historiated

adjective

his·​to·​ri·​at·​ed

-rēˌātə̇d

: adorned with figures (as flowers, animals) having significance rather than purely decorative elements (as scrolls, diapers)

—used originally of the elaborately decorated initials of books and manuscripts and now chiefly of a symbolic representational manner of presenting supplementary information on a map or chart

Word History

Etymology

Medieval Latin historiatus (past participle of historiare to tell a story in pictures, from Late Latin, to relate, from Latin historia narrative, history) + English -ed

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