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Marginalia & Palimpsests

stonedog3

stonedog3

Gone But Not Forgotten
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http://www.utoronto.ca/wjudaism/contemporary/articles/hannahs_dragon.htm


I'm trying to read this through (and finding the presentation very tough going).

Anyone any more sites on the bits that sneak into texts by the back door?

There's the Pangur Ban cat poem for example....

I'm also looking for ideas on how much of medieval manuscript illuminatioin is the choice of teh painter, and how much was prescribed. Or even proscribed.

Kath
 
I found this 1995 essay on marginalia written by an MA student - might be a good start?
 
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oooh! spot on. Thanks Sally......



Kath

PS I printed the one I mention off - there's a picture of a well-endowed dragon and speculation as to the state of its foreskin. Astonishing. Or maybe I just don't get out enough.....;)
 
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There's a book on the subject called Image on the Edge - The Margins of Medieval Art by Michael Camille (ISBN 0 948462 28 0). I bought it second-hand a while back and I'm not sure if it's still available.
 
You could try doing a bit of a search for a Dr. Gregory Roscoe. He used to (still does?) lecture at Keele University, and taught me everything I ever needed to know about marginalia. I did have a copy of the Michael Camille book, but I suspect my ex has it now. If memory serves, we shared one copy as we both did the same course and wanted to save money for beer and suchlike.
 
Anonymous said:
I found this 1995 essay on marginalia written by an MA student - might be a good start?
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The original link is long dead. The (copyrighted) article can be accessed via the Wayback Machine.

Medieval Manuscript Marginalia and Proverbs

This paper has two aims. The first is to attempt to trace the development of ideas about medieval marginal manuscript images. At the outset, I will note that the bulk of this takes the form of looking at the work of two authors, Lillian Randall and Michael Camille. These two authors, though their acceptance in their own periods differs greatly, have effected the greatest changes in the perception of the marginal. Few other scholars have published more than once on these images, both Randall and Camille have produced a number of provocative works. Of course, the work of other scholars is quite important to theirs, especially in the case of Camille, and will be considered.

The second purpose of this paper is to attempt to synthesize a disparate set of theories about marginal images into a useful hypothesis. I am not inclined to engage in an iconographic debate with these authors over individual images or manuscripts. However, I hope to extract the most useful aspects of several of them in order to try to explain not individual sources, but the relationship of the reader, text, and marginal image in what I will eventually characterize as a "proverbial relationship". Therefore, much of my historiography in the first section will concentrate on the aspects of Randall, Camille, and others that I find useful for my own ideas. ...
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SALVAGED FROM: https://web.archive.org/web/20040204102719/http://www.heyotwell.com/work/arthistory/marginalia.html
 
Kryptonite said:
Slightly off-topic maybe, but I once owned a George Adamski book that a previous owner had annotated with some very succinct notes in the margins, several of which simply said 'BOLLOCKS'.
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I must confess that if I know something to be wrong or biased (i.e. not to my own tastes) I sometimes pencil in a margin note; less bluntly though.
 
Pencilled notes are, I think, called "scoring" in the book-trade.

I treasure a volume in which a woman has written on the end-papers some autobiographical notes about how she "loathes these silent suppers" with her husband.

The book in question is an Everyman edition of de Quincey's essays, starting with On Murder Considered as one of the Fine Arts!

What a mealtime that conjures up! Did he eat those mushrooms? :cskull:
 
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JamesWhitehead said:
Pencilled notes are, I think, called "scoring" in the book-trade.

I treasure a volume in which a woman has written on the end-papers some autobiographical notes about how she "loathes these silent suppers" with her husband.

The book in question is an Everyman edition of de Quincey's essays, starting with On Murder Considered as one of the Fine Arts!

What a mealtime that conjures up! Did he eat those mushrooms? :cskull:
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I'm getting intrigued about past couples being silent during meals and the great British skill of resentment.

Christ if you hate someones cooking say so, if they are listening to a podcast tell them to turn it off. I know most of us are British are a bit awkward about this but jeeez - Say something!
 
Naughty_Felid said:
I'm getting intrigued about past couples being silent during meals and the great British skill of resentment.

Christ if you hate someones cooking say so, if they are listening to a podcast tell them to turn it off. I know most of us are British are a bit awkward about this but jeeez - Say something!
Click to expand...

As Doctor Who says, "Talking's brilliant".
 
Certain sections of Britiah society forbid talking at the table, especially for children. There are still family stories about a Welsh forbear of mine who'd keep a bible on the table as a reminder to practice self-control. Anyone speaking during a meal was slapped aside o'the head, some say with the good book itself.
 
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