A catchword is the first word of a chapter or section printed at the bottom of the final page of the preceding chapter or section. Codicologists first observed catchwords in 9th-century French manuscripts, and it seems that the tradition rapidly spread throughout Europe.
As displayed on Trinity MS R.3.60, funny illustrations sometimes accompanied these catchwords. This could have been to show intentionality, that the catchword was not simply a mis-copy at the bottom of the page.
Location:Trinity College Library, Cambridge (Cambridge, United Kingdom)
Usage Rights: All images are copyright the Master and Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge unless otherwise stated.
Titus Groan, by Mervyn Peake / Trinity College’s Library
He had brooded long and was about to take a candle that stood ready on a table at his elbow and search for a book more in keeping with his mood than were the essay on his knee, when he felt the presence of another thought that had been empering his former cogitations, but which now stood boldly in his mind. It had begun to make itself felt as something that clouded and disturbed the clarity of his reflections when he had pondered on the purpose and significance of tradition and ancestry, and now with the thought detached from its erudite encumbrances he watched it advance across his brain and appear naked, as when he had first seen his son, Titus.
His depression did not lift; it only moved a little to one side.
