Ordinatio

Beginning especially in the twelfth century, developments in the presentation of texts in medieval manuscripts became increasingly bound up with understandings of textual forms, the structures inherent in texts. Scribes sought ways to express ideas of what was called a text’s ordinatio (or the forma tractatus) visually, in their approaches to copying and their organization of the page, and—especially insofar as scholastic literature increasingly favored ever greater subdivisions of texts—emphasis was placed on distinguishing and quickly locating these smaller textual pieces. After reviewing earlier scholarship on these intersecting issues of intellectual and material history, this essay extends this work in two ways: first, by exploring the overlapping contributions of scribes and authors to the visual presentation of their texts, and, second, by tracking “ordinational” impulses beyond single texts, to the organization of whole books, multiple volumes, and entire libraries.