Tooltip Categories Illuminated Manuscript Terms

Text such as a title or chapter heading that has been highlighted using red ink.  Rubricating a text helps to identify its components.

The back side of a folio, or left-hand page of an open book.

The front side of a folio, or right-hand page of an open book.

Small holes that have been made in regular intervals by a scribe with a knife or point alongside the edge of a folio to create guide rules for writing.

An independent illustration as opposed to a scene that is connected to a decoration like a border or initial.

Notes, diagrams, writing, or other marks made in the margins of a manuscript. Marginalia could be included in the original creation of the manuscript and by a later hand. Painted decorations can also be incorporated in the margins, see drollery…

A decoration that fills out the remainder of a line of script.

See folio.

Deriving from the Latin word illuminare, meaning ‘to enlighten.’ Illuminations are embellishments made of precious metals that add luminosity to manuscript designs.