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This article explores the group of scribes who copied the eighth-century St. Chad Gospels and attempts to establish their number. Because of the regularity of script and inadequate reproductions available to earlier investigators, this question has been insufficiently pursued. In the past, the consistency of hands has encouraged a single- or perhaps two-scribe theory. However, regularity of script can be deceptive. To identify scribes, scholars of Insular manuscripts regularly turn to features such as ink preferences, abbreviations, and pricking of vellum. In the case of the St. Chad Gospels, ligatures at the ends of lines provide significant evidence. They suggest that at least four scribes, or possibly more, copied the St. Chad Gospels, and that the script was the product of a well-orchestrated effort by multiple scribes directed by a master scribe.