The land of the country in
those days was subdivided to an extent that it is now almost
impossible for us to realize, and the tenure under which the small
patches of arable or meadow-land were held was sometimes very complex
and intricate. The small patches were perpetually changing hands,
being bought or sold, settled upon trustees, or let out for a term of
years, and every transaction would be registered in the books of the
monastery interested, while the number of conveyances, leases, and
enfeofments made out in the course of the year was incalculable. In
such an abbey as that of Bury St. Edmunds a small army of writers
must have been constantly employed in the business department of the
Scriptorium alone. Obviously it became a great writing-school, where
the copyists consciously or unconsciously wrote according to the
prevailing fashion of the place; and there have been, and there are,
experts who could tell you whether this or that document was or was
not written in this or that monastic Scriptorium. Paper was very
little used, and the vellum and parchment required constituted a
heavy item of expense. Add to this the production of school-books and
all materials used for carrying on the education work, the constant
replacement of _church_ service books which the perpetual
thumbing and fingering would subject to immense wear and tear, the
great demand for music which, however simple, required to be written
out large and conspicuous in order to be read with ease, and you get
a rather serious list of the charges upon the stationery department
of a great abbey.
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