SCROLLWORK LIBRARY · THE SCRIPTORIUM
The Commission Desk
Tell the Desk what you mean to make. It will draw up the work.
The Desk plans; your hand writes. Nothing here draws a letter or lays out your page for you — that is the scribe's work, and it is the whole of this class. What the Desk does is the planning the lessons teach: it takes your commission, walks the arc of the class in its own order — desk, ink, pen, hand, page, finishing — and computes every measure from the lessons' own numbers, so that when you sit down, the plan is already made and only the making remains. The diagram below the form redraws itself as you choose: a diagram of the measures, in the tradition of Lesson 17's own plates — not a picture of your page. One rule of thumb is the Desk's own rather than a lesson's; it is labeled where it stands.
Rubrication — headings & initial in red (Lesson 7)
Gild the initial (Lesson 18)
Seal it in wax (Lesson 22)
THE PLAN, AS YOU SET IT
A diagram of the measures, redrawn at every choice — in the tradition of Lesson 17's typeset plates. It is not a picture of your page. Your page is yours to make.
Every measure in a commission is computed from the Scrollwork lessons themselves. When a commission and a lesson disagree, the lesson governs — tell Professor Nocturne, and the Desk will be corrected.
THE LESSONS THE DESK DRAWS FROM
Nothing in a commission is invented at the Desk. Each measure stands in one of these lessons, and the commission names its lesson at every stage:
← Scrollwork LibraryLesson 5 · Soot & Charcoal InkLesson 6 · Oak Gall InkLesson 7 · Red Inks & RubricationLesson 10 · Cutting the QuillLesson 11 · Broad & Pointed NibsLesson 12 · Pen AngleLesson 14 · Roman CapitalsLesson 15 · UncialLesson 16 · InsularLesson 17 · Page LayoutLesson 18 · GildingLesson 21 · The ScrollLesson 22 · Wax SealsLesson 23 · Archive LabelsLesson 24 · Invisible InksLesson 25 · CiphersThe Ink Cauldron — brew the iron gall (Potions)Plan the piece at the Desk; learn each measure where it is taught; make the thing with your own hand. In that order.