Reading and writing in the Middle Ages

Up until the beginning of the late Middle Ages the ability to read and to write was practically the sole prerogative of clerics living and working in the various church institutions.

Outside the monastery walls information of all kinds was passed on by word of mouth up until the 13^th century. Entertainment, education and even legal contracts were carried out orally. It was only in the late Middle ages that reading and writing became the medium through which cultural lore was passed on from one generation to the next.

Reading was an arduous activity which was slow and extremely intensive. It was normal for texts to be read aloud, word for painstaking word, in whisper or low murmur. The texts often were difficult to decipher, comprehension was further by a lack of punctuation marks and a uniform style of writing and passages riddled with mistakes.

Writing as “an art related to drawing” was kept separate from reading throughout the entire Middle Ages. It was only during the 14^th century that more clerics began to learn to write. Prior to this time many bishops, abbots and the like were unable to write, proving that the strict distinction between reading and writing penetrated even the highest ecclesiastical circles.

Before Gutenberg’s invention books were written by hand. Therefore books were rare and expensive. You couldn’t just go and buy a book. If you wanted such a precious thing, you either had to write it yourself – if you were able to – or have it written for you. This laborious task was often performed by monks or nuns in monastic writing rooms (rooms were scribes wrote and copied text by hand). They wrote with goose quills and home-made ink on parchment (prepared animal skin) until paper became more common in Europe.

Mostly the books which were copied in the writing rooms were for church services, Bibles and prayer books and also ancient texts and treatises on biology, mathematics, astrology and other sciences. Some books were richly decorated with pictures and ornaments in various different inks. Books didn’t have sections and chapters; there were also no title pages, headings or page numbers. So that certain passage could be easily fount in a book, sections were marked by particularly large and ornate letters or initials (splendidly decorative large letters at the beginning of a new chapter in place of headings or titles).

A lot of time and patience went into the copying and illustration of a book. A practiced scribe could write 200 words an hour. Books often took a year or even longer to be finished. Books written and illustrated in such a lavish manner were bound in a strong cover. The wooden boards were covered in leather and many adorned with metal clasps and corners. On ceremonial occasions, such coronation of a king, for example, books with especially luxurious binding were often given as presents. The most magnificent of all were the books used in church for services, with the book intended to give glory to God.

Books were big and heavy and not easy to carry around with you. Small girdle books (with a long binding that could be hung on the belt) were much more practical when you were on your travels. It was quite common to fix things to the belt as clothes in the Gothic period usually didn’t have any pockets.

In the Middle Ages most people couldn’t read yet the need to be able to read and write was becoming ever greater. New schools, universities and also libraries were opened. Compared to today the libraries of the time only had a few books and these could not be taken out. So that valuable books weren’t stolen, many of them were chained to the reading desks. These became known as chained books.

In Gutenberg’s day and age the children of wealthy parents and future priests and monks attended what were called grammar schools. Here they were taught the three Rs (reading, (w)riting and (a)rithmetic). Lessons were held in Latin. As pupils didn’t usually have their own books, most of the material had to be learned off by heart. As in antiquity wax tables and styluses were in general everyday and school use. A black or green layer of wax was set into small rectangular wooden boards. Text was scratched into the layer of wax with a stylus. Writing was erased using the smooth end of the stylus.

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The woodcut

The copying and illustration of books was time-consuming and expensive. Mistakes were also often made. As more people needed texts of one kind or another, better methods had to be thought of.

When paper started to be manufactured in 14^th century a new age dawned. People began to print in paper with blocks of wood. This technique had been used in Asia since the end of the 8^th century AD. To make a woodcut you needed a plank of wood planed smooth. Wood from fruit trees was normally used, such as pear. The pictures and words were carved in reverse into the wood; what needed to be printed was left in relief, the rest recessed. Ink was applied to the raised surface of the wood and paper placed onto it. The back of the paper was rubbed with a hard instrument and the ink transferred to the paper. Pages printed in this manner were also known as rubbings. Woodcuts were used to print playing cards and religious pictures, and even entire books. As each page of the books was printed using one wooden block, these books became known as blockbooks.

Printing with block of wood was faster than writing by hand but still very laborious. All the letters had to be carved into the wood for each new page. In addition only the front of the page could be printed on as rubbings left a marked relief on the page and the ink also often seeped through to the reverse.

In the past it was believed that blockbooks preceded Gutenberg’s innovation of letterpress printing. Now it was proved that both procedures evolved in Europe at around the same time, shortly before the middle of the 15^th century.

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