Scribe Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ==Ancient Rome== {{See also|Scriba (ancient Rome)|Roman Empire#Literacy, books, and education}} [[File:Ara detta degli scribi, I sec, da necropoli di porta s. sebastiano (terme di diocleziano) 01.JPG|thumb|[[Roman funerary art|Roman funerary altar]] depicting public scribes assisting [[Roman magistrate|magistrates]] (25–50 CE)]] [[Ancient Rome]] had several occupations for which the ability to write accurately and clearly was the primary qualification. The English word “scribe” derives from the Latin word ''scriba'', a [[public notary]] or [[clerk]]. The public ''scribae'' were the highest in rank of the four prestigious occupational grades (''[[decuriae]]'') among the attendants of the [[Roman magistrates]].<ref>[[Marietta Horster]], "Living on Religion: Professionals and Personnel," in ''A Companion to Roman Religion'' (Blackwell, 2007), p. 334; Daniel Peretz, "The Roman Interpreter and His Diplomatic and Military Roles," ''Historia'' 55 (2006), p. 452.</ref> In the city of Rome, the ''scribae'' worked out of the [[aerarium|state treasury]] and government archive. They received a good salary. ''Scribae'' were often [[Slavery in ancient Rome|former slaves]] and their sons; other literary or educated men who advanced to the job through [[Patronage in ancient Rome|patronage]]; or even men as highly ranked as the [[equestrian order]].<ref>David Armstrong, ''Horace'' (Yale University Press, 1989), p. 18.</ref> Among the writing duties of a ''scriba'' was the recording of sworn oaths on public tablets.<ref>[[Clifford Ando]], ''Imperial Ideology and Provincial Loyalty in the Roman Empire'' (University of California Press, 2000), p. 96.</ref> The office afforded several advantages, including a knowledge of [[Roman law]] that was traditionally the privilege of the elite.<ref>[[T.R.S. Broughton]], ''The Magistrates of the Roman Republic'' (American Philological Association, 1951, 1986), vol. 1, pp. 166–168.</ref> People who needed legal documents drawn up and whose own literacy was low could make use of a public scribe.<ref>T. J. Kraus, "(Il)literacy in Non-Literary Papyri from Graeco-Roman Egypt: Further Aspects of the Educational Ideal in Ancient Literary Sources and Modern Times," ''Mnemosyne'' 53:3 (2002), pp. 325–327; [[Clifford Ando]], ''Imperial Ideology and Provincial Loyalty in the Roman Empire'' (University of California Press, 2000), p. 101.</ref> A ''scriba'' might also be a private secretary.<ref>Peter White, "Bookshops in the Literary Culture of Rome," in ''Ancient Literacies: The Culture of Reading in Ancient Greece and Rome'' (Oxford University Press, 2009), p. 269, note 4.</ref> A ''tabellio'' (Greek ''agoraios'') was a lower rank of scribe or notary who worked in civil service.<ref>Marcus Niebuhr Tod, “A New Fragment of the ''Edictum Diocletiani'',” ''Journal of Hellenic'' Studies 24 (1904), pp. 195-202.</ref> A ''notarius'' was a [[stenographer]].<ref>Nicholas Horsfall, “Rome without Spectacles,” ''Greece & Rome'' 42:1 (1995), p. 50.</ref> An ''[[amanuensis]]'' was a scribe who took dictation and perhaps offered some compositional polish.<ref>Myles McDonnell, "Writing, Copying, and Autograph Manuscripts in Ancient Rome," ''Classical Quarterly'' 46:2 (1996), p. 473.</ref> ''Amanuenses'' were typically Greek<ref>Clarence A. Forbes, "The Education and Training of Slaves in Antiquity," ''Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association'' 86 (1955), p. 341.</ref> and might be either male or female.<ref>[[Susan Treggiari]], "Jobs for Women," ''American Journal of Ancient History'' 1 (1976), p. 78.</ref> Upper-class Romans made extensive use of dictation, and [[Julius Caesar]] was said to employ as many as four secretaries at once on different projects.<ref>Nicholas Horsfall, “Rome without Spectacles,” p. 51, citing [[Pliny the Elder]], ''Natural History'' 7.19; [[Cicero]], ''Brutus'' 87.</ref> The [[Apostle Paul]], a Roman citizen literate in Greek, made use of an amanuensis for his [[Pauline epistles|epistles]].<ref>Chris Keith, "'In My Own Hand': Grapho-Literacy and the Apostle Paul," ''Biblica'' 89:1 (2008), pp. 39-58.</ref> It was considered impolite, however, to use a scribe for writing personal letters to friends; these were to be written by one’s own hand.<ref>McDonnell, "Writing, Copying, and Autograph Manuscripts," p. 474.</ref> The [[Vindolanda tablets]] (early 2nd century CE) from a fort in [[Roman Britain]] contain several hundred examples of handwriting; a few tablets stand out as having been written by professional scribes.<ref>McDonnell, "Writing, Copying, and Autograph Manuscripts," p. 471.</ref> Some [[domus|Roman households]] had libraries extensive enough to require specialized staff including ''librarii'', copyists or scribes, who were often slaves or freedmen, along with more general librarians ''(librarioli)''.<ref>George W. Houston, “The Slave and Freedman Personnel of Public Libraries in Ancient Rome,” Transactions of the American Philological Association 132:1/2 (2003), p. 147.</ref> Public libraries also existed under imperial sponsorship, and bookshops both sold books and employed independent ''librarii'' along with other specialists who constructed the [[scroll]]s. A copyist (''librarius'' or ''libraria'') was said to need an "irrational knack" for copying text accurately without slowing down to comprehend it.<ref>McDonnell, "Writing, Copying, and Autograph Manuscripts," p. 473.</ref> Some literary slaves specialized in [[proofreading]].<ref>McDonnell, "Writing, Copying, and Autograph Manuscripts," p. 477.</ref> Occasionally even [[Roman senator|senators]] took dictation or copied texts by hand for personal use, as did ''[[Grammarian (Greco-Roman)|grammatici]]'' (“grammarians” or professors of higher education), but generally the routine copying of manuscripts was a task for educated slaves or for freedpersons who worked independently in bookshops.<ref>McDonnell, "Writing, Copying, and Autograph Manuscripts," p. 477 "et passim’’.</ref> Books were a favored gift for friends, and since they had to be individually written out, "deluxe" editions, made from higher-grade papyrus and other fine materials, might be commissioned from intellectuals who also acted as editors.<ref>McDonnell, "Writing, Copying, and Autograph Manuscripts," p. 479.</ref> Unscrupulous copyists might produce and trade in unauthorized editions, sometimes passing them off as [[autograph manuscript]]s by famous authors.<ref>McDonnell, "Writing, Copying, and Autograph Manuscripts," p. 478</ref> [[File:Butcher's funerary relief, Ashmolean Museum reproduction, Oxford.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Museum reproduction of an ancient Roman [[Roman funerary art|funerary relief]] for a butcher, with a woman writing in [[wax tablets]] at left]] The literacy of a ''librarius'' was also valued in business settings, where they might serve as clerks.<ref>Andrew Garland, “Cicero's ''Familia Urbana'',” ''Greece & Rome'' 39:2 (1992), p. 167.</ref> For example, a ''libraria cellaria'' would be a woman who kept business records such as inventories.<ref> Garland, “Cicero's ''Familia Urbana'',” p. 164.</ref> An early 2nd-century marble [[relief]] from Rome depicts a female scribe, seated on a chair and writing on kind of a tablet, facing the butcher who is chopping meat at a table. Eleven Latin inscriptions uncovered from Rome identify women as scribes in the sense of copyists or amanuenses (not public ''scribae''). Among these are Magia, Pyrrhe, Vergilia Euphrosyne, and a [[Ancient Roman freedmen|freedwoman]] whose name does not survive; Hapate, a shorthand writer of Greek who lived to the age of 25; and Corinna, a storeroom clerk and scribe. Three are identified as literary assistants: Tyche, Herma, and Plaetoriae.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Haines-Eitzen|first=Kim|date=Winter 1998|title=Girls Trained in Beautiful Writing: Female Scribes in Roman Antiquity and Early Christianity|journal=Journal of Early Christian Studies|volume= 6|issue=4|pages=629–646|doi=10.1353/earl.1998.0071|s2cid=171026920}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. 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