This chapter deals with another marginal notation that reveals reading practices: the manicula (Latin for “little hand”). While these helping hands usually have a single purpose—they highlighted an important passage—their appearance varies considerably. This is because there was no standard format for the hand, beyond the point that it had to resemble one. Some were shaped like really tiny hands, for example, while others were quite extensive; some presented just a large finger, while others show hands with an entire arm attached. Since the reader was able to shape the hand and finger as he or she saw fit, we can sometimes recognize a particular reader in several places within a single manuscript, or even within several books of a library. Here we explore the variety encountered in these personal pointers.

Plain Hands

The term manicula is somewhat deceptive. Pointing hands are almost never just pointing hands. As mentioned, there are often arms attached, which may even be fitted in sleeves (see Figure 69 overleaf and Figure 24 at p. 41). Sometimes these sleeves are elaborate and realistic, with folds and all. It is an exciting thought that the medieval reader who added a tiny drawing in the margin may simply have looked down and replicated his own arm. And why not? It is not easy to draw a hand by heart, but a model was quite close by. If this is true, we may potentially be able to tell something about the reader's status or background, for example, whether he is a monk (wearing a habit) or a private individual. A related point of attention is that some hands look surprisingly natural. The example in Figure 69 has the digits in just the right shape and angle. There is even a fingernail illustrated (if the reader used their own hand as a model, he or she really took care of their nails).

Looking at surviving maniculae in medieval books sparks yet another correction: tiny hands are often not really tiny. The one seen in Figure 69 takes up almost the full width of the marginal space. As you would expect, pointing fingers are attached to both left and right hands. Without having done any conclusive research on this, it appears right hands are more common than left ones.