This section deals with exceptional creations of medieval written culture: its focus is not on regular manuscripts, the main object of inquiry so far, but on unusual manuscripts, as well as non-book objects produced with quill and ink. The first three chapters highlight manuscripts that break with the regular material format of such objects. Rules and norms were very important in medieval life, and that extended to manuscript production. Remarkably, scribes often executed various stages of book production in the same manner, even when they were not working in each other's vicinity. We have encountered examples of this in Chapter 1, where it was shown that scribes in the same period or region shaped their letterforms in more or less the same fashion. Another example is the uniform use of footnotes in Europe, discussed in Chapter 4. While the bulk of medieval manuscripts generally share certain key features, like quires and the proportions of the page, it so happens that some books were designed a bit differently. Chapters 19– 21 introduce three such objects.

As outlined in the General Introduction, the design of medieval manuscripts was usually connected to their intended post-production use. Chapters 19– 21 show that the same goes for bookish objects that were shaped in more unusual ways: here, too, future use was the driving force behind the design, even if it was slightly off mark. Chapter 19 is devoted to written artifacts that dramatically expanded in size. In addition to the roll, which became bigger as you unrolled it, two types of books are observed: “bat books,” which consist of a single sheet that was folded several times over; and accordion books, which are effectively rolls that are not rolled but folded. The two book types are very rare, yet they show the strong connection between form and function. The same goes for the unusual book type discussed in Chapter 20, books so remarkably narrow that they break noticeably with the medieval norms of height and width. Although standards for a manuscript's proportions were quite strict, for some manners of use it was necessary to break the rules. The third book type, discussed in Chapter 21, is the hornbook.