Introduction
Throughout the vast majority of cultures in the world societies have taught to read the history of time periods through the content of a book and other various forms of text. Reading history came from the many different ways of text/content which ranged from articles, books, newspaper, and even social media. This, however, is no longer the case since there have been more and more ways to read/record history not only through content, but literal physical forms as well. Marginalia, being one of those forms, exemplify the idea of how a society can view the margins of a book and read the time periods associated with it. Marginalia is a time traveler that lurks underneath our noses every time someone decides to open a book and read the scribbles on the margins. Looking at margins from the famous 1554 Renaissance rhetoric Latin book Rhetoricorvm ad C. Herennivm libri IIII / incerto avctore. Ciceronis … / corrigente Pavlo Manvtio, Aldi filio or also known in English as the, Four Books of Rhetoricians to C. Herennius / by an uncertain author. Cicero’s … / corrected by Paolo Manuzio, son of Aldus can show us the various different histories associated with the book. Understanding margins grants the people access into a hidden inventory of history in how a reader would respond to the book, how academic institutions would react towards marginalia and how important the book was to societies at the time. Looking at it from not a personal perspective but rather analytical is crucial to the process because the assumptions made towards why the marginalia exist in the book cannot be accurately pinpointed/represented correctly.
How the Aldine Press Indirectly Influenced Marginalia
First and foremost, analyzing the format design behind the Latin book’s margins are critical to knowing why they helped shape the books history and how its content are viewed. Aldine Press was the publishing company for these gorgeous sixteenth century books during the Renaissance period and they were responsible for the wide margins in most of their published books. Although it is argued by many scholars of different time periods, most have agreed that Aldine’s innovative decision to include wide margins in their revolutionary Octavio books changed how people interacted with the content itself going forward into the future. “This change in format subsequently shifted reading from an activity that bound one to a lectern or desk, required to hold up the book, into a newly portable pastime that readers could practice anywhere… In Univ’s copy we can see evidence of how the book’s previous readers have engaged with the text, as they have added manuscript marginalia throughout the book”(Univ of Ox). So, not only were they reformatting the design of the book by creating it smaller to fit the hand, but it also allowed for people to engage with the book even more than before. People were now engaging with the book from the comfort of their home, outside of it, at social events and more which further adds on to the list of histories that marginalia can carry with the book. Add this with the wide margins of the text and there’s a whole recipe to have an entire conversation about rhetorics for a good hundred pages.
Marginalia as a Multifunctional Tool
This design in format allowed for marginalia to flourish in many different ways for readers to use. Not only could it be used as an archive for history, but also a way to communicate with various time periods. Annotations, markings, drawings, signs, summaries, text, highlighting, underlining all add multiple layers to what marginalia can be and what it can show. It can show the history of how society changes the way marginalia is used and how it evolved to the needs of a society or institution. It can also show how some societies were potentially silenced if what is shown are white pages. Marginalia not only does this but also allows for readers to act as time travels, interacting with other notes and texts of different people from various time periods. Writing something in today’s book will be considered history in the next twenty years if you look at the margins of that book. Marginalia in itself, is a type of archive and one that should be carefully treaded with because of how powerful it is.
Digital Marginalia’s Importance
While this project is related to the physical marginalia it would be foolish to not briefly touch upon the power of digital marginalia and how it has evolved as well as shaped its own history. Early in the semester of class, there was a discussion and website of digital footnotes and how they exist overtime so long as they were kept alive on a website or server. This is the key difference between physical and digital marginalia which is their preservations are astronomically different in comparison. While the uses of both marginalia are the same, digital marginalia is at a higher risk of being ephemeral since things run on required exterior resources such as online servers, electricity, machines and hardware. Physical marginalia in books have existed for centuries and there is proof by seeing the various different copies of literature that have existed hundreds and hundreds of years ago. While digital media/marginalia are more fragile it can be argued that it is beyond more accessible than physical literature marginalia. Websites will allow for all footnotes, comments, and questions to be shown as a clickable pop-up which is really neat and honestly, revolutionary. This type of feature allows for various different minds from around the world to chime in, create conversations, lead with great questions that make the reader wonder about the content more. Their date and time stamps are even shown on the footnote when viewing them on the website or reading which is not possible at all on a physical book unless you write in the time, and date.
The Renaissance Scholars and Societies View on Marginalia
Furthermore, the margins added by the Aldine Press and other publishers were never explicitly mentioned as a purposeful design, but the assumption can be made that they were inviting the reader to write back to it or rather reflect any knowledge during the sixteenth century. The Renaissance period for example, were actually very fond of marginalia in texts whether it be for storytelling books, academic books, articles, and even health documents. An example of this were Venetian’s death register system in which they would make iconographic images related to the person death in the margins which would then affect how the Venice Health Department would push their agenda of what was a risk and not. “Marginalia were an integral part of Venice’s civic death registers, facilitating the scrutiny of certain causes of death, as well as allowing the Venetian Republic to promote its public health agenda and to monitor demographic change”(Bamji 3). Society saw how the Venice death register was affected by marginalia which then affected how they consumed that information; it is clear that society and higher up officials didn’t denounce the extra commentary on all subject matters which affected how the content was read in general. Another institution that was open to marginalia were academic universities; they would often encourage students to interact with the content of the book so long as the commentary was effective and added more to the conversation rather than make it more confusing.
To continue, a very well-known professor/humanist and close friend of Aldo (creator of the Aldine Press) was Giovanni Battista “Egnazio” who would often add to the margins of many books whether it be corrections, annotations, or even extra information. “His close association with Aldo himself and his scholarly collaborators in editing texts, in correcting, annotating, explicating, indexing, and the like, gained for Egnazio the reputation for industry and learning which Erasmus generously acknowledged”(Ross 539). While Egnazio does not explicitly state that marginalia should be done in every book. He is indirectly sheding light on it by showing all his markings and Erasmus even promotes it which further adds on to the notion that many academic scholars in the sixteenth century welcomed marginalia with open arms. It was a practice that was commonly done in all books even in private books so long as the information was suitable and that it was not randomly made up to interfere with the content. Many scholars of this time period looked at marginalia as an art form and something that should be respected rather than oppressed.
Not only was Egnazio an indirect force for promoting this usage, but so was Italian humanist Niccolò Leonico Tomeo who felt the need to draw a verdant branch next to important passages as well as write short summary next to it. “Eleonora Gamba also attributes this specific drawing to Tomeo, describing it as ‘a wavy leafy twig (or a garland) to signal longer notable passages’ (‘un ramoscello frondoso e ondulato (o ghirlanda) per segnalare i passi notevoli più ampi’)” (Sherman). Tomeo is widely known throughout Venice for his illustrious verdant branch which people recognize who it was immediately upon seeing them. Tomeo has written and drawn marginalia in all his works so much so that even his private printed works of his have his iconic verdant branch on it. While society sees that many scholars, professors, and humanists talk about marginalia they were never against this idea as well as authoritative about it. They viewed it as an intellectual tool that can further enhance the development of conversation for whatever text they were reading.
Close Reading Analysis and Comparison of the Latin book’s Marginalia
Despite scholars using marginalia, this wasn’t always the case for every book created during the Renaissance period. The Latin rhetorical book Four Books of Rhetoricians to C. Herennius / by an uncertain author. Cicero’s … / corrected by Paolo Manuzio, son of Aldus from San Diego State gives the idea that the book may not have been fully tampered with and that it belonged to an authoritative institution or the owner simply did not use it at all. The only thing that is tampered with is the iconic logo of the Aldine Press, which is a dolphin wrapped around an anchor, but the anchor is colored in with a brownish color. When the margins are analyzed though, in this specific copy from San Diego State, it has shown that the margins of the book are practically white blank which can tell the reader an insurmountable number of things. One, the blank pages can signify its history of never being used before in any way shape or form regardless of ownership. If there was no usage of it, it can raise the questions of: Was there a voice of discouragement to not write in it? Did the owners simply ignore it and allowed for it to live a life on their shelves? Was the book never actually studied as much as it was intended for? These are only a few questions that come to mind when analyzing these pages since they look very inviting; it almost feels mesmerizing looking at the blank pages knowing the context of the book. To continue the list of what blank pages can potentially show, it could also show the dark blank history of the book in which things were left unsaid. This only comes to mind after reading about the Shadow Archives book in class and it prompts the idea that history can be left untold which is tragic and sad because someone’s thoughts and ideas were targeted. This would be no different than a draconic figure dictating people to not inscribe in their personal or publicly owned books which is basically showing the dangers of power associated with marginalia and its history.
In addition, when comparing this copy of SDSU’s to other institutions it can be shown that the other copies had actual interactions with various different people. One of the copies that comes from the University of Utah shows that the cover page had markings of some names. Some of them which are “Alexander” on the top of it and another saying “Benedicti de Benesiets” in the middle which allude to the fact that the book had multiple owners who didn’t mind writing their name in it. While the page doesn’t have any more information related to the Latin book, it’s intriguing to see how there is a different copy with names inscribed all over the cover of the page. It goes to show that no matter what time period these books are made, someone is willing to write something down, even something as small as their name.
Offering another perspective, it can be sees that a version of the book from 1579 have markings on it from cover to the first fifteen pages. There are multiple names and letters drawn on the cover of the book with underlines of certain text. Along the text that is underlined are small texts that are either notes, or summaries of the passage they just read. So, by comparing the two copies everyone can see that marginalia is still a prominent concept almost thirty years into the future when comparing the 1554 to the 1579 versions. There is no clear indication whether or not this was a copy used for school or private use. All that is known is that the markings on the book are done by someone or multiple people in which society at that time are still using the same techniques. Nothing else can be said about its markings and when they were done because that would be pointless and adds nothing to the conversation.
Contemporary Marginalia and How it is Viewed Now
Viewing marginalia in today’s time is actually a lot more different than before. Now, more than ever, are books from the early modern period being valued much more than ever before. No longer are people viewing marginalia as a way to devalue a book, but it has found a market meaning that marginalia have found a way to be commodified by current society five-hundred years later. “As part of this critical shift, scribal marks in books have been radically revalued; no longer viewed as defacing prized clean copies, to be politely ignored or washed away, marginalia now increase the value of early modern books at auction and have been subject of a growing body of secondary criticism”(Smith 1). Not only are marginalia being viewed much differently than before, but it has also found a way to make money from auctions. People are now glorifying other people’s notes which is odd considering how a lot of people want to purchase a brand-new book with no markings simply because it is there. Seeing as how the class of books would discuss issues about power, control, and capitalism and how those affects books in general. It begs to question as to how writers in today’s time are now going to write in their books. Will there be an increase in writing since some believe that they’ll be famous enough to sell it for a future generation? What constitutes the marginalia of its worth? It is the author’s notes or the way they wrote their notes.
Upon further investigation, marginalia are still present within current pedagogies of the world and the United States. Most people have come to the conclusion that marginalia add more to the conversation of the book rather than devaluing it. Educators are now giving their two cents as to how marginalia help students focus more and actually learn more about the concept, they are studying which is a huge bonus. “However, in
educational contexts where students are interacting in class with their peers and a teacher, there is a significant potential in developing more comprehensive theoretical and empirical approaches to grasp the role of Visual Marginalia in the teaching/learning process”(Dario, Lund, Tateo 3). Three educators from the same university spoke about the benefits of marginalia and how it actually helps students grow which is something different compared to the Renaissance period. People during the sixteenth century wouldn’t outright tell you to start using marginalia which is very interesting when there is a complete opposite in today’s time. It goes to show you how conventional techniques change over time from people’s opinions and how society values certain mechanics in their socio-cultural era.
Concluding Thoughts
In conclusion, marginalia is a fascinating tool that allows for readers to view the history of a book through its margins and see how that social time period viewed literature and other topics. The margins even though they are used mostly for good purpose, can come with some despicable things like the silence of certain people’s history. It is not necessarily needed to go read-up hundreds of documents to learn the history of something. Sometimes it just takes a deep dive into the white pages of a book that have been scribbled with. Marginalia is very powerful and honestly something that should not be trifled with so easily. It can show us the many different histories through its margins, and it can show us that the margins are an easy segway to manipulate information or to silence someone from sharing their take. Blank pages may refer to various things such as draconic behavior from institutions, to simply being ignored for the sake of being ignored or someone truly held the item as a collectible which is entirely possible. Overall, viewing the history of the Latin book’s margins showed that the Renaissance period did appreciate critical commentary over many different books and that it wasn’t something that was frowned upon from various humanists and scholars. Comparing that to today’s standards of marginalia, one could safely say that it is still being accepted with the slight difference of it becoming a commodified item. Marginalia will forever be one of the worlds most underappreciated tools/lens for history viewing and hopefully, one day, it receives the respect it so rightfully deserves.
Works Cited:
Bamji, Alexandra. “Marginalia and Mortality in Early Modern Venice.” Renaissance Studies, vol. 33, no. 5, 2019, pp. 808–831. White Rose Research Online Marginalia and mortality in early modern Venice
Dario, Nadia, Kristine Lund, and Luca Tateo. “Mapping Visual Marginalia in Educational Contexts: A Model for New Types of Self-Regulation of Learning.” Proceedings of the 16th International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS 2022), July 2022, Hiroshima, Japan, pp. 250–257. HAL Archives, https://hal.science/hal-03915350.
Jackson, H. J. “Marginalia as Intimate Contact.” Library: The Transactions of the Bibliographical Society, vol. 24, no. 3, Sept. 2023, pp. 318–333. Oxford Academic Leonico Tomeo’s Marginalia: Manuscript and Print in Sixteenth-Century Veneto | The Library | Oxford Academic
Sherman, William H. “What Did Renaissance Readers Write in Their Books?” The Margins of Texts, edited by H. J. Jackson, The Library, vol. 6, no. 2, 1984, pp. 141–178. Venetian Schools and Teachers Fourteenth to Early Sixteenth Century: A Survey and a Study of Giovanni Battista Egnazio on JSTOR
Smith, Rosalind. “Marginalia as Texts: Early Modern Marks in the Emmerson Collection at State Library Victoria.” Parergon, vol. 41, no. 2, 2024, pp. 133–159. Project MUSE Project MUSE – Marginalia as Texts: Early Modern Marks in the Emmerson Collection at State Library Victoria
University College Oxford. “The Aldine Press & Its Printing Innovations.” University College Oxford (Univ), 22 Nov. 2023