Mainly from Keio University Library

This section of the Website is designed to show a variety of layout of medieval MSS and focus on various paratextual components of a manuscript page, such as border decoration, decorated initial, marginalia and the script itself. Some examples from early printed books are also included to show the continuity of the layout through comparison. It will be seen that the layout of the books is often closely linked to the content and function of the book. For example, a wide margin is indispensable for university textbooks in order to accommodate annotations and glosses. Bibles usually have a double column format with running titles and chapter numbers in red and blue; the layout has been adopted by the Gutenberg Bible, becoming a standard for early printed Bibles. The classification of the general index is intended to show this close link between function and layout of the book.

Close-up images of some of the items throw light on individual components of a page. Decorated initials and border decorations show how pictorial elements co-exist with text on the same plane, often blurring the boundary between image and text. One can have a glimpse of the variety of medieval handwriting in the script sample pages.

<Technical details, Copyright>

Images used in this site, uploaded here in considerably reduced size for Internet, have been scanned from analogue films (6x7) using Kodak PhotoCD system. Analogue photography is by photographer, Katsuhiro Nishimatsu. Assistance for digital conversion has been provided by Akemi Kobori.

All copyright for photographs is with HUMI Project, unless otherwise noted.

© 1999 Takami Matsuda / HUMI Project / Keio University Library

Takami Matsuda, Professor, Faculty of Letters, Keio University