Decoration, Illumination and a Conjecture about Rubrication

In addition to the Calendar decoration described above, the main text of the manuscript contains the following:

2-line initials in red and blue with pen-flourishing in contrasting color.

Numerous 4- to 7-line illuminated initials in gold or with gold decoration on painted, white-patterned grounds, occasionally inhabited but usually with geometric or foliate infillings

Figurative Decoration: 5 groups of illuminated miniatures at the beginning of principal sections, on backgrounds of either burnished gold or white-patterned blue or red.

UCB 107 contains no obvious rubrication. Briefly, rubrication was the practice of adding organizational elements such as titles and chapter headings in colored ink to a manuscript. The ink was usually red and the term “rubrication” derives from the Latin for the color red, rubrica (Brown, 1994). Rubrication was also used to add emphasis to certain parts of a text. For example, in religious works, quotes that were supposed to come directly from Christ were done in red ink.

We’ve already made the case that UCB 107 belonged to a private collection. Given the collection type and the content of the manuscript, a vernacular prose romance about Lancelot, it seems likely that this manuscript was intended for pleasure rather than for serious study. Rubrication, which organizes and articulates the text, is in a sense a scholarly apparatus and would therefore not be essential in a work meant to be read for pleasure. In a manuscript like UCB 107, the decorations serve an analogous function to rubrication, providing visual elements that organize the text and add emphasis.


Indeed, the five groups of miniatures each preface the principal sections of the work, giving the reader a visual indication of the narrative’s structure. The miniatures are laid out in blocks much like a comic strip, which was a style of decoration characteristic of secular manuscripts of this time (Morrison, 2010). These miniatures gave a visual summary of the section of text, shaping the reader’s expectation of the narrative to come.

Not being able to read the text, it is difficult to comment extensively on the interaction between image and text. The initials certainly serve to enliven the text, but they also provide important visual breaks much like paragraph breaks that structure the text. It would be inaccurate to call the inhabited initials historiated. They do not contain identifiable characters or scenes from the narrative, but traditionally these images mark important moments in the text, which can be organizational moments like the beginning of a chapter or paragraph or section or narrative moments like key scenes (Brown, 1994). It would be interesting to analyze how the images reflect and amplify the emotions of characters and tensions in the narrative.



UCB 107 Manuscript images courtesy of the Digital Scriptorium