{"id":4446,"date":"2015-05-08T06:06:26","date_gmt":"2015-05-08T06:06:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/?p=4446"},"modified":"2019-08-13T20:29:53","modified_gmt":"2019-08-13T20:29:53","slug":"style-manifesto","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/style-manifesto\/","title":{"rendered":"Style Manifesto"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Red<\/a>In its Style Manifesto<\/strong>, the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence defines the principles of its approach to publications. Foremost is the principle that form and content must be appropriate for function and audience.<\/p>\n

A New, Illustrated Version with Our Font Bembino<\/h3>\n
\"Page<\/a>

Opening Page in the New Version (May 2015)<\/p><\/div>\n

As the Research Group launches its new, updated official website in May 2015, it issues the new version of its Style Manifesto<\/strong>. \u00a0Circulated as a booklet, it is available here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

It now takes the form of a 4-page booklet, laid out in our own multilingual font Bembino<\/strong><\/a>.\u00a0 The Style Manifesto<\/strong> describes, demonstrates, and illustrates our continuing dedication to the principled, unified approach to our Publications<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

These principles pertain, of course, also to the reproduction of images, including photographs of manuscripts and other forms of material evidence. In the new booklet, the horizontal pair of half-page plates present 2 views of the same late-medieval manuscript page (subject of our blogpost on The Mass of Saint Gregory, Illustrated<\/a>), un-cropped and un-retouched. \u00a0These views represent photographs taken with the same lighting but different backgrounds, and with both a scale ruler and a color guide in view.<\/p>\n

Such practices can supply guides to convey the integrity of the object and to aid the viewer to assess the accuracy, or otherwise, of images as presented variably in print or on screen.\u00a0 They may encourage consideration of the specific circumstances and choices governing any given photograph, which might represent only some aspects of the original which other choices could supplement, just as different snapshots or portraits may reveal different aspects of the same sitter.\u00a0 This position fosters the integrated approach which the Research Group seeks to promote.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

[Published on 8 May 2015, with updates<\/em>]<\/p>\n

Bibliographical and Evolutionary Observations<\/h3>\n
\"Page<\/a>

Contents Page of ‘ShelfLife’ 1<\/p><\/div>\n

\"The<\/a>

(October 1999) page 1<\/p><\/div>\n

Over the years, the Research Group has issued its Style Manifesto<\/strong> with certain updates from time to time. Until now, this text has spanned 2 pages, laid out in Adobe Garamond<\/strong><\/a> \u2014 the font which we chose for our official font (before the creation of Bembino<\/a>), supplemented by several especially designed characters for Old English, Middle English, and some other cases.<\/p>\n

Already by 1990, our Style Manifesto<\/strong> had taken the shape and structure which it maintained until 2006.\u00a0 During those years, it circulated as a printout among our promotional materials.\u00a0 While the Research Group was based principally in the United Kingdom, its format was A4. \u00a0With the move of our principal base to the United States in 1994, its format became quarto.\u00a0 A specimen appears in pdf<\/strong> here in the revised version of October 1999<\/strong><\/a>, as the Research Group prepared to incorporate as a nonprofit educational organization.<\/p>\n

With the publication of Issue 1 (Winter 2006) of our Illustrated Bulletin ShelfLife<\/strong><\/a>, we published the Style Manifesto<\/strong> in an illustrated version, likewise laid out in 2 pages and set in Adobe Garamond<\/strong>, as before, but with double columns per page like the rest of the Bulletin.\u00a0 The accompanying half-page plate reproduces in color the un-cropped image of an opening between facing pages in the 10th-century Corpus Aldhelm<\/strong> (Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 326<\/a>, pages 6-7) from a photograph by Mildred Budny.<\/p>\n

Principles in Practice<\/h3>\n

Our publications and some co-publications employ the Style Manifesto<\/strong> in their layout and design.\u00a0 Cases include:<\/p>\n