Editing Scriptorium (section)

== The functional outset ==
[[File:Tavernier Jean Mielot.jpg|thumb|Late 15th-century miniature of the author and translator [[Jean Miélot]] (died 1472)<ref>De Hamel, 1992, p. 36</ref> 
depicts him writing his compilation of the ''Miracles of Our Lady'', one of his many popular works.]]

When monastic institutions arose in the early sixth century (the first European monastic writing dates from 517), they defined European literary culture and selectively preserved the literary history of the West. Monks copied [[Jerome|Jerome's]] [[Latin Vulgate Bible]] and the commentaries and letters of early [[Church Fathers]] for missionary purposes as well as for use within the monastery.

In the copying process, there was typically a division of labor among the monks who readied the parchment for copying by smoothing and chalking the surface, those who ruled the parchment and copied the text, and those who illuminated the text. Sometimes a single monk would engage in all of these stages to prepare a manuscript.<ref>Barbara A. Shailor, ''The Medieval Book'', (Toronto: U Toronto Press, 1991), p. 68.</ref> 
The [[Illuminated manuscript|illuminators of manuscripts]] worked in collaboration with scribes in intricate varieties of interaction that preclude any simple understanding of monastic manuscript production.<ref>cf. Aliza Muslin-Cohen, ''A Medieval Scriptorium: St. maria Magdalena de Frankenthal'' series Wolfenbüttler Mittelalter Studien (Wiesbaden) 1990.</ref>

The products of the monasteries provided a valuable medium of exchange.
Comparisons of characteristic regional, periodic as well as contextual styles of [[handwriting]] do reveal social and cultural connections among them, as new hands developed and were disseminated by travelling individuals, respectively what these individuals represented, and by the examples of manuscripts that passed from one cloister to another. 
Recent studies follow the approach, that ''scriptoria'' developed in relative isolation, to the extent that [[Paleography|paleographers]] are sometimes able to identify the product of each writing centre and to date it accordingly.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=McKitterick |first=Rosamond |date=1990-03-01 |title=Carolingian Book Production: Some Problems |journal=The Library |language=en |volume=s6-12 |issue=1 |pages=1–33 |doi=10.1093/library/s6-12.1.1 |issn=1744-8581}}</ref>

By the start of the 13th century, secular workshops developed,<ref>
De Hamel, 1992, p. 5</ref> 
where professional scribes stood at writing-desks to work the orders of customers, and during the [[Late Middle Ages]] the [[Praxis (process)|praxis]] of writing was becoming not only confined to being generally a monastic or regal activity. However, the practical consequences of private workshops, and as well the invention of the [[printing press]] vis-a-vis monastic ''scriptoria'' is a complex theme.<ref>
for example, cf. De Hamel, 1992, p. 5</ref>

There is also evidence that women scribes, in religious or secular contexts, produced texts in the [[Middle Ages|medieval period]]. Archaeologists identified [[lapis lazuli]], a pigment used in the decoration of medieval illuminated manuscripts, embedded in the dental calculus of remains found in a religious women's community in Germany, which dated to the 11th-12th centuries.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Radini |first1=A. |last2=Tromp |first2=M. |last3=Beach |first3=A. |last4=Tong |first4=E. |last5=Speller |first5=C. |last6=McCormick |first6=M. |last7=Dudgeon |first7=J. V. |last8=Collins |first8=M. J. |last9=Rühli |first9=F. |last10=Kröger |first10=R. |last11=Warinner |first11=C. |date=2019-01-04 |title=Medieval women's early involvement in manuscript production suggested by lapis lazuli identification in dental calculus |journal=Science Advances |language=en |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=eaau7126 |doi=10.1126/sciadv.aau7126 |issn=2375-2548 |pmc=6326749 |pmid=30662947|bibcode=2019SciA....5.7126R }}</ref> [[Chelles Abbey]], established in France during the early medieval period, was also well known for its scriptorium, where nuns produced manuscripts and religious texts.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Scholarship in Women's Communities, from Suzanne Wemple's Women in Frankish Society . {{!}} Monastic Matrix |url=https://arts.st-andrews.ac.uk/monasticmatrix/commentaria/scholarship-women%E2%80%99s-communities-suzanne-wemples-women-frankish-society |access-date=2022-10-18 |website=arts.st-andrews.ac.uk}}</ref> There is also evidence of Jewish women working as scribes of Hebrew texts from the 13th to 16th centuries, though these women primarily worked out of their homes rather than religious institutions, as daughters and wives of scribes.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last1=Riegler |first1=Micheal |last2=Baskin |first2=Judith |date=2008 |title='May the Writer be Strong:' Medieval Hebrew Manuscripts Copied by and for Women |journal=Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women's Studies & Gender Issues |volume=16 |issue=16 |pages=9–28 |doi=10.2979/nas.2008.-.16.9 |s2cid=161946788 |jstor=10.2979/nas.2008.-.16.9}}</ref> Women were not only the producers of these texts, but could also be the consumers or commissioners of them.<ref name=":1" /> There were also women who worked as professional, secular scribes, including [[Clara Hätzlerin]] in 15th century [[Augsburg]], who has at least nine surviving manuscripts signed by or attributed to her.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Feminae: Details Page |url=https://inpress.lib.uiowa.edu/feminae/DetailsPage.aspx?Feminae_ID=10021 |access-date=2022-10-18 |website=inpress.lib.uiowa.edu}}</ref>

[[File:Scriptorium - 15th Century - Project Gutenberg eText 16531.jpg|thumb|left|Saint Matthew in a mediæval scriptorium (''Book of Prayers'', 15th century ([[British Library]], Sloane MS 2468)<ref>
[http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/16531 "Old St. Paul's Cathedral"] William Benham, 1902. (gutenberg.org). 
[http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16531/16531-h/16531-h.htm#plate24 Plate 24]. 
Please also note [http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/record.asp?MSID=18578 Sloane MS 2468]</ref> 
]]