The lecture deals with the new building of the abbot's residence in Corvey commissioned by Wibald von Stablo. The focus here is on the question of whether Wibald's writing room, in which, according to contemporary reports, he kept documents for official and private use, should be seen as a rule or a special case in a European comparison for the 12th century. The lecture is part of a larger research project on the writing activity of medieval abbots .