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
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:
Width of written space:
Inner margin:
Width of text 1:
Reservation 1:
Width of text 2:
Outer margin:
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 published:
Tuesday, June 30, 2015 - 19:25
Date last updated:
Tuesday, July 7, 2015 - 11:56
