A Basic Glossary of Terms
Guide | Glossary
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Antiphonary (or antiphonal):
A manuscript containing the choral, or sung, parts of the Divine Office, usually in a large format so that several people can sing from it at once. Also called a choir book, a more generic term.
- Bible: The Bible in the Middle Ages and Renaissance included the Hebrew Scriptures (also called the Old Testament), the Old Testament Apocrypha, and the New Testament, in the Latin translation known as the Vulgate.
- Book of Hours: A prayer book for private devotions of lay people, modeled on the Divine Office. Books of Hours were extremely popular during the fifteenth century, and more examples of them survive than of any other type of manuscript book.
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Bookhand:
Formal handwriting developed for use in manuscript books. Examples include caroline miniscule, gothic (with many variations), and bastarda. -
Breviary:
A service book containing the texts necessary for the performance of the Divine Office. - Calendar: A section, usually found at the beginning of liturgical and devotional texts, which lists the feast days of the liturgical year. Different colors of ink were used to denote important feast days, and the monthly lists could vary according to preferences for local saints and practices. Calendars were often illustrated with the symbols of the zodiac and scenes representing the labors of the month. For example, this opening in Lewis E 86, a Book of Hours, contains the zodiac sign Leo for the month of July and, opposite, a scene of a man threshing wheat, the labor for August.
- Codex: A book composed of folded sheets sewn along one edge—the format we commonly think of as a book. Most, though not all, of the manuscripts in the Free Library’s collections are either codices or leaves separated from their original codices; a few are rolls, or scrolls, the most ancient form of the book.
- Colophon: An inscription, usually found at the end of a text, which records information relating to the circumstances of a manuscript’s production, such as the scribe’s name and when and where it was written. Scribes did not always write colophons, but when included in a manuscript, colophons provide very useful information for modern scholars.
- Decretal: A collection of papal letters, or decrees, containing authoritative decisions on points of doctrine or law. Decretals were important in monastic libraries for the study of canon, or church, law. Important collections were issued by Popes Gregory IX (see Lewis E 77) and Clement V (see Lewis 65).
- Divine Office: The office, or set prayers, for the canonical hours of prayer said daily by priests and those in religious orders.
- Flyleaf: Extra leaves of either parchment or paper placed at the beginning and end of a book during the binding process to protect the pages of the book. Sometimes scraps from used manuscripts were recycled and used for flyleaves.
- Folio: The term used to describe the leaves of a manuscript book. It is derived from the Latin word folium, meaning “leaf.” Manuscripts are numbered by folios, as opposed to pages. Each leaf is identified by one number, and the front and the back of the leaf are distinguished by the terms “recto” for the front of the leaf, and “verso” for the back.
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Gloss:
A word or words inserted in the margin or between the lines of a text to clarify or comment on it. -
Gradual:
The principal choir book used in the celebration of the Mass. -
Grotesque:
A creature combining human and animal forms, or forms from more than one animal, also called a hybrid. Often found in the margins of manuscripts. -
Historiated Initial:
An initial (first letter of a manuscript section) enclosing an identifiable scene or figures, usually related to the text in which it appears. -
Inhabited Initial:
A large letter containing human or animal figures unrelated to the text. - Master: A term used in art-historical and manuscript studies for an anonymous artist whose style has been identified in one or more works. Often, the artist is named after the first work so identified, or after the patron for whom it was made. Examples in the Free Library’s collection are the “Master of Sir John Fastolf” (identified with Widener 1) and the “Master of Guillaume Lambert” (Lewis E. M 11:2).
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Miniature:
An illustration that is independent of other elements of the layout of a manuscript page, as opposed to those incorporated into a border or an initial. The name refers to the Latin
miniare, which means to color with red lead. -
Missal:
A service book containing the texts necessary for the performance of the Mass throughout the liturgical year. -
Nimbed:
Having a nimbus, or halo, around the head. -
Office of the Dead:
A set of Psalms, other Bible readings, and prayers, usually included in Books of Hours, intended to help souls in Purgatory attain salvation. - Paleography: The science or art of deciphering and determining the date of ancient writing, or systems of writing.
- Parchment: Animal skin prepared to receive writing. Parchment is often used to mean any skin used for writing, although it strictly means only sheep or goatskin, while the term vellum means only calfskin.
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Pen Flourishes:
Fine linear decoration of initials or of other decorative features, usually with red or blue ink. They can be found in many kinds of manuscripts, but are very common in small Bibles, which often lack more elaborate decoration. -
Psalter:
A book containing the Book of Psalms from the Old Testament, usually intended for private, devotional use. - Recto: The front side of a folio in contrast to the verso, or back side.
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Roll:
In manuscript studies, the term for parchment sheets sewn together and used to write a text to be read vertically, often with illustration. Examples include Lewis E 201, an imaginative genealogy for King Edward IV of England, and Lewis E 249 a and b, which are two large fragments from a roll designed to teach biblical history. -
Rubrics:
Directions or descriptions that are not part of the text, but are included in the manuscript as a guide for the reader. They are usually written in red ink. The term is derived from rubrica, the Latin word for red. -
Ruling:
A line drawn on a blank page to guide the scribe in its writing or decoration (and the answer to the question, “How did they write so straight?”). See, for example, Widener 1, in which the red rulings are part of the decoration of the text. - Service book: Book used in the performance of the Christian liturgy, including antiphonals, evangelaries, graduals, and missals.
- Use: In manuscript studies, the liturgy prescribed for a particular region or group of people (as in “for Sarum use” or “Use of Rome”).
- Verso: The back side of a folio in contrast to the front side (the recto).
