A digital image may end just beside a line of writing. Before describing the manuscript as lacking a margin or an annotation, check whether you are looking at the whole leaf or a cropped detail.
Start with the library’s image sequence and catalogue description. A thumbnail, exhibition crop and full-resolution leaf image can show different areas of the same object. Save the identifier of the view you actually examined.
In a practice note, distinguish three boundaries: the edge of the visible image, the edge of the physical leaf when shown, and the edge of the written area. They may be close together, but they are not interchangeable.
If writing disappears at the frame, describe it as extending beyond the available view unless the physical edge is clearly visible. Do not infer a lost line, a cut leaf or a complete sentence from the crop alone.
Look for another authorised view before attempting an interpretation that depends on the missing area. If none is available, turn the uncertainty into a question for the holding institution rather than completing the margin in your imagination.
A careful image note might say that the outer edge was not visible in the consulted reproduction. That limitation is useful evidence about your reading process. It allows someone with a fuller image to extend the observation without first undoing an unsupported claim that the manuscript itself ended where the screenshot happened to stop.
Illustration selected from this site’s existing collection.