Domain XXI · BOOK ARTS

Book Arts

کتابت

The codex is a building · Binding, lacquer, margins

Rootsthe tradition

The gathering sewn on cords, lacquered papier-mâché boards with doublure, burnished sized paper, jadwal ruling, catchwords, the flap-and-fore-edge binding closed like a door.

The ideawhat it values

A manuscript is assembled the way a structure is: the frame ruled first, then the text block set inside it, then the margin, then the boards and the flap that closes over the fore-edge. Illumination arrives late and only where the plan has left room for it. Reading the picture without the page mistakes ornament for architecture.

Hashiya.
کتابت
BOOK ARTS · BINDING, LACQUER, MARGINS

Plateswhat the record looks like

Lacquer book binding painted with a prince meeting a sage
Lacquer book binding painted with a prince meeting a sageWalters Art Museum, Baltimore · Public domain (PD-Art / PD-old-100, CC-PD-Mark) ↗
Lacquer album cover with floral motifs and central oval pendant medallions
Lacquer album cover with floral motifs and central oval pendant medallionsWalters Art Museum, Baltimore · Public domain (PD-Art / PD-old-100, CC-PD-Mark) ↗
Illuminated manuscript folio, gold cartouches of text with ruled margins
Illuminated manuscript folio, gold cartouches of text with ruled marginsWalters Art Museum, Baltimore · Public domain (PD-Art / PD-old-100, CC-PD-Mark) ↗

The groundin the Atlas

The tree names 126 topics here, under Art & Crafts and Literature & Language. A branch carries more than one domain, so read it as the ground rather than the boundary.

Gathered whole: Deccani Urdu

Writtenwhere the archive stands

Nothing written here yet. The tree already names 126 topics on this ground, so the gap is one of writing rather than of scope — and saying so is more use than filling the page.

Next domainXXII. Water & EngineeringGravity does the work