, illuminated and otherwise,
were the work of monastics. Every house of any note had its room set
apart for writing. The larger monasteries sometimes utilised the
cloisters of the churches themselves, in recesses of which they had
desks or tables placed for the copyist. Usually, however, they had a
large common room called the scriptorium, where either the copyist and
illuminator worked separately and each on his own account, or where a
number of copyists awaited with pen and parchment the dictation by one
of the fraternity of some work of which a number of copies had to be
made. "No admittance except on business" was the rule of this chamber.
There, under the direction of the _armarius_, the expert writers did
their work.
Sometimes a single monk executed the book from first to last by himself.
He prepared the vellum, ruled it with the fine metal point, copied the
text, painted the illuminations, put on the gilding, and even added the
binding. Generally, however, the labour was divided--one monk scraped
and polished the parchment; another ruled it; another wrote the text,
leaving spaces for initials and miniatures; another put in the initials
and did the gilding and flourishing with borders, etc.; and another
painted the miniatures.
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