Editing Scriptorium (section)

===Saint Benedict===
The more famous monastic treatise of the 7th century, Saint [[Benedict of Nursia]]'s [[Rule of St Benedict|Rule]], fails to mention the labor of transcription by name, though his institution, the monastery of [[Montecassino]], developed one of the most influential scriptoria, at its acme in the 11th century, which made the abbey "the greatest center of book production in South Italy in the High Middle Ages".<ref>Newton 1999:3; the scriptorium is fully examined in Francis Newton, ''The Scriptorium and Library at Monte Cassino, 1058–1105'', 1999.</ref> Here was developed and perfected the characteristic "Cassinese" [[Beneventan script]] under [[Desiderius of Montecassino|Abbot Desiderius]].

The [[Rule of Saint Benedict]] does explicitly call for monks to have ready access to books during two hours of compulsory daily reading and during [[Lent]], when each monk is to read a book in its entirety.<ref name="accessed 2 May 2007">''Rule of Saint Benedict'', Chapter 48, [http://www.kansasmonks.org/RuleOfStBenedict.html#ch48 Kansasmonks.org], accessed 2 May 2007.</ref> Thus each monastery was to have its own extensive collection of books, to be housed either in [[armaria|armarium]] (book chests) or a more traditional library. However, because the only way to obtain a large quantity of books in the [[Middle Ages]] was to copy them, in practice this meant that the monastery had to have a way to transcribe texts in other collections.<ref>Geo. Haven Putnam, ''Books and Their Makers During the Middle Ages'', (New York: Hillary House, 1962), p. 29.</ref> An alternative translation of Benedict's strict guidelines for the oratory as a place for silent, reverent prayer actually hints at the existence of a scriptorium. In Chapter 52 of his Rule, Benedict's warns: "Let the oratory be what it is called, and let nothing else be done or stored there".<ref>''Rule of Saint Benedict'', Chapter 52, [http://www.kansasmonks.org/RuleOfStBenedict.html#ch52 Kansasmonks.org], accessed 2 May 2007.</ref> But ''condatur'' translates both as ''stored'' and ''to compose or write,'' thus leaving the question of Benedict's intentions for manuscript production ambiguous.<ref>Fr. Landelin Robling OSB, ''Monastic Scriptoria'', [http://www.osb.org/gen/robling/07script.html#rules OSB.org], accessed 2 May 2007.</ref> The earliest commentaries on the [[Rule of Saint Benedict]] describe the labor of transcription as the common occupation of the community, so it is also possible that Benedict failed to mention the scriptorium by name because of the integral role it played within the monastery.

====Saint Ferréol====
Monastic life in the [[Middle Ages]] was strictly centered around [[Liturgy of the Hours|prayer]] and manual labor. In the early Middle Ages, there were many attempts to set out an organization and routine for monastic life. [[Charles Forbes René de Montalembert|Montalembert]] cites one such sixth-century document, the Rule of [[Ferréol of Uzès|Saint Ferréol]], as prescribing that "He who does not turn up the earth with the plough ought to write the parchment with his fingers."<ref>Montalembert, ''The Monks of the West from St. Benedict to St. Bernard'', vol. 6, (Edinburgh, 1861–1879) p. 191.</ref> As this implies, the labor required of a [[scribe]] was comparable to the exertion of agriculture and other outdoor work. Another of Montalembert's examples is of a scribal note along these lines: "He who does not know how to write imagines it to be no labour, but although these fingers only hold the pen, the whole body grows weary."<ref>Montalembert, ''The Monks of the West from St. Benedict to St. Bernard'', vol. 6, (Edinburgh, 1861–1879) p. 194.</ref>