Lost Manuscript

GF 09

Three fragments survive from this manuscript which is a witness to the interest in Ovid in France at the turn of the twelfth to the thirteenth century. The text has several errors but it is provided with the commentary provided of Guillaume d’Orléans.

The three surviving bifolia give the opening of the Heroides. They are consecutive, with the amount of missing text between the front verso of fragment 3 and its back recto (3:75-4:48, 127 lines) demonstrating that a single bifolium has been lost. As the top centre of the front recto of fragment 2 has 'iii', it is possible that there was another leaf sitting before the opening of the Heroides at fragment 1, but there are no other folio numbers to confirm this. 

Textual Information
Subject
Classics
Author of work
Ovidius
Title of work
Heroides, with commentary of Guillaume d’Orléans
Language
Latin
Palaeography
Type of script
Gothic
Script detail
Textura rotunda
Place of production
France
Date of production
s. xiii 1
Material Information
Material
Parchment
Layout
Long lines
Decoration

Simple red and blue initials, usually three-lines high, open each of the parts of the work.

Dimensions
Page

200mm (h) x 154mm (w)

Number of lines
35 (variable)
Height of written space
180
Upper margin

16

Lower margin

4

Width of text 1

70

History and further information
Information on dismantling

This was presumably made in a French centre of learning, and it is not clear how early in its life it arrived on the island of Guernsey. There is only one post-production medieval annotation, an early textual correction at top of left of the first recto of fragment 2, and this does not give much help in localising the manuscript. Given the reuse of consecutive leaves, the logical assumption is that the manuscript from which they came was dismantled on Guernsey at the point in the late sixteenth century when they were used as a wrapper for the Livre de Perchage that they still cover. 

Number of folios represented
6 (three bifolia)
Notes

The provision of the commentary is allowed to affect the layout of the text block with the result that the number of lines can vary significantly.

Bibliography

On the commentary provided here, see H.-V. Shooner, ‘Les Bursarii Ovidianorum de Guillaume d’Orléans’, Mediaeval Studies, xliii (1981), pp. 405–24.

Author: David Rundle
Last Revised by David Rundle
Constituent Fragments
St Peter Port: Greffe, Langlois A.2 Livre de Perchage (1576) for Fief des Coltons (2) front recto
St Peter Port: Greffe, Langlois A.2 Livre de Perchage (1576) for Fief des Coltons (2)
St Peter Port: Greffe, Langlois A.2 Livre de Perchage (1576) for Fief des Coltons (2) front verso
St Peter Port: Greffe, Langlois A.2 Livre de Perchage (1576) for Fief des Coltons (2)
St Peter Port: Greffe, Langlois A.2 Livre de Perchage (1576) for Fief des Coltons (2) back recto
St Peter Port: Greffe, Langlois A.2 Livre de Perchage (1576) for Fief des Coltons (2)
St Peter Port: Greffe, Langlois A.2 Livre de Perchage (1576) for Fief des Coltons (2) back verso
St Peter Port: Greffe, Langlois A.2 Livre de Perchage (1576) for Fief des Coltons (2)
St Peter Port: Greffe, Langlois A.2 Livre de Perchage (1576) for Fief des Coltons (3) front recto
St Peter Port: Greffe, Langlois A.2 Livre de Perchage (1576) for Fief des Coltons (3)
St Peter Port: Greffe, Langlois A.2 Livre de Perchage (1576) for Fief des Coltons (3) front verso
St Peter Port: Greffe, Langlois A.2 Livre de Perchage (1576) for Fief des Coltons (3)
St Peter Port: Greffe, Langlois A.2 Livre de Perchage (1576) for Fief des Coltons (3) back recto
St Peter Port: Greffe, Langlois A.2 Livre de Perchage (1576) for Fief des Coltons (3)
St Peter Port: Greffe, Langlois A.2 Livre de Perchage (1576) for Fief des Coltons (3) back verso
St Peter Port: Greffe, Langlois A.2 Livre de Perchage (1576) for Fief des Coltons (3)
St Peter Port: Greffe, Langlois A.2 Livre de Perchage (1576) for Fief des Coltons (1) front outside
St Peter Port: Greffe, Langlois A.2 Livre de Perchage (1576) for Fief des Coltons (1)
St Peter Port: Greffe, Langlois A.2 Livre de Perchage (1576) for Fief des Coltons (1) front inside
St Peter Port: Greffe, Langlois A.2 Livre de Perchage (1576) for Fief des Coltons (1)
St Peter Port: Greffe, Langlois A.2 Livre de Perchage (1576) for Fief des Coltons (1) back inside
St Peter Port: Greffe, Langlois A.2 Livre de Perchage (1576) for Fief des Coltons (1)
St Peter Port: Greffe, Langlois A.2 Livre de Perchage (1576) for Fief des Coltons (1) back outside
St Peter Port: Greffe, Langlois A.2 Livre de Perchage (1576) for Fief des Coltons (1)