If you want to truly appreciate the work monks did to preserve knowledge in the medieval period, try writing a book out by hand.
How far have you gotten? What's your estimated completion date and total man-hours for the project?
What are you using as source material? If your source material contains non-canonical works (like the Epistle of Barnabas, included in the Codex Sinaiticus) are you going to hand-write those as well?
What does your copying process look like? Do you write whole sentences, one word at a time, one letter at a time, etc.? Do you have error detection and error correction processes? (Some Hebrew Old Testament scribes used a rudimentary checksum - counting how many times each character appeared on a page, locating the middle character, etc. - and would destroy pages with errors.)
Aside from a really cool book and hand cramps, what are you getting out of this? What have you learned so far, either about the process of hand-copying or about the content of the text you're copying?
I'm working on two volumes right now. The first volume will contain the four gospels, the second Acts, Romans, and some of the epistles. I'm about halfway through Luke in Volume I, and in chapter 12 of Romans in Volume II.
I wish I had kept better track of the hours I've spent so far. I started the project 7 months ago, and I worked on it for about 3 to 5 hours a week. I imagine it will be at least another couple years before I'm completely finished.
> What are you using as source material? If your source material contains non-canonical works (like the Epistle of Barnabas, included in the Codex Sinaiticus) are you going to hand-write those as well?
My source is Nestle-Aland, 28th Edition, which is (I believe) confined to the 27 universally-accepted books of the NT. I may do an additional volume with some apocryphal works at some point, but I will need to find another source for those.
> What does your copying process look like? Do you write whole sentences, one word at a time, one letter at a time, etc.?
This has changed over time. When I first started the project, I could barely write the Greek alphabet, didn't understand what each letter sounded like, and had no knowledge of the language's grammar. So in the beginning, I drew every letter and accent and checked them against the source before continuing. This was extremely tedious.
As time passed, I became more familiar with the alphabet and didn't have to individually draw each character. I also taught myself the associated sounds, both by rote memorization and by listening to recordings. Now that I've done that, I can "read" the text and know what it sounds like, even though I don't understand the meaning. So I typically copy in chunks of a few words, then make another pass to copy accents, breath marks, and punctuation.
> Do you have error detection and error correction processes?
I decided at the beginning of the project that I was not going to attempt complete accuracy. I accept that there will be errors. If something is obviously wrong, I'll correct it, but I won't obsess over and strive for 100% accuracy.
A medieval scribe working with parchment would use a sharp blade to scrape away any mistakes. Since I'm working with cotton paper, I can't do that. I typically just cross out any word level mistakes. Any line level mistakes (it's quite easy to skip a line of text, especially when you're not literate in the language you're copying), are not so easily corrected, and I have to discard that entire sheet and redo it. This can be a pain, because in the signature format, the pages you are copying are out of order. (For example, the first sheet of a signature will contain pages 1, 2, 15, and 16.) So I have to re-copy up to four random pieces of text, while trying to maintain the same proportions of the previous copy so I don't throw off the text alignment of the next sheet. This is my least favorite part of the process.
> Aside from a really cool book and hand cramps, what are you getting out of this?
Enjoyment, mainly. I like to complain about the handcramps and eye strain, in the same way I like to complain about bughunting in code. But at the same time, in the same way I enjoy seeing my code do something cool and work right, I enjoy seeing the finished product of projects like this.
Also, I'm teaching myself Koine Greek, and this project has done wonders for my ability to read and write Greek text. My knowledge of Koine grammar is rudimentary at best at the moment, so I can't translate yet, but because of this project I can effortlessly read and write it.
> What have you learned so far, either about the process of hand-copying or about the content of the text you're copying?
You hear anecdotes sometimes about some ancient scribes being illiterate, so they simply drew each character individually and checked them against the source. I've been there and done that, now, so I can say I've had the experience.
I also now fully comprehend how much of a marvel the printing press was. It cannot be understated how important that invention was to both the spead of and creation of new knowledge.
As for the text itself, I guess the biggest takeaway I have is that we can lose a lot of the elegance of the text in our English translations. Greek, being an inflected language, doesn't depend on word order for meaning like English does, so the authors could order words as they saw fit to make the sentences flow. Greek is a beautiful language.
[1] http://reddwarf.wikia.com/wiki/Seventh_Day_Advent_Hoppists
Edit to add: I would have loved to use real parchment for a more authentic end product, but that amount of parchment would have cost thousands of dollars.