From the early Middle Ages on, copying manuscripts was a typical activity in the monasteries of the Low Countries. But copyist are nearly always anonymous since the men and women involved seldom signed their work. We know very few names of medieval copyists and women's names are particularly scarce. Depictions of women while writing are extremely rare in medieval iconography. Representations of them are always linked (intellectual) women authors and not to simple copyists. Nevertheless, in case the Low Countries, there are some signs which encourage research on women copyists. The well-organized basic education of girls, the possibilities they had to become apprentices and and later members of craft guild involved in the production of books are important aspects. In this paper I also pay attention to other circumstances such as the growth of the bookselling market, the growing demand for books in the vernacular by the laity and the overwhelming success of the religious movement called "Devotion Moderna" whose followers were book addicts. The palaeographic study of of some known women's handwriting is one of the research approaches to be considered.
