Once pricking was ready,
ruling was the last operation that was left
for the copyist before he could start writing.
The ruling is simply the system of
horizontal and vertical lines that limit the areas of the leaf that
are destined to receive writing at the same time that they
provide the copyist with a sort of guide to align to his writing.
Apparently, ruling was not practiced on papyrus where
the horizontal fibers of the material
already provided are clear enough guide for writing.
In this video, we shall see in relation to ruling,
the different types of lines,
the resulting patterns from those lines,
the techniques employed to draw the lines,
and the number of leaves that could be ruled in one single operation.
And last but not least,
we shall briefly dwell in the way copyists utilized their ruling.
But first thing first,
let's establish the terminology that defines the functions
of the different types of lines that can be found in a manuscript.
Here, the biggest problem is that codicologosts do not fully agree.
We will follow the International Vocabulary of Codicology that as you already know
is still quite incomplete in
its English part as is Jan Peter Gumbert’s Words for Codices,
which although very much expected for several years is still in a draft state.
So, frame is the set of four lines in the shape of
a rectangle that determine the writing justification.
These lines are the bounding lines that determine
the length of the writing at the left and the right,
the top line and the bottom line.
Sometimes, the frame lines are twofold or even threefold,
and they are referred to as outer frame.
The space delimited by the frame is called text area
and is populated by the text lines or lines for writing.
Text lines or lines for writing are the horizontal lines
within that text area intended to guide them in writing.
The sum of these lines is the text or line ruling.
From the text lines,
we normally exclude the lines that eventually
can offer some sort of support to marginalia.
It can happen that the top or bottom text lines and sometimes also
some of them towards the middle of the text area
overflow the frame and reach the edge of the page.
They received the denomination of through lines.
The lines for writing that are outside
the text area received the name of independent marginal ruling.
The number of disposition of these lines can be
very variable and the offer a very rich casuistic.
And finally, in the column is the section
between the bounding lines that separate two columns of writing.
The possible combinations of the different sorts of lines in
their concrete manifestations are called ruling patterns.
And they are good indicators for determining the provenance of manuscripts because
at least some of them are very peculiar of certain scriptoria or geographical areas.
Several procedures have been developed with the purpose of ordering,
classifying, and comparing the different ruling patterns.
The most accepted ones are the Leroy and Muzerelle's methods.
Both can get very complicated especially Muzerelle's,
which is also the most comprehensive,
and therefore, we are not going to deal with it here.
Because of that, but also because you can learn it directly
from Denis Muzerelle in the website that he personally maintains.
Another aspect very interesting,
as far as ruling is concerned,
is the set of instruments and techniques utilized for ruling.
From this point of view,
we can distinguish between three clearly defined periods.
Up to the twelfth century,
ruling was performed by means of a dry point that these are sharp,
but not too sharp,
point of a hard instrument used for tracing by pressure,
a blind line, that is,
a non-colored line that has the shape of a furrow in
the page it is performed and of course a ridge in the other page of same leaf.
Because with this technique,
it is possible to rule several leaves,
at the same time,
it is the most interesting technique from a codicological point of view,
since so many variants are possible.
From the 12th century on,
we find mostly colored ruling drawn on every page independently.
First, with a plummet and from the 13th century,
by means of a red crayon containing hematite
that renders an appearance similar to our graphite pencils.
Occasionally, we also observe a sort of a watery ink used for the ruling.
Finally, from the 15th century on,
we find open-field writing,
that is writing without ruling since apparently,
the late lines of the paper pattern sufficed to guide the writing lines.
Together with a simple manual procedures already
described from the final decades of the Middle Ages,
we find our mechanical instrument that could
spare the copyist the boring task of rolling,
all the necessary lines of the page individually,
and allowing him to make them all in one time.
This instrument was called in Latin,
tabula ad rigandum, and in Arabic, mastara.
And it is mentioned in several textual sources from the beginning of the 16th century.
The mastara was a wooden or even cardboard board on which a set of wires,
or cords was laid out and then placed under the leaf.
The copyist then pressed the leaf against the mastara with
his fist or fingers to make the marks of the cords show up.
It goes without saying that it only works used to rule paper sheets, not parchment.
Last, we will dwell for a while in
the ruling systems that are just the ways in which the ruling lines were produced.
If the two chosen was plummet, crayon or ink,
the copyist or his assistant have to rule every page independently.
But with a dry point,
he ruled both sides of the leaf at the same time,
and could even rule several leaves.
When this happened, one must distinguish between
primary or direct ruling impression
and secondary ruling impression of the underlying leaves.
And they are represented graphically by means of a small triangles where
the triangle representing the secondary ruling impression is missing one of its sides.
Because there are many possible combinations of primary and secondary imprints,
especially in Greek manuscripts,
that is many ruling systems,
there are also many resulting diagrams or
schemes and they have been studied unclassified by Leroy.
In the Latin world,
ruling systems are far more simple and in fact they are limited to
two main variants that were identified by our already old friend,
Sir Edward Kennard Rand,
in the beginning of the 20th century.
The old style was used up to the ninth century.
Ruling was practiced when the quire was already formed and following Gregory's rule.
Then, the copyist ruled directly a single folio
that could be the inner or the outer folio of the quire,
or one bifolio of each pair.
Because the secondary imprint could be really faint from the second or third imprint,
some refreshment might be necessary as we see very frequently
in manuscripts of insular and Spanish origin prior to the 12th century.
The new style started in the ninth century.
Here, ruling is performed in each bifolio independently,
either on the hair side,
or on the flesh side.
And therefore, the symmetry of ridges and furrows
is also observed together with Gregory's rule.
And last, we shall make some observations about the way copyists used their ruling.
When writing on a dry point ruled leaf,
the copyist tends to keep his writing a little bit
over the line probably avoiding the furrow or ridge.
Byzantine copyists however, let their writing rest
on the lines during the period of majuscule writing up to the ninth century.
Then, for a brief time,
they started writing on top of the line to adopt finally,
but not exclusively, a writing that,
so to say, hangs from the line instead of resting on it.
More disciplined, or more methodical,
Latin copyists always right on top of the lines.
And the only liberty they take is the use they make of
the first line for writing that they may or may not leave free.
This behavior was observed and studied by Neil Ripley Ker,
who also realized that manuscripts that are used in this line,
he calls them, above top-line,
have normally been written before the 12th century.
And those that leave the top-line free,
he calls them, below top-line are later.
And therefore, codicological descriptions must
include then use the copyist has made of this first line.
