. History of the religious house of Pluscardyn . by the hand of mortal man. In each Benedictine monastery a chamber was set apart for the discharge of this sacred office. In this Scriptorium some of the monks plied their pens assiduously, and in profound silence, to produce faultless transcripts of the best originals. To others was committed the care of revising the text of such works as were then held in highest esteem A tribute of writing materials at the commencement of eachnovitiate, and another of books at its close,with an annual impost of manuscripts onthe inferior Houses, were continua
. History of the religious house of Pluscardyn . by the hand of mortal man. In each Benedictine monastery a chamber was set apart for the discharge of this sacred office. In this Scriptorium some of the monks plied their pens assiduously, and in profound silence, to produce faultless transcripts of the best originals. To others was committed the care of revising the text of such works as were then held in highest esteem A tribute of writing materials at the commencement of eachnovitiate, and another of books at its close,with an annual impost of manuscripts onthe inferior Houses, were continually aug-menting the libraries of the greater con-vents. The accompanying illustration willafford a tolerable idea of the furniture of aScriptorium. It is intended to represent the Apostle John engaged in writing the fourth Gospel. How far ourmonks at Pluscardyn may have devoted themselves to this departmentof intellectual and spiritual effort we do not know. Only one book hasreached our time which owes its origin to our Priory, and it has done. Scriptorium, t with Apostle John. * Essays in Ecclesiastical Biography, p. 238. Longman, Green & Co., London. I860,t See Calendar of Prayer Booh Parker, 1867. 180 PLUSCARDYN. more than all else to keep up the memory and the fame of the fear we cannot congratulate ourselves on possessing the original, butwe certainly possess two early and probably immediate copies of thisfamous work — the Liber PLUSCARDEXSIS. We have no trace of anyCliartulary of the House having ever been made.* Several of theCharters emanating from the Monastery are written in a style worthy of thebest efforts of the Scriptorium; and the number of the Brothers who sign in agood bold hand seems to encourage the hope that above the Chapter House,and round the ambulatory of the Cloister Court, not a little intellectual labourmay have been conducted besides the solitary literary effort which has reachedus. It may be added that, in the neighbouring House of Kinlos
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