Lost Manuscript

Babel MS 17

Two thin strips are presently known from this manuscript, from consecutive leaves. Each provides the width of the text, from which the height of the written space and number of lines has to be inferred. While these fragments present short blocks of text, the relatively small amount of text missing between the two pieces suggest that the mise-en-page involved a new line for each entry in Papias's vocabulary and thus there was substantial blank space on the page. The style of textura and the evidence of an illuminated initial suggest that this was a high-grade manuscript. 

Textual information

Subject: 
Grammatical
Author of work: 
Papias
Title of work: 
Elementarium doctrinae rudimentum
Language: 
Latin

Palaeography

Type of script: 
Gothic
Script detail: 
Textura praescissa
Place of production: 
England

Material information

Material: 
Parchment
Layout: 
Bicolumnar
Decoration: 
Iluminated initials - perhaps three lines in height, 26mm wide - for the start of each letter; sections within each letter have three-line lombards, blue with red penwork flourishing, 11mm wide.
Ruling: 
very faint plummet

Dimensions

Page: 

mm (h) x ?235+mm (w)

Number of lines: 
?37
Number of columns: 
2
Height of minims: 
3mm
Space between lines: 
6mm
Height of written space: 
?222mm
Width of written space: 
148mm
Inner margin: 
42mm
Width of text 1: 
67mm
Reservation 1: 
11mm
Width of text 2: 
70mm
Outer margin: 
48mm

History and further information

Information on dismantling: 

The manuscript appears to have been available for a Cambridge bookbinder to use these strips in the later 1560s or early 1570s.

Number of folios represented: 
2
Date last updated: 
Tuesday, July 7, 2015 - 11:56