Manuscripts - Some Research

Since many early typographic conventions were derrived from the manuscripts which proceeded them, I decided to do some research on manuscripts, and even managed to find one with escalated indents in this book.























This manuscript was produced between 1164 and 1177, and the text layout is mental! It's the result of having multiple texts; Psalms, commentary, citations, subsequent corrections, cross-references and translations all running together. Couldn't find out what exactly the content of the text in the esclated margins at the bottom right column is though, but my (vaguely educated) guess is that it's an addition to the body text commentary on the Psalms made after the initial completion of the manuscript.

I still haven't found a precise reason for the use of escalated indents, in this decadent context it's quite likely that they are just used for aesthetic purposes. Still...isn't it pretty!?