"Writing Supports" and "Text and Decoration" from Clemens and Graham's Introduction to Manuscript Studies

In the first two chapters, “Writing Supports” and “Text and Decoration,” Clemens and Graham discuss the various titular supprots available to the medieval scribe. These included: papyraus, wood, metal, was, parchment, and paper. Each of these were used simultaneously in the medieval period depending on the task at hand.The writing support's choice was often goverend by practical matters (but that is not to say that aesthetic or ideological concerns were completely eschewed). Durability, ability to survive harsh weather conditions, allowance for corrections, aesthetic concerns all played an important role.

For example, as a writing support, papyrus survived until eleventh century, and was used for specialized documents such as charters (with the last dated copy, the papal bull, dating to 1057), and was often associated with prestige. On the other hand wax was purely utilitarian medium, first employed in the West from seventh century, it continued to be used up until nineteenth century!

Many of the features of the earlier media would also be applied to the new, improved ones, once they were invented. Therefore, the wooden books display a lot of features that would be later transfered to parchment manuscripts (such as fixing by sawing). Parchment also quickly replaced the less durable paper, especially in the context of production of more luxurious works as it was prestigeous and marked the sophistication and high-status of the owner (many courts even introduced laws against the use of paper!). In addition, some preached against paper for regligious reasons (arguing that it came from infidel lands – I actually wonder if paper was the only target, and if any other products from these lands were also boycoted).

Clemens and Graham emphasize that the knowledge of parchment's preparation is crucial in assessing its authenticity, provenance, and date of the manuscript. The preparation of the parchment is a long and multi-step complex process that requires not only the skilled craftsmen but also a large resources such as sheep, calfs, or goats. Because the average single skin could produce 3.5 leaves, the amount of animals sacrificed for the purpose unavoidably rendered the entire endeavour as extremely costly.

The ready manuscript page was written upon with a quill pen. In addition, the scribe had to use a penknife and ink (most commonly made of oak-gall). The text would be written at first in black ink and the initials or titles would be filled in later (possibly by someone else). The copying of a book required an exemplar that in case was missing from the given monastery could be borrowed from somwhere else (or the monk traveled to copy it) implying that such precious and often heavy books traveled with a relative ease. The titles would be normally renedered in red (process called rubrication, from Latin ruber - red). The colors used for intials often included red and green (green was acidic and sometimes ate through the parchment causing hole in the manuscript). However, during the Gothic period red and blue became the standard. In addition to colord intitial, some were decorated with human figures and narrative scenes (so called historiated initials). These often depicted events presented in the text but also may have been entirely unrelated.