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The Secret History of the Manicule, the Little Hand that’s Everywhere – Editor’s Picks – Messy Nessy Chic

Familiar to anyone who pays attention to vintage aesthetics, I’m embarrassed to say it’s taken me 40 years to learn the name of the beloved typographic symbol that been guiding the way for centuries. Alas, that beloved inked symbol in the shape of a pointing hand (often used to draw attention to a section of text) is known as the manicule. Elegant name, n’est ce pas. Once you know the name, this little hand that has survived the march of time can take you down the rabbit hole from the age of quills to the era of cursors. So let’s follow the hand…

Picture a dimly lit old library somewhere in Europe once upon a time. A monk sits over his medieval manuscript and his eyes are drawn to the margin, where a tiny inked hand with an outstretched index finger is pointing insistently at a line of text. Medieval readers drew these manicules as personalized highlights, effectively the medieval equivalent of a highlighter pen​. The practice dates back at least to the Middle Ages: the Domesday Book of 1086 – a great survey of England – contains some of the earliest known manicules added in its margins. ​Over the 12th through 15th centuries, the symbol became ubiquitous. Scholars scrawled manicules to mark everything from enlightening passages to contentious lines that stirred disagreement or wonder​. In fact, one historian suggests that between the 12th and 18th centuries the manicule may have been the most common symbol produced by readers​.

Each reader’s hand-drawn manicule was a little signature of their engagement – some were rendered as simple doodles (two quick strokes forming an index finger), while others became playful mini-artworks, complete with elaborate cuffs and oddly long fingers​.

The Italian poet Petrarch famously drew quirky manicules with five fingers and no thumb – an anatomically impossible hand, perhaps sketched in a moment of absent-minded focus​. For these book owners, to point a finger in the margin was to shout “Look here!” in the silent language of pen and parchment.

The invention of the printing press in the 15th century might have spelled the end of this handwritten habit – but the manicule proved too useful to vanish. Early printers began casting the symbol in metal type, allowing pointing hands to be printed just like letters on a page​. […]

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