http://www.traditionaltimberframe.com/V1_0/index.php?mod=frenchscribe&ac=procedure

For all your scribing needs, this describes the process in detail.

After having researched it, It seems that the French Scribe, or at least the alignment of the timbers to a full-scale ground plan (which is in fact only part of the whole french scribe process) is in fact a method used across Europe. I have seen many pictures of German carpenters laying out buildings along full-scale ground layouts.

I have also discovered a solution to layout on irregular ground. The method shown in that link is designed to be used on a flat shop floor, however that is not the way it is always done. Historically the layout would often be created exactly where the building was to be raised. The solution I have seen used is to take boards and lay them out on the ground with chalk lines down the middle, squaring the lines using the Pythagorean Theorem instead of using a giant compass. The layout can then be made with lines snapped on a series of boards. The advantage to this is that it is easier and more accurate to step off measurements on flat boards than on uneven ground, and with this method you can lay out the structure without needing to have a shop floor that big.

This all reminds me, at the base of the great pyramid in Egypt a series of holes were once discovered that, when connected, supposedly create an exact elevation of the pyramid, complete with the details of the internal chambers and all that. In other words, the exact geometry of this enigma was established with a plan, and the plan seems to suggest that the multiple chambers were not, in fact, the result of a Pharaoh who kept changing his mind. It would appear that this method of scribe layout is incredibly ancient. I wonder if such a system was used by the ancient Greeks to build their amazing temples and amphitheaters