medieval scribes
Manuscript-copying monks
Medieval scribes were people who copied texts by hand before the printing press, typically monks or professional copyists working in monasteries or scriptoria.
The term evokes painstaking labor with quill and parchment: He has the handwriting of a medieval scribe.
Often used figuratively for anyone doing tedious transcription work.
- quillFeather used for writing
- reed penCut hollow stem for writing
- vellumPrepared calfskin for writing
- scriptoriumMonastery manuscript workshop
- hand copyingDuplicating by writing manually
copyist · parchment · illuminator · calligraphy · marginalia · codex · monasticism · monastic life · colophon · inkpot · gilding · transcription · illuminated manuscript · chronicler · penmanship · script · proofreading · text alignment
- classical authors manuscriptsilluminated texts, vellum, scriptorium, parchment, codex
- Historical Sourceschroniclers, annalists, historiographers, biographers, hagiographies
- paleographypaleography, uncial, minuscule, majuscule, cursive
- Unknown AuthorsAnonymous, ghostwriter, ghostwriters
- Gaelic LiteratureFenian Cycle, sagas, annals, triads, bards
- manuscriptscodex, codices, folio, folios, papyri
relationship to literacy and information access
medieval scribesself-publishers
Writers who distribute independently