Scribal desks were not made to be portable, but we as traveling scribes need to have period desks that will fit in the trunk or back seat of our cars, be stable, and still be period. This is not an easy task to accomplish. Here are some designs I have made from looking at illuminations.

This one is the most solid and easiest to make. The illumination shows a different side on it. But I needed a later period desk, so I put a gothic sided instead of the 12c. side.

Bibles and Bestiaries: A Guide to Illuminated Manuscripts, ISBN 0-374-30685-0, page 6, Illustration 1. Blanche of Castile and her son. Louis IX, king of France, Porobably Paris, ca. 1235(M.240,f.8)

There are no aspects other than the plywood that make this desk not period, other than no one made one that we can prove back then.

The next desk looks like a TV-Tray. I may be interpretting the illumination wrong. Perspectives can be funny. If I am interpreting it incorrectly the alternative is a TV-tray with an angled surface on it.

Illuminated Manuscripts:Treasures of the Pierpont Morgan Library, ISBN 0-7892-0216-6,p.184, Tower of Scriptotium of Salvador de Tabara...ca.1220