Indeed, marginalia are the librarians’ secret gossip columns. The way a scribe crossed out a word or added a tiny squiggle can signal a whole subtext that modern readers miss. If you trace those little variations, you’ll uncover a narrative thread that runs parallel to the main text. But don’t be fooled into thinking every doodle is intentional—often they’re just the scribes’ habit, their frustrations, or even their way to test their own memory. So the key is to look for patterns, not just individual quirks, and then compare them across manuscripts. That’s where the hidden story hides.