Super Mario vs. Gothic Manuscript Borders by Carl Pyrdum
An excerpt from Carl’s essay on why Gothic border illustration logic follows the same physics as the Super Mario Bros. games:
If I widen my focus a bit on the image I started with, you can see that the border-platform that Mario, rabbit, and hound are standing upon dangles from a fancy initial capital that, like the grass clots from the Ormesby Psalter and the question blocks from the Mushroom Kingdom, does not itself feel the pull of gravity.