scriptorium
nounUK /skɹɪpˈtɔː.ɹɪəm/ · US /skɹɪpˈtɔɹ.i.əm/
Etymology Learned borrowing from Medieval Latin scrīptōrium, from Latin scrīptōrius (“pertaining to writing”). Doublet of escritoire.
1
A room set aside for the copying, writing, or illuminating of manuscripts and records, especially such a room in a monastery.
- The rules of the scriptorium varied in different monasteries, but artificial light was forbidden for fear of injury to the manuscripts, and silence was always enforced.1912, G[ilbert] Roger Hudleston, “Scriptorium”, in Charles G[eorge] Herbermann, Edward A[loysius] Pace, Condé B[enoist] Pallen, Thomas J[oseph] Shahan, John J[oseph] Wynne, editors, The Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church, volume XIII (Revelation–Simon Stock), New York, N.Y.: Robert Appleton Company, →OCLC, page 635, column 1:
- Very soon, however, I hesitated. It was labour-intensive work, scriptorium-slow.1999, Seamus Heaney, “Introduction”, in Beowulf, London: Faber and Faber, page xxii:
2 more examples
- Nevertheless, Aland criticized Martin's suggestion that the codex was the product of the scriptorium attached to a monastery,⁵³⁶ on the grounds that there is no evidence for the existence of monasteries in the year 200, or for the existence of scriptoria at all connected with the Church at that early date.2008, James Ronald Royse, chapter 7, in Scribal Habits in Early Greek New Testament Papyri, page 499:
- Among the earliest Hiberno-Saxon illuminated manuscripts is the Book of Durrow, a Gospel book that may have been written and decorated in the monastic scriptorium at Iona, although its provenance is not documented.2009, Fred S. Kleiner, Gardner's Art Through the Ages: The Western Perspective, 13th edition, volume 1, page 289: