Learnings: The Scriptorium
In the scriptorium, surrounded by parchments and quills, monks and nuns known as scribes worked by the sweat of their brow to create, copy, and illuminate texts. Most of these works were written in Latin, but some were in Old English.
Not all monks and nuns worked as scribes. While all of them were taught to read and write as part of their monastic education, only the most gifted and meticulous went on to work in the scriptorium. The monk who created this image of Saint Matthew at his desk was called Eadwig Basan. He was chosen to be a scribe because of his talents and precision as a writer. Eadwig's portrait of Saint Matthew depicts some aspects of what scribes' working environment could be, with the chair and the ink pot at the corner of his desk.