#manuscripttabs #manuscriptbookmarks

I’ve also started a twitter/x thread on bookmarks and tabs in manuscripts in all shapes and forms, bookmarks I chanced upon working on manuscripts, and many found around twitter/x. There are many examples, as this seems to be a wide practice and since some are vanishing off twitter, I grouped them here too.

You may wish to bookmark this.

First up: thread bookmarks. Textile bookmarks in Amsterdam, Allard Pierson Reading Room, UvA, MS III H 25, the second volume or second part of a 15th century Syriac New Testament manuscript that starts with Acts.

In this case, the bookmarks are anchored in textile patches glued (I think) on the page and mark the beginning of books. Here the beginning of a ps.-Clementine epistle, with a lovely final semkath (more photos here).

All wrapped up in very nice binding (and library too!):

More textile bookmarks in other mss (click through to see the source).

Bruges, Public Library, Ms. 762, 15th c.:

Also a nice thread on thread bookmarks in some Arabic manuscripts:

Nice example of threaded and textile bookmarks in Ethiopic manuscripts:

This one too – fluffy!

Also, usage dirt around thread bookmarks in early print!:

Perhaps more disconcerting are bookmarks made of other manuscripts. Here are some examples.

Cambridge, Corpus Christi College MS 89, a 13th century OT exegetical collection; click through for more images of fixed and mobile bookmarks in this manuscript. Here are two examples: