Manuscripts in Special Collections

From producing the parchment to making the inks to eventually binding the book, medieval manuscripts were completely produced by hand. While a scribe may have worked alone to write out the text, the process of making a book in the middle ages requires lots of people and various craftsmen. The materials used to create the manuscripts reflect the area in which they were produced.

It makes sense that an European manuscript would be written on parchment where various livestock were available to use versus in Egypt people used papyrus reeds to make sheets of plant material to write on. In Asia, silk was a common medium before the invention of paper in China, during the Eastern Han period (25–220 AD). The use of paper spread to the Islamic world in the 8th century and was brought to Europe by the 11th century.

Location again could affect what writing utensil a scribe used to copy down a text. While reed pens and other styluses were common in other parts of the world, quills were most common in producing European manuscripts. The most common inks used were iron gall and lamp black inks; the former is made from oak nut galls and has a brownish color and the latter was made from lamp soot. Other organic material could be used to create inks such as walnut husks and colors were produced with a variety of minerals.