![]() ![]() Im seeing a lot of weird animals and a lot of butts. I believe that the use of the twitter screenshot in this blog post falls under “fair dealing” as described by the UK Copyright service. Illustration in the margin of Petrus Peregrinus' Tractatus de Magnete (England, 14th century) 'Unpredictable, topical, and often irreverent, like the New Yorker cartoons of today, marginalia must have been a source of great delight for medieval readers,' says Margot McIlwain Nishimura in her book Images in the Margins. Whats up with the weird art in the margins of medieval manuscripts Is it even related to the content of the text Heres a lil album of some margin art I found from a quick google search if you need some context: I have so many questions. In this way, illuminated manuscripts are different from other types of media in that they provided spaces for readers to record their reactions to image and text. Johanna Green from the University of Glasgow looks at the doodles and ink flow tests in the margins of a 15th century manuscript. Nearly all medieval manuscripts provide ample space in the margins for readers notes and comments. You can listen to it online, the segment about the marginalia starts at 1:43:40 This morning Radio 4’s Today programme talked about marginalia in medieval manuscripts I was quite tempted to spell it mediæval. May the luck of the gods go with you.” Joe Dever. Twenty years later I bought some and again rediscovered them another ten years later.Īs his millennium gift Joe Dever made his books available free of charge online.ġ If you wish to bid him farewell turn to 2Ģ You say “I bid you farewell, my brother. Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada (New. I didn’t own any as a kid, but lent a few from friends who had them. Regarding the marginal and interlinear gloss adapted from Servius. His Choose Your Own Adventure books are great. For those with a penchant to read more there is the New Yorker’s take on marginalia, the Guardian’s article on Marlene Dietrich’s margin calls, the Atlantic’s list of medieval manuscript monk quotes and Entropy’s photos.I just found out that Joe Dever, the author behind the Lone Wolf books and other books and games, has died. Empty margins were made to be filled not only with decorative borders but also with corrections and glosses added by the scribe and later readers. ![]() I know I’m not alone in the enjoyment and fascination with marginalia. In the margin she’d written That’s how it feels again and again! The second ‘again’ left an indent on the next three pages. A comment about heartache was underlined. Reading one friend’s book, I felt like I was seeing more than I should. Other times, I thank my former self for leading me straight back to the treasure. Sometimes I can’t imagine why I marked certain sentences over others. It’s a little glimpse into a private moment from the past. I can get just as caught up re-reading my own markings as someone else’s. I lent a friend my high school copy of Wuthering Heights when she needed it for her book club but she gave it back a few days later saying that she couldn’t read it because of all the notes. The margin commentary isn’t for everyone. He’s said to have written ‘cat could do better literature than this’ in the margin of one novel and Entropy has an image of the quip he inserted on the title page of Plutarch’s Lives of Illustrious Men about it being translated ‘into rotten English’ from Greek. Mark Twain must have had similar ideas as a lot of his marginalia still exists. Edgar Allen Poe, a fan of generous margin dimensions, is quoted as saying in 1844, “I have always been solicitous of an ample margin this is not so much through any love of the thing in itself, however agreeable, as for the facility it affords me of pencilling in suggested thoughts, agreements, and differences of opinion, or brief critical comments in general.” Margins used to be wide specifically for the purpose of making notes. ![]() These were intended as suggestions for future editions. Marginalia is often discussed in terms of the annotations and notes that were made on medieval manuscripts. But I grew bolder and pen is, of course, much easier to read. I wrote my comments and thoughts nervously, like someone was looking over my shoulder and tutting in my ear. In the early tentative days, I only used a pencil. But after school finished, I missed the frantic margin scratches even though they were sometimes crammed in so tight you couldn’t even read them. Medieval Marginalia The doodles, weird sketches, grotesqueries, and other images drawn in the margins of medieval illuminated manuscripts. I kept my other book pages clean and crisp. I used to think margin comments were only legitimate as study notes in high school texts. ![]() Marginalia isn’t just an ‘I was here’ marker but proof of meaning and connection to a text. But as an owner, I’m happy to fold corners, attach page-markers, highlight paragraphs and scrawl in the margins. I think they should be treated properly and have a few things to say when my kids casually step on them. Don’t let that stop you from lending me one. To me, books aren’t sacred as physical objects. ![]()
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