Prior to the invention of the printing press in the mid-1400s, the process of producing fi ne books, called illuminated manuscrip
ts, was strictly manual and performed by skilled craftsmen. A scribe would copy the manuscript in ornate handwriting (or calligraphy) from an original text called an exemplar, and artists decorated (or illuminated) the books with pictures. It is estimated that an apprentice scribe could initially copy approximately 50 lines per day. This roughly translates to about 15 minutes per line for a scribe just starting out. A scribe was generally thought to have completed his apprenticeship and was considered a craftsman after completing eight books where each book consisted of about 17,000 lines. (After eight books a scribe would show little additional improvement in accurate copying speed.) Assuming a learning curve of 91%, how long would it take for an experienced scribe to copy a line, and how many lines could he copy in a day?
To find the percent of increase take the difference of the two divided by the original. (62-55)/55 = .12727272727. So 13% if they want you to round to the nearest percent.
