Text on a String

We see lots of manicules in our collections--those little fingers pointing to important bits of text.  Usually they are added in by readers, but sometimes they are printed with metal type. They are usually a simple drawing of a hand with the index finger extended. Sometimes there is a fashionable shirt cuff visible.  But the reader of this 1496 edition of Petrarch's Opera Latina (Basel: Johann Amerbach) had a distinctive style. His or her manicules don't point out the text, they tie it up with a string and hold on tight.

You can see it yourself by asking for Incunabula 95.