Lost Manuscript

GF 03 + GF 14

These fragments are in the minority among those on Guernsey in being divided between two institutions. Script, layout and (minimal) decoration leave no doubt, however, that the two fragments come from the same copy of the thirteenth-century text, La lumere au lais. As with other fragments in this collection, it is not certain when it arrived on the island but is unusual in showing signs of having been used twice as a wrapper. 

Textual Information
Subject
Verse
Author of work
Pierre de Peckham
Title of work
La lumere as lais
Language
Anglo-Norman
Palaeography
Type of script
Gothic
Script detail
cursive
Date of production
s. xiv in
Material Information
Material
Parchment
Layout
Bicolumnar
Decoration

Confined to red shading of majuscules in the offset column and rubricated titles, with also on the Greffe's fragment some red and blue paraph marks

Dimensions
Page

208+mm (h) x c. 145mm (w)

Number of lines
39?
Number of columns
2
Height of written space
177
Lower margin

31

Width of text 1

52

Reservation 1

7

Width of text 2

62

History and further information
Information on dismantling

Annotations and stitch-holes on AQ 0372/01 (c) suggest that this was used as a wrapper twice. The late-sixteenth or early-seventeenth century titles relating to its use as cover for the court register of Fief le Comte, Causes en Meubles (1578–1614), placed close to the top of the outside of the bifolium, are preceded in date by two annotations closer to the top line (originally the bottom line) of text. Of these, one in particular is suggestive: 'hellyer des landes' (s. xv/xvi). This could be a place-name and if so is most likely to be St Hilaire des Landes in Brittany but there is no significant association between that parish or its patron, the abbey of St Pierre de Rillé (ex info Callum Tostevin-Hall). The other possibility is that it relates to the island and relates to a person whose Christian name honoured Jersey’s local saint.

Number of folios represented
3 (one bifolium and one folio)
Notes

While the maximum number of fully visible lines is 38, col. b of the inside of AQ 0372/01 (c) shows signs of another line above

Bibliography

Identification of text by Tamara Atkin. Text edited by G. Hesketh, Anglo-Norman Text Society, 3 vols in 2 (London, 1996-1999)

See also T. Atkin and J. R. Mattison, 'Remnants of Guernsey’s Medieval Manuscript Culture: A New Witness to L’estoire de Griseldis' (in preparation)

Author: David Rundle
Last Revised by David Rundle
Constituent Fragments
St Peter Port: Greffe, Langlois A.3.1 (1) recto
St Peter Port: Greffe, Langlois A.3.1 (1)
St Peter Port: Greffe, Langlois A.3.1 (1) verso
St Peter Port: Greffe, Langlois A.3.1 (1)
St Peter Port: Guernsey Island Archives, AQ 0372/01 (b) inside
St Peter Port: Guernsey Island Archives, AQ 0372/01 (b)
St Peter Port: Guernsey Island Archives, AQ 0372/01 (b) outside
St Peter Port: Guernsey Island Archives, AQ 0372/01 (b)