Description

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Illuminated with illustrations, an exploration of medieval manuscript production that offers insight into both the early history of the book and life in the Middle Ages.
 
This book takes the reader on an immersive journey through medieval manuscript production in the Latin Christian world. Each chapter opens with a lively vignette by a medieval narrator—including a parchment maker, scribe, and illuminator—introducing various aspects of manuscript production. Sara J. Charles poses the question “What actually is a scriptorium?” and explores the development of the medieval scriptorium from its early Christian beginnings through to its eventual decline and the growth of the printing press.
 
With the written word at the very heart of the Christian monastic movement, we see the immense amount of labor, planning, and networks needed to produce each manuscript. By tapping into these processes and procedures, The Medieval Scriptorium helps us to experience medieval life through the lens of a manuscript maker.

About the Author

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Sara J. Charles works and studies at Senate House, University of London. She has previously published on various aspects of the history of the book.

Praise For…

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"Glimpses of medieval belief and culture, trade, relationships with nature, and – most of all – individual medieval lives: Sara J. Charles’s brilliant book reveals the world of the Middle Ages through the pages of its manuscripts."
— Catherine Clarke, director of the Centre for the History of People, Place and Community at the Institute of Historical Research, London

“From squirrel hair brushes to scripts, Charles offers a comprehensive and engagingly accessible introduction to medieval book production. At times strikingly imaginative in form, this book brings together creative vignettes, intermittent chronologies, illustrations, and lucid prose to trace the contours of manuscript making in this period.”
— Hannah Ryley, Balliol College, University of Oxford, and author of "Re-using Manuscripts in Late Medieval England"

"In this compellingly written, fascinating must-read, Charles leads us on sensory journey of the tactile, unexpectedly smelly, excruciatingly painful, and divinely jubilant reality of manuscript-making in medieval Europe. A joyous page-turner!"
— Elizabeth Savage, senior lecturer in book history and communications, Institute of English Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London