Bible. Latin manuscript on vellum. ca.1100.

As was true of any other text in the period before printing, the Bible could be duplicated only if copied by hand. The text of this twelfth-century Latin Bible is written on smooth vellum in a miniscule hand. Though the script is difficult to read, it had the advantage of compressing many words onto a single page. Typically, wide margins were deliberately left for the later addition of hand-written comments, although in the production of Bibles such generous use of leather was intended to lend a sense of luxury and significance. One can still see where the pages are ruled with lines and pricked with tiny holes to guide the scribe.