Imagine coming across a disembodied penis or a naked person shooting an arrow into the butt of another person in the margins of a religious text!Įxamples of marginalia can be found in most of Europe, but Northern France and England were prolific in producing such art. Medieval marginalia is known for its obscenity and grotesqueness. It could be in the form of scribbles, doodles, illustrations, or glosses.Īccording to a scholar called Michael Camille, marginalia may have originated from glossing, which is a way of providing explanatory notes about a term or a difficult passage in the margin of the book. Marginalia refers to anything written or drawn in the margins of a book. Modern scholars are probably driven to study these texts because they assume that medieval European society was conservative and to find lurid illustrations in religious texts is intriguing. Patrons directed the scribes to fill the margins with cheeky illustrations and g rotesque hybrid creatures–but we’re not quite sure why. If you’re easily offended, you probably cannot peruse such texts.īefore the invention of Gutenberg’s printing press (12th -14th century), scribes in monasteries copied books by hand, usually for churches or rich patrons. Manicules were even used on gravestones (pointing up toward heaven, of course).Weirdly, they’re full of imagery around mythical beasts, hybrid creatures, poop humor and sexually explicit satire. In the “Wanted” poster for John Wilkes Booth following his assassination of President Lincoln, a manicule gestured towards the reward announcement. In the 19th century, manicules had moved beyond books and into signage, advertisements, and posters as a way of directing the eye. The margin, once the reader’s workspace and sketchbook, was gradually colonized by writers seeking to provide their own explanatory notes or commentaries. This new technology allowed writers and publishers to highlight what they believed to be significant. The use and dynamic of manicules changed once books began to be printed. Although mainly used by readers, a scribe or a printer would occasionally draw a manicule to indicate a new section in a book. They were essentially the medieval version of a highlighter. Usually drawn in the margin of a page (and sometimes between columns of text or sentences), it was a way for the reader to note a particularly significant paragraph of text. The name comes from the Latin word manicula-little hand-but the punctuation mark has had other synonyms, including bishop’s fist, pointing hand, digit, and fist.Īs far as punctuation marks go, the manicule’s function was fairly self-explanatory. They were reportedly used in the Domesday Book of 1066, a record of land ownership in England and Wales, but widespread use began around the 12th century. Quite literally: it takes the form of a hand with an outstretched index figure, gesturing towards a particularly pertinent piece of text. Although manicules are still visible today in old signage and retro décor, their heyday was in medieval and Renaissance Europe.ĭespite its centuries-long popularity, the first-ever use of a manicule is surprisingly difficult to pinpoint. The Manicule is a pointedly unique symbol. Last but not least, there is a kind of ubiquitous annotation that deserves its own category: tiny hands serving as highlighters, aka manicules. The Latin words Ecce Ancilla Domini translate to “Behold the handmaid of the Lord.” Image via Atlas Obscura Take for example the following painful-looking medical procedure:Īn elaborate manicule that forms part of the illustration, pointing towards the Virgin Mary and Jesus. His textbooks contain ample amounts of delightfully detailed (and occasionally rather gruesome) illustrations. Fortunately, he was also a prodigious illustrator. Known as the “Father of English Surgery,” Arderne produced several important medical texts in the 14th century. Both can be vehicles for delight, disgust, and befuddlement.Īn example of useful intentional illustrations can be found in John of Arderne’s Mirror of Phlebotomy & Practice of Surgery, which is located at the Glasgow University Library. There are two broad categories of marginalia: illustrations intended to accompany the text and later annotations by owners and readers. Marginalia’s Medical UsesĪs Anika Burgess of Atlas Obscura explains, on medieval pages, marginalia can run from the decorative to the downright bizarre. As for me, they are a great source of fascination, especially when they depict killer bunnies. ![]() And they are far more important than you may realize, as both tell us huge amounts about a book’s history and the people who have contributed to it, from its creation to the present day. ![]() These are filled with anything from intriguingly detailed illustrations to random doodles. That is the official name for the edges of pages in medieval manuscripts.
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