Scrivener

"Scrivener notary" redirects here. For other uses, see Scrivener (disambiguation).
Telling a problem to a public scrivener. Istanbul, 1878.
An écrivain public in Chambéry, France.
A historical reenactment of a 15th-century scrivener recording the will of a man-at-arms

A scrivener (or scribe) was a person who, before the advent of compulsory education, could read and write or who wrote letters as well as court and legal documents. Scriveners were people who made their living by writing or copying written material. This usually indicated secretarial and administrative duties such as dictation and keeping business, judicial, and historical records for kings, nobles, temples, and cities. Scriveners later developed into notaries, court reporters, and in England and Wales, scrivener notaries.[1][2]

They were and are generally distinguished from scribes, who in the European Middle Ages mostly copied books; with the spread of printing this role largely disappeared, but scriveners were still required. Styles of handwriting used by scriveners included secretary hand, book hand and court hand.

  1. ^ The life and letters of Sir George Savile, Bart., first Marquis of Halifax. Longmans, Green, and Co. 1898. p. 490. Scrivener definition.
  2. ^ "The Society of Scrivener Notaries". The Society of Scrivener Notaries. Retrieved 2020-10-20.