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Paul Pierce within an illustration of a Mediæval Scriptorium. From a manuscript of a Book of Prayers. 15th Century. British Museum, Slo. 2468.

Scriptorium (plural scriptoria) comes from the medieval Latin script-, scribere (to write), where -orium is the neuter singular ending for adjectives. Thus, a scriptorium is literally "a place for writing". In its proper use, scriptorium refers to a room in medieval European monasteries devoted to the hand-copying of manuscripts by monastic scribes. When monastic libraries and scriptoria arose in the early 6th century (the first European monastic writing dates from 517), they defined European literary culture and preserved the literary history of the West. By the start of the 13th century, secular copyshops had developed to write for the laity, which were closely followed by urban bookshops c. 1250.

The physical scriptorium

Of Cassiodorus at Vivarium

The monastery built in the second quarter of the 6th century under the eye of Cassiodorus at Vivarium in southern Italy, contained a purpose-built scriptorium, with self-feeding oil lamps, a sundial, and a water-clock. The scriptorium would also have contained desks for the monks to sit at 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 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 reading. In the end, however, the library at Vivarium was dispersed and lost, though it was still active circa 630.

Of the Benedictines

Cassiodorus's contemporary, Benedict of Nursia, also allowed his monks to read the great works of the pagans in the monastary he founded at Monte Cassino in 529. The creation of a library here initiated the tradition of Benedictine scriptoria, where the copying of texts not only provided materials actually needed in the routines of the community and served as work for hands and minds otherwise idle, but produced a valuable product. Saint Jerome 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. The space could fit approximately twelve monks, who were protected from the elements by only the wall bahind 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 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).

The Benedictine Plan of St. Gall is a sketch of a monastary dating from 819-826, which shows the scriptorium and library attached the northeast corner of the main body of the church. Although the purpose of the plan is unknown, it clearly shows the existence of scriptoria within a wider body of monastic structures at the beginning of the 9th century.

Of the Cistercians

The scriptoria of the Cistercian order seem to have been similar to those the Benedictine. In 1134, the Cistercian order declared that the monks were to keep silent in the scriptorium as they should in the cloister. However, 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.

Of the Carthusians

The Carthusians viewed copying religious texts as their missionary work to the greater Church. 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 recieve 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."

Scriptoria in monastic rules

Rule of Saint Ferréol

Monastic life in the Middle Ages was strictly centered around prayer 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 6th century document, the Rule of Saint Ferréol, 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 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."

Cassiodorus' Institutes

Although not a monastic rule as such, Cassiodorus 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 Cassiodorius 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 encourages them to amend texts for both grammer and style.

Rule of Saint Benedict

The more famous monastic treatise of the 7th century, Saint Benedict of Nursia's Rule, fails to mention the labor of transcription by name. It is important to note that the Rule of Saint Benedict does explicitly call for monks to have ready access to books during two hours of compulsory daily reading and during Lent, when each monk is to read a book in its entirety. Thus each monastery was to have its own extensive collection of books, to be housed either in armarium (book chests) or a more traditional library. However, because the only way to obtain a large quantity of books in the Middle Ages was to copy them, in practice this meant that the monastery had to have a way to transcribe texts in other collections. It is worthwhile to note that 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 storedand to compose or write, thus leaving the question of Benedict's intentions for manuscript production ambiguous. The earliest commentaries on the Benedictine rule 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.

Trimethius' Praise of Scribes

Abbot Johannes Trithemius 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" . Among the reasons he gives for continuing to copy manuscripts by hand, are the historical precident of the ancient scribes and the supremacy of transcription to all other manual labor. This desciption 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.

The miniature of Jean Mielot (d. 1475) depicted at work in his study, illustrates the activity and materials associated with scribal work.

The role of books and transcription in monastic life

The director of a monastic scriptorium was the armarius, 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 8th responsory, holding the lantern aloft when the abbot read, and approving all material to be read aloud in church, chapter, and reflectory.

While serving as the armarius 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 relection. In his comparison of modern and medieval scholarship, James J. O'Donnell descibes monastic study in this way:

[E]ach 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 meditiation and prayer, not a simple replication of letters.

Further Reading

• 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.
• Diringer, David. 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.
• Maitland, Samuel Roffey. The Dark Ages. London : J.G.F. & J.Rivington, 1844. http://www.archive.org/details/a591588100maituoft.
• 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, 251-287. Toronto: U of Toronto Press, 1998.
• Vogue, Adalbert de. The Rule of Saint Benedict: A Doctrinal and Spiritual Commentary. Kalamazoo: Cistercian, 1983.

External links

• New York Carver: Scriptorium
• Etchings of scriptoria and an example of a manuscript
• Fr. Landelin Robling OSB"The Order of Saint Benedict : Monastic Scriptoria"
• The Digital Scriptorium: a visual catalog, an image database of dated and datable medieval and Renaissance manuscripts that forms a repertory of scriptorium styles
• History of Scriptoria
• "Manuscript catalogues": Charles D. Wright's on-line bibliography covering medieval libraries and scriptoria.
• St. Gall Monastery Plan

See also

• Medieval Manuscript Culture
• Late Manuscript Culture
• Manuscript
• Rule of Saint Benedict
• Plan of Saint Gall
• Cassiodorus
• Codex
• Johann Gutenberg