Scriptorium

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**Scriptorium ** A scriptorium, commonly used to refer to a room in medieval Europe, used to be located in a monastery, but not always. Monks, and sometimes scribes, lived under religious vows here. Scribes wrote in calligraphy, and copied books for an average of six hours a day.("Calligraphy") The root word "script", coming from Medieval Latin, means to write. "Tohr", also coming from Latin, means a room being used for the storing, reading, and copying of manuscripts.

Appearance and Location A scriptorium, a large room lit only by the light from the windows and small candles, had many scribes writing in it. Most scriptoriums could be found in a monastery, but not all. A scriptorium always connected to a library. This way, the books did not take up space that the scribes needed. (Maitland)

Usage Scribes sat at their tables from mid-morning to evening and copied books. They wrote in calligraphy, and often created illuminated manuscripts. Most of the time, when scribes wrote in scriptoriums, they only did so when a large quantity of books needed to be copied. Once they completed that, the scribes usually used their own homes to do their writings. By the start of the 13th century, many copy-shops developed, and professional scribes may have had special rooms set aside for writing, but in most cases they probably just had a writing-desk next to a window in their own house. ("Calligraphy")

Job Terms

(Huddleston) The monks working in the scriptorium had many different jobs and professions, which included:


 * //Antiquariii: //copied books
 * //Librarii: // a common writer who did ordinary business, also called //scriptores//
 * //Illuminator: //had special painting skills, so they worked mostly on illuminatd manuscripts
 * //Notaries: //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 17px;"> worked on legal documents
 * //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 17px;">precentor: //<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 17px;">managed the scriptorium

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 17px; text-align: center;">Illuminated Manuscripts <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 17px;">Occasionally, monks did illuminated manuscripts. These writings appeared in the 5th and 6th century, (“Illuminated Manuscripts”)first in religious books, mainly the Bible. These styles of writings had decorations of gold, silver, and other shiny metallic paints. The decorations had been used to make a book more decorative, and to cover mistakes. The pages had vines with leaves, people, and other shapes. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 17px;"> Being very expensive, illuminated manuscripts literally cost as much as gold. The Book of Kells, one of the most famous illuminated manuscripts, contained the four gospels of the Bible. Created by Celtic Monks, the Book of Kells had very fancy illustrations and ornaments.

<span style="display: block; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 17px; text-align: center;">Works Cited

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 17px;">"Calligraphy." Calligraphy. 3. Chicago: 2001

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 17px;">"Calligraphy." Calligraphy. 5. Danbury: 1985.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 17px;">Huddleston, Gilbert. "Scriptorium." __The Catholic Encyclopedia.__ Vol. 13. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 10 Jan. 2014<[|http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13635a.__html__]>.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 17px;">"Illuminated Manuscripts." Illuminated Manuscripts. 14. Danbury: 1985

Maitland, Samuel Roffey. "Scriptorium." //Wikipedia//. N.p., 20 Sep 2013. Web. 14 Jan 2014. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scriptorium>.