Amanuenses

Shown above is an amanuense copying down the speech of his boss. Typically, an amanuense's job was to perform this task, acting as a secretary or assistant to their boss.

An amanuense is someone who is good at taking notes while someone else is talking, or someone skilled in the transcription of speech. Another version of the word is amanuensis, which refers to someone who is skilled at taking dictation. An amanuense is similar to a scribe or secretary, as they both copy down and/or translate words from their boss. An amanuense typically works underneath another individual and works to copy their diction.

Shown is Desiderius Erasmus, a well known scholar in the time of the Renaissance. He was an important scholar in the areas of humanism, philosophy, and Christian theology.

History

The word “amanuense” is a Latin word, which is defined as “a servant of the hand.” Quite literally, amanuenses would copy down or translate diction by hand. In some cases, amanuenses would help write larger works, such as in the case of Desiderius Erasmus. Erasmus was one of the most influential scholars of his time in the Renaissance, a major figure of humanism, philosophy, and Christian theology. In his later years, he hired amanuenses or famuli to help him write his works when his age wouldn’t allow him to do it himself. The amanuenses would re-write Erasmus’s handwriting to make it more legible for readers and transcribe his speech into print.

Present Day

The word “amanuense” is an archaic definition, its modern equivalent being a secretary or assistant. While amanuenses in the early days in the publishing industry would translate works by hand, modern secretaries have different technologies available to them in order to make their job easier, such as having a computer to write on instead of doing it all by hand on paper. Additionally, modern technologies allow for the job of an amanuense to be done by automatic and computerized processes. Depending on how it’s seen, these new advances can have the potential to enhance and assist the job of an amanuense, or take away the need for them all together.

Notes

1. Alonso, E. & Nunes Vieira, L. (2017). The Translator's Amanuensis 2020. The Journal of Specialised Translation, 28, 345-361. https://doi.org/10.26034/cm.jostrans.2017.245
2. Blair, Ann. 2019. Erasmus and His Amanuenses. Erasmus Studies 39 (1): 22-49. doi: 10.1163/18749275-03901011. https://doi.org/10.1163/18749275-03901011
3. Robinson, Solveig C. (2014). The Book in Society. Broadview Press: 65-68
4. “Erasmus.” Wikipedia, 22 Oct. 2025. Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Erasmus&oldid=1318168275.