scriptorium

American  

[skrip-tawr-ee-uhm, -tohr-] / skrɪpˈtɔr i əm, -ˈtoʊr- /

noun

plural

scriptoriums, scriptoria

1. a room, as in a monastery, library, or other institution, where manuscripts are stored, read, or copied.

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scriptorium British  

/ skrɪpˈtɔːrɪəm /

noun

1. a room, esp in a monastery, set apart for the writing or copying of manuscripts

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Etymology

Origin of scriptorium

1765–75; < Medieval Latin scrīptōrium; script, -tory ²

Example Sentences

Marsha Ginsberg’s set featured an open-sided gold box that rotated and moved on and off stage—it became the scriptorium and the abbot’s domain.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 12, 2026

“I feel like I’m a monk in a scriptorium keeping something alive,” Matthews said.

From New York Times • Jul. 21, 2023

While the exact age of the two-sided page is unknown, it is believed to have been written in the abbey's scriptorium between 1225 and 1250.

From BBC • Aug. 5, 2022

It was created by scribes in a scriptorium in Wales under Jackson’s artistic direction, and is the first monumental, illuminated Bible commissioned by a Benedictine monastery in the modern era.

From Seattle Times • Jan. 13, 2018

There were no books in Elinor's kitchen, not one, but they ate an excellent supper there at a wooden table that came, so Elinor assured them, from the scriptorium of an Italian monastery.

From "Inkheart" by Cornelia Funke