Lost Manuscript

Babel MS 29

Though only one fragment has presently been identified from this codex, that strip cut across a bifolium is sufficient to give some sense of the lost manuscript. It was a moderately sized volume of the Decretum, with interlinear glossing added early and the supplemented by a fuller commentary in the margins.

Textual information

Subject:

Law

Canon Law

Author of work:

Gratian

Title of work:

Decretum

Language:

Latin

Palaeography

Type of script:

Gothic

Place of production:

England

Date of production:

s. xiii 1

Material information

Material:

Parchment

Layout:

Bicolumnar with gloss

Decoration:

In text, initials in red or blue with blue paraph marks and some red pen-flourishing. No colour used in gloss.

Ruling:

lightly in plummet, lines crossing the central reservation

Dimensions

Page:

mm (h) x mm (w)

Number of lines:

?49

Height of minims:

2mm

Space between lines:

4mm

Height of written space:

?196mm

Width of text 1:

58mm

Reservation 1:

14mm

Width of text 2:

?58mm

Space between lines (gloss):

4mm

Height of minims (gloss):

2mm

History and further information

Information on dismantling:

The binding of the volume in which the one known fragment survives probably dates from the 1510s or 1520s, with it either in situ or made for the person who was presumably its second owner, William Duffield. It is certainly apparent that Duffield, who bought the book in London in 1530, added his notes to the printed book after it had been cropped to its present size. The implication of this evidence is that the manuscript was dismantled ahead of the turbulence of the Reformation period.

Number of folios represented:

Date published:

Saturday, August 13, 2016 - 07:08

Date last updated:

Friday, September 23, 2016 - 07:42