#rubrication

#WordyWednesday: Rubrication. The practice of highlighting special letters or words by using colored ink, usually red or blue, rather than black. Initials in particular tend to be rubricated. In manuscript production, this was a specialist area of scribing and it was done after the rest of the text was completed. Because of the challenges in printing books in multiple colors, early printers also hired rubricators but eventually replaced rubricated initials with woodcuts. For more rare book terms, check out our glossary: https://buff.ly/3ytcEPQ

The initials in this incunable (incunable=book printed before 1500) are all some flavor of amazing, but these three are some of my favorites 😂 In 1477, when this book was published, a book would often feature printed text but hand-finished decorative initials. The artist in charge of these initials certainly had a good time! From the Smithsonian Libraries copy of Vincent of Beauvais’s “Speculum naturale” 📖

A medieval Biblical commentary, the red underlines are an early development of a footnote.  Definitely not a ‘dark age’, this manuscript was produced within the context of the first universities. 

Think these bird manicules were inspired by flamingos? Toucans? It’s hard to tell! Our creative reader/annotator used more traditional manicules (hand-shaped indicators), birds, and even human faces to mark important sections of this 14th century manuscript. Interested in seeing more? This entire manuscript is digitized and online! Let us know if you’re #teamflamingo or #teamtoucan! (shout-out to our more logical followers suggesting herons and cranes) 

Writing a hand-cut quill is difficult, but writing in as small a hand as I could manage on parchment with a hand-cut quill is a master-level challenge. I’m hoping subsequent pages will go more smoothly.