Lost Manuscript

Babel MS 11

The two strips known of this manuscript come from one folio, one fragment providing a cutting nearly the whole width of the folio, the other picking up the text a couple of lines later and providing the bottom section of one column. The amount of text absent between the bottom of the verso of fragment ii and the top of the second column of fragment i recto reveals that this must have been an imposingly large volume, of which we have parts of only the bottom third of a folio. Its size also suggests that this is likely to have been a substantial collection of saints' lives. There is something fortuitous, though, about what little survives in these Colchester fragments, considering that the passages preserved from the Life of St Judas Cyriacus mention St Helena, the town's most famous daughter. 

Textual information

Subject: 
Hagiography
Title of work: 
Collection of saints' lives (including Vita S. Iudae Cyriaci)
Language: 
Latin

Palaeography

Type of script: 
Protogothic
Place of production: 
England

Material information

Material: 
Parchment
Layout: 
Bicolumnar

Dimensions

Page: 

?420+mm (h) x ?280mm (w)

Number of lines: 
?40
Number of columns: 
2
Height of minims: 
4mm
Space between lines: 
9mm
Height of written space: 
?360+mm
Lower margin: 
60mm
Width of text 1: 
?80mm
Reservation 1: 
20mm
Width of text 2: 
80mm

History and further information

Number of folios represented: 
1
Date last updated: 
Wednesday, July 8, 2015 - 13:53