How to Reach the Desk

"He who has business at the scriptorium ought to write briefly, and to expect a reply briefer still."

Qui scriptorium quaerit, breviter scribat — brevius respondebitur.

By Postal Address

Letters may be addressed to the scriptorium at the following direction. We open the post on Mondays, when the post is opened at all. Replies, when they come, are signed by the brother whose duty it is to sign post that week, regardless of whose hand wrote what.

The Byzantic Society for Paleographic Recovery
The Scriptorium of Saint Anastasia, in the lower city
Beside the second cistern, behind the carpenters' lane
(the door is unmarked; knock twice, then once)

By Visiting Hand

Visitors are received on the second and fourth Tuesday of each month, between Lauds and the midday meal. Earlier hours are reserved for ruling, and we will not be interrupted at the rule. Later hours are reserved for the cat, and the cat will not be interrupted at all.

If your visit concerns a manuscript in our custody, please bring the inventory number and the folio range. If your visit concerns a personal matter, please reconsider; we are very busy and we will not be helpful.

On Donations

The scriptorium is supported, in equal and irregular measure, by the goodwill of the cathedral chapter, the leftovers of the refectory, and the indulgent forbearance of an aunt whose name appears in our colophons under a discreet pseudonym. We accept further donations of: vellum (calf, well-prepared), pigment (lapis especially), bound quires (unwritten), candles (any), wine (drinkable), and silence (during Vespers).

We do not accept donations of: opinions about our editorial policy, suggestions about which texts we ought to be copying instead, or kittens. Pangur is sufficient and would object.

On Errata

If you have spotted an error in one of our folios, we would like to know — but please do not write at length about it. The shorter your description, the more likely it is to be acted upon. We hold the standard scribal view that small errors are inevitable; large errors are corrigible; and the difference between the two is largely a matter of where you are standing.

Errata sent in red ink will be considered with particular gravity. Errata sent in blue ink will be filed and considered next quarter, when the corrector is in better humour.

On Not Contacting Us

This last section, like the corresponding rubric in many monastic customaries, is the most useful. If you do not contact us, we will not contact you. The folios will be copied; the cat will sleep on them; the seasons will turn. We will be where we have always been. So, in fact, will you.

In whatever form your message reaches us — folded twice, sealed once, smelling faintly of the courier's lunch — it will be read in the order in which it was opened, which is approximately, but not strictly, the order in which it arrived. Tabellario tuo gratias age, etiamsi serus venit.

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