GLOSSARY
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Anthropomorphic initial: a decorated initial which incorporates all or part of the human body into the structure of a letter within a manuscript.
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Bifolium: sheet of paper folded in half to produce two folios (four pages), with both the front (recto) and back (verso) sides available as writing spaces.
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Binder: craftsman or worker partly or wholly responsible for sewing a codex together and supplying it with covers.
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Foliate Initial: an illuminated initial filled with decoration in leaf scroll.
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Gallnuts: being rich in tannin, they have been used for centuries, since the Middle Ages, in the production of iron gall ink.
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Gatherings: in medieval manuscripts a gathering was usually formed of four sheets of parchment folded in the middle (i.e. 8 leaves, 16 sides) bound together.
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Historiated initial: an illuminated Initial containing a figure (human or animal), a group of figures or a narrative scene that relates to the text.
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Illuminated manuscript: a manuscript in which the text is supplemented with such decoration as initials, borders (marginalia) and miniature illustrations.
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Initial: a letter at the beginning of a word, a chapter or a paragraph that is larger than the rest of the text. The initials in an illuminated manuscript were also called 'initiums'.
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Lamp black: black ink made by dissolving a common carbon substance.
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Lime: a white substance consisting essentially of calcium hydroxide that is used especially in building and agriculture.
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Limner: an illuminator of manuscripts or, more generally, a painter of ornamental decoration.
Limewater: a liquid containing calcium hydroxide that is used by scientists to test whether substances contain carbon dioxide.
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Miniature: a small illustration used to decorate an ancient or medieval illuminated manuscript.
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Parchment: dried skin of some animals that was used in the past as a writing surface, or a high-quality paper.
Pumice powder: abrasive powder made from pumice (a kind of igneous rock), used to roughen the surface of parchment.
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Quill: a pen made from a bird's feather, used in the past.
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Scribe: a person employed to make hand-made copies of documents before printing was invented.
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Straightedge: an object such as a ruler or a piece of wood, used for drawing or checking straight lines. The scribe used it to draw lines on the parchment.
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Zoomorphic initial: a decorated initial partly or wholly composed of real or imaginary animals.
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Sources
http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts
https://dictionary.cambridge.org