Lost Manuscript

Babel MS 1

Only one fragment, a near-complete folio, of this glossed Gospel according to John is presently known. Presumably it was originally a complete New Testament, if not a complete Bible. It would appear to have been dismantled early in the Henrician reforms towards Protestantism, probably in 1537. 

Textual information

Subject: 
Bible
Title of work: 
New Testament (Gospel of John)
Language: 
Latin

Palaeography

Type of script: 
Gothic
Script detail: 
Textura
Place of production: 
France (?Paris)

Material information

Material: 
Parchment
Layout: 
Long lines with glossing in an extra column, and interlinear
Decoration: 
Running header in red and blue. Likewise, glosses are separated by capitula marks alternating in red and blue.
Ruling: 
ruled in plummet for the gloss

Dimensions

Page: 

300mm (h) x 190+mm (w)

Number of lines: 
21
Number of columns: 
1 + gloss
Height of minims: 
4mm
Space between lines: 
10mm
Height of written space: 
247mm
Width of written space: 
?190mm
Upper margin: 
25mm
Lower margin: 
28mm
Inner margin: 
??mm
Width of text 1: 
125mm
Reservation 1: 
5mm
Width of text 2: 
60mm
Outer margin: 
??mm
Number of lines (gloss): 
54
Space between lines (gloss): 
2mm
Height of minims (gloss): 
1mm

History and further information

Information on dismantling: 

The volume in which the lone fragment survives as a pastedown provides a book printed in Augsburg in 1537 and presumably imported nearly immediately into England, as the rolls on the binding are known from examples, the last of which is from that same year.

Number of folios represented: 
1
Date last updated: 
Tuesday, July 7, 2015 - 11:56