We’re exploring… Marginalia: the scribbled, underlined, and often mischievous world of reader commentary.
This session invites you to:
Examine how readers “talk back” to texts
Explore the history and forms of marginal notes
“What is the use of a book,” thought Alice, “without pictures or conversations?”
— Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865)
To that, we might add: What is the use of a reader, without questions or commentary?
Marginalia is where the quiet reader makes noise, where theology collides with doodles, and ink turns into rebellion.
What is marginalia?
Marginalia are handwritten notes, doodles, underlines, arrows, arguments, and whispers that readers leave behind in books. They show up in the margins, between the lines, across flyleaves, even in the gutter of the spine.
It’s part conversation, part rebellion, part confession.
Medieval Manuscripts: Glosses and side notes from monks, equal parts theology and “scribe snark.”
Renaissance Scholars: Marginalia became a sign of scholarly dialogue. (Think footnotes with personality.)
Romantic & Victorian Readers: Writers like Coleridge and Brontë left behind dense and poetic commentary.
Modern Books: Marginalia is still alive, in love letters, furious corrections, weird doodles, and spiritual epiphanies found in thrift-store paperbacks.
Key Terms
Gloss: Short margin explanations
Footnote: Formal notes at page bottoms
Scholia: Academic commentary
Interlinear Notes: Tiny text between lines, often translations, or snark
Gutter: The inner margin of a book, where the two pages meet near the binding. It’s the space between the visible text and the spine, often difficult to see or annotate without cracking the book open. In marginalia, notes found here are considered especially hidden or intimate, sometimes called gutter scribbles.
Flyleaf: A blank page at the very front or back of a book, not part of the main text or pagination.
Grafton, A. (1999). The Footnote: A Curious History. Harvard University Press.
“Create Marginalia in Every Book You Read.” The Writing Cooperative.
Marginalia offers an unexpected window into thought and emotion. It’s the fingerprint of the reader’s mind.
In research and history, these notes show how texts were interpreted and misinterpreted across time.
In the library world, marginalia asks us to reconsider our views on preservation, ownership, and interaction.
In the library world, it also raises questions:
Should books be kept pristine?
Or is there something sacred about the scribble?
Have you ever found something weird written in a library book?
If your future self wrote a note in the margin of your life today, what would it say?
While scrolling through digitized manuscripts, a reader stumbles on a complaint scribbled in Latin:
"Oh, my hand!"
A medieval scribe’s cry of frustration, buried beside a sacred text.
Then, a rabbit appears in armor. With a sword. Slaying a man.
Yes, you read that correctly!
🐰 Welcome to the marginalia of medieval Europe, where animals attack, saints get side-eye, and tired monks leave their mark.
“We’re all mad here,” said the Cheshire Cat. Marginalia proves it’s been that way for centuries.
