For centuries, the image of a monk hunched over a manuscript, painstakingly copying text by candlelight, has dominated perceptions of medieval book production. However, a recent study has provided the first quantitative analysis of female scribes’ contributions to manuscript copying, revealing that women played a small but steady role in this field. Published in Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, the research estimates that at least 110,000 manuscripts were copied by female scribes during the Middle Ages, with around 8,000 still surviving today.
The study, conducted by researchers from the University of Bergen, marks the first large-scale attempt to measure the extent of female scribal work using statistical analysis. Relying on a dataset of 23,774 colophons—short statements often added at the end of manuscripts identifying the scribe, date, or place of production—the researchers identified 254 colophons written by women. This accounts for just 1.1% of the total dataset, a figure that serves as a lower-bound estimate due to limitations in the available evidence.
Colophons are one of the few direct sources of scribal attribution in medieval manuscripts. Female scribes could be identified either by their names or by explicit self-references using terms such as scriptrix (female scribe) or soror (sister). For example, in one 15th-century manuscript you can read the statement: “I, Birgitta Sigfus’s daughter, nun in the monastery Munkeliv at Bergen wrote this psalter with initials, although not as well as I ought. Pray for me, a sinner.”
Estimating the True Contribution of Female Scribes
While the percentage of manuscripts confirmed to be copied by women is small, the study underscores that the actual number was likely higher. Several factors suggest that female scribes may have been underrepresented in colophon data:
Women may have been less likely to sign their work, either due to personal choice or institutional norms.
Some female scribes may have written in margins or left anonymous contributions, which are not included in the dataset.
Manuscripts produced by female scribes may have been disproportionately lost over time due to historical events such as the dissolution of monasteries and the Reformation.
By applying manuscript survival rate estimates, the researchers calculated that the total number of manuscripts copied by women throughout the Middle Ages exceeded 110,000 (assuming that the recent estimate that more than 10 million hand-written manuscripts were produced in the Latin West during this period is accurate). Their findings suggest that there were likely many more female scribes and book-producing communities that remain unidentified in historical records.
Patterns Over Time and the Rise of Vernacular Manuscripts
Note naming female scribes – British Library Harley MS 3099, f. 166r
One of the study’s notable findings is a marked increase in female-authored colophons around 1400. This period saw a surge in vernacular manuscript production, which appears to have provided greater opportunities for female scribes. The rise of vernacular texts may have expanded book production beyond monastic institutions, allowing women to participate in lay scriptoria or contribute to privately commissioned works.
Despite this increase, the overall percentage of manuscripts attributed to female scribes remained limited compared to their male counterparts. The decline of manuscript copying in the 16th century, as printing became dominant, further reduced opportunities for female scribes.
The Implications for Medieval Scholarship
The study challenges long-standing assumptions about the scarcity of female scribes and highlights the need for further research into medieval book production. The findings suggest that women’s contributions to manuscript culture were more significant than previously recognized, even if their presence was often obscured by historical biases in record-keeping.
The research also raises questions about the geographic distribution of female scribal activity. While existing literature has documented certain female scriptoria, such as the nuns of Chelles in France or the Birgittine nuns of Vadstena, the estimated 110,000 manuscripts attributed to women suggest that many more book-producing communities existed. The authors offer ideas on where future research should go:
Our study should be seen as a first step, opening new perspectives. Future work should clearly include a detailed geographical and chronological analysis of the whole colophon material in relation to time periods, as well as investigations of parish, census, or other records found in government or memory institutions. Taken together this might shed light on the question of potential unidentified female book production communities. In general, it would be interesting to investigate the geographical contribution of female scribes, see (Reynhout, 2006) for a non-gender related analysis of the Benedictine colophons, addressing, among other questions, geographical distribution. It would also be interesting to investigate what type of manuscripts have been copied by women. Future research may thus be able to reveal potential socio-political and socio-economic links to literacy, throwing light on when, why and how women worked as scribes during specific time periods. The statistical material is limited so it may not be possible to draw any conclusions, but it is worth looking into.
The article, “How many medieval and early modern manuscripts were copied by female scribes? A bibliometric analysis based on colophons,” by Åslaug Ommundsen, Aidan Keally Conti, Øystein Ariansen Haaland and Bodil Holst, appears in Humanities and Social Sciences Communications. Click here to read it.
Y'all, there is a new open access article, "How many medieval and early modern manuscripts were copied by female scribes? A bibliometric analysis based on colophons" www.nature.com/articles/s41… Using bibliometrics, they estimate 110000 manuscripts were copied by female scribes in the Latin West.
Top Image: An image of a female scribe – the text band in the letter reads: “Guda peccatrix mulier scripsit et pinxit hunc librum” (Guda, a sinner wrote and painted this book – Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg, Frankfurt, Ms. Barth. 42, fol. 110 v
For centuries, the image of a monk hunched over a manuscript, painstakingly copying text by candlelight, has dominated perceptions of medieval book production. However, a recent study has provided the first quantitative analysis of female scribes’ contributions to manuscript copying, revealing that women played a small but steady role in this field. Published in Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, the research estimates that at least 110,000 manuscripts were copied by female scribes during the Middle Ages, with around 8,000 still surviving today.
The study, conducted by researchers from the University of Bergen, marks the first large-scale attempt to measure the extent of female scribal work using statistical analysis. Relying on a dataset of 23,774 colophons—short statements often added at the end of manuscripts identifying the scribe, date, or place of production—the researchers identified 254 colophons written by women. This accounts for just 1.1% of the total dataset, a figure that serves as a lower-bound estimate due to limitations in the available evidence.
Colophons are one of the few direct sources of scribal attribution in medieval manuscripts. Female scribes could be identified either by their names or by explicit self-references using terms such as scriptrix (female scribe) or soror (sister). For example, in one 15th-century manuscript you can read the statement: “I, Birgitta Sigfus’s daughter, nun in the monastery Munkeliv at Bergen wrote this psalter with initials, although not as well as I ought. Pray for me, a sinner.”
Estimating the True Contribution of Female Scribes
While the percentage of manuscripts confirmed to be copied by women is small, the study underscores that the actual number was likely higher. Several factors suggest that female scribes may have been underrepresented in colophon data:
By applying manuscript survival rate estimates, the researchers calculated that the total number of manuscripts copied by women throughout the Middle Ages exceeded 110,000 (assuming that the recent estimate that more than 10 million hand-written manuscripts were produced in the Latin West during this period is accurate). Their findings suggest that there were likely many more female scribes and book-producing communities that remain unidentified in historical records.
Patterns Over Time and the Rise of Vernacular Manuscripts
One of the study’s notable findings is a marked increase in female-authored colophons around 1400. This period saw a surge in vernacular manuscript production, which appears to have provided greater opportunities for female scribes. The rise of vernacular texts may have expanded book production beyond monastic institutions, allowing women to participate in lay scriptoria or contribute to privately commissioned works.
Despite this increase, the overall percentage of manuscripts attributed to female scribes remained limited compared to their male counterparts. The decline of manuscript copying in the 16th century, as printing became dominant, further reduced opportunities for female scribes.
The Implications for Medieval Scholarship
The study challenges long-standing assumptions about the scarcity of female scribes and highlights the need for further research into medieval book production. The findings suggest that women’s contributions to manuscript culture were more significant than previously recognized, even if their presence was often obscured by historical biases in record-keeping.
The research also raises questions about the geographic distribution of female scribal activity. While existing literature has documented certain female scriptoria, such as the nuns of Chelles in France or the Birgittine nuns of Vadstena, the estimated 110,000 manuscripts attributed to women suggest that many more book-producing communities existed. The authors offer ideas on where future research should go:
Our study should be seen as a first step, opening new perspectives. Future work should clearly include a detailed geographical and chronological analysis of the whole colophon material in relation to time periods, as well as investigations of parish, census, or other records found in government or memory institutions. Taken together this might shed light on the question of potential unidentified female book production communities. In general, it would be interesting to investigate the geographical contribution of female scribes, see (Reynhout, 2006) for a non-gender related analysis of the Benedictine colophons, addressing, among other questions, geographical distribution. It would also be interesting to investigate what type of manuscripts have been copied by women. Future research may thus be able to reveal potential socio-political and socio-economic links to literacy, throwing light on when, why and how women worked as scribes during specific time periods. The statistical material is limited so it may not be possible to draw any conclusions, but it is worth looking into.
The article, “How many medieval and early modern manuscripts were copied by female scribes? A bibliometric analysis based on colophons,” by Åslaug Ommundsen, Aidan Keally Conti, Øystein Ariansen Haaland and Bodil Holst, appears in Humanities and Social Sciences Communications. Click here to read it.
See also: A medieval chronicle written by a woman: The Annals of Quedlinburg
Top Image: An image of a female scribe – the text band in the letter reads: “Guda peccatrix mulier scripsit et pinxit hunc librum” (Guda, a sinner wrote and painted this book – Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg, Frankfurt, Ms. Barth. 42, fol. 110 v
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