Jean Miélot, a European author and scribe at work

Ancient Egypt

Egyptian scribe with papyrus scroll

Much of what is known about ancient Egypt is due to the activities of its scribes. Monumental buildings were erected under their supervision, ^[7] administrative and economic activities were documented by them, and tales from the mouths of Egypt's lower classes or from foreign lands survive thanks to scribes putting them in writing.^[8]

The profession, first associated with the goddess Seshat, became restricted to males in the later dynasties.

Scribes were also considered part of the royal court and did not have to pay tax or join the military. The scribal profession had companion professions, the painters and artisans who decorated tombs, buildings, furniture, statuary, and other relics with pictures and hieroglyphic text.

Mesopotamia

Writing in early Mesopotamia seems to have grown out of the need to document economic transactions, and consisted often in lists which scribes knowledgeable in writing and arithmetics engraved in cuneiform letters into tablets of clay.^[9] Apart from administration and accountancy, Mesopotamian scribes observed the sky and wrote literary works. They wrote on papyrus paper.^[10]

Sofer

A Sofer () are among the few scribes that still ply their trade by hand. Renowned calligraphers, they produce the Hebrew Torah scrolls and other holy texts by hand to this day. They wrote on papyrus, made from a reed grown along the Nile river.

See also

• Copying
• Elder (religious)
• Scrivener
• The Seated Scribe
• Transcription
• Transliteration
• Uncial
• Worshipful Company of Scriveners

Notable scribes

Category:Medieval European scribes

• Amat-Mamu
• Bartleby the Scrivener
• Baruch
• Dubhaltach MacFhirbhisigh
• Ibn Warraq
• Máel Muire mac Céilechair
• Michael William Balfe
• Sidney Rigdon

Notes

References

• Barry J. Kemp, Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilization, Routledge 2006, ISBN 0415235499, pp.166ff.
• Henri-Jean Martin, The History and Power of Writing, University of Chicago Press 1995, ISBN 0226508366
• David McLain Carr, Writing on the Tablet of the Heart: Origins of Scripture and Literature, Oxford University Press collyn anderson2005, ISBN 0195172973

External links

• Catholic Encyclopedia

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