 Carpet pages are a characteristic feature of Insular manuscripts, although historiated initials (an Insular invention), canon tables and figurative miniatures, especially Evangelist portraits, are also common.The term was derived from its use for Insular script, first cited by the "OED" in 1908, and is also used for the group of Insular Celtic languages by linguists.Initially used mainly to describe the style of decoration of illuminated manuscripts, which are certainly the most numerous type of major surviving objects using the style, it is now used more widely across all the arts.