4/15/2023 0 Comments Initial cap in istudio publisherThe inhabited caps and border where printed along with the text.įigure 4: The printer left an initial space with guide letter. Figure 6 shows two inhabited caps (the illustrations do not represent a specific person or scene) set side-by-side, each starting a different translation of the New Testament. Printers designed and created modular initial caps almost from the beginning. Not all printed books required an artisan to finish the initial caps. After it was printed, artisans supplied rubricated (written in red), decorated, and illuminated initials-thus continuing the formal tradition of the manuscript book. Even without the final initial cap, the text is readable (if you read Latin).įigure 5 is a printed Bible from the same time and place (Venice, 1480). Note the initial space and guide letter provided for the illustrator. Figure 4 is an example of one such book no initial cap was ever added. Printers left space in and around the text-so owners could hire an artisan to illustrate initial caps and borders. (Image: used by permission of University of Glasgow, Special Collections)Įarly printed books were often designed to replicate manuscripts. Initial caps added after the book was printed. Peter example above, but the letters serve an important purpose for the reader.įigure 3: The last page of a table of contents from an early printed book. The quality of lettering is not as beautiful as the St. The initial caps were written in after the book was printed. Figure 3 shows a page from the table of contents of an incunabula (an early printed book). Routine today, alphabetizing was not originally used to organize information in books. Initial caps were also used for mundane purposes: like indicating the alphabetical order of ideas. Of course, not all initial caps were as sexy as the image of St. (Image: Adrian Pingstone) Initial Caps In Printed Books Note the subtle use of color to emphasize the start of a new sentence. (Image: Adrian Pingstone)įigure 2: Detail of Latin Bible, 1407. Thus, the letterer added strokes of red to the first letter of each sentence, giving visual separation to sounds represented on the page.įigure 1: Illuminated, Historiated Cap in a Latin Bible, 1407. Images related to the story served as memory aids for priests and monks who “read” the texts by flickering candle light.īut look closely (Figures 1 and 2) and you’ll see a far more subtle “initial cap.” The manuscript contains word spaces but does not contain a space between sentences. Historiated caps not only helped mark the start of a new idea in the text, they acted as place markers for significant places in the text. It is also illuminated it is decorated with gold in order to bring the light of God to the reader. Peter, and is thus historiated it relates to the text by showing a recognizable figure or scene. The initial cap ( P in the word Petrus) contains a picture of St. Figure 1 shows a manuscript (lettered by hand) bible from 1407. This in turn helped “readers” find their place in a text.Įven as late as the 15 th century, monks and scribes used initial caps to aid in visually “chunking” texts. Scribes used them to mark where a new section-a new idea-started in the text. Historically, initial caps were not just decorative elements. “Readers” lived in a primarily oral culture and verbalized the sounds to help them remember ideas and information already committed to memory. Written text represented sounds sounds held meaning. The written word was not “read” the way it is now. Early codex books (books with pages, as opposed to scrolls) did not have word spaces, sentence breaks, or paragraph breaks.
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