Editing Scriptorium (section)

===Benedictines===
Cassiodorus' contemporary, [[Benedict of Nursia]], allowed his monks to read the great works of the pagans in the monastery he founded at [[Monte Cassino]] in 529. The creation of a library here initiated the tradition of Benedictine scriptoria, where the copying of texts not only provided materials needed in the routines of the community and served as work for hands and minds otherwise idle, but also produced a marketable end-product. Saint [[Jerome]] stated that the products of the scriptorium could be a source of revenue for the monastic community, but Benedict cautioned, "If there be skilled workmen in the monastery, let them work at their art in all humility".<ref>''Rule of Saint Benedict'', Chapter 57, [http://www.kansasmonks.org/RuleOfStBenedict.html#ch57 Kansasmonks.org], accessed 2 May 2007.</ref>

In the earliest Benedictine monasteries, the writing room was actually a corridor open to the central quadrangle of the [[cloister]].<ref>Fr. Landelin Robling OSB, ''Monastic Scriptoria'', [http://www.osb.org/gen/robling/03script.html#location OSB.org], accessed 2 May 2007.</ref> The space could accommodate about twelve monks, who were protected from the elements only by the wall behind them and the vaulting above. Monasteries built later in the Middle Ages placed the scriptorium inside, near the heat of the kitchen or next to the [[calefactory]]. The warmth of the later scriptoria served as an incentive for unwilling monks to work on the transcription of texts (since the charter house was rarely heated).

====St. Gall====
The Benedictine [[Plan of St. Gall]] is a sketch of an idealised monastery dating from 819 to 826, which shows the scriptorium and [[Carolingian Libraries|library]] attached to the northeast corner of the main body of the church; this is not reflected by the evidence of surviving monasteries. Although the purpose of the plan is unknown, it clearly shows the desirability of scriptoria within a wider body of monastic structures at the beginning of the 9th century.<ref>A.C. Murray, ''After Rome's Fall,'' (Toronto: University Toronto Press, 1998), pp. 262, 283.</ref>