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'''Scriptorium''' (plural '''scriptoria''') comes from the [[medieval]] [[Latin]] ''script-'', ''scribere'' (to write), where ''-orium'' is the neuter singular ending for adjectives describing place. Thus, a scriptorium is literally "a place for writing".  

'''Scriptorium''' (plural '''scriptoria''') comes from the [[medieval]] [[Latin]] ''script-'', ''scribere'' (to write), where ''-orium'' is the neuter singular ending for adjectives describing place. Thus, a scriptorium is literally "a place for writing".  

'Scriptorium' is commonly used to refer to a room in medieval European [[monasteries]] devoted to the copying of manuscripts by monastic [[scribes]]. Written accounts, surviving buildings, and archaeological excavations all show,  however, that contrary to popular belief such rooms rarely existed: most monastic writing was done in cubicle-like recesses in the cloister, or in the monks' own cells. References in modern scholarly writings to 'scriptoria' more usually refer to the collective written output of a monastery, rather than to a physical room. Scriptoria in the conventional sense probably only existed for limited periods of time, when an institution or individual wanted a large number of texts copied to stock a library; once the library was stocked, there was no further need for a room to be set aside for the purpose. By the start of the 13th century secular copy-shops developed; professional scribes may have had special rooms set aside for writing, but in most cases they probably simply had a writing-desk next to a window in their own house.                                         [[Image:Scriptorium.jpg]]

'Scriptorium' is commonly used to refer to a room in medieval European [[monasteries]] devoted to the copying of manuscripts by monastic [[scribes]]. Written accounts, surviving buildings, and archaeological excavations all show,  however, that contrary to popular belief such rooms rarely existed: most monastic writing was done in cubicle-like recesses in the cloister, or in the monks' own cells. References in modern scholarly writings to 'scriptoria' more usually refer to the collective written output of a monastery, rather than to a physical room. Scriptoria in the conventional sense probably only existed for limited periods of time, when an institution or individual wanted a large number of texts copied to stock a library; once the library was stocked, there was no further need for a room to be set aside for the purpose. By the start of the 13th century secular copy-shops developed; professional scribes may have had special rooms set aside for writing, but in most cases they probably simply had a writing-desk next to a window in their own house.                                  

The monastery built in the second quarter of the 6th century by [[Cassiodorus]] at Vivarium in southern Italy, contained a purpose-built scriptorium, because he was consciously attempting to collect, copy, and preserve texts.

The monastery built in the second quarter of the 6th century by [[Cassiodorus]] at Vivarium in southern Italy, contained a purpose-built scriptorium, because he was consciously attempting to collect, copy, and preserve texts.

The mother house of the [[Cistercian]] order at [[Cîteaux]], one of the best-documented high-medieval scriptoria, developed a "house style" in the first half of the twelfth century that spread with the order itself.<ref>Yolanta Załuska, ''L'enluminure et le scriptorium de Cîteaux au XIIe siècle'' (Brecht:Cîteaux) 1989. In 1134, the Cistercian order declared that the monks were to keep silent in the scriptorium as they should in the [[cloister]].  There is evidence that the existence of a separate scriptorium for communal writing was later untypical: in the 13th century, the Cistercians would allow certain monks to perform their writing in a small cell "which could not... contain more than one person".<ref>Geo. Haven Putnam, ''Books and their Makers During the Middle Ages'', (New York: Hillary House, 1962), 405

The mother house of the [[Cistercian]] order at [[Cîteaux]], one of the best-documented high-medieval scriptoria, developed a "house style" in the first half of the twelfth century that spread with the order itself.<ref>Yolanta Załuska, ''L'enluminure et le scriptorium de Cîteaux au XIIe siècle'' (Brecht:Cîteaux) 1989. In 1134, the Cistercian order declared that the monks were to keep silent in the scriptorium as they should in the [[cloister]].  There is evidence that the existence of a separate scriptorium for communal writing was later untypical: in the 13th century, the Cistercians would allow certain monks to perform their writing in a small cell "which could not... contain more than one person".<ref>Geo. Haven Putnam, ''Books and their Makers During the Middle Ages'', (New York: Hillary House, 1962), 405