Manuscripts & Print
Notes:
It turns out that the text was not in fact a manuscript at all but rather a fifteenth-century printed book, doing everything it possibly could to pretend that it was a manuscript. The font imitated the normal scribal handwriting of the time, including all the abbreviations. In the second illustration, little letters begin paragraphs. They are there to remind the miniaturist who is supposed to be commissioned to illuminate the text what the letter is supposed to be, about which he might draw little animals and curlicues. The only overt clue that this is a printed book and not a manuscript is the indication at the bottom right of the signature (gathering) and sheet number, which protected the purchaser against missing pages.