‘Covered Me with Tracks’

Chapter 3 introduces the writing of books, the physical act of inscribing the manuscript, by discussing how the scribe’s work is depicted in early medieval texts and images. It focuses on analyses of the kinds of tools, practices, and physical actions involved in the production and design of books and considers modern attitudes towards scribes and their work. It suggests that there is a great deal more to appreciate about handwriting from the medieval period, including the pleasure and joy that scribes took in their work and how the finished folio looked after the work was completed. The chapter questions the point of using ‘grade’ to describe script, and proposes that the scholarship evidenced by many scribes should be more readily recognized.