Browse Exhibits (1 total)

Marginalia, the opaque and diverse practice of marking in books, is an interesting lens to consider the complex relationships between reader and text, reception and value, and use and re-use. The texts exhibited here all feature an uncommon form of marginalia: figure drawings. Some isolated, some part of scenes or full-body illustrations, the marginalia in these texts all illuminate the various ways that early modern readers depicted people. This exhibit endeavours to create some ‘profiles’ to feature some of this marginalia and draw out potential threads of how, why, or what exactly marginalia entails as well as broader visual trends. These texts offer a tantalizing look into a range of ways people throughout the centuries have used - not just read - texts now at the Centre for Reformation and Renaissance Studies.