[Scriptoris] (no subject)

Celestria leDragon celestria.ledragon at gmail.com
Mon Jan 12 19:26:52 PST 2009


Greetings Lete Bithespring,

I've been looking at different styles and periods of manuscripts and wasn't
sure  why some had the red words. I couldn't figure out the pattern or
purpose to it.

Thanks!
Celestria

On Mon, Jan 12, 2009 at 9:16 PM, Elaine <eshc at earthlink.net> wrote:

> Celestria, greetings from Lete Bithespring.
>
> You didn't mention the era. If it was post-Gutenberg,the printers used red
> to liven up the page, unless they didn't want to make a second run, which
> required "registration" to keep things aligned, and in which case, someone
> hand-colored the red into blank areas left specifically for color to be
> added.
>
> There were even clients who brought a publication back to their printer
> because the red stripes between between the lines of text were not there,
> not being needed to help a scribe keep his handwritten lettering straight.
> Astute printers put the lines back in or just published them at the first
> outset until patrons could get used to the idea of not having the red lines
> on a page.
>
> If it was before Gutenberg, there was a hierarchy of lettered hands with
> text block changes and a difference in sizes to begin new thought lines,
> much like a chapter heading. Decorated/colored small uncials could also
> indicators of punctuation between sentences.
>
> Concerning blues on a manuscript or broadsheet, you could order 2, 4 or 8
> florin blue. Things were spelled out in excruciating detail when contracting
> for hand-scribed/published work.
>
> Is some of this what was being asked?
>
> HL Lete Bithespring
>
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