I have read accounts where medieval scribes transcribing a manuscript have added their personal thoughts as marginalia, not only that, but substituted more familiar words for those they could not understand.
Is this old news?
This was a very common practice in philosophical/historical manuscripts and Bibles. The marginal notes (glosses) explain passages, give short translations, and sometimes include personal notes. Sometimes the notes fill up the entire margin.
In herbal manuscripts, there will often be notes in different hands giving their interpretation of the plant names in their local languages, or in Latin, if the original name is in a local language. There are also some that have only drawings and the text was never added (or only partly added), and later scribes have tried to fill in some of the missing information.
Thanks JKP. Do you know of an instance where the marginal notes were of a more personal nature, for instance the physical discomforts the scribe was working under, that sort of thing?
(10-05-2017, 03:59 AM)peteb Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Thanks JKP. Do you know of an instance where the marginal notes were of a more personal nature, for instance the physical discomforts the scribe was working under, that sort of thing?
Not that I've seen. They sometimes wrote brief notes on people they knew (like someone who may have previously owned the book) and recorded births and deaths at the end of the book, on the fly leaves, but I've never seen it as a marginal note.
They may exist, but it may be hard to find. Usually people kept journals for things like that, but parchment wasn't cheap, so even journal-writing didn't become popular until paper was more widely available (late 15th and early 16th centuries and onward).
I came across this:
In the famous Lebhor na Huidre, or Book of the Dun Cow, the Irish scribe twice scribbled, Probatio pennae Maelmuiri (a trial of the pen of Maelmuiri). These two brief notes probably reflect Maelmuiri’s attempts to test a newly cut pen to make sure it worked and the ink flowed properly. The shape and condition of the pen contributed to the scribe’s ability to write quickly and easily, so its importance cannot be overlooked.
Found it here:
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Probatio pennae are a common form of marginalia. They are particularly known to Dutch speakers since one of the oldest attestations of the Dutch language (Old Dutch) is believed to be a pen trial. In the margin, te scribe could use his own language instead of Latin.
So if we consider the marginalia pen trials, then they might tell us a lot about the scribe. The line on top of the last folio might be a pen trial I guess, since it's also rather messy.
I'm not sure if it's possible to interpret any other VM marginalia as pen trials, which means they could have been applied by anyone.
Pen trials are quite common. They do occasionally include personal notes and often the name of the writer, alphabets, embellished letters, sometimes hearts with perhaps the name of a beloved, sometimes little sketches. They are often at the beginnings or ends of manuscripts, occasionally top or bottom, not so often on the sides.
Most pen trials are just letters and squiggles, but some have interesting tidbits.
The main thing about marginalia is that they are written in the margins
Marginalia can be text or drawings.
The term 'gloss' is used for notes in manuscripts that are translations or clarifications of words. Quite often these are interlinear (written between the lines) rather than marginal.
Pen trials are more commonly on the last pages of manuscripts, and can also be either text or drawings.
Finally, a scribe occasionally put a personal remark after the end of a text, after he finished.
When browsing through on-line manuscripts, one very frequently runs into examples of all of these.
Occasionally, entire books are written in the margins, see for example here:
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There are plenty of interesting pen trials at the You are not allowed to view links.
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There are also some interesting blogs about this. You are not allowed to view links.
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Login to view.may be a good start.
There are plenty of colophones out there, a brief scribble saying who the scribe was. Often with a little note attached. One of the best ones was a note saying (more or less in Latin) written by so and so on such a date - thanks be to God this dam thing is finished, time for a drink.
I believe the colophon business was encouraged or discouraged by different monasteries or scribble traditions.