scrivenery

Noun

scrivenery (countable and uncountable, plural scriveneries)

1. (uncountable) The practice or work of a scrivener.
   • And yet we have notable penmen at head-quarters, who are at their vocation night and day, and who injure their temper and manners by incessant scrivenery, the results of which are buried in the pigeon-holes of Whitehall, never to be seen even in the lively pages of a blue-book.1856, W[illiam] H[oward] Russell, The War; From the Death of Lord Raglan to the Evacuation of the Crimea, London: G. Routledge & Co., page 247
   • So the Vicar's pen was applied, but before he had time to trace the first letter of his name, Rachel Lake resolutely snatched the thick, bluish sheet of scrivenery, before him, and tore it across and across, with the quickness of terror, and in fewer seconds than one could fancy, it lay about the...1864, J[oseph] Sheridan Le Fanu, “In which Lake under the Trees of Brandon, and I in My Chamber, Smoke Our Nocturnal Cigars”, in Wylder’s Hand. […], New York, N.Y.: Carleton, […], published 1865...
2. (countable, historical) A place where scriveners work; a scriptorium.
   • At the bottom of folio 109 there is an entry which reads, The Law at Twickenham for mery tales. This is, apparently, a reference to a scrivenery and staff of skilled penmen maintained at Twickenham by Francis [Bacon] and his brother Anthony Bacon.1906, Harold Bayley, The Shakespeare Symphony; an Introduction to the Ethics of the Elizabethan Drama, London: Chapman and Hall Ltd., page 242
   • Legal papers were not the most interesting of jobs, but at least he could do the work at home and keep an eye on his mother. And with Mai's new connections to draw on, he might even aspire to a post in one of the new scriveneries attached to the Inns of Court.2012, Anne Lyle, The Alchemist of Souls, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire: Angry Robot, →ISBN, page 93