Scriptorium – a room for writing; especially a room in a monastery for the writing or copying of manuscripts

“These are the pigeon-holes that hold all the slips,” I said, waving my arm up and down the nearest wall of pigeon-holes, then doing the same for the other walls around the Scriptorium, “Da said there would be thousands and thousands of slips [for words] and so there needed to be hundreds and hundreds of pigeon-holes. They were built especially, and Dr Murray designed the slips to be the perfect fit.”

Esme speaking to Aunt Ditte, The Dictionary of Lost Words, Pip Williams