Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts, History And Production Of Beowulf
Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts, History And Production Of Beowulf
Our group is presenting about the Beowulf manuscript along with the history and production of manuscripts. We each have found information on our specific topic.
The history of manuscripts first began with scribes. Scribes were writers who were trained in penmanship. When the need for books grew, manuscripts were being made by students of the Renaissance "writing master" as well. Scribes have created books from within scriptoria. It started in the fourth millennium BC. The first books were made on clay tablets. A scribe would write in the soft clay using a sharp knife. If there were any errors, they would smooth out the clay and rewrite. Once the clay dried, nothing could be fixed. Along with clay, waxed boards were used. They were easier to handle and store. There was a slight advantage with using waxed boards. They could be corrected if any mistakes showed, and they could also be reused. After clay tablets and waxed boards, came papyrus, parchment, and paper books. Papyrus books took the shape of scrolls. Then, there was another advancement which was a loose-leaf manuscript. later on in the seventh and ninth centuries, parchment manuscripts from previous centuries were reused. They were shaved, scrubbed, and scoured for new writing. The reused parchments were called palimpsests. The person in charge of all the scribes was called an armarius. They served as a director, they gave instructions, gave out tasks, issued materials, and arranged all writing and art work. The rubricator’s job was to add rubrics, initials, and elegant decorations. Before a scribe started to write, they needed to follow the client’s directions. They cut the parchment into a size ordered from the client. The size depended on the purpose of the book, and the style of the period and location. Books were all different sizes because they had different purposes. There were pocket-sized prayer books to large choir books used in church. In the late seventeenth century, parchment was being used for religious volumes and collectors’ books. The invention of the printing press was in the fifteenth century. Once printing started, the format of a page changed. For example, the style of script, position of text on the page,...