amanuensis

The word Latin amanuensis came to Castilian as amanuensis. This is the name of the individual who is dedicated to write by hand what is dictated or what is copied from another writing.

Also know as copyist, the clerk was the one in charge of the reproduction of books by hand. Therefore, he would take a work and begin to copy it manually, word for word, until he had a complete copy.

The clerk was very important when movable type printing had not yet been invented. As he gained experience, the clerk acquired greater speed to make copies, being able to reproduce up to three pages a day. In this way, copying a manuscript it could take several months.

It is necessary to bear in mind that the scribe or copyist focused on the reproduction of the writing of the construction site. Copying the illustrations was the task of another type of specialist.

The scribes had a significant social reputation in the Ancient Egypt. Those scribes fulfilled different functions, such as the reproduction of the hieroglyphs that enable the transmission of knowledge. The leaders, in this framework, needed the clerks for multiple administrative issues.

In the Ancient Greece and in times of Empire Roman, the copyists were also very relevant. The booksellers, for example, had clerks who were ordered to reproduce the books they sold.

Already in the Middle Ages, clerks used to work in the monasteries, dedicating itself to the preservation and dissemination of books. Each clerk could find himself confined in a cell or carry out his work in a common unit.