Marginalia

The notes, commentary, citations, and symbols, both printed and written, which appear in the blank space – the margins – surrounding the text in a book or manuscript are referred to collectively as marginalia. Printed marginalia, as an integral part of a book's design, generally served as a guide for the reader, dividing the text into sections, pointing out important details, providing the necessary citation for a quotation, explaining difficult words, or offering a comment on the text. Whether produced by an author, an editor, or a scholar, printed marginalia provided an interpretive or authoritative frame through which readers necessarily approached the text. Renaissance readers were in turn encouraged to mark up their books, actively engaging with the text, and the marginal notes or symbols they inserted indicate passages of particular interest to them. The presence of marginalia, of both kinds, reveals that reading was an interactive process in which writing was not simply consumed, but also produced. As crucial material evidence of the intellectual and practical responses of readers, marginalia have become central to Renaissance studies, showing how readers understood and used the texts they encountered.