The manuscripts on display here span the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries. Nevertheless, I have tried to include a range of material. In the space of just a blog post, it is difficult (if not impossible) to convey the sheer variety of decoration that can be found in western medieval manuscripts. My hope is that this blog post will not only be a feast for the eyes, but also a useful introduction for people unfamiliar with the field. This blog post will showcase a variety of examples, while also explaining the terminology used to describe the decoration. St John’s College Library is fortunate to have so many beautifully decorated medieval manuscripts in its collection. But others, like historiated initial and rubrication, can be opaque for the non-expert. Some terms, like border, are self-explanatory. Instead, I was working almost exclusively with Ralph Hanna’s Catalogue (bibliographic details below).įocusing so heavily on catalogue entries reminded me that the terminology for medieval manuscript decoration can be quite esoteric. Due to Coronavirus restrictions, I was initially unable to consult the medieval manuscripts at St John’s College in person. I recently joined the St John’s College (Oxford) library team to work on the TEI project, my main role being to incorporate existing catalogue records into the Medieval Manuscripts in Oxford Libraries online database. This post also appears on the St John’s College blog.
Sian is a Rare Books and Manuscripts specialist.
#Decorative manuscript writing series
Dr Sian Witherden outlines a series of decorative manuscript features.
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