Roman scribes

[Caballo]

I'm looking for stele, illustrations, catacomb painting or other indications of what a Roman scribe would look like and how they would set up their workplace. I can find a lot of medieval ones (like this one) - but can I find a single Roman....thanks in advance!

[D B Campbell]

Frederick Litchfield's Illustrated History of Furniture (1893) thought it looked like this:

I have my doubts! :?

And then I found this still from the 1976 BBC adaptation of I, Claudius.

Now that's what I call a scriptorium!

[PhilusEstilius]

What's this I did not ask for Elephants !!! oh well alright.

[Caballo]

Well heres a scribe picture by Alma Tadema, the Victorian painter, taking a break from painting pics of naked Roman ladies....

[Nathan Ross]

Here's a few you might have seen already:

A man reading a scroll in front of a cupboard (armarium), from Aquileia; Rome, Museum of Roman Civilization. The cupboard looks fairly small, with the scrolls and a dish of something inside.



And a rather later one, 'Ezra writing the Law', from the Codex Aminatinus, 6th (?) century. The cupboard is even bigger now, and holds codices. A few smaller items scattered around - inkpots, maybe? - and another small dish on the side table. Is the dish important?



And, for comparison, the altar of Ahenobarbus, which has a man writing on what looks like a very big wax tablet. I don't know what the striped or slatted object at his feet might be - perhaps a case for the tablets?



None of these images show the cylindrical box with a hinged lid (Capsa, I think), used for carrying scrolls, but that would probably feature in any well equipped library or scriptorium as well.

- Nathan

[Epictetus]

What an interesting topic! I’ve repeatedly heard that Roman furniture was minimalistic, to say the least, and perhaps that would also hold true for the workplace of scribes.

Here is a tombstone for a Roman scribe. No workplace is depicted.

This is a Roman couple displaying their literacy and this is a fresco of Sappho. Again, no work place is shown. I think it is interesting that they hold the stylus to the lips. Perhaps this was a common literary trope? (Personally, I often find myself doing that with a pen when I’m thinking.)

I couldn’t find anything to actually depict a scribe’s workplace, but here is a mosaic of Virgil and here is one of the Academy. Note that they are all using their laps as tables.

So did scribes use their laps? Perhaps, even though this seems strange to us. Wax tablets would have been a stable platform, at least. They may have been used to this position, because it seems most tables were low by our standards. Here is a mosaic of some women gathered around a table and here is a surviving gaming table. Both seem at the same level as chairs, and some other frescos I didn't link to are also the same height. The images Nathan posts also hints at them using their laps as writing platforms.

[Nathan Ross]

So did scribes use their laps? Perhaps, even though this seems strange to us.

I wondered that too. Surely they would have suffered terrible back problems? But, now I come to think about it, I haven't seen too many depictions of Roman tables that could realistically be used as a support for either reading or writing. Most of them seem to be small ornamental things, or low 'coffee table' type affairs.

Could the writing desk be one of those 'fabulous inventions' of the middle ages? :wink:

It was at least possible to get one's knees under a Roman table, although again this one looks rather low and not very substantial:


Wall painting from Pompeii.

Actually, the only picture I can find of somebody actually sitting at a table is another tavern scene, although it could be a shop. Tellingly, this is from Trier, and so perhaps reflects a more 'barbarian' lifestyle.


A tombstone depicting a tavern scene, Trier, Germany, c. 130 A.D., Rheinish State Museum.

- Nathan

[Nathan Ross]

As an extra, here's 'Vergil' again, from a 5th century manuscript, although considering the clothing possibly based on an earlier original - he has a scroll case, and a sort of lectern as well. Still no sign of a desk...:



- Nathan

[mcbishop]

So did scribes use their laps? Perhaps, even though this seems strange to us.

I wondered that too. Surely they would have suffered terrible back problems? But, now I come to think about it, I haven't seen too many depictions of Roman tables that could realistically be used as a support for either reading or writing. Most of them seem to be small ornamental things, or low 'coffee table' type affairs.

Could the writing desk be one of those 'fabulous inventions' of the middle ages? :wink:

It may well be to do with size. Don't forget early (clay) writing tablets evolved as hand-held items, tablet in one hand, stylus in the other, and the average Roman writing tablet (one from Carlisle measures 120mm by 140mm - so roughly 5" by 6" in old money) is still within the realms of being held in one hand (let's call it an iCodex ;-) ) ) so you don't actually need a table to use it and the portability of this 'form factor' may well have led to its success (and ultimate morphing into the codex as we still have it). A papyrus sheet, on the other hand, would require something flat as a work surface, since they seem to have been glued into rolls before writing, according to Turner,* and furled and unfurled as they were written. Going to look at tithe maps - often rolled up - in a modern record office requires lots of little weights to hold down the scroll whilst you examine it; a scribe would have needed something similar for a papyrus roll (or perhaps two very patient slaves). Perhaps that is where the lectern comes in - they were written standing up!

*Turner, E.G. (1968) Greek Papyri: An Introduction, Oxford

Mike Bishop

[Epictetus]

Here is something different. According to the caption it is a relatively modern reproduction of an ancient original. It depicts Archimedes just prior to his death. It looks like he is working away with a tablet on a three-legged table.

[D B Campbell]

It looks like he is working away with a tablet on a three-legged table.

So much for being "quietly absorbed in some geometrical figures which he had drawn on the sand" (Livy 25.31). :|

[Caballo]

Thanks all- great info.

It looks as if the laptop approach was wider than I thought.

Heres a Greek lad on his iPad.


An Ancient Egyptian scribe


And an Indian public scribe from Victorian times (apparently with a metal stylus)


And a rather mournful looking Egyptian scribe


Perhaps the laptop approach was used for quick notes and wax tablets (accounting for some of the more scribbled Vindolanda notes?) and the lectern (as in the Virgil picture) used for more official calligraphic scribing ?