If you happen to be born in the Middle Ages in Europe, happen to have received a good education, want a stable and decent job, don’t like to deal with people, and also like to read, then the scribe is undoubtedly your best choice. An ideal career.
What is a "scribe"?
It is the scribe. Write other people's handwriting without adding or changing it.
In that era, although scriveners were not considered writers, they were a very respected profession and the income was quite decent. In the Persian and Turkish scribal traditions, the status and remuneration of scribes were much higher than those of painters of detailed manuscripts.
If you are socially phobic and you want to roam spiritually, you want to be a hermit. Then you can go into a writing room of your own. There you can be alone, silent, focused and simply work.
What do you do in the writing room?
Now you are polishing parchment quietly, now you are grinding mineral pigments, now you are trying to figure out how to make a manuscript, now you are using your exquisite calligraphy to copy classics, now you are painting some decorations and polishing...
Time passed so quietly.
This is what I saw in "The Scribing Room" written by Bao Huiyi, what a European medieval scrivener should look like.
Traveling back to that era, would it be good to be a scriptor in that place? I feel very good.
This book’s Douban score: 8.8. The author Bao Huiyi was born in 1985 and holds a PhD in medieval literature from University College Dublin in Ireland. Now he is a lecturer in the English Department of Fudan University.
I will read this book, it is very interesting. I was completely attracted by its exquisite appearance. After I bought it and took a look at it, I discovered that the content inside was not about the profession of "scribe", but about a historical and literary journey through the European Middle Ages under the guidance of the author.
However, this kind of chance encounter is still quite interesting. Especially for me, a literary business enthusiast who is not a Chinese major, it is really rare.
As mentioned in the book, William Shakespeare came to London in the old days at the end of the 16th century.
What was the scene like in London in Shakespeare's time?
It’s quite ridiculous when you think about it. People were eating sugar so hard that their teeth were all blackened; people couldn't do without unpalatable beer every day, even if it was like horse urine, even monks had to drink a gallon of it every day; at that time, tobacco was regarded as a good medicine. It can treat migraines and bad breath, and can also prevent plague. Tobacco was so popular that if a student was caught forgetting to smoke, he would be beaten with a cane. Fights were common on the streets, and being killed at any time was not a big deal.
At that time, London's theaters were built in large numbers in the suburbs, which were not under the jurisdiction of the city. It was a "free place" where demons danced wildly. Next to it are brothels, arsenals, prisons, mass graves, lunatic asylums and gathering places for various manufacturers.
Not only that, Puritans are prevalent at the moment. They hate theaters most. They regard theaters as a place for the spread of infectious diseases, homosexuality, and paganism. You must be thinking, how can such a drama survive? Shakespeare must have had a hard time, but Elizabeth I loved drama very much. This preference allowed all playwrights, including Shakespeare, to escape.
At that time, going to the theater was relatively cheap. At that time, an ordinary person earned 12 pence a day, and watching a play cost about 1 to 3 pence. So it’s almost like watching a movie now and then, and it’s basically acceptable.
In form, it is similar to listening to cross talk or watching Northeastern Errenzhuan in a small theater. There are sellers of fruits, snacks and cigarettes in the theater, so the theater is full of smoke and noise, and the audience will not buy it. Throwing things on the stage. In a word: It was not easy for actors at that time.
In this environment, Shakespeare ushered in the golden period of his creation. This legendary figure and legendary works were all born here.