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
247
Width of written space
?190
Upper margin

25

Lower margin

28

Inner margin

??

Width of text 1

125

Reservation 1

5

Width of text 2

60

Outer margin

??

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
Author: David Rundle_
Constituent Fragments
Colchester Harsnett H.b.30 pastedownColchester Harsnett H.b.30 pastedown
Colchester: University of Essex Library, Harsnett H.b.30 i