12/19/2023 0 Comments Medieval manuscripts illustrationsDoodles from pen trials were never meant to be seen by the future reader as the flyleaf would later be glued to wooden covers. After trimming the nib, the scribe would usually test the pen on a blank piece of parchment or flyleaf to make sure that his letters were legible. Importantly, the knife was used to adjust the nib of the writing instrument when it became dull after much use. It was also used for gently holding the parchment in place so that the scribe could avoid resting their hand on it, which would risk leaving fingerprints or natural oil from their skin on the surface of the page. The knife was used for a variety of purposes, such as pricking and correcting errors by scraping the parchment. When we see images of scribes (people who made written copies of documents) writing, they are often depicted with a pen and knife in hand. The origins of doodling in the Middle Ages are hard to pinpoint, but they probably started with pen trials. Given the skills and specialization required for writing in the Middle Ages – the training, level of literacy, access to materials, for example – doodles in manuscripts were rarely thoughtless or accidental. It was commonplace to write in margins, underline and annotate, use blank spaces for recipes and handwriting practice, and even color in images. Usually found in the flyleaves or margins, doodles can often give medievalists (specialists in medieval history and culture) important insights into how people in earlier centuries understood and reacted to the narrative on the page. Scribbling haphazard words, squiggly lines and mini-drawings, however, is a much older practice and its presence in books tells us a lot about how people engaged with literature in the past.Īlthough you wouldn't dare doodle on a medieval manuscript today, squiggly lines (sometimes resembling fish or even elongated people), mini-drawings (a knight fighting a snail, for instance), and random objects appear quite often in medieval books. To "doodle" means to draw or scrawl aimlessly, and the history of the word goes back to the early 20th century. This article was originally published on The Conversation.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |