A cadel is a calligraphic decorative extension to the ascending or descending strokes of letters, usually on the first or last lines of a page. They sometimes feature human or animal heads.
The calendar sections of illuminated manuscripts most often precede liturgical and devotional texts. In this context, they identify feast days pertinent to the PATRON and the region, using different colours to highlight important feasts, such as Christmas or the Annunciation (so-called red-letter days). Calendars vary in accordance with local USE, and the deaths and saints' feasts commemorated often supply valuable evidence of ORIGIN and PROVENANCE. Private, university, and official administrative texts also included calendars, which enabled the literate community to calculate dates. Calendars were often illuminated, the two most popular schemes being the labours of the months (see OCCUPATIONAL CALENDAR) and the zodiacal signs, both ultimately of classical origin but increasingly popular from the ninth century on. Calendars are often accompanied in religious books by devices for calculating movable feasts, such as Easter Tables. Medical and astronomical calendars appear in manuscripts relevant to those disciplines.
The Middle Ages inherited the Julian (Old Style) calendar introduced by Julius Caesar in 45 B.C. This contained a 365-day year, with an extra day every fourth year to reconcile the calendar with the solar year, calculated as 365 days and 6 hours. The year was divided into twelve months. Each month had named days: Kalends, Nones, and Ides, the unnamed days in between being reckoned backwards from the next Kalends, Nones, or Ides. Some months had dies Aegyptiacae ('Egyptian', or unlucky, days). Although commonly used, from EARLY CHRISTIAN times these Roman days competed with the ecclesiastical division of the year into weeks, each with seven named days, and with dating by reference to church feasts or occasions such as fairs and rent days.
The Roman civil year, beginning on January 1, continued to be used until the seventh century, when it was increasingly replaced by the Christian year, calculated from the year of Christ's birth, a system initially arising from the Dionysian Easter Table of c. 525 and popularized by the English scholar-theologian Bede during the eighth century. In this system Christmas, the Annunciation (March 25) or, less commonly, Easter marked the start of the year. Whatever the start of the year, the era began with the birth of Christ, the 'year of grace'.
Other calendrical styles were used in the Middle Ages as alternatives to or in association with the ecclesiastical 'year of grace'. Among these was the indiction, originally a civil reckoning that computed from 312 A.D. in fifteen-year cycles and was used for privileges and legal documents until relegated to notarial use in the late thirteenth century. Pontifical and regnal years also served calendrical purposes, relating a date to the person under whose jurisdiction the calendar was issued (for example, the second year of the reign of Henry III). Certain administrative offices had their own systems (the English Exchequer's financial year ran from Michaelmas, September 29, to Michaelmas). Spain, Portugal, and southwestern France used the Spanish Era calendar, beginning on January 1, 38 B.C., which survived in some areas until the fifteenth century.
The inclusion of devices such as the Golden Number, Epacts, Dominical letters, and Concurrents for the calculation of movable feasts (often added as tables) rendered a calendar perpetual or continually functional. The calculations were mostly concerned with establishing the relationship between the solar year and the phases of the moon so that the date of Easter could be determined. See also ASTRONOMICAL / ASTROLOGICAL TEXTS, COMPUTUS TEXTS, DIRECTORY, and MEDICAL TEXTS.
From the Greek for 'beautiful writing', calligraphy is a SCRIPT that exhibits exceptional and often self-conscious artistry and aesthetic quality in design and execution. The art of fine writing was appreciated during the Middle Ages and the RENAISSANCE, with certain SCRIBES becoming noted for their beautiful and decorative script. A number of treatises on calligraphy and specimen books of script (such as copy books and alphabet books) were produced. Following the introduction of printing, fine writing was still taught by writing masters, calligraphers, and ILLUMINATORS, who continued to produce handwritten pieces as works of art and for formal, commemorative, or display purposes.
A phase of work in the production of a manuscript. A manuscript could be made over a period of time in several campaigns of work; additional material might be added in a separate, later campaign.
CANONICAL HOURS See DIVINE OFFICE.
CANON PAGE See MISSAL.
A Gospel concordance system devised in the fourth century by Eusebius of Caesarea, in which Gospel passages are numbered in the text (generally in the margins) and correspond to tables, arranged in columnar form, indicating the concordance of passages among the Gospels. Canon tables were generally placed at the beginning of the book and were popular in GOSPEL BOOKS, BIBLES, and New Testaments (the Gospels plus Acts, Epistles, and Revelation), especially during the early Middle Ages. Canon tables were often set within arched surrounds of an architectural character. Sometimes EVANGELIST SYMBOLS were included to identify the Gospels referred to in the columns of numbers; these are known as beast canon tables.
The Carolingians were dynastic rulers of Frankia from 751, when Pepin the Short was named King of the Franks. The Carolingian Empire (which embraced much of Northern Europe and Italy) was established under Charlemagne (742-814), who became emperor in 800. In 843, the empire was divided into three parts by the Treaty of Verdun. The fragmentation of Charlemagne's realm continued, destroying any semblance of unity. Although Carolingians ruled some areas until the late tenth century, the OTTONIAN dynasty assumed imperial power in 962.
Charlemagne and his immediate successors sought to establish cultural cohesion and political stability throughout the disparate territories of the empire. This led to the flowering of culture known as the Carolingian renaissance and to ecclesiastical reform. The latter included the standardization of texts, for which reason Charlemagne's adviser, Alcuin of York (c. 730-804), undertook a revision of the BIBLE and the SACRAMENTARY. During the ninth century, Alcuin's SCRIPTORIUM at Tours went on to produce large, illuminated Bibles for circulation. The SCRIPT known as Caroline minuscule was also part of the reform movement. Standardized and easily legible, it was promoted throughout the Empire.
Charlemagne's claims to the imperial status of Roman emperors and his extension of Carolingian power into Italy fostered a revival of CLASSICAL TEXTS and of the style and imagery of ancient art. Initially focused on the Court and Palace Schools at Aachen, the Carolingian renaissance was rapidly disseminated with the assistance of the Frankish bishops and their scriptoria (such as those at Corbie, Tours, Rheims, and Metz). In addition to preserving many works from ANTIQUITY (see ASTRONOMICAL / ASTROLOGICAL TEXTS and MEDICAL TEXTS), the Carolingian period witnessed the composition of many new texts by scholars such as Alcuin, Einhard, Paul the Deacon, Hrabanus Maurus, Walafrid Strabo, and John Scotus Eriugena.
The earliest monument of Carolingian ILLUMINATION, the Godescalc EVANGELARY, dates to c. 781-83; at this time, the scriptorium at Corbie was experimenting with early Caroline minuscule. The production of manuscripts flourished until the late ninth century, with a number of distinctive local styles emerging. The Court School of Charlemagne, for example, favoured heavily painted works with a NATURALISTIC rendering of figures and opulent use of gold, silver, and purple (redolent of imperial Roman and BYZANTINE influence). The artists of the School of Rheims worked in an agitated, IMPRESSIONISTIC style of classical inspiration, while illuminators of the Metz School employed a decorative style with much feathery ACANTHUS ornament. During the ninth century, the Franco-Saxon style also emerged, showing INSULAR influence in its zoomorphic and INTERLACE decoration. Carolingian book production was also influenced by PRE-CAROLINGIAN European developments.
An ornamental page particularly favoured in INSULAR art, sometimes incorporating a cross into its design, that derives its name from its visual similarity to an Eastern carpet. Unlike decorated INCIPIT PAGES, carpet pages do not carry text. They generally separated the four Gospels in a manuscript, and their use in Christian art may be of COPTIC origin. See the illustration accompanying INSULAR.
CARTOLAIO (pl. CARTOLAI) See STATIONER.
An ornament in the form of a scroll or shield.
A collection of CHARTERS in book form.
A word written at the end (generally in the lower margin) of a QUIRE that repeats the first word on the following page. Catchwords facilitate the arrangement of the quires during binding. They were introduced into Europe via Spain, Italy, and south-west France around 1000, possibly under Islamic influence.
The Celts were originally an Iron Age people, occupying Central and Western Europe, whose culture spread throughout much of the West. Following Roman expansionism of the first century B.C. to the first century A.D., the Celts were pushed back to areas of the Atlantic seaboard (Ireland, Scotland, Man, Wales, Cornwall, and Brittany). Celtic art is characterized by a sophisticated abstract approach, featuring devices such as the pelta (a triangle with one convex and two concave sides), the trumpet spiral (a spiral with an expanded triangular mouth), and the triquetra (a triple loop formed of intersecting arcs) and often incorporates anthropomorphic and zoomorphic features, sometimes of an ambiguous character. 'Ultimate La Tène' art, named after a Celtic Iron Age style many examples of which were excavated at La Tène in Switzerland, flourishes even to the present.
Beginning in the fifth century, Ireland, along with some other areas of Celtic Britain, developed a thriving literate Christian tradition and played a key role in preserving the learning of ANTIQUITY and the early Church. This was transmitted to ANGLO-SAXON England from the sixth century on, giving rise to INSULAR culture. Following the Viking incursions of the ninth century, Celtic culture became increasingly independent of Anglo-Saxon culture.
A book whose BINDING carries a STAPLE and chain for attachment to a desk or lectern, on which the book was read. The presence of a staple and chain generally denotes institutional ownership by a college or ecclesiastical establishment (for example, the chained library at Hereford Cathedral).
Chiefly composed of calcium carbonate, chalk was used for a variety of purposes in manuscript production: as a POUNCE when preparing the PARCHMENT surface; as a component of GESSO or another GROUND; as a white PIGMENT; as an alkaline component in pigments (serving to modify the colour of certain organic pigments, such as folium, and to lighten and increase the opacity of others); or as a drawing medium.
A system of grooves cut into binding BOARDS to carry the CORDS that attach the boards to the QUIRES. The use of channels meant that the cords would not stand proud on the inside of the boards. See also PEGGING.
A SCHOOL OF ILLUMINATION that flourished in England and northern France in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The term emphasizes the close stylistic relationship between works produced on either side of the English Channel. INSULAR art had already exerted a formative influence on northern French ILLUMINATION in the ninth century (see CAROLINGIAN) and had in turn begun to absorb French influences. After the introduction of Norman artists and SCRIBES into England following the Norman Conquest in 1066, this trend increased, contributing to the development of ROMANESQUE art.
A document recording a juridical act, most commonly the grant of property or of rights relating to property.
The medieval precursor of the modern dust jacket, a chemise is a slip-on cover of leather or of a textile such as velvet or linen that protected the BINDING of a book and its FORE EDGE. Chemises varied in form from high-grade luxurious embellishments for BOOKS OF HOURS and PRAYER BOOKS to functional wrappers for administrative records and library books.
A monogram composed of the letters XP (the Greek chi and rho), the first two characters of the name of Christ in Greek. It was often used as a symbol in EARLY CHRISTIAN art and life. Decorated chi-rho pages are found in early medieval GOSPEL BOOKS, at Matthew 1:18.
A SERVICE BOOK containing the parts of the MASS or the DIVINE OFFICE sung by the choir. See also MUSIC MANUSCRIPTS.
A collection of annals or notes of yearly events. Such recordings developed from the practice of annotating Easter Tables (see CALENDAR). Early chronicles took the form of world or universal histories, such as those written in the fourth century by Eusebius of Caesarea and Sulpicius Severus. Local chronicles began to appear in the ninth century: among the most notable are the Annals of Ulster, the Frankish Royal Annals, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, and a history of the Saxon kings by the German bishop Thietmar of Merseburg in the early eleventh century. World chronicles continued to be written, however, perpetuated by historians such as Marianus Scotus in the later eleventh century. The Historia ecclesiastica, completed in 731 at Jarrow in northeastern England by the Venerable Bede, marked an influential new approach to the writing of history: Bede perceived a relationship of cause and effect between events, collated material in accordance with a central theme (the growth of Christianity in England), and promoted a consistent system of dating (from the Incarnation).
The Normans produced a number of historical works relating to Normandy, England, and the Holy Land in the later eleventh and twelfth centuries; these include the Gesta Normannorum ducum of William of Jumièges, the Gesta Guillelmi ducis Normannorum et regis Anglorum of William of Poitiers, and the works of Sigebert of Gembloux, Robert of Torigni, and Ordericus Vitalis. History writing in Britain continued to proliferate throughout the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, with chronicles by Florence of Worcester, William of Malmesbury, Geoffrey of Monmouth, Gerald of Wales, and Matthew Paris. Important Continental historians of the thirteenth century include Salimbene (Cronica) and Vincent of Beauvais (Speculum historiale), the latter representing a move toward a more encyclopaedic world view. Histories based on the BIBLE, such as the thirteenth-century Weltchronik of Rudolf von Ems, were also compiled. The thirteenth century also witnessed a proliferation of VERNACULAR histories, among them Villehardouin's Conquête de Constantinople, the Histoire de Guillaume le Maréchal, the Grandes Chroniques françaises de Saint-Denis, Jean Creton's Histoire de Roy d'Angleterre Richard, and Jean Froissart's Chroniques de France, d'Engleterre et des païs voisins, the last representing a fusion of the traditional chronicle with the ROMANCE genre.
During the GOTHIC period, many historical works were illustrated, a practice largely initiated in England by Giraldus Cambrensis and Matthew Paris, who incorporated marginal drawings into some of their works. In the thirteenth century, some authors attempted to integrate pagan and Christian history by grafting books such as Peter of Poitiers' Genealogy of Christ onto universal chronicles. The genealogies of kings were also included, giving rise to a tradition of illuminated genealogical manuscripts, often in ROLL form.
From the Greek word chrysographia, meaning 'writing in gold', chrysography is the use of powdered gold, mixed with glair or gum (see BINDING MEDIUM) to create an INK; when dry, the ink is usually burnished (see BURNISHING). Gold (and silver) writing on PARCHMENT is known from the EARLY CHRISTIAN period on. PURPLE PAGES were introduced in BYZANTINE books at least as early as the sixth century as a more suitable and luxurious background for such SCRIPT; the imperial connotation of having been 'born to the purple' was implicit in the ostentatious use of the colour. Chrysography was practiced in INSULAR, ANGLO-SAXON, CAROLINGIAN, and OTTONIAN luxury book production and also occurs sporadically later in the Middle Ages and the RENAISSANCE. Gold ink was also used in Byzantine ILLUMINATION to provide highlights (especially in articulating drapery) and other details, a technique transmitted to the West, where it enjoyed particular popularity during the fifteenth century. Chrysography in late GOTHIC art is often somewhat formulaic and mechanical, but it achieved great refinement in panel painting and within RENAISSANCE illumination.
CLAREA See BINDING MEDIUM.
A metal fitting attached to the BOARDS at the FORE EDGE of a BINDING in order to hold the book shut and to preserve the PARCHMENT (unless kept at an appropriate temperature and humidity level, parchment tends to cockle and return to the original shape of the animal skin). Clasps became popular during the fourteenth century (alongside their earlier counterpart, the STRAP AND PIN), initially as a combination of metal fittings and leather straps and then entirely of metal. On English and some French bindings the clasps fasten at the lower board, while elsewhere on the Continent the catch is on the upper board.
Literary works of Greek and Roman ANTIQUITY. Despite their pagan ancestry, a wide range of classical texts was preserved during the early Middle Ages, including works by authors such as Dioscorides, Pliny the Elder, Cicero, Sextus Placitus, and Vitruvius, in fields ranging from medicine to rhetoric. Parts of Italy, Spain, and Gaul as well as the INSULAR and ANGLO-SAXON worlds did much to preserve classical learning, while the CAROLINGIAN renaissance promoted a conscious reference to and revival of antique works. Islam also became the custodian of a significant body of classical texts, notably the works of Plato, Aristotle, Galen of Pergamon, and Hippocrates, which it transmitted to the West beginning in the twelfth century, contributing to the rise of scholasticism. The RENAISSANCE again witnessed a revival and systematic rediscovery of the classical past in the work of the humanists (see HUMANISTIC). Several cycles of illustration were also inherited from classical texts (see ASTRONOMICAL / ASTROLOGICAL TEXTS , BESTIARY, HERBAL, and MEDICAL TEXTS).
A classicising style emulates the form or character of the art of classical ANTIQUITY.
A piece of cloth impregnated with PIGMENT (generally a vegetable dye). A portion of such cloth, when soaked in a little BINDING MEDIUM, releases its colorant and produces an artist's pigment. Clothlets are called petiae in Latin and pezze or pezzette in Italian; bisetus folii refers to clothlets dyed with folium, or turnsole, extract. Clothlets were a convenient way of carrying or shipping vegetal pigments, and they were especially popular from the fourteenth century on, with the growth of the textile trade. Glazes of vegetal dyes were often used to enhance other colours in book ILLUMINATION, since they created a rich, glowing, and transparent effect.
CODEX (pl. CODICES)
Originating in the first century, the codex (from caudex, the Latin word for tree bark) is a book composed of folded sheets sewn along one edge, distinct from other writing vehicles such as the ROLL or TABLET. The codex was initially a low-grade form manufactured of PAPYRUS. Its portability and ease of consultation made it popular among Christians. Following the Christianization of the Roman Empire in the fourth century, the codex supplanted the roll as the favoured vehicle for literary texts.
The study of the physical structure of the book, which promotes a better understanding of its production and subsequent history. The term was initially coined in 1943 in relation to the listing of texts in catalogue form but was subsequently applied to book structures. From the late nineteenth century on, advances in the study of book structures led to the formulation of certain guidelines for reconstructing their historical development, since such structures vary with time and place. Variable features include the number of leaves used in a QUIRE, the relative disposition of the HAIR and FLESH SIDES of the PARCHMENT, the manner of PRICKING and RULING (and whether these processes were conducted before or after the leaves were folded, one or more leaves at a time, or with the aid of a template), and how a book was sewn and bound. The examination of a book's structure can shed considerable light on its method of construction, place of ORIGIN, and PROVENANCE and can help to reconstruct its original appearance. See also COLLATION, ILLUMINATOR, MONASTIC PRODUCTION, PALEOGRAPHY, PECIA SYSTEM, SCRIBE, SECULAR PRODUCTION, and STATIONER.
A description of a book's current and original structure, that is, the arrangement of its leaves and QUIRES. This information may be conveyed in diagrammatic form (showing the quires and their composition) or in a prose shorthand. In the latter, for example, '18 (wants 1, blank)' indicates that the first quire was formed of eight leaves, the first of which is missing and was probably originally blank. Two collations may be given to indicate differences between a book's current and original structures, but a single collation can often convey data relevant to both states. (This type of physical collation is not to be confused with textual collation or comparison.)
A SERVICE BOOK containing the collects (or prayers) for the canonical hours of the DIVINE OFFICE. Such volumes often also contain capitula (short selections from Scripture read after the Psalms) and may open with a CALENDAR.
An inscription recording information relating to the circumstances of the production of a manuscript or printed book (the place and/or people involved and, less frequently, the date). Colophons appear only sporadically in medieval books, but were often employed by the Italian humanists (see HUMANISTIC), who also included the date. They are generally located at the end of a book. The term is also used to designate the emblem or DEVICE of a publishing house.
Simple decorative devices, such as dots, commas, ivy leaves (hedera), or box surrounds, which serve to highlight the COLOPHON. Such decoration is found in ANTIQUITY and EARLY CHRISTIAN manuscripts.
A MINIATURE that occupies the width of a column (but not necessarily its height).
A discussion and/or expansion of a text, generally of a biblical, PATRISTIC, or legal character. Commentaries often accompanied the texts they discussed in the form of GLOSSES.
The practice, BYZANTINE in origin, of rendering shading in the modelling of a figure or drapery in a complementary (that is, contrasting) colour, rather than with a darker shade of the same colour or with black. The technique often produces an image of greater NATURALISTIC as well as decorative effect.
Works dealing with the calculation of time. These include CALENDARS, Easter Tables, almanacs, and other ASTRONOMICAL / ASTROLOGICAL TEXTS , as well as specific treatises such as the Venerable Bede's De temporum ratione of 725. Manuscripts of computus texts often include diagrams and even figural decoration. See also VADE MECUM and VOLVELLE.
Conjoint (or conjugate) leaves are two leaves that are or were part of the same BIFOLIUM.
Like a DISPLAY PANEL, a continuation panel provides a decorative background or frame to the letters following a major INITIAL; these latter are known as continuation lettering.
A Copt is a native Egyptian descended from the ancient Egyptians. Following the Arab conquest of 640, the term (Arabic qibt, derived from the Greek aiguptios) was used to refer to the indigenous population of Egypt, which was predominantly Christian. By the sixteenth century, Westerners used it to distinguish Christian inhabitants from the Muslim majority. The Coptic Church exerted an influence on the West from the sixth to the eighth century, especially in the field of eremitic monasticism, and may have contributed certain features to book production, such as COPTIC SEWING and ornamental CARPET PAGES.
A method (with several variants) of sewing a book during BINDING: the QUIRES are sewn together by thread carried by two needles working in a figure-eight movement from quire to quire. The BOARDS are then laced onto the loose ends of these threads. Coptic, or unsupported, sewing is unlike SEWING ON SUPPORTS, the technique usually employed in the medieval West, in that the quires are not linked by sewing onto CORDS.
Coptic sewing, which provides a more flexible BINDING and facilitates opening the CODEX, is generally found in Egyptian and some other Eastern bindings. Among the rare surviving examples from the medieval West is the Stonyhurst, or Cuthbert, Gospel, an INSULAR Gospel of Saint John made at Monkwearmouth/Jarrow in the late seventh century for placement in the coffin of Saint Cuthbert
The horizontal supporting bands onto which QUIRES are sewn at the SPINE to form the book. Cords are generally bands of leather (or sometimes other materials such as hemp) and could appear in single or double form; in the latter, the cords are split along most of their length to allow a double, figure-eight sewing around them for additional strength. The ends of the cords are then threaded into the BOARDS (see CHANNELING and PEGGING) and the structure covered. The cords appear as raised bands when seen through the covering of the spine, but beginning in the later sixteenth century could fit into grooves 'sawn-in' to the quire to produce a flatter spine. See also SEWING ON SUPPORTS and SEWING STATIONS.
Cornerpieces are metal plaques attached to the corners of the BOARDS of a BINDING to protect them, a popular feature from the fifteenth century on. The term also refers to a decorative motif in the corners of a MINIATURE or BORDER.
Corrections to a text were undertaken by the SCRIBE, another member of the SCRIPTORIUM , a STATIONER, an owner, or a subsequent reader. They take various forms, including simple interlinear or marginal insertions (perhaps marked by a SIGNE-DE-RENVOI), erasures made by scraping with a KNIFE or PUMICE (or washing, in the case of PAPYRUS), cancellations indicated by crossing out, or expunctuation (in which points placed beneath a letter or word mark its deletion). Some corrections resulted from a systematic program of comparing a text against another copy; others represent the independent decision of a scribe or reader to amend words or passages. The process of correction frequently formed part of the production of a manuscript.
A stick of white or coloured CHALK or other solidified PIGMENT, often brown or red in colour, sometimes contained in a holder, used for drawing, annotation, and occasionally for RULING.
CUIR CISELÉE See CUT LEATHER
A book describing the customs - the rituals accompanying liturgical services or monastic discipline, for example - of an ecclesiastical establishment. A customary is a form of DIRECTORY and is also known as a consuetudinary or Liber ordinarius.
A technique, also known as Cuir ciselée, for decorating BINDING in which the leather of a cover is cut away with a knife to leave a picture or design in relief. Cut-leather decoration was practiced primarily in German speaking countries from the late fourteenth to the early sixteenth century. See also TOOLED.
A piece, often a MINIATURE or painted INITIAL, cut out of a manuscript, generally for commercial or collecting purposes. Cuttings were frequently collected for their independent aesthetic value, especially during the nineteenth century.