Meet the Middle Ages
BackBeautiful manuscripts
The most exquisite handwriting of the Middle Ages was done by monks. The scribes, employed by the towns or the King were also very skilled penmen. An ordinary peasant neither could nor needed to write.
Monks and nuns were often very good at copying books. Since the art of printing had not yet been introduced in Europe, every book had to be taken down by hand. The monks and nuns made an effort to write as beautifully as possible. With their quills, they wrote elegant letters. The first letter in the text was often embellished, richly decorated with little pictures of red, blue or gold. The scribes who took down the laws in writing also would make such embellishments at the beginning of each chapter.
The art of writing beautifully is called calligraphy.