Word: scriptorium
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...light of a single fluttering candle, a tall solemn priest sits bowed above a resplendent manuscript in his solitary scriptorium. On the table before him lie vials of red and blue and purple inks, pots of honey-colored glue, sheets of gold leaf, and reams of creamy antique vellum glowing golden in the candlelight. Only the scratching of a quill interrupts the rich religious silence as the priest pursues his labor of love...
Drawn about 1440, probably by a monk in a Swiss scriptorium, the map's startling features are a strikingly accurate delineation of Greenland in the upper left-hand corner and a representation of "Vinland" (the name Vikings from Iceland and Greenland in the 10th century gave a portion of the coast of North America). There, crudely drawn but unmistakable, are Hudson Bay and the Gulf of St. Lawrence...