Yet, even at their peak, female scribes remained a small fraction of the overall manuscript production. The study estimates that women copied just over 1% of medieval manuscripts, though many more ...

Medieval scribes had to create their own nibs by whittling the ends of feathers. To test them, they often drew doodles that were never intended to be seen.

The scribe has written the Latin words "Probatio Penn[a]e," which means "pen test." Sometimes, though, the scribes were a little bit bolder and wrote more emotively about their work.

Experts estimate medieval scribes produced over 10 million manuscripts between 400-1500 CE, each one painstakingly copied, illustrated, and bound by hand.

An amateur scribe, Heege copied out several books and built up his own personal library of medieval comedy. Most of the stories in Heege’s collection riff on other popular tales from the time, but one ...

The dental calculus on the lower jaw where a medieval woman entrapped lapis lazuli pigment, seen below center tooth. The semi-precious stone was highly prized at the time for its vivid color and ...

When you want to be a late medieval scribe or clerk. It is incredibly complicated, very difficult, which is typical of any aspect of living history.

Medieval scribes had to create their own nibs by whittling the ends of feathers. To test them, they often drew doodles that were never intended to be seen.

Doodling in medieval books also brings us into the world of play as readers and scribes then, as now, surrendered themselves to the urge to interrupt empty spaces on the page.

Medieval scribes had to create their own nibs by whittling the ends of feathers. To test them, they often drew doodles that were never intended to be seen.