Editing Scribe (section)

{{Short description|Person who wrote or copied manuscripts}}
{{other uses}}
{{Missing information|Islamic, Indian, Mayan, Persian, and other scribes|date=July 2019}}
[[File:Amir Khusraw Dihlavi - Portrait of the Scribe Mir 'Abd Allah Katib in the Company of a Youth Burnishing Paper - Walters W650187A - Reverse Detail.jpg|thumb|upright|''Portrait of the Scribe Mir 'Abd Allah Katib in the Company of a Youth Burnishing Paper'' ([[Mughal Empire]], ca. 1602)]]
A '''scribe''' is a person who serves as a professional [[copyist]], especially one who made copies of [[manuscript]]s before the invention of [[Printing press|automatic printing]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.dictionary.com/browse/scribe |title=Scribe |website=[[Dictionary.com]] |access-date=6 June 2017 |first=Douglas |last=Harper |year=2010 |publisher=[[Online Etymology Dictionary]] |agency=[[Dictionary.com, LLC]]}}</ref><ref>{{EBD|wstitle=Scribes}}
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The work of scribes can involve copying manuscripts and other texts as well as secretarial and administrative duties such as the taking of dictation and keeping of business, judicial, and historical records for [[king]]s, [[nobility|nobles]], [[temple]]s, and [[City|cities]].

The profession of scribe first appears in [[Mesopotamia]]. Scribes contributed in fundamental ways to ancient and medieval cultures, including [[Ancient Egyptian literature|Egypt]], [[Chinese culture#Calligraphy|China]], [[Sanskrit#Writing system|India]], [[Persian literature|Persia]], the [[Roman Empire#Literacy, books, and education|Roman Empire]], and [[Illuminated manuscript|medieval Europe]]. [[#Judaism|Judaism]], [[Buddhism]], and [[Islamic manuscripts|Islam]] have important scribal traditions. Scribes have been essential in these cultures for the preservation of legal codes, religious texts, and artistic and didactic literature. In some cultures, social functions of the scribe and of the [[calligrapher]] overlap, but the emphasis in scribal writing is on exactitude, whereas calligraphy aims to express the aesthetic qualities of writing apart from its content.<ref>Cory MacPherson, ''Inventions in Reading and Writing: From Calligraphy to E-readers'' (Cavendish Square, 2017), pp. 22–23.</ref>

Previously a prominent fixture in literary cultures, scribes lost most of their prominence and status with the advent of the [[printing press]]. The generally less prestigious profession of [[scrivener]] continued to be important for copying and writing out legal documents and the like. In societies with low literacy rates, street-corner letter-writers (and readers) may still be found providing scribe service.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/06/11/1055220661012.html |title=Women of letters doing write for the illiterate |newspaper=[[smh.com.au]] |access-date=25 January 2018 |date=12 June 2003 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180126021144/http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/06/11/1055220661012.html |archive-date=26 January 2018 |agency=Reuters }}</ref>