Vocabulary for Describing Medieval Manuscripts and their Hands
Bounding lines, pricking and ruling: a
rectangular frame of faint lead or blind ruled lines marking the text
block, tiny holes along the gutter and fore-edge margins to guide the
ruling, and the lead or blind ruling which guided the lines of text to
be copied. Counting lines-ruled-per-page on both sides of a leaf
gives some indication of whether a separated leaf belongs to the same
scribe's work as other separated leaves or leaves still bound.
Modern "ruled" notebook leaves have been prepared by the paper makers
for you in just this way, but the machine-created ruling will not vary
from page to page, unlike hand-made ruling, which bears the
unmistakable variations created by a human hand.
Minim--the basic stroke (viz.
l) from
which all characters are composed. As with pricking and ruling,
each scribe's minim could conceivably vary from others in predictable
ways if a large sample of them are examined microscopically.
Serif--a brief line beginning or ending a
minim ( l ) to improve a character's definition, increasing the text's readability. (Sanserif characters have no
serifs as in this Arial font text. Sin pedibus
characters have no diamond-shaped "feet" to terminate the bottom of the
stroke.) This page's "Times New Roman" font imitates a late
Medieval serifed Roman script--note the faint lines ending the letter
"s" and the caps and feet on M, d, and p.
Ascender--the vertical
portion of a stroke above the midpoint of a minuscule in the letters
"b" or "d" or "l." Note whether ascenders are nearly vertical (Carolignian and early Gothic), or
back-curving (Gothic Textura), or decorated with "flag"-like flourishes (Gothic Littera Bastarda).
Descender--the vertical portion of a stroke below the bottom of a minuscule in the letters "g" or "p." Note whether descenders are nearly vertical and only an "x-height" below the line (i.e., earlier), vs. later scripts' back-curving descenders, and the latest, long, often "dagger-like" back-slanting descenders up to a line-height long and decorated with "flag"-like ornaments.
Script--a
style of writing in general use by many scribes during an era in which
they all learned more or less the same basic letter forms and ornaments
(e.g., Carolingian Minusculel [C8-12], Early Gothic [C13-14], Gothic
Textura [C14-15], Gothic Textura Quadrata [C15], Gothic Littera
Bastarda [C15-16]). Regional variations might distinguish
clusters of scribes by the places of their training
in scripts known to be Irish, English, Northern (Netherlandish,
German),
French, Italian, Greek or Byzantine, Armenian, etc. Note
that before the Late Medieval period (ca. 1300-1500), scribes might
move
or be moved long distances from the places of their training to the
places where they spent their lives copying manuscripts. Scribal
skills were rare enough that exporting/importing trained scribes was
worth the cost of moving them around and accomodating their cultural
differences. Because
of the great training proficiency of Irish monastic scriptoria, an
Early Medieval Irish-trained scribe easily might be discovered copying
Bibles in Germany, Italy or France. Movement in the opposite
direction
might have been rarer but not impossible. After the early 1300s,
manuscript
production was increasingly dominated by far more numerous,
non-clerical literate people
who worked on contract to produce specific MSS. Some became "clerks" to
doctors, lawyers, government officials and divisions of the Royal
Court, wealthy households (e.g., the Paston Family (see especially "Who Wrote the Letters?"), and (rarely) poet-scholars like Geoffrey Chaucer. Successful secular scribes later produced
MSS "on spec" because the market for them was predictable, such as
"Paris" bibles for theology students at that university, later medieval horae
or "books of hours" now in demand for newly literate classes such as
guild members and their families who also might desire psalters
(collected Psalms), monks' and friars' breviaries, and school texts
such as
Donatus's Latin grammar and other advanced texts used by university
students
in law, medicine, and theology. (Not surprisingly, when moveable
type, hand-press printing first emerged in the mid-15th century,
university towns and government centers were prized locations to set up
the presses.)
Hand--an
individual scribe's peculiar way of making a given script's and letter
forms and ornaments. Identifying scribal hands requires very
precise distinctions among ways of holding the pen (ductus
or angle with respect to the page), emphasizing unusual decorative
flourishes, etc. For images of individual scribes' hands in
English MSS of Chaucer, Gower, and Langland, see Late Medieval English
Scribes project, cosponsored by the Universities of York, Oxford, and
Sheffield, visit their Website: https://www.medievalscribes.com/
Rubrics and miniation--text
written in ink colored
other than black, originally only in red but later in blue, green, or
other colors contrasting with black or brown ink text. Adding red
highlights within capital letters beginning sentences was called
"miniation" from the Latin "mniniatus" (illuminated) from "minium"
(Cinnabar, the red mercury sulfide, HgS, used to create brilliant, and
poisonous, red illuminations). Color variation was used for
emphasis, explanation, or section endings or
beginnings, Usually manuscript descriptions will specify color,
as in "rubricated in blue
ink." Rubrication of manuscript sections often alternates red
initials with blue or black initials, sometimes inlaid with gold and
ornamented with penwork flourishes. Measuring the line-height of
the rubricated capitals and describing their construction, including
intricately woven internal ornaments, called "puzzlework," tiny faces
("figurated") or scenes ("historiated"). This helps
identify the general style or even the regional scribal style and era
of the MS, e.g., "14-line red and blue initial with red flourishing at
the start of Pearl. Some initials decorated with ink drawings of
faces," BL MS Cotton Nero A.x (scroll down to image 8).
Foliate border--text
block frames made from intertwined, mostly generic (not "realistic" or drawn from nature)
flowers, leaves, and vines, often containing animals or fantastic
beasts and grotesques. Especially common in Netherlandish/Flemish
manuscripts of C14-15. Borders with trompe l'oiel
individual flowers and animals, some drawn from life instead of
generic imitations of previous MS designs, begin to appear in Northern
MSS in the 1490s and early 1500s. Some flowers and insects are
given "shadows" so that they appear to float above the pages.
Later MS borders often
would be drawn by illuminators, not the scribes who produced the text,
sometimes by the artists who produced illuminated initials or larger
illuminated miniatures.
Bas-de-page--Fr. literally "bottom of the page," illuminations at the foot of the page, often animals or grotesques (most common in MSS produced in & after C13)
Line filler--decorative shapes
inserted to occupy blank space to the margin of a short line of text, often
illuminated. Line filler designs often match those of rubricated capitals and help identify a regional or scribal style.
Illumination--lit. "light-bringing," highly colored painted scenes illustrating or making parallel commentary on the text, including illuminated capitals and miniatures. Note that "illuminated miniature" is a term of art intended to distinguish the largest manuscript paintings in egg tempera from the much larger oil paintings on wooden panels ("panel paintings") or canvas ("oil on canvas"). Around the late 1400s, accomplished manuscript illuminators gradually migrated from miniatures on parchment to larger and more profitable panel paintings, often using the same iconographic layouts, topics, and figurations of familiar subjects ("Madonna and Child," "Saints with Holy Family," "Patrons Worshipping at Manger/Crucifixion/etc.").
Irene O'Daly, "Writing the Word: Images of the Medieval Scribes at Work," Medieval Fragments, October 18, 2013: https://medievalfragments.wordpress.com/2013/10/18/writing-the-word-images-of-the-medieval-scribe-at-work/
O'Daly sorts out the differences between illustrative conventions used
to depict working scribes and what we know about how scribes actually
did their jobs. Needless to say, some images are fairly
inaccurate whereas others bear some relation to real life. The
article sets a good example for us as we learn to "read" the
iconographic design of medieval illuminations--don't treat them as we
would candid photographs.
The Aberdeen Bestiary
Creation
Creation of the
Firmament (icon)
Fowl and Fishes
(permeable image fame)
Panther
Deer (cut out)
Dogs 1
Dogs 2
Auchinleck MS: "Lay le Freine," "Sir Degare," (whole leaves cut out leaving stubs, and initials cut out with loss of text on verso)