Apex: The pointed tip of a letter, as in A.

Arch: The portion of a lowercase letter formed by a curved stroke spring from the stem, as in h and n.

Ascender: The upper stem of a lower case letter, as in b, d and k.

Ascender line: A writing line to which the upper stems of letters rise.

Baseline: The writing line on which the main body of the letter sits.

Bookhand: A generic term for scripts used in books before the advent of printing.

Bowl: The curved stroke attached to the letter stem that creates an enclosed space (counter), as in letters b, d, and g. Also known as the bow.

Capital height: The height of a majuscule (capital) letter.

Capital line: The writing line to which uppercase letters rise. The capital line is often slightly lower than the ascender line.

Catchword: words written at the bottom of the last page of a gathering which is the same as the first word of the text of the gathering which is to follow it in the collation of a codex.

Codex: A manuscript in book form (as opposed to a roll such as papyrus). (Pl.: codices) Codicology: The study of the physical setting of manuscripts, their history, physical properties, illuminations, audience, etc.

Collation: The organization of gatherings in proper order in a codex. A collation might be expressed like this: 1 12 + 2 10 + 3 12 (wanting 12) which means a codex of 3 gatherings, the first of which has 12 folia, the second having 10 folia, and the third originally having 12 folia of which the last folia is missing, thus having 33 folia, or 66 pages in all.

Colophon: The closing remarks of the scribe at the end of the text, such as "Thank God I finished this text in 300 days" or "The monk Gerasim wrote this in the year 1237." Not to be confused with the explicit, the ending of the text itself. Colophons are important codicological tools used to date and assign provenance to a manuscript.

Conjugate folia: Folia which have another folia attached to it in a gathering. Crossbar: A horizontal stroke essential to the letter, made either from left to right or right to left, such as on the letters E, F, and T.

Cursive: A rapid form of writing, using elements such as linking and loops. Deluxe: A term used to describe the highest grade of manuscript writing.

Descender: The lower stems of letters such as p, q, and f.

Descender line: The line on which a letter's descender should rest.

Display capitals: Decorated capitals used in the introductory word or words of a text, but not singly as versals.

Ductus: The order of pen strokes necessary to create a single letter. .

Explicit: The closing words of the text itself, not to be confused with the colophon. Very important as an identifier when the opening pages of a text (including the incipit) are lost.

Folio: A leaf of a manuscript, or the front and back sides of a single sheet of parchment in a manuscript. (Pl. folia)

Gathering: An assemblage of folia which have been folded once and stitched together to make a booklet or signature. Several gatherings are put together to make a codex or book.

1 2 3 4 5 folia number

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ folded manuscript folia stitched together through the fold

6 7 8 9 10 folia number

Gilding: The application of gold leaf to the writing surface.

Headline: The line to which the uppermost point of a letter -excluding its ascenders or descenders- rises. Also known as the waistline.

Historiated: The term used to describe initial letters that are decorated with the human figures described in the text.

Illumination: Originally, the term referred only to gilded decoration, but it is now used to describe any form of text decoration.

Incipit: The opening words of a text, not to be confused with the title or introductory remarks, but the actual beginning lines of the text. An important guide in determining the source of the text.

Incunabula: The first generation of printed books, which were printed in scripts resembling the current bookhands of the times. Generally without much thought to textual editing or correction. In western Europe, these were produced from about 1460-1500.

Interlace: A form of decoration in which lines weave in and out of each other. Interletter space: The space between characters.

Interlinear gloss: Words written in the interlinear space of the main text to provide a commentary on the text or a translation of its contents.

Ligature: The linking of two letters by one or more strokes. Loop: The enclosed space in an ascender or descender, such as in g.

Majuscule: A script written two lines only, with no portions of the letters extending below or above either line. Also called bilinear or capitals or uppercase. Example: LET THERE BE LIGHT.

Minim: A downstroke that is as tall as the body height of the script.

Minim height: The height of a miniscule letter, excluding the ascender and descender. Also known as the x height or body height.

Miniscule: A script written between four lines. Any noncapital letter. Miniscule scripts contain letters of uneven height because of the ascenders and descenders. Also called lowercase. Example: Every good monk says his prayers.

Nib width: The width of the stroke of a letter, determined by the fineness of the point or nib of the pen or quill.

Nomina Sacra: Holy or sacred words, especially the name of or references to God, which are usually abbreviated in standard forms.

Paleography: The study of scripts and letter formations. From the Greek paleo - old and graphos - writing.

Palimpsest: A manuscript with two scripts where one has been obliterated by scraping or washing the parchment and writing another text over it. The obliterated script is the underscript and the newer script is the overscript.

Parchment: A writing surface made from mammalian skin, usually sheepskin or goatskin.

Quill: A writing implement made from the tail or wing feather of a bird, such as a turkey or goose.

Reed pen: A writing tool made from the stalk of a hollow-stemmed marsh plant.

Roman: The Latin alphabet.

Rubricated: Originating from the Latin word ruber or red, this describes letters in a heading or within a passage of text that are offset by being colored red or cinnabar.

Serif: A short, decorative stroke used to finish off the stroke of a letter.

Stem: The main vertical stroke of a letter.

Stemma Codicum: A genealogical chart of manuscript family groupings which attempts to define the affiliations between manuscripts in textual criticism by grouping together or separating manuscripts based upon the errors transmitted in their texts. Separative errors are those which tend to divide manuscripts into distinct families from one another. Conjunctive errors are those errors which manuscripts share in common and which tend to group those manuscripts into families.

Stroke: Any straight or curved line that has been penned or painted.

Uncial: The name of a family of scripts. Originally an early Greek script with rudimentary ascenders from which a Late Roman script was derived. The name, meaning "inch high" was attributed to St. Jerome who thought such a large script wasted parchment.