Editing Scriptorium (section)

{{short description|Room in medieval European monasteries for writing}}
{{for|the website|Scriptorium (website)}}
[[File:BL Royal Vincent of Beauvais.jpg|thumb|Miniature of [[Vincent of Beauvais]] writing in a manuscript of the ''Speculum Historiale'' in French, Bruges, c. 1478–1480, [[British Library]] Royal 14 E. i, vol. 1, f. 3, probably representing the library of the [[Dukes of Burgundy]].]]

A '''scriptorium''' ({{IPAc-en|audio=En-us-scriptorium.ogg|s|k|r|ɪ|p|ˈ|t|ɔːr|i|ə|m}})<ref>{{Cite OED|term=scriptorium|id=3383765628}}</ref> was a writing room in medieval European [[monasteries]] for the copying and [[Illuminated manuscript|illuminating]] of [[manuscripts]] by [[scribes]].<ref name="Kauffmann">{{Cite book |last=Kauffmann |first=Martin |title=Grove Art Online |date=2003 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |language=en |chapter=Scriptorium |doi=10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.t077202 |isbn=978-1-884446-05-4 |chapter-url=https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:246f3a57-cf61-41d2-bf6e-c067179ffe36}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Stones |first=Alison |date=2014-06-01 |title=Scriptorium: The term and its history |journal=Perspective |issue=1 |pages=113–120 |doi=10.4000/perspective.4401 |issn=1777-7852 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

The term has perhaps been over-used—only some monasteries had special rooms set aside for scribes. Often they worked in the monastery library or in their own rooms. Most medieval images of scribing show single figures in well-appointed studies, although these are generally [[author portrait]]s of well-known authors or translators. Increasingly, lay scribes and illuminators from outside the monastery also assisted the clerical scribes.<ref name="Kauffmann"/> By the later Middle Ages secular manuscript workshops were common, and many monasteries bought more books than they produced themselves.