Note 43 — I. The Revival within the Abbey during the 14th Century.

The Scriptorium had been founded by Abbot Paul, circa 1077. Owing to the ignorance of his own monks he was compelled to fill it with hired scribes. Towards the end of the twelfth century a ‘historiographer’ was appointed, and from that time the systematic compilation of annals may be taken to date. From the peculiar character of the St. Albans script Sir T. Duffus Hardy concluded that Matthew Paris learnt the art of writing from a foreign schoolmaster. See Catalogue: Materials for History of Great Britain and Ireland III, xxv, xxxiv, cxxiii.