Ruling

Instructions for completing the initial page layout of student manuscript facsimiles.

Materials Needed:

• parchment/ paper (cut to size)

• straightedge and ruler/measuring tape

• awl (for pricking)

• pencil/graphite/lead point

• pen/ink

Overview

Our first creative exercise involves cutting our pages to your parchment/folio size, and then beginning to turn it into a usable form. This involves delineating text blocks and lines to be filled with content.

As you will have read about this week, medieval manuscripts organized their information along typical patterns, as shown in the following diagrams (taken from the Oxford Handbook of Latin Palaeography). Folios show the "rulings" (i.e. lines demarcating text spaces) made in drypoint, graphite, or ink (black or red). Your goal in this exercise is to observe and record, and then reproduce the ruling pattern for the manuscript folio you are studying. If studying a bifolium, try to see how the ruling works across a single side (i.e two pages).

For examples and explanations of the terminology around ruling, consider the page on fundamentals of page layout prepared by Erik Kwakkell (palaeographer extrodinaire at UBC)

Basic Page Layout

Taking Measurements

Every folio in our collection has a different ruling pattern, so the schematic above will not account for every example – especially those containing music. You are expected to measure as many as possible of the rulings identified in the figures above, such as the:

• writing frame

• top line

• bottom line

• intercolumnar lines (if your folio has two or more columns)

• marginal lines

• prickings

You will also need to observe and measure space used for:

• initials (usually extending slightly into the margin outside the writing frame)

• decoration, and

• musical staff

Also record whether lines are ruled in lead/graphite, ink or blind ruled (i.e. a hardpoint leaving an impression).

Often folios will be trimmed or resized after being bound/rebound. Prickings will regularly be cut off at the outer margin of folios (top, bottom and outer) for aesthetic reasons. There may be pricking that survives in the inner margin if each folio (as opposed to a bifolium) is ruled individually. Usually however (as the two examples below indicate) a single side of a bifolium (i.e. two pages) is ruled at once.

Sizing your page

1. Using the measurements of the folio you are studying, cut the paper provided into a suitable size for a bifolium. Most of the examples in our collection are orphan folios (i.e. only 1/2 a bifoloium needed for binding). If you have a single folio (i.e. two pages), double the size of your page (plus maybe a bit more if you want to remove the prickings after ruling). If you have a bifolium (i.e. four pages) use your original measurements.

Ruling the Page

2. Attach your paper to a work surface with removable tape so as to not damage the surface.

3. With an awl and ruler, make a series of holes corresponding to the pricking pattern on your folio or which can be reconstructed from the ruling you can observe/ have measured. Since we're using paper, the prickings might be less obvious than you might see in parchment (and than you might want).

4. Using a straightedge, rule one side of your sample bifolium using a drypoint, pencil or ink. Start with vertical lines to delineate columns, the upper and bottom line of the writing frame, space for initials/decoration, and then the horizontal line rulings.

The two following series of images show the progressive stages of manuscript production of liturgical manuscripts and can be a model for how to progress with your work.

Example 1. Bibliothèque nationale de France, fonds latin MS 778. Narbonne Troper (twelfth century CE)

In the pricking pattern below, every fifth prick sits to the side, indicating to the text scribe that it was the text line (step 1). The folios were ruled in dry point (step 2), then came text and black notes (step 3), and finally the dry lines were coloured red and yellow (step 4). The result of this increased space for music was a larger note; the size of text and music was now roughly the same.

Stage 1 - Pricking a bifolium.

Stage 2. Ruling the writing frame

Stage 3. Adding Text, then adding notes in black ink

Stage 4. Rule the musical staff in red/yellow over drypoint lines

Example 2. Corpus Christi College, MS 473. Winchester Troper (ca. 1000 CE).

In this earlier example, sixteen holes, roughly 7-8 mm apart in height were pricked in the margin (step 1) and the lines ruled (step 2). Text was written on each one (step 3), and then music fit above each line of text (step 4). In other words, no ruling line was skipped for music. Notes tended to be smaller than the text letters.

Stage 1. Pricking

Stage 2. Ruling

Stage 3. Writing text.

Stage 4. Fitting notes above text lines.

5. When you have completed ruling all portions of your folio you are done!