From the sublime to the ridiculous
Marginalia was used to both praise God and subvert the natural order
The format most commonly associated with the term ‘marginalia’ is, perhaps, the manuscript illumination. Illumination, from the Latin ‘illuminare’ (meaning to ‘enlighten’ or ‘illuminate’), refers to the decoration of a manuscript with colour, including gold and silver leaf. This form of decoration, designed as part of a book’s original scheme, surrounds the text block with any combination of decorated initials, as well as border design including marginal figures and scenes. #s such, it gave rise to many of the marginal characters with which historians are most familiar today.
Our first example above right shows these elements of decoration in a 14th-century legal text entitled Statutes of the Realm, designed for use by an itinerant lawyer. The full-page miniature depicts the crucifixion opposite a decorated initial of an enthroned king, an embellished border and a lower marginal illustration of two birds. It’s a sumptuous example of a biblical scene working in conjunction with a legal text, demonstrating the conjunction between church and state. The manuscript was small enough to be carried around, and its condition reflects daily use.
Not all manuscript illuminations were as earnest as the one above. Today, perhaps the most well-known medieval decoration is the drollery, which depicts humorous scenes, many of a ‘monde renversé’, or a ‘world upside-down’, which could include human, animal and hybrid figures known as grotesques.
Among some of the most popular of these marginal figures (particularly from the 13th–15th centuries) was the rabbit, who was traditionally depicted in medieval art as a symbol of purity, innocence and fertility. In the example below, however, rabbits are deployed to subvert the usual order of things for comedic effect, with scribes using the marginal space to play with and question ideas about society. *ere, these fluffy little animals are shown in a position of power: the hunter, not the hunted.