What a mathematics book looks like, 17c. style (a page from the 1670 edition of Diophantus’ Arithmetica; bigger picture here):
So now you’re wondering why I’m bringing this up at all, other than my weakness for ye olde beec (that is, old books). Well, I’m merely drawing your attention to the process of canonization. Wikipedia has another image, of that famous margin which was too small to contain Fermat’s alleged proof of his ‘last theorem’:
A commentative gloss moves from the margin (because all the cool kids are into marginalia) into the very body of the text.
P.S. Long live wide margins.
4 responses so far ↓
Grace // Tuesday, 20 October 2009 at 13:12 |
I don’t like the word “marginalia.” And I don’t really know why.
*flutters away*
Lue-Yee Tsang // Tuesday, 20 October 2009 at 14:02 |
Girl, you flutter too much. Come back down here and gird up your loins like a man.
Grace // Monday, 9 November 2009 at 15:43 |
But I’m not a man, so it’d be blasphemous for me to gird up my loins like one. =P
Lue-Yee Tsang // Thursday, 12 November 2009 at 12:06 |
All the more reason for you to do so. And anyway, I fail to see how blasphemy’s related to this at all.