In a written or published work, aninitial[a] is a letter at the beginning of a word, achapter, or aparagraph that is larger than the rest of the text. The word is ultimately derived from theLatininitiālis, which meansof the beginning. An initial is often several lines in height, and, in older books or manuscripts, may take the form of aninhabited orhistoriated initial. There are certain important initials, such as the Beatus initial, or B, ofBeatus vir... at the opening of Psalm 1 at the start of avulgate Latin. These specific initials in anilluminated manuscript were also calledinitia (singular:initium).
Theclassical tradition was slow to use capital letters for initials at all; in surviving Roman texts it often is difficult even to separate the words as spacing was not used either. Inlate antiquity (c. 4th–6th century) both came into common use in Italy, the initials usually were set in the left margin (as in the second example below), as though to cut them off from the rest of the text, and about twice as tall as the other letters. The radical innovation ofinsular manuscripts was to make initials much larger, not indented, and for the letters immediately following the initial also to be larger, but diminishing in size (called the "diminuendo" effect, after themusical term). Subsequently, they became larger still, coloured, and penetrated further and further into the rest of the text, until the whole page might be taken over. The decoration of insular initials, especially large ones, was generally abstract and geometrical, or featured animals in patterns. Historiated initials were anInsular invention, but did not come into their own until the later developments ofOttonian art,Anglo-Saxon art, and theRomanesque style in particular. After this period, inGothic art large paintings of scenes tended to go in rectangular framed spaces, and the initial, although often still historiated, tended to become smaller again.
In the very early history ofprinting, thetypesetters would leave blank the necessary space, so that the initials could be added later by a scribe orminiature painter. Later initials were printed using separate blocks inwoodcut ormetalcut techniques.
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Since 2003, the W3C is working for initial letter modules forCSS Inline Layout Module Level 3, which standardized the output of initial letters for web pages.[1][2]
The initials aremorphologically classified:therubricated letter (red); theepigraphic letter, imitating ancientRoman majuscules; thefigurated initial (usually in miniatures); thehistoriated initial, that gives spatial support to scenes of a narrative character; etc.
The initial may sit on the samebaseline as the first line of text, at the same margin, as it does here. This is the easiest to typeset on a computer, including inHTML. An example follows (usingLorem ipsum nonsense text):
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
Alternatively, the initial may be in the left margin, with the text indented, as shown here. In word processors and HTML, this may be implemented using a table with two cells, one for the initial and one for the rest of the text. The difference between this and a true drop cap may be seen when the text extends below the initial. For example:
L orem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
With adrop cap, the initial sits within the margins and runs several lines deep into the paragraph, indenting some normal-sized text in these lines. This keeps the left and top margins of the paragraph flush.
In modern computer browsers, this may be achieved with a combination of HTML andCSS by using thefloat: left; setting. An alternate CSS-only method can instead use the:first-letter pseudo-element. An example of this format is the following paragraph:
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
In some older manuscripts, the first letter of normal sized text after a drop cap also would be capitalized, as may be seen in the Mainz Psalter above, and in the original 1609 printing ofShakespeare's sonnets. This evoked the handwritten "diminuendo" style of gradually reducing the text size over the course of the first line. This style now is rare, except in newspapers.[citation needed]
There is no accepted solution for how to handle initials if there is an openingquotation mark before the first letter.The Chicago Manual of Style offers two options: leave out the opening quotation mark entirely; or have it be the same size as the initial, as shown below.[3]
“Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet.” Consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.
Aninhabited initial is an initial, an enlargedletter at the beginning of a paragraph or other section of text that contains an illustration of human or animal figures within the letter. It is similar to a historiated initial (see below); however, the figures in historiated initials show an identifiable scene or story, while the figures in inhabited initials do not show a narrative.[5] Figures in inhabited initials may be related to the contents of the text, but do not have to be. They may be purely decorative instead.[6]
Ahistoriated initial is an initial, an enlargedletter at the beginning of a paragraph or other section of text, that contains a picture. Strictly speaking, a historiated initial depicts an identifiable figure or a specific scene, while an inhabited initial (see above) contains figures (human or animal) that are decorative only, without forming a subject. Both sorts became very common and elaborate in luxuryilluminated manuscripts. These illustrated initials were first seen in theInsular art of the early 8th century. The earliest known example is in theSaint Petersburg Bede, an Insular manuscript of 731–46, and theVespasian Psalter has another.[7]
The size and decoration of the initial further gives clues to both its importance and location. Letters that began a new section of a text or a particularly noteworthy section might receive more flourishes and space. They would also provide a visual point of reference, "marking the division of the text into books, chapters, paragraphs and sometimes even verses" since, due to the cost of parchment, the modern convention that a new section will begin on a new page had not emerged.[8] In luxury manuscripts an entire page might be devoted to a historiated initial.[9]
Both the size and the ostentatiousness of a manuscript reflect both on the status of the manuscript and on its owner. Manuscripts meant for everyday use, typically by friars or university students, often had little illumination, and hardly any elaborate historiated initials or flourishes. Manuscripts commissioned by wealthy patrons or for a wealthy monastery were often illuminated, and in gold or silver rather than pen and ink.
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