Of course, only really expert calligraphers were employed on great and
important works. In the monastery all such labour was gratuitous, that
is, the copyist received no pecuniary remuneration, only his food and
lodging. Yet even this had to be provided for. Hence the frequent
requests for donations from the laity.
To give a volume to a monastery did not always mean actually to present
the book, but to stand the expense of its production in the monastery
itself. In the case of specially distinguished penmen, their
entertainment in a monastery was sometimes an expensive business. It was
only in later times, however, when lay-artists were invited to reside in
the monastery to do their work that money was paid for their services.
Very often we find notices at the end of volumes that "So-and-so" had
ordered the book to be written and illuminated at his expense, and an
invocation for the gratitude of the reader and remembrance in his
prayers is added, sometimes with the date to the very hour when the book
was finished.
The copyist's last words after his task was completed are often very
full of weariness--sometimes pious, sometimes hankering after fleshly
lusts, occasionally quite too dreadful to repeat. "May Christ recompense
for ever him who caused this book to be written.
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