Folios were ruled to provide guide lines for copying and this ruling often consists of a frame with horizontal lines for writing. Scribes often ruled the folio themselves before they began copying. Ruling may be in ink, pencil or drypoint. scribe One who undertakes the physical act of writing by hand. This includes those who take down dictation or notes (perhaps onto a wax tablet), amateur scribes writing for themselves, professional copyists, and authors writing down their own works. In the case of the Auchinleck manuscript, the scribes were all, it seems, professionals who copied each text from an exempla.