of Valerius Petronianus, with his slave holding writing tablets (4th century AD) In
ancient Rome, an amanuensis (Latin
āmanuēnsis, “secretary”, from
ab-, “from” +
manus, “hand”) was a slave or freedperson who provided literary and secretarial services such as taking dictation and perhaps assisting in composition. Amanuenses were typically Greek, might be either male or female, and were among the higher-status
slaves in ancient Rome who were considered to add value to their masters' lives rather than serving as mere instruments of production. Literary slaves had certain privileges under the law and could be
manumitted at a younger age. Amanuenses played an extensive role in medieval writing and the dissemination of texts.
Visionaries in particular relied on amanuenses to translate their experiences into written form. One question in studies of the Christian mystic
Margery Kempe, not known to have received a formal education, is the extent to which her amanuenses shaped her self-titled book, completed in 1438. The work of the amanuensis when the author was minimally or not literate likely involved taking dictation, reading back, getting feedback from the author for revision, and possibly shaping the text further during transcription. An amanuensis might bring literary polish to visionary experience, as
Adam of Eynsham, for instance, is thought to have drawn on the
underworld book of the
Aeneid to shape the "rather rambling and confused" visions of his brother Edmund. An amanuensis might act as a translator as well as transcriber. For example,
Petrus of Alvastra (aka Peter Olafsson) wrote down the visions of
Bridget of Sweden as she recounted them in
Swedish, and then translated them into Latin. ==Other uses==