Schrijvershanden

Schrijvershanden is a term found in Dutch-language discussions of literary production and manuscript studies. It refers to the hands and manual practices of writers—the physical act of writing as well as the craft decisions that accompany text creation, from initial drafting and revisions to transcription and presentation of the final text.

The word is formed from schrijvers (writers) and handen (hands). The plural form emphasizes the variety of practices across authors and historical periods.

In historical manuscript culture, schrijvershanden also denotes the materiality of writing: handwriting styles, choice of writing instruments, ink, paper, and page layout. The way a hand writes can reveal aspects of the author’s working method, draft stages, and editorial interventions, and it can be a subject of study for palaeographers and literary historians.

In contemporary scholarship, the term is sometimes used metaphorically to describe the author’s stylistic influence or "hand" on a text—the identifiable creative voice that marks a writer’s work, beyond the literal handwriting.

See also: handschrift, manuscript, palaeography, authorial voice.