Making books by hand

So in the medieval ages. There weren't that many books. This was because It was a hard and very long process. Only the monks made these books because it was so hard. This is how it was made.

So first they didn't have a market to go buy some paper so they had to make it themselves. They made a special paper called parchment. So first they had to kill a animal and take the skin off of it. Then they had to soak it in a river or stream for several days. Then you have to put it in a barrel with special chemicals to take off the hairs. But then they had to scrape the rest of the hairs off. Then they had to dry it all of then soak it again and then dry it off again. Then they had to make a lot of sheets of paper and sow them together to make pages. Then they had to write on them. But first they had to make a pen out of turkey's feather and then sharpen the tip then they had to make ink for it. This was very hard because they had to write one letter at a time. They wrote it with there best handwriting. They couldn't make a mistake otherwise they would have to start all over so they had to be very careful. Then they had to make drawings on the sides. Some were big and took up a whole page some were small on the corners. They sometimes made gold leaf to put on the paper. And they made there paints out of egg whites and other colors. It was a very long process and they usually worked for eight hours a day. They usually made 2-3 books in a whole year! When the book was done they put it in the library where it was safe. You couldn't just check out the books.

Monks

Augustine and his men were called monks. They promised to pray teach and learn the bible for the rest of their lives instead of having children and a family. They went to special buildings called monasteries. They went there eight times a day. Some of the Anglo-Saxons liked Christianity and they built monasteries as well. They built Monasteries in Ireland and other places in Britain. They couldn't eat butter on there fresh bread unless it is a holiday! They also couldn't eat four legged animals. They also couldn't talk while eating unless it was about the bible.