Editing Scriptorium (section)

==The physical scriptorium==
Much as medieval libraries do not correspond to the exalted sketches from [[Umberto Eco]]'s ''[[The Name of the Rose]]'',<ref>[https://medievalfragments.wordpress.com/2013/01/11/library-or-labyrinth/ "Library or labyrinth" Irene O'Daly. January 11, 2013 (medievalfragments.wordpress.com)]</ref> it seems that ancient written accounts, as well as surviving buildings, and archaeological excavations do not invariably attest to the evidence of scriptoria.<ref>[https://medievalfragments.wordpress.com/2013/01/25/pondering-the-physical-scriptorium/ "Pondering the physical scriptorium" Jenneka Janzen. January 25, 2013 by medievalfragments (medievalfragments.wordpress.com)]</ref> Scriptoria, in the physical sense of a room set aside for the purpose, perhaps mostly existed in response to specific scribal projects; for example, when a monastic (and) or regal institution wished a large number of texts copied.

References in modern scholarly writings to 'scriptoria' typically refer to the collective written output of a monastery, somewhat like the [[Chancery (medieval office)|chancery]] in the early regal times is taken to refer to a specific fashion of modelling formulars, but especially traditional is the view that scriptoria was a necessary adjunct to a library, as per the entry in du Cange, 1678 'scriptorium'.<ref>Du Cange, et al., ''Glossarium mediae et infimae Latinitatis'', Niort: L. Favre, 1883–1887 (10 vol.). [http://ducange.enc.sorbonne.fr/SCRIPTORIUM Scriptorium]</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Celenza|first1=Christopher S.|title=Creating Canons in Fifteenth-Century Ferrara: Angelo Decembrio's "De politia litteraria," 1.10|journal=Renaissance Quarterly|date=Spring 2004 |volume=57 |issue=1|pages=43–98|publisher=The University of Chicago Press|jstor=1262374|quote="Since the early medieval days of the foundling monastic orders, the library and the scriptorium had been linked. For the most part, the library was a storage space. Reading was done elsewhere."}}</ref>

===San Giovanni Evangelista, Rimini===
At this church whose patron was [[Galla Placidia]] (died 450), paired rectangular chambers flanking the apse, accessible only from each aisle, have been interpreted as paired (Latin and Greek) libraries and perhaps scriptoria.<ref>Janet Charlotte Smith, "The Side Chambers of San Giovanni Evangelista in Ravenna: Church Libraries of the Fifth Century" ''Gesta,'' '''29'''.1 (1990): 86–97)</ref> The well-lit niches half a meter deep, provisions for [[hypocaust]]s beneath the floors to keep the spaces dry, have prototypes in the architecture of Roman libraries.<ref>E. Mackowiecka, ''The Origin and the Evolution of the Architectural Forms of the Roman Library'' (Warsaw) 1978, noted by Smith 1990.</ref>

===Cassiodorus and the Vivarium===
The monastery built in the second quarter of the 6th century under the supervision of [[Cassiodorus]] at [[Vivarium (monastery)|the Vivarium]] near [[Squillace]] in southern Italy contained a scriptorium, for the purpose of collecting, copying, and preserving texts.

Cassiodorus' description of his monastery contained a purpose-built scriptorium, with a [[sundial]], a [[water-clock]], and a "perpetual lamp," that is, one that supplied itself with oil from a reservoir.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Perpetual Lamps |journal=Our Boys and Girls |date=February 15, 1868 |volume=3 |issue=59 |page=112 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KhwIU5qXGY4C&pg=PA112 |access-date=22 January 2019|last1=Optic |first1=Oliver }}</ref> The scriptorium would also have contained desks where the monks could sit and copy texts, as well as the necessary ink wells, penknives, and quills. Cassiodorus also established a library where, at the [[Decline of the Roman Empire|end of the Roman Empire]], he attempted to bring Greek learning to Latin readers and to preserve texts both sacred and secular for future generations. As its unofficial librarian, Cassiodorus collected as many manuscripts as he could, he also wrote treatises aimed at instructing his monks in the proper uses of texts. In the end, however, the library at the Vivarium was dispersed and lost, though it was still active around 630.

===Cistercians===
The scriptoria of the [[Cistercian]] order seem to have been similar to those of the Benedictines. The mother house at [[Cîteaux]], one of the best-documented high-medieval scriptoria, developed a severe "house style" in the first half of the 12th century. The 12th-century scriptorium of [[Cîteaux]] and its products, in the context of Cistercian scriptoria, have been studied by Yolanta Załuska, ''L'enluminure et le scriptorium de Cîteaux au XIIe siècle'' (Brecht:Cîteaux) 1989.