Reading and Writing the Manuscripts
From the demise of the Roman empire until the rise of the western universities (around 1200 CE), which generated a growth in secular, commercialised book production to accommodate the demands of a more literate public, it is generally assumed that book production was the exclusive province of monasteries. This indeed was broadly the case, although there are signs of continued secular production of documents elsewhere in medieval Europe, and there remains the possibility of limited lay participation in book production.
The British Library | The Lindisfarne Gospels.
Early eighth century; Lindisfarne.
The manuscript produced at the monastery of Lindisfarne contains 258 leaves of vellum, prepared from the skins of calves.
The opening displayed shows the 'carpet' page introducing St Matthew's Gospel (left), and the major decorated initial page at the beginning of St Matthew's Gospel. (BL Shelfmark Cotton Nero D IV, ff.26v-27.) |
Within the sphere of ecclesiastical production it should not be assumed that permanent attachment to a single scriptorium (or 'writing office') was entailed--the manuscripts themselves yield plenty of evidence that scribes and artists, as well as their works and exemplars, were mobile. Furthermore, writing was not confined to those whose talents meant that their opus dei, or 'work for God' (an integral part of the monastic day as prescribed, for example, within the monastic rule composed by Cassiodorus), consisted largely of book production. Many churchmen who were not 'professional' monastic scribes (such as Boniface, Willibrord, Aelfric and Wulfstan) have nonetheless left specimens of their hands in marginal annotations. It should be recognised that, in a period when book production was a manual activity, 'literacy' might not necessarily entail the ability to write; works might be dictated to a competent scribe, even by notable scholars of the later Middle Ages.
Literacy in Anglo-Saxon England
Assessing the extent of literacy in Anglo-Saxon England (even in a restricted, conventional sense meaning the ability to read and write) is extremely difficult, given the nature of the sources. Social class may well have been the primary determining factor, with the upper echelons of society enjoying a higher, if restricted access to learning. Such abilities would have been far more widespread within the Church than within lay society, but there are some indications from England, and even more so from the continent, that tuition could be acquired outside and that those educated within an ecclesiastical context might re-enter secular society. Also, those from the lower freeborn classes might well gain access to learning through entry into the Church.
There is evidence that some specific secular figures, such as the learned king of Northumbria, Aldfrith (reigned 686-705), and Alfred the Great (871-99), may well have been able to write as well as to read. The Welsh monk Asser writes, of Alfred's youngest son, Aethelweard, that he 'was given over to training in reading and writing under the attentive care of teachers, in company with all the nobly born children of virtually the entire area, and a good many of lesser birth as well'. Conversely, not all clerics were literate, Bede and Alfred both complaining of this (the former when recounting the problems of training illiterate anglophone priests).Women also participated in book production. In 735-6, the missionary Boniface wrote to Abbess Eadburh of Minster-in-Thanet requesting that her community '... write for me in gold the epistles of my lord, St Peter the Apostle, to secure honour and reverence for the Holy Scriptures when they are preached before the eyes of the heathen ... I send the gold for writing this'. Nuns could obviously produce prestigious work, and some fine early correspondence was also composed by them. Aldhelm's work in praise of virginity, addressed to the nuns of Barking, demonstrates the prowess at learning that they would have needed to tackle his complex style, and the said ladies responded eagerly to the research task presented by Bede's call for data for his Ecclesiastical History.
Alfred learns to read
Female religious would also frequently have charge of the care and instruction of children entered early for the religious life. Likewise, the role of mothers in training the young may also occasionally have found a literate expression. Asser tells us of the young Alfred:
One day, therefore, when his mother was showing him and his brothers a book of English poetry ... she said 'I shall give this book to whichever one of you can learn it the fastest'. Spurred on by these words, or rather by divine inspiration, and attracted by the beauty of the initial letter in the book, Alfred ... immediately took the book from her hand, went to his teacher and learnt it. When it was learnt, he took it back to his mother and recited it.
The wills of male and female members of the higher classes of thegns (ranked above ordinary freemen and below noblemen) also show that they often owned several books, although it is not possible to say whether they could read them without the aid of a priest.
The role of writing
For the majority of the populace, the nearest they would ever come to handwriting was to glimpse the imposing service books used in religious ceremonies, with the images sometimes explained by the priest, if they were lucky; or when attending a court of law, where written evidence became increasingly important from the early ninth century; or where, later, the king's writ (or commands) might be read out.
Within the monastic community, however, most religious received instruction in the school room, those with any aptitude going on to become lectors (scholars) and/or scriptors (scribes), a distinction which appears to have been particularly observed in Ireland.  | | The British Library | The Benedictional of St Aethelwold.
971-84; Winchester.
A magnificent book of episcopal blessings commissioned by Aethelwold, Bishop of Winchester (963-84) from the scribe Godeman. This detail is from the opening of the Easter blessing and depicts the Women at the Tomb. (BL Shelfmark Add. MS 49598, f.51v.) |
Trainee scribes would often be allowed to test their hand, even in prestigious works (such as the Royal Bible) and their efforts, along with corrections by their mentors, may occasionally be detected in passages of the manuscripts themselves.
Working practices varied, although in general the order of work consisted of preparation of the parchment (defleshed animal skins), pricking and ruling the layout of the sheets, writing, adding any rubrics (titles, headings etc., generally in rubeum, red), decorating, correcting, assembling the sheets into quires (gatherings), sewing together, and binding (perhaps including metalwork covers or a cumdach, or shrine). The composition of work teams was variable. For example, in the Lindisfarne scriptorium, at the beginning of the eighth century, five scribes might work on a school book whilst great Gospel-books, such as the Lindisfarne Gospels, were apparently the work of a single artist-scribe. Eadfrith, the alleged maker of the Lindisfarne Gospels, achieved the position of Bishop of Lindisfarne (its binder, Aethilwald, later succeeding him) and was obviously an important member of the community. Perhaps his work on this major cult item represented his own personal opus dei and bolstered his position.
Scribes and patrons
In Ireland, great store was placed upon the 'hero-scribe', and this probably extended to England, although there few references to early scribes survive (other than the famed Irishman Ultan, celebrated in a poem). Colophons (inscriptions recording information about a manuscript's production, again favoured primarily by the Irish) preserve the names of some: Wigbald, master-scribe of a large team working on the Barberini Gospels; and Cutbercht, an Anglo-Saxon working probably at Salzburg on a Gospel-book which bears his name. Later in the period several 'high-fliers' recorded their work. These included Godeman, probably a Winchester monk and later Abbot of Thorney, commissioned by Bishop Aethelwold to produce his Benedictional around 971-84, and who is commemorated, along with his patron, in a poem. Aelsinus, perhaps a monk of the New Minster, Winchester, during the second quarter of the eleventh century, is recorded as the scribe of the Prayerbook of Aelfwine and also worked on the New Minster Liber Vita. But perhaps the most notable scribe of them all was Eadui Basan, a monk of Christ Church, Canterbury.
Eadui's work included a Psalter and a Gospel-book, both of which are named after him, the Grimbald Gospels and contributions to the York Gospels, the Harley Psalter and the earlier Vespasian Psalter.  | | The British Library |  The Eadui Psalter.
1012-23; Canterbury.
This imposing Psalter was written by the famous scribe Eadui Basan, who may be depicted here at the feet of St Benedict. (BL Shelfmark Arundel MS 155, f.133.) |
His work on charters dating from the second and third decades of the eleventh century provides a convenient dating reference for his endeavours. The appearance of a common artist, as well as scribe, within certain of these works has led to the suggestion that Eadui may also have been an accomplished artist. It is probably he who is depicted grasping the feet of St Benedict in the Eadui Psalter.
From the late ninth century onwards patrons were also more readily recorded. Earlier, the works of Bede or of Aldhelm might carry dedications, but the actual owners of books are seldom mentioned. Alfred's 'official publications' allow a number of works to be associated with his circle, the Hatton Pastoral Care, for example, carrying a prefatory letter of commendation, in the case of this copy addressed to Werferth, Bishop of Worcester. King Athelstan has been shown to have acquired, and commissioned, a number of books, including some from the continent (such as the 'Coronation Gospels' from Lobbes, traditionally used as the oath book at English coronations) and from Ireland. He has even been accredited with founding the royal library.
King Edgar and his reforming bishops were, predictably, notable patrons, and recent scholarship has attempted to extend the generous patronage which Cnut and his wives are recorded as displaying to the arts to some of the splendid books produced during the eleventh century. Other secular patrons included St Margaret of Scotland (died 1093), granddaughter of Edmund Ironside, who fled north after the conquest, resulting in her marriage to King Malcolm III. A pious reformer, Margaret's books included a Gospel-book which contains a poem recording an event in which it was given a quick dip into a river by a careless priest. Another noble lady, Countess Judith of Flanders, owned four Gospel-books written by English scribes (three were made in England and one at St Bertin). Judith was the bride of Tostig Godwinson, the Earl of Northumbria, a major protagonist in the events surrounding the conquest, and who was in England from 1051-64.
In Anglo-Saxon England, therefore, literacy was primarily, if not exclusively, an ecclesiastical preserve. Books would be made within religious communities for a variety of patrons: for the community itself, or for another religious establishment; for priests, all of whom required books to perform their duties; for individual ecclesiastics, often of high rank; and for secular figures, male and female, royal or noble. |
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