scriptorium

American  

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

noun

• scriptoriums,
  plural
• scriptoria
  plural

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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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• scriptoria
  plural
• scriptoriums
  plural

Etymology

Origin of scriptorium

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

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

scriptorium scriptoria scriptoriums

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 Washington Times ● Jan. 14, 2018

From Vespers until the early bedtime he served his turn in the scriptorium, where all the writing was done.

From "The Door in the Wall" by Marguerite de Angeli

Beautifully woven vestments and altar frontals affirm that Armenian believers saw as much beauty in services as in the scriptoria.

From New York Times ● Oct. 25, 2018

As far as she knew, the monks had worked at desks with sloping tops in the scriptoria of their monasteries, but she kept this information to herself.

From "Inkheart" by Cornelia Funke

In these scriptoria of various kinds the earliest annals and chronicles in the English language were penned, in the beautiful and painstaking forms in which we know them.

From On The Art of Reading by Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch

The scriptoria were frequently enriched by donations and bequests from those who knew the value of the works carried on in them, and large estates were often devoted to their support.

From Forty Centuries of Ink or, a chronological narrative concerning ink and its backgrounds, introducing incidental observations and deductions, parallels of time and color phenomena, bibliography, chemistry, poetical effusions, citations, anecdotes and curiosa together with some evidence respecting the evanescent character of most inks of to-day and an epitome of chemico-legal ink. by David Nunes Carvalho

There was nothing very extraordinary in his so doing if we view the circumstance in its true light; for the scriptoria of the monasteries had ever been the principal manufactories of books.

From Notes and Queries, Number 38, July 20, 1850 by Various

“Soon after the printing press emerged in the 15th century, the scriptoriums for copying manuscripts in monasteries rapidly began shutting down,” said Fidler, now 81 and living in retirement in Santa Fe, N.M.

From Seattle Times ● Mar. 1, 2024

Site supervisor Andrew Shobbrook, from Dyfed Archaeological Trust, described the priory as a significant complex of buildings with dormitories, scriptoriums - rooms devoted to writing and manuscripts - stables and a hospital.

From BBC ● Oct. 10, 2022

Cloistered Benedictines toiled for years in musty scriptoriums, transcribing copy after copy of the Bible into leatherbound books.

From Time Magazine Archive

The work done in the scriptoriums of the monasteries, we know, was sent away as presents, or in exchange for other volumes.

From Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great - Volume 04 Little Journeys to the Homes of Eminent Painters by Elbert Hubbard