DSGN211: Test 2

Polyglot Bible

Initiated and financed by Cardinal Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros (1436-1517) and published by Complutense University. It includes the first printed editions of the Greek New Testament, the complete Septuagint, and the Targum Onkelos.

Illuminator

Illustrator, was an artist responsible for the execution of ornament and image in visual support of the text.

Koran

The central religious text of Islam, which Muslims believe to be a revelation from God.

Byzantine Manuscript

A class of manuscript from the Eastern half of the Roman Empire. Manuscripts from this class bore a very specific type of text.

Colophon

A brief statement containing information about the publication of a book such as the place of publication, the publisher, and the date of publication. May also be emblematic or pictorial in nature. Were formerly printed at the ends of books.

Classical Manuscript

A class of manuscript also known as Greco-Roman. Depicts both Renaissance Greek and Italian language and art.

Romanesque Manuscript

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Book of Hours

A Christian devotional book popular in the Middle Ages. It is the most common type of surviving medieval illuminated manuscript. Like every manuscript, each is unique in one way or another, but most contain a similar collection of texts, prayers and psalms, often with appropriate decorations, for Christian devotion. Illumination or decoration is minimal in many examples, often restricted to decorated capital letters at the start of psalms and other prayers, but books made for wealthy patrons may be extremely lavish, with full-page miniatures.

Incunabula

A book, pamphlet, or broadside that was printed—not handwritten—before the year 1501 in Europe.

Italics

A cursive font based on a stylized form of calligraphic handwriting. Owing to the influence from calligraphy, such fonts normally slant slightly to the right. They are a way to emphasize key points in a printed text, or when quoting a speaker a way to show which words they stressed.

Insular Manuscript

A manuscript that has combined styles from Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, Mediterranean, Byzantine, Classical, and Irish influences.

Illuminated Manuscripts

A manuscript where the text is supplemented by the addition of decoration, such as decorated initials, borders (marginalia), and miniature illustrations.

Brass Matrix

A metal mold that type was cast onto from the punchcut.

Chi-Rho

A monogram of the first two (capital) letters of the Greek word for Christ. Although not technically a Christian cross, it invokes the crucifixion of Jesus, as well as symbolizing his status as the Christ.

Job Printing

A nineteenth-century term, is traditionally defined as printing that uses display type and no more than a sheet or two of paper.

Pressmark

A notation or figure in the margin of a printed sheet indicating the press on which it was printed.

Copisti

A production letterer, who spent his days bent over a writing table penning page after page in a trained lettering style.

Type Specimen Sheet

A publication in which a typeface is shown and presented, detailing what fonts the typeface consists of. These can be used by graphic designers and typographers to judge how a particular typeface behaves on the printed page, and to decide if they want to buy and use the typeface in question. It usually contains texts set in different point sizes, set under different conditions and in different languages.

Watermark

A recognizable image or pattern in paper that appears as various shades of lightness/darkness when viewed by transmitted light (or when viewed by reflected light, atop a dark background), caused by thickness or density variations in the paper. They have been used on postage stamps, currency, and other government documents to discourage counterfeiting. It can be very useful in the examination of paper because it can be used for dating, identifying sizes, mill trademarks and locations, and determining the quality of a sheet of paper.

Xylography

A relief printing artistic technique in printmaking in which an image is carved into the surface of a block of wood, with the printing parts remaining level with the surface while the non-printing parts are removed, typically with gouges.

Scriptorium

A room in medieval European monasteries devoted to writing, copying, and illuminating manuscripts by monastic scribes.

Ottonian Manuscript

A style in pre-romanesque German art, covering also some works from the Low Countries, northern Italy and eastern France. It was named by the art historian Hubert Janitschek after the Ottonian dynasty which ruled Germany and northern Italy between 919 and 1024 under the kings Henry I, Otto I, Otto II, Otto III and Henry II.

Grisaille

A term for painting executed entirely in monochrome or near-monochrome, usually in shades of grey. It is particularly used in large decorative schemes in imitation of sculpture.

Biblia Pauperum

A tradition of picture Bibles to visualize the typological correspondences between the Old and New Testaments. Unlike a simple "illustrated Bible", where the pictures are subordinated to the text, these Bibles placed the illustration in the centre, with only a brief text or sometimes no text at all. Words spoken by the figures in the miniatures could be written on scrolls coming out of their mouths. It was also called "Bible of the Poor", a comparison of Old and New Testament stories with images, "probably intended for the poor (or lesser) clergy rather than for the poor layman (or the unlearned)."

Civilite

A typeface invented in 1557 by the French engraver Robert Granjon. These characters imitate French cursive letters of the Renaissance.

Mandorla

A vesica piscis shaped aureola which surrounds the figures of Christ and the Virgin Mary in traditional Christian art. It is especially used to frame the figure of Christ in Majesty in early medieval and Romanesque art, as well as Byzantine art of the same periods. The term refers to the almond like shape.

Psalter

A volume containing the Book of Psalms, often with other devotional material bound in as well, such as a liturgical calendar and litany of the Saints. Until the later medieval emergence of the book of hours, they were the books most widely owned by wealthy lay persons and were commonly used for learning to read. Many were richly illuminated and they include some of the most spectacular surviving examples of medieval book art.

Scrittori

A well-educated scholar who understood Greek and Latin and functioned as both editor and art director, with overall responsibility for the design and production of the manuscripts. Ran the scriptorium.

Bianchi Giari

A white vine stem decorative border seen in Italian Humanist manuscripts.

Textura

Also known as Blackletter, was a script used throughout Western Europe from approximately 1150 to well into the 17th century. It continued to be used for the German language until the 20th century. Fraktur is a notable script of this type, and sometimes the entire group of Blackletter faces is incorrectly referred to as Fraktur.

Old Style Roman

Also known as humanist typefaces date back to 1465, shortly after Johannes Gutenberg's adoption of the movable type printing press. They are inspired by period handwriting, and have remained popular (especially after being revived in by printers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries) for setting body text. The style is characterized by a diagonal stress (the thinnest parts of letters are at an angle rather than at the top and bottom), subtle differences between thick and thin lines (low line contrast), and excellent readability. These typefaces are reminiscent of the humanist calligraphy from which their forms were derived. This type of font is normally has a left-inclining curve axis with weight stress at about 8 and 2 o'clock; serifs are almost always bracketed (they have curves which connect the serif to the stroke); head serifs are often angled.

Gospels

An account describing the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. The most widely known examples are of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

Ars Memorandi

An anonymous work with mnemonic images of events in the Four Gospels.

Historiated Initial

An enlarged letter at the beginning of a paragraph or other section of text, which contains a picture. It is usually of an identifiable figure or a specific scene.

Inhabited Initial

An enlarged letter that contains figures (human or animal) that are decorative only, without forming a subject.

Codex Aureus

An illuminated Gospel Book written between 778 and 820, roughly coinciding with the period of Charlemagne's rule over the Frankish Empire. Both the manuscript and the carved ivory panels from the cover are rare and important survivals from the art of this period.

Anthropomorphic

Attribution of human form or other characteristics to anything other than a human being. Examples include depicting deities with human form and ascribing human emotions or motives to forces of nature, such as hurricanes or earthquakes. It has ancient roots as a literary device in storytelling, and also in art.

Carolingian Manuscript

Comes from the Frankish Empire in the period of roughly 120 years from about 780 to 900 — during the reign of Charlemagne and his immediate heirs. The art was produced by and for the court circle and a group of important monasteries under Imperial patronage; survivals from outside this charmed circle show a considerable drop in quality of workmanship and sophistication of design. The art was produced in several centres in what are now France, Germany, Austria, northern Italy and the Low Countries, and received considerable influence, via continental mission centres, from the Insular art of the British Isles, as well as a number of Byzantine artists. It was an attempt in Northern Europe to revive and emulate classical Mediterranean art forms and styles, that resulted in a blending of classical and Northern elements in a sumptuous and dignified style, in particular introducing to the North confidence in representing the human figure, and setting the stage for the rise of Romanesque art and eventually Gothic art in the West.

Apocalypse

Depicting the end of the world, common in Gothic manuscripts. Containing scenes and text from the Apocalypse and the apocryphal life of St. John.

Crible

Having a background pattern composed of small white dots.

Hand Mould

Refers to a two-part device used for casting hand-made type. Inside of it is a matrix. In particular, it refers to a system for casting movable type, pioneered by Johannes Gutenberg, which was widely used in the early era of printing in Europe (15th-16th century). In this method, the type was made by punching a letter-shaped cavity in a matrix made of some soft metal (typically copper). Then this matrix would be held in the lower part, the upper part would close on it, and molten type metal would be poured into the cavity. Using this, the printer could quickly make any additional type he might need.

Block Book

Short books of up to 50 leaves, block printed in Europe in the second half of the 15th century as woodcuts with blocks carved to include both text and illustrations. The content of the books was nearly always religious, aimed at a popular audience, and a few titles were often reprinted in several editions using new woodcuts. Although many had believed that these preceded Gutenberg's invention of movable type in the first part of the 1450s, it now is accepted that most of the surviving copies were printed in the 1460s or later, and that the earliest surviving examples may date to about 1451.They seem to have functioned as a cheap popular alternative to the typeset book, which was still very expensive at this stage. Single-leaf woodcuts from the preceding decades often included passages of text with prayers, indulgences and other material. They are very rare, some editions surviving only in fragments, and many probably not surviving at all.

Punch (Punchcut)

The craft of cutting letters in steel from which matrices were made in copper for type founding in the letterpress era. Creating these and casting type was the first step of traditional typesetting. The cutting of these letters was a highly skilled craft requiring much patience and practice. Often the designer of the type would not be personally involved in the cutting.

Bible Moralisee

The most important example of the medieval picture bibles. They are heavily illustrated, and extremely expensive, illuminated manuscripts of the thirteenth century. Were designed for the personal use of the French royal family. As common in stained glass and other Gothic art of the time, the illustrations are framed within medallions.

Zoomorphic

The shaping of something in animal form or terms. Usually art that creates patterns using animal imagery or style.

Ars Moriendi

Two related Latin texts dating from about 1415 and 1450 which offer advice on the protocols and procedures of a good death, explaining how to "die well" according to Christian precepts of the late Middle Ages. It was written within the historical context of the effects of the macabre horrors of the Black Death 60 years earlier and consequent social upheavals of the 15th century. It was very popular, translated into most West European languages, and was the first in a western literary tradition of guides to death and dying.