Scriptorium

Jaclyn Lee Parrott

Scriptorium

A writing room in a monastery set aside for the use of scribes engaged in copying, writing, or illuminating of manuscripts and records.

From the medieval Latin script-scribere (to write) and orium (place)

Cistercian Abbey www.lessing-photo.com

medievalfragments.wordpress.com

Purposes for Copying Text

Liturgy

Study and meditation (lectio divina)

Communication

Monk working in a scriptorium, engraving a 15th century manuscript

Photos.com/Thinkstock

Roles• Armarius or Bibliothecarius

• Antiquarii

• Librarii or Scriptores

• Illuminator

• Notarius

• Corrector

A medieval monk copying from a text, in a scriptoriumThe Bettmann Archive

“Only three fingers write, but the whole body toils.” Scribe Eadbeorht

HistoryCassiodorus (485/90-c.580) in Italy was the first to dwell on the spiritual value of transcribing texts in a scriptorium

“Every work of the Lord written by the scribe is a wound inflicted on Satan.”

517, First European monastic writing

• 529 Benedict of Nursia, Monte Cassino

Rule of St. Benedict“Idleness is the enemy of

the soul”

• 819-826 Benedictine Scriptoria of St. Gall had 400 books

Benedictines

564Book of KellsIona MonasteryFounded by Columba (Columcille) http://www.brattleborology.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/book-of-kells.jpg

We cannot forget the Irish and how they preserved Latin for us!

Cistercians and Carthusians

1134 Cistercian Order, monks should be silent in scriptorium

Carthusians viewed copying as missionary work

Start of 13th century, secular copyshops developed

http://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/ds/harvard/images/MH-H.1002A.jpg

http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/digitalscrip

torium/

http://www.saintjohnsbible.org/

Digital Scriptorium

St. John’s Bible

“The continuous process of remaining open and accepting of what may reveal itself through hand and heart on a crafted page is the closest I have ever come to God.” ~Donald Jackson, Artistic Director

TODAY

Questions?

BIBLIOGRAPHY

• Broderick, Robert C. The Catholic Encyclopedia. T. Nelson, 1976.

• Cahill, Thomas. How the Irish saved civilization. Vol. 1. Anchor, 1996.

• Ferguson, Everett. Encyclopedia of early Christianity. Vol. 1. Routledge, 1990.

• ”Scriptorium." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 22 Jan.2013. Web. 18 Feb. 2013.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scriptorium

• Johnston, William. Encyclopedia of monasticism. Vol. 2. Routledge, 2000.

• Lerner, Fred. The story of libraries: From the invention of writing to the computer age. Continuum, 2009.

• McDonald, William J., ed. New Catholic encyclopedia. 7. His to Jub. McGraw-Hill, 1967.

• "scriptorium." Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online Academic Edition. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2013. Web. 19 Feb. 2013. <http://www.britannica.com.eres.library.manoa.hawaii.edu/EBchecked/topic/530013/scriptorium>.

• Stewart, David R. “Libraries, Western Christian.” In Encyclopedia of Monasticism, Ed. Wm. M. Johnston. Vol.1. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn, 2000: 235-236. http://www.library.uiuc.edu/ereserves/item.asp?id=51281