Lost Manuscript

Babel MS 4

Three fragments survive of this manuscript, giving a fair sense of what the layout of the volume. The script is slightly uneven and the measurements are not fully constant, suggesting that this manuscript -- presumably a complete Bible -- was not of the highest grade. The notably wide outer margins suggest it was created with an expectation of a gloss being provided which was never inserted.

One of the strips - Harsnett H.d.53 ii - is cut across an opening. The second section of text on its recto immediately precedes the text provided by Harsnett H.d.52 i.

Textual Information
Subject
Bible
Title of work
2 Macabees
Language
Latin
Palaeography
Type of script
Gothic
Script detail
Textura
Place of production
England
Material Information
Material
Parchment
Layout
Bicolumnar
Ruling
none visible
Dimensions
Page

??321mm (h) x ?214mm (w)

Number of columns
2
Height of minims
3mm
Space between lines
7mm
Height of written space
(width x 3/2) = ?183+
Width of written space
([55] + 12 + 55) = 122
Inner margin

31

Width of text 1

?55

Reservation 1

12

Width of text 2

55

Outer margin

61

History and further information
Information on dismantling

The fragments appear in two identical bindings: the manuscript was presumably dismembered in the binder's shop, perhaps in Cambridge, at some point after in the middle of the sixteenth century.

Number of folios represented
2
Author: David Rundle_
Constituent Fragments
Colchester Harsnett H.d.52 back strip verso
Colchester: University of Essex Library, Harsnett H.d.52 i
Colchester Harsnett H.d.53 back strip
Colchester: University of Essex Library, Harsnett H.d.53 ii
Colchester Harsnett H.d.53 front strip
Colchester: University of Essex Library, Harsnett H.d.53 i