The monks’ tales

Today, if we want to pass on any information, technology abounds – we can print it, photocopy it, send it by post, or via the internet, to any number of people anywhere in the world. It’s easy. But this hasn’t always been the case and it is fascinating to stop and think how stories such as the Gospels in the Bible, written nearly 2000 years ago, ever came to be so widely read given the lack of any technological prowess. But they were. In medieval times, monks in monasteries around the world would borrow manuscripts from other libraries and meticulously copy them word-for-word so that they had their own copy before returning it or passing on the original.