Scribe

(sk rib.) [From Lat. scriba; from scribo, I write.] (Jewish Hist.) A principal officer in the Jewish law, whose busine was to write and interpret scripture. Originally, the S. had their name from their employment, which was transcribing the law, and multiplying copies of it; but in time they exalted themselves into public ministers and expositors of it. Scribe, AUGUST IN EUGENE, a French dramatist, B. in Paris, 1791, became the most prolific author of comic operas, vaudevilles, ., of his time. In 1835 he was admitted into the French Academy. D. 1861. He wrote the libretti of the operas Les Huguenots, La Juive, Fra Diavolo, Les Diamans de la Couronne, and Robert le Diable. [s. 807]