Quires:

After the parchment was cut into sheets, it would then be assembled into quires, or bound sets of bifolia (rectangles of parchment folded to produce two "pages").  Quires were generally made in sets of eight leaves or ten leaves, made by either binding sets of bifolia or smaller loose leaves of parchment (Graham and Clemens 14).  When arranging the bifolia or leaves to be bound, scribes across Western Europe would generally arrange the sheets "so that, wherever the finished manuscript was opened, like sides would face one another across the opening;" in other words, "hair-side would face hair-side or flesh-side would face flesh-side" (Graham and Clemens 14).  It is generally assumed that this practice was for aesthetic purposes; scribes from the British Isles, who used the "Insular" method of parchment preparation, did not distinguish between flesh-side and hair-side when assembling quires, perhaps because the Insular method produced less difference between the two sides of the parchment.  Despite this, after the tenth century, the Insular scribes did adopt the continental practice of arranging the sheets so that like sides faced one another.

Quires:

After the parchment was cut into sheets, it would then be assembled into quires, or bound sets of bifolia (rectangles of parchment folded to produce two "pages").  Quires were generally made in sets of eight leaves or ten leaves, made by either binding sets of bifolia or smaller loose leaves of parchment (Graham and Clemens 14).  When arranging the bifolia or leaves to be bound, scribes across Western Europe would generally arrange the sheets "so that, wherever the finished manuscript was opened, like sides would face one another across the opening;" in other words, "hair-side would face hair-side or flesh-side would face flesh-side" (Graham and Clemens 14).  It is generally assumed that this practice was for aesthetic purposes; scribes from the British Isles, who used the "Insular" method of parchment preparation, did not distinguish between flesh-side and hair-side when assembling quires, perhaps because the Insular method produced less difference between the two sides of the parchment.  Despite this, after the tenth century, the Insular scribes did adopt the continental practice of arranging the sheets so that like sides faced one another.

Pricking:

Scribes would then page through the quires, pricking and ruling the leaves as necessary in order to achieve straight, even script. Pricking was generally done on the outer edges of a leaf, and if not trimmed off in the final stages of manuscript creation, was still generally visible in the finished copy.  The pricking could be done using a variety of tools; most commonly used were knives, awls, or compasses; knives would leave "small slits in the parchment," where awls or compasses would leave "rounded holes" (Graham and Clemens 15). As the pricking was intended to be a guide for the ruling, which was to ensure level script, the holes of the pricking needed to be evenly spaced and aligned.  To this end, scribes would frequently "place a ruler" in the margin of the leaf and bring "the pricking instrument right up against, or close to, the ruler" in an attempt to achieve a straight alignment (Graham and Clemens 15).  Multiple leaves were generally pricked at once, meaning the pricks were smaller and less noticeable on lower leaves.  Pricking could be done before the sheets of parchment were folded into a pair of leaves or after.  On Continental Europe, pricking was generally done before folding; on the British Isles, the folding was done first and the pricking was generally done afterward.  Like the practice of quire arrangement, the scribes of the British Isles adjusted to the method of the Continent, pricking before the folding after the ninth century (Graham and Clemens 15).  Pricking was also done in the upper and lower margins of the page as well as the exterior and interior, in order to establish vertical rulings for correct columnization of text. 

To the left is a manuscript exhibiting pricking along the right-hand margin; the pricking was not removed during trimming of the leaves, and was likely done with an awl or compass due to the rounded nature of the pricks.

After the late eleventh century, scribes began to move away from ruling in drypoint and toward the practice of ruling in plummet -- a type of leadpoint.  Graham and Clements suggest that the transition from drypoint to plummet occurred over several decades, and that "manuscripts ruled in drypoint can be found as late as the third quarter of the twelfth century" (17).  Rulings in plummet can be identified by their grey or reddish-brown coloration; the lines are generally thin and granular, and sometimes hardly visible. Unlike scribes who ruled in drypoint, scribes using plummet had to rule both sides of a leaf of parchment, and could not rule any more quickly than one side at a time, as the plummet did not bleed through or create an imprint in multiple leaves at once. Plummet did carry several advantages, however: there was very little chance, if any, of ruining a sheet of parchment by pressing too hard, and scribes could erase poorly drawn lines with little leftover marking.

Writing implements:

As the scribes of the Middle Ages moved away from papyrus and further toward the use of parchment, they also moved away from the use of reed pens, which were difficult to come by and impractical for northern scribes.  Far cheaper and easier to obtain for the scribes of western Europe were large feathers, generally taken from the wings of live geese.  These feathers, which were generally stripped down to quills, were then cut across the bottom to create an edge for writing.  Most common -- and prized -- were the quills taken from a goose's left wing, as these curved away from the eyes of the right-handed scribes.  As Graham and Clemens note, "in medieval illustrations, scribes are almost never writing with their left hand"; in fact, the few illustrations that do depict a right-handed scribe are "likely to be the result of the accidental reversal of the image used as a model" (18). 

Ink, generally kept in an inkwell or inkstand, could be made using a variety of techniques.  As Graham and Clemens report, "one of the earlist black inks was lampblack," mixed from "dense carbon...gum, and water" (19).  Lampblack was ideal for papyrus manuscripts, and its ability to soak into the reeds made it a quasi-permanent, reliable mixture.  After the shift to parchment, however, lampblack began to lose its dependability, and gained a reputation for a transitory nature.  Rather than soaking in, the ink "sat on top of the parchment and, depending on the proportions of its ingredients, could eventually disintegrate" (Graham and Clemens 19). 

Writing implements:

Aside from their quills and inkwells, scribes also needed a surface on which to lean while writing.  They generally used lapboards in the early medieval period and desks in the mid-to-late medieval periods.  Lapboards could come in any shape and size, though desks "were normally tilted," though some illustrations do show flat desks (Graham and Clemens 20). Desks in the late medieval period frequently included "an upper tier, at or somewhat above eye level, on which the scribe could set th exemplar being copied" (Graham and Clemens 20).

Additionally, scribes would use a penknife which served multiple purposes: it was useful for sharpening a quickly-dulling quill, for steadying the naturally-springy parchment page, and for erasing mistakes a scribe might make during transcription.  The penknife would allow scribes to scrape off errors on the parchment before the ink had time to set or sink in. Graham and Clemens note that "often it is possible to detect areas of roughened parchment in a manuscript where such corrections have been made; sometimes, sufficient traces of ink remain to read the original, erased text" (18).

To the right is a manuscript which has been heavily edited by a second scribe.  Portions of the text have been scraped away with a penknife, resulting in the blurry appearance of several of the lines, and then rewritten in a different hand.  While it is not possible to read the removed text, traces of it certainly remain, and we are able to distinguish added text from original text as a result.

Transcription:

The initial transcription of the text was at once the easiest and most time-consuming task in manuscript production.  By this point, a scribe would have already pricked and ruled the text, created the ink, and even assembled the leaves of parchment into quires, so all that remained was the process of copying the text from the exemplar -- the original manuscript from which the scribe read -- to the new page. While this task is seemingly simple, in reality it was a time-consuming, error-filled period. Scribes who caught their errors at the time of transcription could generally remove them with the aforementioned penknife, but errors that were allowed to dry on the parchment had to be corrected at a later stage.

Prior to the thirteenth century, "scribes would invariably enter the first line of text on each page above the uppermost ruled horizontal line."  As historians have now noted, however, during the thirteenth century "a change took place," and by its end "the general practice was for scribes to enter the first line of text below the top ruled line, that is, on the second line" (Graham and Clemens 21).  Fittingly, these practices are generally referred to as above top line and below top line.

During the initial transcription, scribes would be careful to leave room for planned illustrations or illuminated letters and colored initials.  Illuminated initials required the scribe to indent his text "in order to leave a blank area of suitable size and shape for the planned initial" (Graham and Clemens 21). After finishing the transcription phase -- which could take anywhere from weeks to months -- the scribe would pass off the leaves to an artisan for their next phase: rubrication.

To the left is an example of a manuscript carefully transcribed by a scribe.  The ink is notably brown; this could be due to fading over time, but is more likely indicative of a lighter original ink color, as the color seems uniform throughout the script.

Illumination:

After the text had been rubricated, it would be given to a skilled artisan for added illustration.  Not all texts went through this process; there are many manuscripts that exist without any illustration at all.  Texts that were intended to be illustrated, however, would be transcribed with gaps left for the illustrations and illuminated letters.  The text's scribe would generally make notes in the margin or gap of the text indicating what was intended to fill the space; these notes are still occasionally visible through or beside the added illustration.

Artisans adding illustrated initials would often depict human figures and scenes within the openings of the letter.  These letters are sometimes termed historiated initials, and often the scenes depicted "relate directly to the text that the initial begins" (Graham and Clemens 27).  These letters could be extremely decorative and were in nicer texts sometimes done in purple or gold inks, significantly inflating the value of the manuscript.  Artists in training frequently copied illuminated letters and illustrations from the original exemplar, just as the scribe had done. More experienced artisans, however, could freehand the work, though this was not particularly common (Graham and Clemens 27).

The pigments used by the artists exist in a variety of forms, including earth pigments (those that were mined from the earth and used "with little processing"), inorganic pigments (those mined from the earth and greatly processed), synthetic inorganic pigments (pigments created from materials that are not themselves pigments), and organic pigments (those taken from living plants and, occasionally, animals) (Graham and Clemens 27).  The most valuable coloration, however -- gold and silver -- were applied in leaf form, pressed into the page with an adhesive. 

The illustrations in medieval texts could also be discursive or figural, though these are terms present-day scholars apply to manuscripts.  Discursive images are those that are drawn by artists nearly entirely from imagination; figural images, conversely, draw directly from the text and depict very little but what is mentioned in the actual words of the text.

Miscellaneous additions:

Repair:

Occasionally during this process, the parchment would tear or expose a hole in the animal skin.  In this event, repairs had to be made.  Holes in manuscripts were frequently repaired with a needle and thread, and scribes or repairmen would either sew the hole together, stitching a tight seam across the gap, or add another piece of parchment to the blemish in order to cover it up.  Holes that occurred in the parchment pre-transcription were often ignored, and scribes would simply skip them when writing.  If the hole occurred after transcription or during another stage of the process, however, the repairs made included an attempt at correcting the affected text in order to maintain a cohesive narrative.

Markings:

Most medieval manuscripts contain some sort of extratextual marking, either lingering in the margins or floating interlinearly on the page.  These markings can mean a variety of things, and could have been added at any time after the creation of the manuscript, but in their Introduction to Manuscript Studies Graham and Clemens focus on the ones most likely to be encountered by the modern manuscript reader.

• Finding aids:  designed to help readers keep their place in a manuscript, finding aids can take the form of a leather string, finger tabs cut from the parchment itself, or an object attached to the page able to be seen when the book is closed.  Liturgical books were most in need of finding aids in order to help the celebrant "find his place quickly and easily."  The most notable finding aid is the manicula: a drawing of a hand with the index finger outstretched to highlight a significant passage.
• Line fillers: these are aesthetic additions to a text in order to ensure that the margins of the book remain straight, even when the text itself may end far from the margin in question. 
• Pen trials: after the cutting of a new quill (or reed), the scribe would generally make a few marks to ensure the pen was cut correctly before diving into transcription.
• Sketches: before embarking on the actual illuminated letter or illustration, artisans would sometimes sketch rough drafts in the margins of a text.  While many of these were erased or covered after the true drawing was completed, they are sometimes still visible in the text margins.

To the left is an example of a text with two maniculae pointing out important passages; to the right, an example of text with ornate line fillers.  Below are two examples of manuscript leaves that have been repaired; on the left is an example of a hole sewn together; on the right, an example of a page that was torn in half with the addition of new parchment to complete it.

Assembly:

After the finalization of the parchment leaves those making the manuscript would move to the binding of the codex.  By this point, the leaves were already collected into loosely bound quires, though frequently disordered.  In order to order the pages the man assembling the codex would add -- or rely on the transcribing scribe to add -- numbers "in the lower margin of the first or last page of each quire."  These "quire numerals" consisted of a Roman numeral, "sometimes surrounded by some form of decoration, and sometimes preceded by the letter Q, abbreviating Quaternio or Quinio" (Graham and Clemens 49).  While many of these quire numerals have been lost to trimming of the manuscript leaves, they are sometimes still visible along the bottom margin of the page. 

In lieu of quire numerals, scribes sometimes relied on catchwords to aid in the assembly and ordering of pages.  Also called stitchwords, these were "the word or words with which the first page of the next quire began" and were written "in the lower margin of the last page of [the preceding] quire" (Graham and Clemens 49).  At the time of assembly, the binder could verify the catchwords to ensure that they matched the words beginning the next quires.  These catchwords were generally written horizontally in the lower margin, but in the fifteenth century, "catchwords were often written vertically" and occasionally provided with a decorative frame (Graham and Clemens 49).

To the left is an example of a catchword surrounded by a decorative griffin in the lower left margin of the text; to the right, a manuscript leaf with a quire signature (IIII) in the lower margin.

Our knowledge of medieval manuscripts is limited to the few that remain in the world, and as such the information presented here is factual but open to interpretation.  There were many ways to produce a manuscript, and undoubtedly far more than we yet know, or perhaps can ever know.  From the initial slaughter of the calf to create vellum to the final addition of the chain to prevent theft, manuscripts went through countless steps and countless hands before reaching their final stages. Even beyond this point, they were not free from editing, and thousands were doubtless changed and even destroyed in the last few hundred years. 

What we do know about the creation of manuscripts is that it was a tedious, trying process that cost a great deal of money and time.  As a result of these trials, however, we retain stories and knowledge from our forefathers that would not have been available to us but for their efforts. Men and women may die, but the stories in the manuscripts have proven to be immortal, manifesting themselves in the modern era in vessels of flesh and wood. 

- Logan Quigley, Purdue University
2013