It is not just through expansion that a medieval manuscript can be tagged as uncommon or breaking with the norm. This chapter is devoted to a relatively rare kind of manuscript that is much slimmer than what you would expect (Figure 85). “Expect,” because the relative proportions of manuscripts—the width in relation to the height—form a surprisingly stable feature in medieval book production. In fact, the vast majority of surviving manuscripts have the same relative proportions as our modern pages: their width is around 70 per cent of their height, which is about the same as our standard-format books today.

This stability ought to surprise you. While readers of printed books have little choice as to the physical appearance of the object they read, owners of manuscripts handled a book that was usually made especially for them. Consequently, they would normally specify what it should look like, as explained in the General Introduction. You might think that medieval readers would go overboard and abuse this freedom of choice, ordering polka-dotted books with pink letters written upside down on triangle-shaped pages. The opposite turns out to be true. Book owners before print are predictable in that they mostly opted for regular features: their choices are typical, almost conforming to some unwritten rules. It is probable that scribes, who knew the rules, attempted to keep deviations from the norm at bay.

This striking act of conformation results from what is a driving force behind the chosen physical features: the anticipated use of the book. For example, if you anticipated that you would scribble an excessive number of notes in your book, you would specify to the scribe to extend the size of the margins. And if you knew that you would take a book with you when you left the house, it would make sense to have that copy produced in a suitably small and light format. This strong link between form and function is good news for us: we may infer that narrow books—sometimes called holster books—were put on their diet for good reason.

Ivory Decoration

One reason to slim books down had to do with their binding; or, more precisely, with its decoration. The most prestigious decorative element of a medieval binding was ivory plaques, slabs of elephant tusk into which elaborate scenes were cut.