Writing, copies, and forgeries

Latin Paleography, contd.

Writing, copies, and forgeries

From the start, our author says that literary sources reveal little on the actual techniques of writing employed in antiquity and the Middle Ages. Most of our information on it comes from portraits showing a calligraphic hand position (stylus or quill held with three extended or slightly bent fingers, and two tucked in, supported only on the smallest finger with none from the arm). This position did not change until the 16^th century, and had some regional variation.

                Elementary writing instruction began with instruction in the alphabet and simple strokes followed by the copying of mnemonic verses. Each letter would be broken down into strokes (Zerstreuungen-meaning diversion, in this case, a diversion of strokes and how they divert to and from one another for efficient writing). The masters would often advertise to attract new pupils.

                Training for the pupils was difficult and often resulted in a uniform and typical script, which would later make it sometimes difficult to distinguish individual hands in a codex written by multiple scribes. This trend to unifiromity, however, makes sense when considering that a Carolingian scribe often had to work with four alphabets; the scribe must know exact forms and how to create an organic flow. Two characeristics are common for medieval literature. Many contemporary copies exist alongside the original as well as drafts, and copies of revised by the author himself also existed contemporary to the original. While some authors penned their own works, others, like Thomas Aquinas dictated. Dictation also meant compose in the medieval vocabulary. We are best informed about Aquinas, who had several secretaries to whom he could dictate from drafts, and later in life, from notes or outlines only.

                Most texts, both literary and liturgical, were copied in monasteries up to the twelfth century when universities began to be predominant in the writing field. Every well-endowed monastery had a scriptorium and typically large libraries. Where monasteries did have large libraries or high numbers of productions, there evolved a characteristic scribal style associated with that monastery. If pupils at the monasteries performed well, they might get employed to writing above the elementary level to possible even write liturgies A scribes career would last anywhere from ten to twenty years, and in rare cases, to around fifty.

                The scriptorium supervisor would delegate copyists for works or portions of works, and the scribes could alternate irregularly—meaning scribes would alternate even in gatherings, or copy several gatherings or groups before another scribe takes over, this being especially common in long or speedy works. One indicator of this is that scribes would often sign their sections, thought he appearance of names might indicate the copyist to whom a part was assigned rather than a signature. Teachers would also sometimes write a few lines to serve as a standard for the pupils to imitate.

                Scribes were not the only ones to work on the manuscript. Rubricators (often scribes as well) would have their part to set up the page format, though they did not always complete their part. Some manuscripts also give an indication on how long the work took by referencing the time it took directly, or the progress made over a period of time.

                Several scribal classes rose out of the late Middle Ages, which saw a dramatic rise in the command of writing. These classes included monks, nuns, ecclesiastic communities devoted solely to book production, secular clerics, notaries, professional scribes, workshops, teachers, students, and of course, pupils. With so many actually writing then, some prominent universities—Paris, Bologna, Oxford, and Naples—developed rules for organized and controlled copying. Each university would have a standard correct version of the work, called the exemplar, to be copied which could be portioned out to copyists in the form of a pecia. The pecia was usually two twin-column double leaves in folio of the portion of the exemplar the scribe was to copy. Each copy was checked by the university. The fifteenth century saw a decline in these institutions, however, and late Middle age literature was then mostly written by the pupils themselves with minor dictation.

                The transcribed manuscripts required corrections, and while the process is rarely explicitly mentioned, certain features or characteristics are often transmitted in the copies. A texts presentation would often give expression to the scribes or redactors activities; contents of a book were often indicated by “In hoc Codice” or ”corpore . . . coninentur”; titles would often begin with the invocation “In nomine . . .”; the use of the cross is common; natural variations in the good wishes of the author to the reader or himself; there are often expression of thanks to God for the completion of the work.

                Forging manuscripts was rare when compared to charters, and usually occurred for two reasons: First, to offer forgeries as the authentic article, and second, to put something into the market. These forgeries often have poor script quality and are written on old parchment, one of the other reasons for the existence of palimpsests. Romantic chauvinism was a common motive for forging manuscripts in the nineteenth century.  Insertion of miniatures, substitution for owner’s marks for ones meant to remove important details or simply tampering with the document to make it more interesting were common methods of falsification.