Editing Marginalia (section)

==Recent studies==
Marginalia can add to or detract from the value of an [[association copy]] of a book, depending on the author of the marginalia and on the book.

Catherine C. Marshall, doing research on the future of [[user interface]] design, has studied the phenomenon of user annotation of texts. She discovered that in several university departments, students would scour the piles of textbooks at used book dealers for consistently annotated copies. The students had a good appreciation for their predecessors' distillation of knowledge.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Seeing the picture - Crowdsourcing annotations for books (and eBooks) |url=http://blog.lib.uiowa.edu/hardinmd/2009/06/08/crowdsourcing-annotations-for-books-and-ebooks/ |access-date=3 July 2011 |website=Blog |publisher=University of Iowa Libraries |archive-date=16 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716155015/http://blog.lib.uiowa.edu/hardinmd/2009/06/08/crowdsourcing-annotations-for-books-and-ebooks/ |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Marshall |first=Cathy |title=From Personal to Shared Annotations |url=http://www.csdl.tamu.edu/~marshall/CCM-AJB.pdf |access-date=3 July 2011 |publisher=Texas A&M University |archive-date=18 June 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100618230519/http://www.csdl.tamu.edu/~marshall/CCM-AJB.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=24 March 1998 |title=Social Annotations in Digital Library Collections |url=http://www.dlib.org/dlib/november08/gazan/11gazan.html |access-date=3 July 2011 |publisher=D-Lib Magazine}}</ref> In recent years, the marginalia left behind by university students as they engage with library textbooks has also been a topic of interest to sociologists looking to understand the experience of being a university student.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Attenborough |first=F. |date=2011 |title='I don't f***ing care': marginalia and the (textual) negotiation of an academic identity by university students |journal=Discourse & Communication |volume=5 |issue=2 |pages=99–121 |doi=10.1177/1750481310395447 |s2cid=145516751}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Attenborough |first1=F. |last2=Stokoe |first2=E. |date=2012 |title=Student Life; Student Identity; Student Experience: Ethnomethodological Methods for Pedagogical Matters |journal=Psychology, Learning & Teaching |volume=11 |issue=1 |pages=6–21 |doi=10.2304/plat.2012.11.1.6 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

The former Moscow correspondent of ''The Financial Times'', John Lloyd, has stated that he was shown [[Stalin]]'s copy of [[Machiavelli]]'s ''[[The Prince]]'', with marginal comments.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Flintoff |first=John-Paul |title=[[A Modest Book About How To Make An Adequate Speech]] |publisher=Short Books |year=2021 |isbn=978-1-78072-456-0 |author-link=John-Paul Flintoff}}</ref>

American poet [[Billy Collins]] has explored the phenomenon of annotation within his poem titled "Marginalia".<ref>{{Cite web |date=5 December 2017 |title=Marginalia by Billy Collins |url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse?volume=167&issue=5&page=5 |website=Poetry Foundation}}</ref>

In the last thirty years or so, many efforts have been made to analyze and understand marginalia found within [[Illuminated manuscript]]s. However, multiple theories exist as to its function and meaning within context. One study on medieval and Renaissance manuscripts where snails are depicted on marginalia shows that these illustrations are a comic relief due to the similarity between the armor of knights and the shell of snails.<ref>Monge-Nájera, J. (2019). Pulmonate snails as marginalia in medieval and Renaissance manuscripts: a review of hypotheses. Darwin In Memoriam: History of Science. BLOG RPT. <nowiki>https://revistas.ucr.ac.cr/index.php/rbt/article/view/38872</nowiki></ref><ref>Pyrdum, C. (2009). What’s So Funny about Knights and Snails? Retrieved from <nowiki>https://bit.ly/2ZyqcV3</nowiki></ref><ref>Biggs, S. J. (2013). Knight v. snail. Medieval manuscripts blog. Retrieved from <nowiki>http://bit.ly/1anPrw0</nowiki></ref>Other studies of marginalia indicate it was used to provide additional commentary and support for surrounding text. Some types of marginalia may have also been a scribe’s form of artistic expression and skill while others were deliberate exaggerations to humor and entertain the reader. In addition, other marginalia may have existed as moral guides, providing bad examples of what behaviors should not be imitated. Lastly, some manuscript scholars believe medieval illuminators utilized marginalia due to fear of empty space left on pages or simply to supply a form of ornate meaningless distraction for the reader.<ref>{{Cite web |title=More Gorleston Psalter 'Virility': Profane Images in a Sacred Space |url=https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2012/10/more-gorleston-psalter-virility-profane-images-in-a-sacred-space.html |access-date=2025-02-23 |website=blogs.bl.uk |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Burgess |first=Anika |date=2017-05-09 |title=The Strange and Grotesque Doodles in the Margins of Medieval Books |url=https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/medieval-marginalia-books-doodles |access-date=2025-02-23 |website=Atlas Obscura |language=en}}</ref>Other examples of marginalia found within medieval manuscripts include drawings of centaurs, warrior women, battles between cats and mice, parables from biblical texts, personified foxes, rabbits, and monkeys, and hidden words and messages buried within border decorations.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ludicrous figures in the margin |url=https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2020/08/ludicrous-figures-in-the-margin.html |access-date=2025-02-23 |website=blogs.bl.uk |language=en}}</ref>