Fragments

Ad nonum sic proceditur

Staff #MedievalMonday December 4, 2017January 22, 2021Book bindings, Dating historical manuscripts, Fragments, Medieval manuscripts, Paleography

The text on this binding is part of Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologiae. The front cover contains a section of the Third Part [Christ], Question 68 [Of Those Who Receive Baptism], Articles 8 [Whether faith is required on the part of the one baptized] and 9 [Whether children should be baptized]. The back cover contains a section of the Third Part [Christ], Question 72 [Of The Sacrament of Confirmation], Articles 4 [Whether the proper form of this sacrament is: “I sign thee with the sign of the cross,” etc.] and 5 [Whether the sacrament of Confirmation imprints a character].

“Misit de c[a]elo et liber[avit]”

Staff #MedievalMonday November 27, 2017January 7, 2021Book bindings, Dating historical manuscripts, Fragments, Medieval manuscripts, Medieval music

Medieval monks were expected memorize all 150 psalms, and they were commonly sung as part of Mass and the Divine Offices. The music on this binding appears to be part of Psalm 56: “Misit de c[a]elo et liber[avit]…”.

A Golden Legend

Staff #MedievalMonday November 20, 2017May 13, 2020Book bindings, Dating historical manuscripts, Fragments, Manuscript waste, Medieval manuscripts

This manuscript dates to circa 14^th century, based on the script (a Gothic book-hand), and the composition of the actual text.

The volume was catalogued in our system with the note “Bound in a leaf from a medieval Latin ms. (paragraph marks supplied in alternating red and blue, and capital strokes supplied in red) of a religious text on purgatory; over paper boards.” Even without the acknowledging the script, a text referring to purgatory gives us a place to start, as the word purgatorium is believed to have first appeared in the 12^th century.

“Licet plyrima de apostolicis signis sacra euangeliorum”

Staff #MedievalMonday November 13, 2017May 13, 2020Book bindings, Dating historical manuscripts, Fragments, Manuscript waste, Medieval manuscripts, Paleography

It’s hard not to have favorites when working in a special collections setting. While searching through our incunabula, I found one bound in a manuscript that I had not seen previously. This particular wrapper has now become one of my favorite items in the collection, and one that I intend to continue researching when time and other duties allow.

“Sanctitui domine benedicente te gloriam”

Staff #MedievalMonday November 6, 2017May 13, 2020Book bindings, Codicology, Fragments, Manuscript waste, Medieval manuscripts, Medieval music

Remember all the way back in January – the first #MedievalMonday post – when we met Z10 76 (Constantinus Africanus’ Viaticum), and that I mentioned it was the oldest thing in our collection until a few weeks ago? Well, this week, we will meet the oldest thing in our collection. It’s a binding.

Publicius, Jaime. *Regimen sanitatis salernitanum nec non magistri Arnoldi de noui Villa*. Venundantur Parrhisiis: In vico sancti Jacobi ab Alexandro Aliatte e regione diui benedicti, [after 1500]. Na 50.

A new life for old manuscripts

Staff #MedievalMonday October 30, 2017December 15, 2017Book bindings, Codicology, Fragments, Medieval manuscripts

The College holds just 10 medieval manuscripts (or those created before 1500), and we’ve explored many features of ALL of them over the past 10 months. In the next few weeks, I’ll be showing off some of our incunabula (books printed before 1500) that were bound in manuscript waste. Yes, not only were ‘old’ manuscripts used as binding support material (see this earlier post), but they were also used as covers.

It was common practice for early bookbinders to cut up and use pages from outdated or unwanted manuscripts as binding material. This practice lasted until the 17th century, when unwanted manuscripts became more difficult to find.

The College holds at least 4 incunabula bound in music manuscripts, and several others bound in text manuscripts. The next few weeks we’ll be looking at some of them.