Illuminated manuscripts in classical and mediaeval times, their art and their technique

by J. H. Middleton

Scriptoria in cloisters.

Scriptoria in cloisters.During most of the mediaeval period, however, and in England down to the suppression of the Abbeys by Henry VIII., the system was to devote one whole walk or alley of the cloister, that nearest to the church, to the double purpose of a Scriptorium and library. This was naturally the warmest and dryest portion of the cloister, at least in most cases when the usual arrangement was followed of placing the cloister on the south side of the nave of the Abbey church[^[216]].

Monastic library.

Monastic library.This north walk (as it commonly was) of the cloister faced south and so received plenty of sun; at each end of it a screen was placed to shut it off from the rest of the cloister, which formed a sort of common living-room for the monks[^[217]]. Along one side of this alley of the cloister were fixed, against the wall of the church, oak cupboards (armaria), with strong locks and hinges, to receive the manuscripts which formed the library of the monastery[^[218]]. At Westminster and in other Benedictine monasteries the marks showing where these armaria were fixed are visible on the cloister wall or rather along the wall of the church, which forms one side of this walk of the cloister.

Fig. 54. View of the scriptorium alley of the cloisters at Gloucester, showing the recesses to hold the wooden carrels for the scribes or readers of manuscripts.

Scribes' carrels.

Scribes' carrels.Down the middle of the alley a clear passage was left, and the other side of the passage, that opposite the bookcases, was occupied, at least in the fourteenth century, and probably much earlier, by a row of little wooden box-like rooms called carrels[^[219]], each of which was devoted to the use of one scribe. As a rule there were either two or three of these carrels to each bay or compartment of the cloister. They were commonly made of wainscot oak, about six by eight feet in plan or even less; just big enough to hold the seated scribe and his large desk, on which rested the manuscript he was copying, and the one he was writing, with some extra shelf space for his black and red inkhorns, his colours and other implements; see fig. [53] on p. [209].

These little rooms were provided with wooden floors and ceilings, so as to be warm and dry; they were set close against the traceried windows, which in most cloisters ran all along the internal sides of the four alleys.

Cloister at Gloucester.