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Do not fill this in! ==Europe in the Middle Ages== {{See also|Illuminated manuscripts}} ===Monastic scribes=== [[File:Archive-ugent-be-2563040A-7640-11E8-B87C-CA810AD9BE4D DS-15 (cropped).jpg|thumb|Monastic scribes copying manuscripts, in a miniature from the manuscript ''Werken'', manufactured by [[John van Ruysbroeck|Jan van Ruusbroec]] in Bergen-op-Zoom, published 1480<ref>{{cite web|title=Werken|url=https://lib.ugent.be/viewer/archive.ugent.be:2563040A-7640-11E8-B87C-CA810AD9BE4D#?c=&m=&s=&cv=6&xywh=-483,-206,6839,5592|work=lib.ugent.be|access-date=2020-08-21}}</ref>]] [[File:Titivillus.jpg|thumb|[[Titivillus]], a [[demon]] said to introduce errors into the work of scribes, besets a scribe at his desk (14th century illustration)]] In the [[Middle Ages]], every book was made by hand. Specially trained monks, or scribes, had to carefully cut sheets of parchment, make the ink, write the script, bind the pages, and create a cover to protect the script. This was all accomplished in a monastic writing room called a [[scriptorium]] which was kept very quiet so scribes could maintain concentration.<ref name=" Pavlik, McIntosh">{{cite book|last1=Pavlik|first1=John|last2=McIntosh|first2=Shawn|title=Converging Media: A New Introduction to Mass Communication|date=2017|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|isbn=9780190271510|pages=66–67}}</ref> A large scriptorium may have up to 40 scribes working.<ref name="book" /> Scribes woke to morning bells before dawn and worked until the evening bells, with a lunch break in between. They worked every day except for the [[Sabbath]].<ref name="Lyons"/> The primary purpose of these scribes was to promote the ideas of the Christian Church, so they mostly copied classical and religious works. The scribes were required to copy works in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew whether or not they understood the language.<ref name="Lyons" /> These re-creations were often written in calligraphy and featured rich illustrations, making the process incredibly time-consuming. Scribes had to be familiar with the writing technology as well. They had to make sure that the lines were straight and the letters were the same size in each book that they copied.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Books : a living history|last=Martyn.|first=Lyons|date=2011|publisher=J. Paul Getty Museum|isbn=9781606060834|location=Los Angeles|oclc=707023033}}</ref> It typically took a scribe fifteen months to copy a Bible.<ref name="Lyons">{{cite book|last1=Lyons|first1=Martyn|title=Books: A Living History|date=2011|publisher=J. Paul Getty Museum|location=Los Angeles|isbn=9781606060834|pages=36–38, 41}}</ref> Such books were written on parchment or vellum made from treated hides of sheep, goats, or calves. These hides were often from the monastery's own animals as monasteries were self-sufficient in raising animals, growing crops, and brewing beer.<ref name="book" /> The overall process was too extensive and costly for books to become widespread during this period.<ref name=" Pavlik, McIntosh"/> Although scribes were only able to work in daylight, due to the expense of candles and the rather poor lighting they provided, monastic scribes were still able to produce three to four pages of work per day.<ref name="Lyons" /> The average scribe could copy two books per year.<ref name="book">{{cite book|last1=Murray|first1=Stuart A.P.|title=The Library: An Illustrated History|date=2009|publisher=Skyhorse Publishing|location=New York, NY|isbn=9781602397064|pages=[https://archive.org/details/libraryillustrat0000murr/page/33 33–34]|ref=15|url=https://archive.org/details/libraryillustrat0000murr/page/33}}</ref> They were expected to make at least one mistake per page.<ref name=":0" /> During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, copying became more of a specialized activity and was increasingly performed by specialists. To meet expanding demand, the ''[[pecia]]'' system was introduced, in which different parts of the same text were assigned to hired copiers working both in and out of the monasteries.<ref>Lyons, M. (2011). Books: A Living History. Getty Publications.</ref> ===Female scribes=== Women also played a role as scribes in Anglo-Saxon England, as religious women in convents and schools were literate. Excavations at medieval convents have uncovered [[styli]], indicating that writing and copying were done at those locations.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://thenewinquiry.com/blog/women-scribes-the-technologists-of-the-middle-ages/|title=Women Scribes: The Technologists of the Middle Ages|author=Lady Science|date=16 February 2018|website=The New Inquiry}}</ref> Also, female pronouns are used in prayers in manuscripts from the late 8th century, suggesting that the manuscripts were originally written by and for female scribes.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2017/03/female-scribes-in-early-manuscripts-.html|title=Female Scribes in Early Manuscripts |website= Medieval manuscripts blog}}</ref> [[File:Codex Manesse Bligger von Steinach.jpg|thumb|From the [[Codex Manesse]] (c. 1304)]] In the 12th century within a [[Benedictine]] monastery at [[Wessobrunn]], Bavaria there lived a female scribe named Diemut. She lived within the monastery as recluse and professional scribe. Two medieval book lists exist that have named Diemut as having written more than forty books. Fourteen of Diemut's books are in existence today. Included in these are four volumes of a six volume set of [[Pope Gregory the Great]]'s ''Moralia in Job'', two volumes of a three-volume Bible, and an illuminated copy of the Gospels. It has been discovered that Diemut was a scribe for as long as five decades. She collaborated with other scribes in the production of other books. Since the Wessobrunn monastery enforced its strict claustration it is presumed that these other scribes were also women. Diemut was credited with writing so many volumes that she single-handedly stocked the Wessobrunn's library. Her dedication to book production for the benefit of the Wessobrunn monks and nuns eventually led to her being recognized as a local saint. At the Benedictine monastery within [[Admont]], Austria it was discovered that some of the nuns had written verse and prose in both Latin and German. They delivered their own sermons, took dictation on wax tablets, and copied and illuminated manuscripts. They also taught Latin grammar and biblical interpretation at the school. By the end of the 12th century they owned so many books that they needed someone to oversee their scriptorium and library. Two female scribes have been identified within the Admont Monastery; Sisters Irmingart and Regilind.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Hall|first=Thomas N.|date=Summer 2006|title=Women as Scribes: Book Production and Monastic Reform in Twelfth Century Bavaria|journal=The Sixteenth Century Journal|volume=37|pages=160–162|via=Gale}}</ref> There are several hundred women scribes that have been identified in Germany. These women worked within German women's convent from the thirteenth to the early 16th century. Most of these women can only be identified by their names or initials, by their label as "scriptrix", "soror", "scrittorix", "scriba" or by the [[Colophon (publishing)|colophon]] (scribal identification which appears at the end of a manuscript). Some of the women scribes can be found through convent documents such as obituaries, payment records, book inventories, and narrative biographies of the individual nuns found in convent chronicles and sister books. These women are united by their contributions to the libraries of women's convents. Many of them remain unknown and unacknowledged but they served the intellectual endeavor of preserving, transmitting and on occasion creating texts. The books they left their legacies within were usually given to the sister of the convent and were dedicated to the abbess, or given or sold to the surrounding community. There are two obituaries that have been found that date back to the 16th century, both of the obituaries describe the women who died as a "scriba". In an obituary found from a monastery in Rulle, describes Christina Von Haltren as having written many other books.<ref name=Cyrus>{{Cite book|title=The Scribe for Women's Convents in Late Medieval Germany|last=Cyrus|first=Cynthia|publisher=University of Toronto Press|year=2009|isbn=9780802093691}}</ref> [[File:1453 Breviary Manuscript Page.jpg|thumb|upright|Breviary manuscript page with the portrait signature of [[Maria Ormani]], nun and scribe (1453)]] Women's monasteries were different from men's in the period from the 13th to the 16th century. They would shift their order depending on their abbess. If a new abbess would be appointed then the order would change their identity. Every time a monastery would shift their order they would need to replace, correct and sometimes rewrite their texts. Many books survived from this period. Approximately 4,000 manuscripts have been discovered from women's convents from late medieval Germany. Women scribes served as the business women of the convent. They produced a large amount of archival and business materials, they recorded the information of the convent in the form of chronicles and obituaries. They were responsible for producing the rules, statutes and constitution of the order. They also copied a large amount of prayer books and other devotional manuscripts. Many of these scribes were discovered by their colophon.<ref name=Cyrus/> Despite women being barred from transcribing Torah scrolls for ritual use, a few Jewish women between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries are known to have copied other Hebrew manuscripts. They learned the craft from male scribes they were related to, and were unusual because women were not typically taught Hebrew. Knowledge of these women scribes comes from their colophon signatures.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Riegler|first1=Michael|last2=Baskin|first2=Judith R.|date=2008|title="May the Writer Be Strong": Medieval Hebrew Manuscripts Copied by and for Women|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/nas.2008.-.16.9|journal=Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women's Studies & Gender Issues|issue=16|pages=9–28|doi=10.2979/nas.2008.-.16.9|jstor=10.2979/nas.2008.-.16.9|s2cid=161946788|issn=0793-8934}}</ref> ===Town scribe=== [[File:Tavernier Jean Mielot.jpg|thumb|right|[[Jean Miélot]], a European author and scribe at work]] The scribe was a common job in medieval European towns during the 10th and 11th centuries. Many were employed at scriptoria owned by local schoolmasters or lords. These scribes worked under deadlines to complete commissioned works such as historic chronicles or poetry. Due to parchment being costly, scribes often created a draft of their work first on a wax or chalk tablet.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Murray|first1=Stuart A.P.|title=The Library: An Illustrated History|date=2009|publisher=Skyhorse Publishing|location=New York, NY|isbn=9781602397064|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/libraryillustrat0000murr}}</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. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page