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Dimensions and trimming of the MS

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• Dimensions and trimming of the MS

• RE: Dimensions and trimming of the MS

  Jorge_Stolfi > 20-04-2026, 04:50 AM

  (19-04-2026, 08:52 PM)LisaFaginDavis Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.There's no such thing as a "standard" size for parchment - every manuscript is different, based on the size of the animal and the desired size of the book.

  
  But someone who decided to write a book on vellum would not place an order to a vellum maker "I need 50 sheets of vellum, 27 by 33 cm".  Even because it would take months for the maker to fill that order.  The guy would buy ready-made vellum sheets from traders.
  
  Once the drying and scraping was done, the result of velparchlumment making was a large irregular piece with all sorts of defects along the edge, such as the knobs where the stretching cords were tied.   The maker would then cut off the edge, freeing a smaller but still irregular piece of material.
  
  But trading parchment in that form would be very inconvenient for everybody.  Try to imagine it.  So, that irregular sheet surely would be cut into rectangles, either the maker or by the trader.
  
  I think You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view. is strong evidence that the aspect (ratio of height to width) of those rectangles was pretty much standardized at the magic ratio of sqrt(2) = 1.414...  
  
  But just the aspect would not be enough.  If the sizes varied in a continuum, that would still be very inconvenient for users and traders. Again, try to imagine that guy asking the trader for 50 sheets of 27 by 33 cm, and being presented with a pile of 100 sheets of all sizes, "here, see if there is what you need". 
  
  Thus I would be very surprised if there was indeed no standard for the sizes as well as for the aspect. Standards develop naturally for all sorts of products, because of that very practical necessity.  Trees come in all shapes and sizes, but they must be cut to a few standard lumber sizes for trade.   
  
  Standards might have been absent for products like leather and cloth, that were supposed to be cut by the user into many irregular pieces; but that was not the case for vellum and parchment.  
  
  So I bet that parchment for trade was indeed cut into sheets with that aspect and a series of standard sizes, say ~500 by ~708 mm and smaller sizes related to that by successive halvings -- 354 by 500, 250 by 354, 177 by 250, etc.  Then our guy would not decide to create a book with some random shape like 27 by 33 cm; he would decide whether to create a book in folio, in quarto, in octavo, etc.
  
  And I bet that the standards for paper sizes were not invented from nothing, but were the same standards that were in use for vellum and parchment.
  
  Maybe the standard sizes varied from country to country, like other standards did.  Maybe there were two different series of standard sizes, one for parchment and one for vellum, reflecting the different sizes of the hides.
  
  All the best, --stolfi

• RE: Dimensions and trimming of the MS

  LisaFaginDavis > 20-04-2026, 10:00 PM

  Jorge, if you really want big data about manuscript sizing, you can download hundreds of thousands of records with height/width data from the Schoenberg Database of Manuscripts. Others have done that. What you find when you plot the aspect ratios is that yes, the ratio in the later Middle Ages is generally near a golden ratio, but sizes vary considerably, especially within monastic communities. For the professional book trade, you may be right that there were roughly standardized sizes, but it's very rough indeed. Papermaking was governed by strict size standards, but not necessarily parchment. Also, manuscripts TEND to get smaller as the era moves on, for lots of reasons including the introduction of private devotional practice, necessitating small prayerbooks and Bibles for personal use. 
  
  You'll enjoy all of this data! You may have to set up an account to download the CSV.
  You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

• RE: Dimensions and trimming of the MS

  oshfdk > 20-04-2026, 10:14 PM

  (20-04-2026, 10:00 PM)LisaFaginDavis Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.What you find when you plot the aspect ratios is that yes, the ratio in the later Middle Ages is generally near a golden ratio, but sizes vary considerably, especially within monastic communities.

  
  Interestingly, none of the plotted manuscripts have the golden ratio aspect (it's 1:1.618, as far as I know, I added it as the orange line), they are definitely clustered around the more practical 1 to the square root of 2 (that keeps the aspect if you fold the sheet in half), the original green line.
  
     

• RE: Dimensions and trimming of the MS

  Jorge_Stolfi > 22-04-2026, 03:53 PM

  (20-04-2026, 10:00 PM)LisaFaginDavis Wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.Jorge, if you really want big data about manuscript sizing, you can download hundreds of thousands of records with height/width data from the Schoenberg Database of Manuscripts. 
  You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.

  
  Thanks!  That site is not responding at the moment, but will check later.
  
  All the best, --stolfi
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