Whether for print or for the internet, dividing structure and content—the layer approach used in modern web development—has influenced our modern notions of textual presentation. Conscious of it or not, popular conceptions of “content” treat the text as a Platonic ideal loating in the cloud, divorced from any mechanisms of production or display. Since the presentation and display layers are handled separately in most modern web and publishing tools, the underlying assumption is that content can fluidly it any container it is placed into, like water poured into beakers of differing shape, but similar volume. As scholars of medieval manuscript and early print culture can attest, however, this is ultimately a dangerous misconception
