in the transcription of texts. In fact, each cell was equipped as a copy room, with parchment, quill, inkwell, and ruler. Guigues du Pin, or Guigo, the architect of the order, cautioned, "Let the brethren take care the books they receive from the cupboard do not get soiled with smoke or dirt; books are as it were the everlasting food of our souls; we wish them to be most carefully kept and most zealously made."
The Orthodox church
The Resava
After the establishment of
Manasija
The Manasija Monastery ( sr, Манастир Манасија, Manastir Manasija, ) also known as Resava (Ресава, ), is a Serbian Orthodox monastery near Despotovac, Serbia founded by '' Despot'' Stefan Lazarević between 1406 and 1418. Th ...
Monastery by
Stefan Lazarević
Stefan Lazarević ( sr-Cyrl, Стефан Лазаревић, 1377 – 19 July 1427), also known as Stefan the Tall ( sr, Стефан Високи / ''Stefan Visoki''), was the ruler of Serbia as prince (1389–1402) and despot (1402–1427), ...
in the early 15th century, many educated monks have gathered there. They fostered copying and literary work that by its excellence and production changed the history of the South Slavic literature and languages spreading its influence all over the Orthodox
Balkans
The Balkans ( ), also known as the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throughout the who ...
. One of the most famous scholars of the so-called School of Resava was Constantine the Philosopher /Konstantin Filozof/, an influential writer and biographer of the founder of the school (Stefan Lazarević).
Rača
During the Turkish invasions of the Serbian lands (which lasted from the end of the 14th to the beginning of the 19th centuries) the monastery was an important centre of culture. The scriptorium of each monastery was a bastion of learning where illuminated manuscripts were being produced by monk-scribes, mostly Serbian liturgical books and Old Serbian ''Vita.''
hagiographies
A hagiography (; ) is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader, as well as, by extension, an adulatory and idealized biography of a founder, saint, monk, nun or icon in any of the world's religions. Early Christian hagiographies might ...
of kings and archbishops.
Numerous scribes of the Serbian Orthodox Church books—at the term of the 16th and the beginning of the 18th centuries—who worked in the
Rača monastery
The Rača Monastery ( sr-cyrl, Манастир Рача, Manastir Rača) is a Serbian Orthodox monastery 7 km south of Bajina Bašta, Serbia. The monastery was built by Stefan Dragutin (1276-1282). The monastery became a place where Serbian ...
are named in Serbian literature – "The Račans". . Among the monk-scribes the most renown are the illuminator Hieromonk Hristifor Račanin,
Kiprijan Račanin,
Jerotej Račanin,
Teodor Račanin Teodor Račanin ( sr-Cyrl, Теодор Рачанин; 1500 – 1560) was a writer and Serbian Orthodox monk of the Račan Scriptorium School mentioned in Ottoman sources of 16th century literature.
Biography
Monk-scribe Teodor Račanin was given ...
and
Gavril Stefanović Venclović Gavril is a variant of the name Gabriel, may refer to:
*Gavril Atanasov, Macedonian icon painter from Berovo in the 19th century
*Gavril Bănulescu-Bodoni (1746–1821), Romanian clergyman who served as Metropolitan of Moldavia
*Gavril Balint (born ...
. These are well-known Serbian monks and writers that are the link between literary men and women of the late medieval (
Late Middle Ages
The Late Middle Ages or Late Medieval Period was the Periodization, period of European history lasting from AD 1300 to 1500. The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period (and in much of Eur ...
) and
Baroque
The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including t ...
periods in art, architecture and literature in particular.
Monastic rules
Cassiodorus' ''Institutes''
Although it is not a monastic rule as such,
Cassiodorus
Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator (c. 485 – c. 585), commonly known as Cassiodorus (), was a Roman statesman, renowned scholar of antiquity, and writer serving in the administration of Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths. ''Senator'' w ...
did write his ''Institutes'' as a teaching guide for the monks at Vivarium, the monastery he founded on his family's land in southern Italy. A classically educated Roman convert, Cassiodorus wrote extensively on scribal practices. He cautions over-zealous scribes to check their copies against ancient, trustworthy
exemplars and to take care not to change the inspired words of scripture because of grammatical or stylistic concerns. He declared "every work of the Lord written by the scribe is a wound inflicted on Satan", for "by reading the Divine Scripture he wholesomely instructs his own mind and by copying the precepts of the Lord he spreads them far and wide". It is important to note that Cassiodorus did include the classical texts of ancient Rome and Greece in the monastic library. This was probably because of his upbringing, but was, nonetheless, unusual for a monastery of the time. When his monks copied these texts, Cassiodorus encouraged them to amend texts for both grammar and style.
Saint Benedict
The more famous monastic treatise of the 7th century, Saint
Benedict of Nursia
Benedict of Nursia ( la, Benedictus Nursiae; it, Benedetto da Norcia; 2 March AD 480 – 21 March AD 548) was an Italian Christian monk, writer, and theologian who is venerated in the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Orient ...
's
Rule
Rule or ruling may refer to:
Education
* Royal University of Law and Economics (RULE), a university in Cambodia
Human activity
* The exercise of political or personal control by someone with authority or power
* Business rule, a rule perta ...
, fails to mention the labor of transcription by name, though his institution, the monastery of
Montecassino
Monte Cassino (today usually spelled Montecassino) is a rocky hill about southeast of Rome, in the Latin Valley, Italy, west of Cassino and at an elevation of . Site of the Roman town of Casinum, it is widely known for its abbey, the first h ...
, developed one of the most influential scriptoria, at its acme in the 11th century, which made the abbey "the greatest center of book production in South Italy in the High Middle Ages". Here was developed and perfected the characteristic "Cassinese"
Beneventan script
The Beneventan script was a medieval script which originated in the Duchy of Benevento in southern Italy. It was also called ''Langobarda'', ''Longobarda'', ''Longobardisca'' (signifying its origins in the territories ruled by the Lombards), or so ...
under
Abbot Desiderius.
The
Rule of Saint Benedict
The ''Rule of Saint Benedict'' ( la, Regula Sancti Benedicti) is a book of precepts written in Latin in 516 by St Benedict of Nursia ( AD 480–550) for monks living communally under the authority of an abbot.
The spirit of Saint Benedict's Ru ...
does explicitly call for monks to have ready access to books during two hours of compulsory daily reading and during
Lent
Lent ( la, Quadragesima, 'Fortieth') is a solemn religious observance in the liturgical calendar commemorating the 40 days Jesus spent fasting in the desert and enduring temptation by Satan, according to the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke ...
, when each monk is to read a book in its entirety.
[''Rule of Saint Benedict'', Chapter 48]
Kansasmonks.org
accessed 2 May 2007. Thus each monastery was to have its own extensive collection of books, to be housed either in
armarium
A medical device is any device intended to be used for medical purposes. Significant potential for hazards are inherent when using a device for medical purposes and thus medical devices must be proved safe and effective with reasonable assura ...
(book chests) or a more traditional library. However, because the only way to obtain a large quantity of books in the
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
was to copy them, in practice this meant that the monastery had to have a way to transcribe texts in other collections. An alternative translation of Benedict's strict guidelines for the oratory as a place for silent, reverent prayer actually hints at the existence of a scriptorium. In Chapter 52 of his Rule, Benedict's warns: "Let the oratory be what it is called, and let nothing else be done or stored there". But ''condatur'' translates both as ''stored'' and ''to compose or write,'' thus leaving the question of Benedict's intentions for manuscript production ambiguous. The earliest commentaries on the
Rule of Saint Benedict
The ''Rule of Saint Benedict'' ( la, Regula Sancti Benedicti) is a book of precepts written in Latin in 516 by St Benedict of Nursia ( AD 480–550) for monks living communally under the authority of an abbot.
The spirit of Saint Benedict's Ru ...
describe the labor of transcription as the common occupation of the community, so it is also possible that Benedict failed to mention the scriptorium by name because of the integral role it played within the monastery.
Saint Ferréol
Monastic life in the
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
was strictly centered around
prayer
Prayer is an invocation or act that seeks to activate a rapport with an object of worship through deliberate communication. In the narrow sense, the term refers to an act of supplication or intercession directed towards a deity or a deified a ...
and manual labor. In the early Middle Ages, there were many attempts to set out an organization and routine for monastic life.
Montalembert cites one such sixth-century document, the Rule of
Saint Ferréol Saint Ferréol may refer to:
People
*Ferréol and Ferjeux (Ferreolus and Ferrutio), priest and deacon, martyrs and patrons of Besançon
* Saint Ferréol of Uzès (died 581), bishop of Uzès
Places
Canada
* Saint-Ferréol, Quebec
France
Sain ...
, as prescribing that "He who does not turn up the earth with the plough ought to write the parchment with his fingers." As this implies, the labor required of a
scribe
A scribe is a person who serves as a professional copyist, especially one who made copies of manuscripts before the invention of automatic printing.
The profession of the scribe, previously widespread across cultures, lost most of its promi ...
was comparable to the exertion of agriculture and other outdoor work. Another of Montalembert's examples is of a scribal note along these lines: "He who does not know how to write imagines it to be no labour, but although these fingers only hold the pen, the whole body grows weary."
Cistercians
An undated Cistercian ordinance, ranging in date from 1119–52 (Załuska 1989) prescribed ''literae unius coloris et non depictae'' ("letters of one color and not ornamented"), that spread with varying degrees of literalness in parallel with the Cistercian order itself, through the priories of Burgundy and beyond.
In 1134, the Cistercian order declared that the monks were to keep silent in the scriptorium as they should in the
cloister
A cloister (from Latin ''claustrum'', "enclosure") is a covered walk, open gallery, or open arcade running along the walls of buildings and forming a quadrangle or garth. The attachment of a cloister to a cathedral or church, commonly against a ...
.
Books and transcription in monastic life
Manuscript-writing was a laborious process in an ill-lit environment that could damage one's health. One prior complained in the tenth century:
"''Only try to do it yourself and you will learn how arduous is the writer's task. It dims your eyes, makes your back ache, and knits your chest and belly together. It is a terrible ordeal for the whole body''".
The director of a monastic scriptorium would be the ''armarius'' ("provisioner"), who provided the scribes with their materials and supervised the copying process. However, the armarius had other duties as well. At the beginning of Lent, the armarius was responsible for making sure that all of the monks received books to read,
but he also had the ability to deny access to a particular book. By the 10th century the armarius had specific liturgical duties as well, including singing the eighth
responsory
A responsory or respond is a type of chant in western Christian liturgies.
Definition
The most general definition of a responsory is any psalm, canticle, or other sacred musical work sung responsorially, that is, with a cantor or small group sin ...
, holding the lantern aloft when the abbot read, and approving all material to be read aloud in church, chapter, and
refectory
A refectory (also frater, frater house, fratery) is a dining room, especially in monasteries, boarding schools and academic institutions. One of the places the term is most often used today is in graduate seminaries. The name derives from the La ...
.
While at Vivarium c. 540–548, Cassiodorus wrote a commentary on the Psalms entitled ''Expositio Psalmorum'' as an introduction to the Psalms for individuals seeking to enter the monastic community. The work had a broad appeal outside of Cassiodorus' monastery as the subject of monastic study and reflection.
Abbot
Johannes Trithemius
Johannes Trithemius (; 1 February 1462 – 13 December 1516), born Johann Heidenberg, was a German Benedictine abbot and a polymath who was active in the German Renaissance as a lexicographer, chronicler, cryptographer, and occultist. He is consi ...
of Sponheim wrote a letter, ''De Laude Scriptorum'' (In Praise of Scribes), to Gerlach, Abbot of Deutz in 1492 to describe for monks the merits of copying texts. Trithemius contends that the copying of texts is central to the model of monastic education, arguing that transcription enables the monk to more deeply contemplate and come to a more full understanding of the text. He then continues to praise scribes by saying "The dedicated scribe, the object of our treatise, will never fail to praise God, give pleasure to angels, strengthen the just, convert sinners, commend the humble, confirm the good, confound the proud and rebuke the stubborn".
[Johannes Trithemius, ''In Praise of Scribes (de Laude Scriptorum)'', Klaus Arnold, ed. (Lawrence, Kansas: Colorado Press, 1974), p. 35.] Among the reasons he gives for continuing to copy manuscripts by hand, are the historical precedent of the ancient scribes and the supremacy of transcription to all other manual labor. This description of monastic writing is especially important because it was written after the first printing presses came into popular use. Trithemius addresses the competing technology when he writes, "The printed book is made of paper and, like paper, will quickly disappear. But the scribe working with parchment ensures lasting remembrance for himself and for his text".
Trithemius also believes that there are works that are not being printed but are worth being copied.
![Manuscript-Alexander-Highsmith](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/71/Manuscript-Alexander-Highsmith.jpeg)
In his comparison of modern and medieval scholarship, James J. O'Donnell describes monastic study in this way:
"'' ch Psalm would have to be recited at least once a week all through the period of study. In turn, each Psalm studied separately would have to be read slowly and prayerfully, then gone through with the text in one hand (or preferably committed to memory) and the commentary in the other; the process of study would have to continue until virtually everything in the commentary has been absorbed by the student and mnemonically keyed to the individual verses of scripture, so that when the verses are recited again the whole phalanx of Cassiodorian erudition springs up in support of the content of the sacred text''".
In this way, the monks of the Middle Ages came to intimately know and experience the texts that they copied. The act of transcription became an act of meditation and prayer, not a simple replication of letters.
See also
;Phenomena
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Manuscript
A manuscript (abbreviated MS for singular and MSS for plural) was, traditionally, any document written by hand – or, once practical typewriters became available, typewritten – as opposed to mechanically printing, printed or repr ...
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Codex
The codex (plural codices ) was the historical ancestor of the modern book. Instead of being composed of sheets of paper, it used sheets of vellum, papyrus, or other materials. The term ''codex'' is often used for ancient manuscript books, with ...
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Manuscript culture
A manuscript culture is a culture that depends on hand-written manuscripts to store and disseminate information. It is a stage that most developed cultures went through in between oral culture and print culture. Europe entered the stage in c ...
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Plan of Saint Gall
The Plan of Saint Gall is a medieval architectural drawing of a monastic compound dating from 820–830 AD. It depicts an entire Benedictine monastic compound, including churches, houses, stables, kitchens, workshops, brewery, infirmary, and a ...
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Rule of Saint Benedict
The ''Rule of Saint Benedict'' ( la, Regula Sancti Benedicti) is a book of precepts written in Latin in 516 by St Benedict of Nursia ( AD 480–550) for monks living communally under the authority of an abbot.
The spirit of Saint Benedict's Ru ...
;Names
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Cassiodorus
Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus Senator (c. 485 – c. 585), commonly known as Cassiodorus (), was a Roman statesman, renowned scholar of antiquity, and writer serving in the administration of Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths. ''Senator'' w ...
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Johannes Gutenberg
Johannes Gensfleisch zur Laden zum Gutenberg (; – 3 February 1468) was a German inventor and Artisan, craftsman who introduced letterpress printing to Europe with his movable type, movable-type printing press. Though not the first of its ki ...
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James Murray (lexicographer)
Sir James Augustus Henry Murray, FBA (; 7 February 1837 – 26 July 1915) was a Scottish lexicographer and philologist. He was the primary editor of the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') from 1879 until his death.
Life and learning ...
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Books by century
References
Sources
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Further reading
* Alexander, J. J. G. Medieval Illuminators and Their Methods of Work. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992.
* Bischoff, Bernard, "Manuscripts in the Age of Charlemagne," in ''Manuscripts and Libraries in the Age of Charlemagne,'' trans. Gorman, pp. 20–55. Surveys regional scriptoria in the early Middle Ages.
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Diringer, David
David Diringer (16 June 1900 – 13 February 1975) was a British linguist, palaeographer and writer. He was the author of several well-known books about writing systems.
Biography
Diringer was born to Jacob Munzer and Mirl Diringer on 16 June ...
. ''The Book Before Printing: Ancient, Medieval and Oriental''. New York: Dover, 1982.
* Lawrence, C.H. ''Medieval Monasticism: Forms of Religious Life in Western Europe in the Middle Ages'', Ed. 2. London: Longman, 1989.
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Maitland, Samuel Roffey. ''The Dark Ages''. London : J.G.F. & J.Rivington, 1844
Archive.org
* McKitterick, Rosamond. "The Scriptoria of Merovingian Gaul: a survey of the evidence." In ''Books, Scribes and Learning in the Frankish Kingdoms, 6th–9th Centuries'', VII 1–35. Great Yarmouth: Gilliard, 1994. Originally published in H.B. Clarke and Mary Brennan, trans., ''Columbanus and Merovingian Monasticism'', (Oxford: BAR International Serries 113, 1981).
* McKitterick, Rosamond. "Nun's scriptoria in England and Francia in the eighth century". In ''Books, Scribes and Learning in the Frankish Kingdoms, 6th-9th Centuries'', VII 1–35. Great Yarmouth: Gilliard, 1994. Originally published in ''Francia 19/1'', (Sigmaringen: Jan Thornbecke Verlag, 1989).
* Nees, Lawrence. ''Early Medieval Art''. Oxford: Oxford U Press, 2002.
* Shailor, Barbara A. ''The Medieval Book''. Toronto: U Toronto Press, 1991.
* Sullivan, Richard. "What Was Carolingian Monasticism? The Plan of St Gall and the History of Monasticism." In ''After Romes's Fall: Narrators and Sources of Early Medieval History'', edited by Alexander Callander Murray, 251–87. Toronto: U of Toronto Press, 1998.
* Vogue, Adalbert de. ''The Rule of Saint Benedict: A Doctrinal and Spiritual Commentary''. Kalamazoo: Cistercian, 1983.
* Cohen-Mushlin, Aliza. ''A Medieval Scriptorium, Sancta Maria Magdalena de Frankendal'' (Wolfenbütteler Mittelalter-Studien 3), Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden, 1990, 2 vols.
* Cohen-Mushlin, Aliza. ''Scriptoria in Medieval Saxony: St. Pancras in Hamersleben'', Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden, 2004.
External links
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ttp://www.newyorkcarver.com/scriptoria3.htm#Scriptorium New York Carver: Scriptorium
Frère Landelin Robling "The Order of Saint Benedict : Monastic Scriptoria"(osb.org)
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Book terminology
Manuscripts
History of books
Medieval literature
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