Paleographical terms A   B   D   H   M   S
Abbreviations	Used by scribes to save time and space while writing, abbreviations often take the form of contractions, with missing letters indicated by a mark or symbol; sometimes symbols replace entire words.
Autograph	A text handwritten by its author.
Book hands	Clear and regular scripts used in book production.
Documentary hands	Scripts used for business and legal documents, letters, and other more ephemeral works; generally written rapidly and with less concern for clarity and regularity.
Hand	The writing of an individual scribe, with individual characteristics.
Majuscule	Upper case or capital letters, all the same height.
Minuscule	Lower case letters; they vary in their use of ascenders or descenders.
Paleography	The study of historical forms of writing.
Script	The type of writing a scribe is trying to emulate.
Strokes	Single strokes of the pen; including the following:
⇒ Arm	A horizontal stroke that extends but does not cross the stem of letters such as E, F, and L.
⇒ Ascender	A stroke that ascends above the body of a minuscule letter.
⇒ Bar	A horizontal stroke that attaches two other strokes, in letters such as A and H.
⇒ Biting	A stroke that is shared by two adjoining contrary curves, such as a b followed by an o; common in Gothic and Humanistic scripts.
⇒ Body	The part of a minuscule letter form that does not include an ascender or descender.
⇒ Bow (or lobe)	A circle or partial circle attached to a stem, in letters such as p, b, q, and d.
⇒ Descender	A stroke that descends below the body of a minuscule letter.
⇒ Ligature	Two or more letters joined into a single glyph.
⇒ Lobe	See Bow
⇒ Minim	A simple vertical stroke with no ascender or descender.
⇒ Otiose stroke	A random stroke on the page, not intended as punctuation or an abbreviation indicator.
⇒ Serif	A small decorative line attached to the end of a stroke in some scripts.
⇒ Shading	Variation in the thickness of strokes of a script.
⇒ Slant	Variation of a stroke from complete vertical.
⇒ Stem	A minim with any ascender or descender that supports the rest of the letter.
Manuscript terms C   D   F   G   I   L   M   P   Q   S
Catchword	A word (or phrase) written on the last page of a quire that matches the first word of the next quire, to assist the binder in assembling the quires in the correct order.
Codex	A book made of folded sheets of paper or parchment stacked together, usually bound on one edge and enclosed within covers.
Colophon	An inscription made by the scribe, usually at the end of a book, recording information about the scribe and/or about how the book was produced.
Diplomatics	Critical analysis of the conventions, protocols, and formulaic wording of types of historical documents.
Foliation	Numbering of folios within a manuscript.
Folio	A leaf of a codex.
Gathering	See Quire
Gloss	Commentary on or explanation of the main text, often written between the lines or in the margins.
Illumination	Color illustrations or decorations in a manuscript, sometimes including gold or silver.
Line fillers	Lines, symbols, or decoration used to complete a line of text not filled by script, essentially creating fully justified margins.
Manuscript	Literally “written by hand.” Abbreviated as MS (singular) or MSS (plural).
Marginalia	Decoration or writing in the margins of a manuscript, either part of the original program or added by a later reader.
Miniature	A stand-alone illustration in a manuscript.
Mise-en-page	The layout of text, columns, rubrication, decoration, images, and so forth on a page.
Page	One side of a folio within a codex.
Pagination	Numbering of pages within a manuscript.
Paper	A writing support usually made during the early modern period from chopped and soaked cotton or linen rags pressed in a frame.
Parchment	A writing support made from processed, stretched, and dried animal skins, usually sheep, calf, or goat; originally “vellum” was reserved for calfskin, but the word is now used interchangeably with “parchment.”
Pen flourishes	Decorative fine lines made with a pen, emanating from initial or other letters, often in colored ink.
Quire	The sets of folded paper or parchment of which a codex is formed; also called a “gathering.”
Quire signature	Identifying letters or numbers written within a quire, to assist the binder in assembling the folios in the correct order.
Recto	The front side of a folio within a codex.
Roll	A book made of sheets of paper pasted or sewn together to form one long sheet, then rolled up for storage.
Rubric	A heading or initial capitals written in a different color from the main text, in order to help distinguish the various textual components.
Running title	A line of text written at the top edge of a folio to identify a work’s title or a subsection of it.
Scribe	The individual who physically wrote a given document or book.
Vellum	See Parchment
Verso	The back side of a folio within a codex.

 

For more terms related to paleography and codicology see:

• Vocabulaire Codicologique: Répertoire méthodique des termes français relatifs aux manuscrits avec leurs équivalents en anglais, italien, espagnol, Institut de Recherche et d’Histoire des Textes, Comité International de Paléographie Latine, 2002-3.
• Glossaries in the British Library Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts website, British Library, London, 2014.
• Glossary of Terms Used in Paleography, Fordham University, 2019.

Also see our Bibliography and References and out Dictionaries pages.