Structuring the medieval page | Exploring the Medieval Manuscript Book

The video series ‘Exploring the Medieval Manuscript Book’ features book historian Irene O’Daly (Leiden University), introducing a wider audience to unique artefacts that were created with pen and ink in a distant past. In this second episode, she discusses the structure of the medieval page. 

In modern printed books, chapters begin on a new page and paragraphs are usually indented. Not so in the layout of a medieval codex, where text is structured by colour and decoration, not by space. 

Painted or decorated initials – sometimes in combination with a full-page miniature – mark the beginning of a new text section (SCA 1). A scribe can even write texts in different colours when presenting concurrent narratives spread over two pages (SCA 14). 

Explore these manuscripts (held by Leiden University Libraries) yourself:

SCA 1: http://hdl.handle.net/1887.1/item:1805678

SCA 14: http://hdl.handle.net/1887.1/item:1678556

This video is created for ‘The Art of Reading in the Middle Ages’ project which explores how medieval reading culture evolved and became a fundamental aspect of European culture. The project is co-financed by the Connecting Europe Facility of the European Union. Project website: https://www.medieval-reads.eu.