Manuscript is a term used today for any document written by hand or on a typewriter or computer. The word is often used to distinguish an author’s original version of a work from the published version. The term manuscript also refers to any handwritten document from ancient times until the introduction of printing in the 1400’s. This article discusses such historical manuscripts.
Most manuscripts can be identified with certain times or areas by the material on which they were written. In ancient times, for example, people living around the Mediterranean Sea wrote manuscripts on papyrus, leather, and wax tablets. During the Middle Ages (the period in European history from about the 400’s through the 1400’s), manuscripts were written on parchment and on a refined form of parchment called vellum. By the 1400’s, paper was replacing parchment for manuscripts. Paper made practical the printed books that became the principal means of transmitting the written word.
Ancient and medieval manuscripts tell about the lives and activities of people who lived hundreds and even thousands of years ago. Scholars learn from manuscripts about business transactions, customs and laws, family affairs, literature, government, and religious beliefs. Many of these manuscripts are also considered works of art because they are beautifully decorated or painted.
Manuscripts of the ancient Near East
Papyrus manuscripts.
Papyrus was the principal writing material of the ancient Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans who lived in the lands surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. Papyrus manuscripts appeared as early as 2700 B.C. and continued in use even after parchment books became common in the A.D. 300’s.
Papyrus was made from a tall, reedlike plant that grew in the swamps of the Nile River in Egypt. Papyrus was manufactured from the stem of the plant by removing the hard rind and cutting the fibrous core into long strips that were pressed together into sheets. The sheets, in turn, were pasted together to form scrolls, or rolls. The scrolls varied in size but they averaged about 1 foot (0.3 meter) wide and 20 feet (6 meters) long.
The papyrus scroll was the manuscript book of the ancient world, but it had drawbacks. First, papyrus was a vegetable substance that decayed rapidly in damp climates. While it was satisfactory in the dry climate of Egypt, it was not durable enough for the damper European weather. Second, the scroll was awkward to read and difficult to use if the reader only wanted to locate one portion of the manuscript. Finally, it was easier to write on one side of the papyrus than the other.
Wax tablets.
People of the Greek and Roman worlds also wrote on wax tablets with a sharp, pointed instrument called a stylus. On the end opposite the point, the stylus had a flat or rounded surface, which was used to erase the writing by smoothing the wax. Sometimes, several wax tablets were laced together on one side to form a codex, the ancestor of the book.
Parchment manuscripts.
Parchment was made from cleaned and scraped skins—chiefly the skins of calves, goats, or sheep. It was an improved version of the animal skins used for ancient Persian and Hebrew religious writings. Sheets of parchment were trimmed into rectangles. About four sheets were stacked together, folded, and sewed at the fold to form a gathering. The entire manuscript could be bound between boards into a codex.
The parchment codex was more durable than the older papyrus scroll that it largely replaced. It could be read more easily and could be conveniently stored on a shelf. Papyrus scrolls were often kept in bins or boxes. Parchment also had the advantage that both sides could be used for writing.
Other manuscripts.
Other materials were used for ancient manuscripts. From about 3300 B.C., the peoples of Mesopotamia wrote on small clay tablets that were baked like bricks to preserve them. In addition to these tablets, people wrote on pieces of broken vases or other clay items . Some manuscripts were written on the bark of various trees, on wood, or on thin sheets of copper that were rolled up.
Manuscripts of the ancient Far East
Paper manuscripts.
The Chinese had invented paper by A.D. 1. Their first books written on paper took the form of scrolls. Later, they made books by folding long strips of paper into accordionlike pleats.
Before the Chinese invented paper, they wrote on bones and silk. They also wrote on bamboo strips that measured about 1/4 inch (0.6 centimeter) wide and 6 to 9 inches (15 to 23 centimeters) long. They wrote on the strips in column form from top to bottom. Then they tied the strips together with string.
Palm leaf manuscripts.
In ancient India and some surrounding lands, the people also made books of strips, only cut from palm leaves. They used strips about 11/2 to 3 inches (4 to 8 centimeters) wide and 24 inches (61 centimeters) or more long. They made holes in the strips and then strung them together, forming the books.
European manuscripts of the Middle Ages
Parchment and vellum were the chief writing materials in Europe during the Middle Ages. They were generally replaced with paper by the 1400’s, especially after the invention of the movable-type printing press in the 1450’s.
Until the 1200’s, monks produced most medieval manuscripts in monastery workshops called scriptoriums. They were helped by outside craftworkers. Monasteries traded manuscripts for books made in other monasteries, and some were sold. In the 1200’s, most book production shifted from monks to lay craftworkers in cities.
Manuscript writers were called scribes. Their work was highly specialized. One group produced the parchment and another did the writing. A third decorated the manuscripts with designs or paintings, and a fourth group bound the finished pages into books.
Medieval scribes made important contributions to the development of modern books. For example, scribes separated words with spaces, while the Greeks and Romans had run words together without spacing. The scribes used capital and small letters and established a system of punctuation to make reading easier. Most of these developments occurred in the Carolingian period, during the late 700’s and 800’s in the scriptoriums of what are now France and western Germany. Modern scholars can sometimes tell which scriptorium a manuscript was written in by how the letters in the manuscript were formed. Sometimes they can even tell which scribe copied out the manuscript.
Many manuscripts of the Middle Ages were beautifully decorated in various colors. Often, gold or silver leaf was used on the initial letters and the decoration. Such manuscripts were called illuminated, because they looked as if they had been lit from inside. Today, we use the term illuminated to refer to any decorated manuscript, whether or not it has gold or silver.
Distinctive styles of illumination developed in different parts of Europe. There were, for example, Byzantine, English, French, Irish, and Italian styles of illumination. All these styles used six basic forms of decoration: (1) animals and human figures, (2) branches with leaves or berries, (3) geometric designs, (4) ornamental letters, (5) plaits (braids), and (6) scrollwork (spirals or coils).
Many books produced during the Middle Ages were Bibles, parts of the Bible, or other religious books. There were also many nonreligious books produced, such as bestiaries (books about animals), romances, histories, legends, and writings by ancient Greeks and Romans.
Illustrated manuscripts
Some of the oldest existing illustrated manuscripts are copies of the Egyptian Book of the Dead. These scrolls date from the 18th Dynasty (about 1539-1292 B.C.). The Egyptians placed copies of the book, which contained prayers and hymns, in their tombs. Illustrated papyrus rolls were also common in ancient Greece and Rome.
After the codex form came into use, illustrations took on greater importance as they occupied more space on a page and were framed in decorative borders. Full-page illustrations appeared during the early Middle Ages. Portraits, which were derived from Greek, Roman, or Byzantine models, began to appear in the late 700’s.
By the 1000’s, the custom had developed of beginning some sections of a manuscript with a small picture called a miniature. Some miniatures were painted within the large initial letter, called a historiated initial, that began a manuscript section.
