Church roof beauty!

[sister_raphael]

I've always wondered why many manuscripts have the backgrounds with little decorated squares, and yesterday devonchurchland posted this photo of a church roof on Instagram and it looks just like it!

The diapering design features little squares which are often decorated at the joining intersections but also sometimes inside the squares themselves, and I think I'm sensing a theme. This is often known as diapering, a word which was first used in the 14th century to mean a repeated pattern.

Here's the Miriam Webster definition of diapering, since most Americans associate the term with baby nappies: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/diaper

Here's a French manuscript image from 1360 - 1400. BNF. of Pompey Meeting His Wife, Cornelia showing a diapered background.



and another very cool one showing two different diapering backgrounds.