Many handwritten books have survived to our times. Looking at them, you come in admiration that you are holding in your hands the work of people who lived many centuries ago. Let's talk about how and with the help of what handwritten books were made in the Middle Ages.
Instructions
Step 1
The first thing that had to be done to make a handwritten book was to select the material for the pages.
For example, parchment, which was made from animal skin. Making parchment is not easy and time-consuming. In the Middle Ages, it was considered extremely important initially to select only high-quality skins. The skin was first soaked in cold water for 24 hours, and then in vats made of stone or wood, filled with a water-lime solution in order to reduce the hairline. After that, they were engaged in the process of turning the skin into parchment. The leather, which became moist and pliable after soaking, was stretched and then dried on a wooden frame.
Step 2
Many medieval books were also written on papyrus, a writing material made from Egyptian reeds. However, this material was too brittle and did not have sufficiently strong folds in the weave, so it was more often used not for books, but for scrolls.
Step 3
Also, many handwritten books written on paper have survived to our times. Books for students and clergy were most often made of paper, although there were also paper books in large aristocratic libraries.
Step 4
The process of making a book in the Middle Ages looked like this: paper or parchment was supplied in the form of large sheets of square shape. Several of these sheets were inserted one inside the other, then bent vertically in half, and then sewn along the center of the central fold. We got bundles of stitched sheets, which were called notebooks, and books were collected from such notebooks.
Step 5
The pages of handwritten books of the Middle Ages were lined up in the same way as modern notebooks are lined. The scribe could line the paper himself, or he could select the material with a ready-made ruler for the format he needed.
Step 6
Medieval books were written with a pen. For writing, five primary feathers were mainly used on the outside of the wing of a swan or goose. The feather had to be slightly curved to the right, and these were taken from the left wing of the bird.
