Reading in the Middle Ages: Terminology

Initial letter in Rounded Italian Gothic Script

Gradual, Lombardy (?), mid-15^th century

+++ Bd. Ms. 4600 no. 19

(Detailed description at http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/collections/medieval_calkins.pdf, p. 23)

+ Bd. Ms. 4600 no. 125
Cicero, Selections from Opera Philosophica
Spain? ca. 1450

~~~

“The manuscripts are more than text witnesses and historical documents, in fact they are themselves historical and cultural events because they are material. They often are the only surviving witnesses or the most reliable witnesses to the production, reception and dissemination of texts in their social and historical context.”—Anna Mette Hansen, “The Icelandic Lucidarius: Traditional and New Philology” (in Old Norse Myths, Literature and Society: Proceedings of the 11th International Saga Conference 2-7 July 2000, University of Sydney, edited by Geraldine Barnes and Margaret Clunies Ross (Sydney, Australia: Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Sydney, 2000). 118-125 (in pdf at http://www.arts.usyd.edu.au/departs/medieval/saga/pdf/0000-all.pdf))

Medieval European Manuscripts

A Few Definitions

 Manuscript: A handwritten document, by definition unique. From the Latin manu scriptus, written by hand.

Parchment: Animal skin (calf, sheep, goat) prepared as writing surface.

Vellum: Fine parchment from calfskin, typical for high-end manuscripts.

Paper: In medieval and early modern times, a writing surface made from rags (cloth fibers of vegetable origin). Successor to parchment available in Western Europe from around the tenth century CE (in Iberia) and manufactured in significant scale in Europe from the thirteenth century; introduced from China (where it was developed no later than the second century CE during the Han Dynasty) through the Islamic world.

Codex (pl. Codices): The book (manuscript or printed) as we know it today, especially in Europe, Africa (e.g. Coptic Ethiopia) and the Islamic world. The codex evolved at the beginning of the Christian Era (circa first century CE) from notebooks on papyrus used in Roman Egypt (but had antecedents from about the third century BCE). The basic structural elements are the boards or covers, the text block and the spine. The text block is sewn into the spine. Scrolls were before the first century in general use in (Western) Asia (Israel) and Europe (Greeks in Greece and Egypt, Romans). Modern Jewish use of scrolls in the synagogue (Torah, Book of Esther) is a ritual requirement with origins prior to development of the codex.

Script (Hand): The style of writing employed by the copyist. These styles can be regional or associated with a particular institution such as a monastery.

Folio (Latin Folium; pl. Folia): one leaf with one page recto (first side) and one page verso (second side)

Bifolium: Two leaves joined together

Quires or Gatherings: Groups of folia collated for sewing into binding

 

Binding: Generic term for the structure containing a codex volume (Compare German Band, Icelandic bindi)

Boards: (Historically wooden) durable surfaces for containing text block

Spine: Joining holding boards and text block in situ

Sewing: General term for an evolution of techniques to secure the boards and the text block into a coherent structure

Text block: All the gatherings, folded if need be, for inclusion in a codex volume. The intellectual epicenter of the codex

Leather: Covering frequently stretched over boards; may be pigskin, goatskin, sealskin, etc.

Tooling: Designs inscribed with pointed metal tools on leather coverings

Parchment: (Recycled) alternative to leather for covering boards.

Scripts: general cataegories:

Caroline (Carolingian)

Caroline minuscule

Caroline transitional

Gothic (Fraktur, Black-Letter)

Gothic rounded

Italic

Humanist

Book hand

Chancellery hand

Secretarial hand

Hybrid

Cursive

Text: Added features:

Marginalia: Explanatory or research notes

Glosses (marginal, interlinear): Readings or interpretations or translations

Palimpsests: Erasures for correction or re-use of vellum

Illumination and Historiation (see below)

Text Genres:

Holy Scriptures (Jewish, Muslim, Christian)

Prayer books (Siddur: see below)

Vitae Sanctorum (see below)

Horae (see below)

Sagas

Charters

Lexica

Law codes

Lays

Illumination: Illustration or decoration of a manuscript.

Historiation: Decoration of a manuscript; term is frequently used in the expression historiated initial to describe an illustrated initial letter.

Vulgata: Translation of the Christian canon of the Bible (Hebrew OT, Greek NT) into “people’s Latin,” principally by Saint Jerome.

Vitae sanctorum: Lives of the saints: popular and influential genre of biography detailing pious works and (often) martyrdom of Christian saints.

Rite: Specific religious texts, usages, practices and customs based on region, affiliation or other defining feature. E.g. the (Catholic) rite of Rome, the Sephardic (Jewish) rite.

Books of Hours: (Latin: Horae) In Roman Catholic usage, prayer books containing devotions pertinent to specific canonical hours of the day. A considerable number of sumptuously illustrated Horae manuscripts survive from the late Middle Ages and early Renaissance. (There are many variations based on rite and content.)

Qur’an or Koran: the holy book of Islam.

Siddur: the standard prayer book of Judaism (of which there are many variations based on rite and content).