T h e  V i r t u a l  A b b e y : A  M e d i e v a l  T o u r
Abbey Entrance | Herb Garden | Scriptorium | Wine Cellar

Anthropomorphic Initial	Hard Point	Pen
Antiphonal	Herbal	Pigment
Bestiary	Historiated Initial	Pounce
Boards	Hymnal	Pricking
Books of Hours	Illuminator	Psalter
Breviary	Initial	Purple Pages
Carolingian	Ink	Rubricator
Colophon	Insular	Ruling
Diaper	Knife	Saints' Lives
Divine Office	Lead Point	Scribe
Drollery	Marginalia	Script
Evangelistic Portraits	Miniature	Scriptorium
Exemplar	Mise-en-Page	Underdrawing
Foliate Initial	Oak Gall	Vellum
Gesso	Outline Drawing	Vernacular
Gilding	Palimpset	Zoomorphic
Gloss	Parchment

Diaper - Fr. diapré or ‘variegate,’ a geometric pattern used as a frame or background.

Divine Office - the strict call to prayer wherein psalms and scriptural readings were recited at different hours of the day. Although hymns and celebrations of saints' feast days were later thrown into the mix, the basic framework for the Divine Office continued unchanged for centuries, i.e., matins - 2:30 am; lauds - 5:30 am; prime - 6:30 am; terce - 9:00 am; sext - 12 noon; none - 3 pm; vespers - 4:30 pm; compline - 6:30.

Drollery - amusing, often grotesque characters hidden away either in letter forms or separately in the margins.

Evangelistic Portraits - Matthew, Mark, Luke and John had scripted the Gospels and therefore were close to the hearts of medieval monastic scribes. The saints' traditional symbols usually accompany their portraits - Matthew by a man, Mark by a lion, Luke by a bull and John by an eagle.

Exemplar - a masterwork from which another is created. Scriptoriums acquired their own editions of popular histories or liturgical works by simply copying them from another monastery's holdings.

Foliate Initial - a decorated Initial incorporating floral designs in the letter form or surroundings.

Gesso - water based paint made from chalk or plaster of paris, thickened with glue and applied as surface preparation or 'ground' for Gilding. Also see Pigment.

Gilding - the application of gold or silver in Miniatures or Initials, and more likely seen in the work of later Middle Ages' commercial manuscripts. While gold was laid flat in monastic manuscripts and left to a dull finish, Gesso in Paris shops was first liberally applied on areas before gilding, then built up and overlaid with gold in the form of gold leaf and burnished to a jewel-like sparkle. In common practice, gold leaf was usually applied first before any other decoration, to avoid damaging painted areas during the burnishing process.

Gloss - a word, or entire paragraphs that comment on the main text, commonly seen in period Bibles. At times the gloss may dwarf the actual passages being interpreted.

Hard Point - a stylus made of metal or bone used for Ruling, leaving lightly scored lines on the parchment that guided the scribe's hand in laying text down in straight lines across the page. Sometimes used to inscribe the outlines of a drawing. Also see Lead Point.

Herbal - an often heavily illustrated reference book of plants with their medicinal properties, based on ancient Greek and Roman botanical texts.

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