Tooltip Categories Illuminated Manuscript Terms

A letter that contains an identifiable figure(s) or scene that is relevant to the text.

A hybrid figure that combines elements from both human and animal forms. Like drolleries, these figures often bear no relation to the text.

Deriving from the Latin wordfolium, which translates as ‘leaf’. Equivalent to a ‘page’, a folio is an individual leaf of a parchment or vellum. Illuminated manuscripts are numbered by leaves opposed to pages. Folding parchment or vellum in half makes…

Decorative penwork that emanates from an initial.

A copy or reproduction of a manuscript that is made to be as true to the original source as possible. This differs from other forms of reproduction as facsimiles aim to replicate its given source as accurately as possible in…

An amusing figure, often a grotesque, embellished in the margin of a manuscript page. Drolleries typically have no association to the written text.

An initial that comprises of non-figural decorative adornments.

A manuscript volume, made up of folios that is then sewn together and bound as a book.

A painted design that surrounds the text and/or image. Partial borders will only frame a portion of the text and imagery while full borders will enclose the entire area on all sides. Borders can also be historiated or inhabited, featuring…