It was possible to visually match this leaf with a copy of Meditationes held by Bayerische Staatsbibliothek thanks to the digital archives [1, 2, 3] and the Internet.
This leaf comes from a book that contains prayers written by St. Augustine and St. Bernard, printed in Milan in the early 1480s by Beninus and Johannes Antonius de Honate. It was edited by Masellus Beneventanus. It is printed in Latin even though texts would have largely been in the vernacular Italian in the late fifteenth century [4]. This hints that the reader or owner of this book was either someone who worked with the bureaucracy or clergy, or was just highly educated.
This text reflects a period of intersection between manuscript and print, as the conventions of manuscript are followed closely by early printers [5]. In red ink (refer to Fig. 1) the norm of marking section headers with the pilcrow (¶) and underline persists. New paragraphs begin with an initial more than one line high. At the start of sentences, initials are also emphasised with a stroke of red ink.
Fig. 1 Photo of leaf held by NTU
An interesting point to note here is that the red markings are added by hand onto the printed page. [6] This is a process called rubrication, which provides a sense of completion to the print. The process of printing plans for the rubrication, as seen in the space left for the rubricator to fill the initial in and the printed letter that is meant to be there. The differences may be observed by comparing this leaf to another copy without rubrication (refer to Fig 2.1 and 2.2). It is possible that the reader/owner would take the printed book to a rubricator separate from the publisher.
Fig 2.1 Photo of copy held by NTU
Fig 2.2 Screenshot of copy held by Bayerische Staatsbibliothek
There are also tiny markings in brown. These are corrections and edits made by the reader/owner, which include adding letters and paragraph markings. It is possible that the reader/owner was either familiar with the prayers already, had another copy to cross reference, or was just highly educated. The most fascinating of these corrections are the ones where the original printed letter has been scraped away and written over (refer to Fig 3.1 and 3.2).
Fig. 3 Photo of copy held by NTU
Fig. 3.2 Screenshot of copy held by Bayerische Staatsbibliothek
In this single leaf alone, the reader/owner made four scraped corrections. Three of them change letters from capital to lowercase, while one seems to be a grammatical error. The method of scraping out mistakes and writing over them is one that originates from scribes writing on parchment. [7, 8] Using this method on paper is intriguing because while parchment is thick, paper is relatively not. The scraping reflects the influence of manuscript writing on print, as well as the knowledge of the reader/owner regarding the scribal writing process.
Fig. 4 Medieval scribe holding quill in one hand and knife in the other, from British Library
Given that the leaf was printed in 1480-1482, the paper and ink have stood the test of time very well. The preservation and study of written and printed text gives us the opportunity to learn more about how people lived centuries before today.
References
[1] The Morgan Library and Museum
[2] British Library, Incunabula Short Title Catalogue
[3] Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, München
[4] Briggs, Charles F. “Literacy, Reading, and Writing in the Medieval West.” Journal of Medieval History, vol. 26, no. 4, Elsevier Ltd, 2000, pp. 397–420, doi:10.1016/S0304-4181(00)00014-2.
[5] Nyström, Eva. “Codicological Crossover: The Merging of Manuscript and Print.” Studia Neophilologica, vol. 86, no. 1, Routledge, 2014, p. 114, doi:10.1080/00393274.2013.856534.
[6] Smith, Margaret M. “Red as a Textual Element During the Transition from Manuscript to Print.” Essays and Studies (London. 1950), vol. 2010, Boydell & Brewer Inc, 2010, p. 188.
[7] Doyle, Kathleen. Lovett, Patricia. “How to make a medieval manuscript.” British Library, Medieval England and France 700-1200.
[8] Rudy, Kathryn M. “The Editing of Illuminated Manuscripts by Medieval Scribes”. 2017
Prepared by Jasmine Alicia Wangko