{"id":5651,"date":"2015-10-10T00:33:16","date_gmt":"2015-10-10T00:33:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/?p=5651"},"modified":"2020-04-15T23:21:48","modified_gmt":"2020-04-15T23:21:48","slug":"full-court-preston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/full-court-preston\/","title":{"rendered":"Full Court Preston"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Pile<\/a>Pair of 13th-Century Documents,
\nMissing Their Seals,
\nfrom Preston<\/h2>\n

Plus a Competition, Prizes Included<\/h3>\n

[Posted on 10 October 2015, with updates<\/em>.\u00a0 Also, now, see Preston Take 2<\/a>.]<\/p>\n

Next stop in our exploration of Manuscript and Document Studies<\/a>. \u00a0\u00a0 Still on the quest of Fragments and Their Contexts.<\/p>\n

We turn now to a pair of documents in a private collection, reproduced by permission.\u00a0 They came for sale as part of a single batch, preserved together and sent forth together, apparently after centuries and generations with a common heritage.\u00a0 Their origin relates to Preston (now known as Preston Saint Mary), near Ipswich, in Suffolk in England.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/7\/7d\/Church_at_Preston_St_Mary_-_geograph.org.uk_-_1598436.jpg\"<\/a>

Church at Preston St Mary. Photograph by Andrew Hill via Wikimedia Creative Commons<\/p><\/div>\n

A Self-Contained Entity<\/h3>\n

Documents get to tell their story unchained by other factors.\u00a0 They exist for what they are on the strengths of what they are and what they say\u00a0 They are intended to encapsulate the essence, and the essential components, of the transaction for which they form the record.\u00a0 And to stand up in court, if need be.\u00a0 Where they themselves do not survive in full, their testimony may lose some of its former ‘teeth’.<\/p>\n

And here is where we, dedicated archaeologists, forensic specialists, and good-old-fashioned-manuscript-specialists not only love to work, but can come in handy. Case in point: Curiouser and Curiouser<\/a>, regarding a curious (and then some) case in the same private collection.<\/p>\n

But the isolated nature of documents, often now dislocated from their former contexts, requires a special focus.\u00a0 It’s sort of like charting an island in the middle of nowhere.<\/p>\n

So What is That?<\/h3>\n

Well, good question.\u00a0 However they come down to us, we might wonder mightily that any of them survived at all.<\/p>\n

And then we could examine what they retain, it could be by the skin of their teeth.\u00a0 Some of them, as here, have been stripped of their ‘best features’, namely their seals.\u00a0 That some of us still think that the scripts have great value is a position to maintain resoundingly.\u00a0 Do I digress?\u00a0 Not quite.<\/p>\n

Here we showcase 2 documents which came from a shared location, separated across generations, both without their original seals.\u00a0 Some other reports on our website examine documents with, or without, their original seals.<\/p>\n

Foster Home for Waifs & Strays<\/h3>\n

This pair now belongs to a private collection, reproduced and examined here by permission. The form in which they are shown here represents the form in which they were sold, apart from the added inventory number on their backs.<\/p>\n

\"Sign<\/a>Now they have a ‘foster home’.\u00a0 Their owner purchased them as a single lot of 8 documents, gathered in a bag, in the 1980s in London, probably (according to recollection) in the Portobello Road<\/a>. These 2 are the earliest of the lot.<\/p>\n

The pair has been set onto the world stripped ‘naked’ of fuller original forms of individual identification, including their original contexts.\u00a0 Shame!<\/p>\n

Let’s be grateful, while gritting our teeth with frustration that not enough survives, that anything and everything, or, not quite everything, survives.\u00a0 I suggest that we turn to the skills of, shall we say, dentistry.<\/p>\n

Dental Work<\/h3>\n

Call it pulling teeth.\u00a0 Sometimes the damaged materials appear to have been extracted forcibly from their original setting, for one or other reason.\u00a0 Sometimes the damage to the material itself results from further extraction, as with the excision of the seal from the rest of its document, presumably for the purpose of discarding that ‘skeleton’ in favor of the ‘prettier’ and presumably more valuable seal.\u00a0 Too bad that the damage leaves the document with only a stub of its former tag-or-tail-plus-seal, and its old protective bag reduced to an empty shell.<\/p>\n

Press On<\/h3>\n

Remember, for the present purpose, we’re focusing on a place named Preston<\/strong>.\u00a0 The origin and meaning of that name<\/a> derives from the Old English words pr\u0113ost<\/a><\/i> \u200e(\u201c<\/span>priest<\/span>\u201d<\/span>) + t\u016bn<\/a><\/i> \u200e(\u201cenclosure” or “<\/span>settlement<\/span>\u201d \u2014<\/span> a term which evolved into the Middle English toun<\/em> or town<\/em>, provided that the settlement grew large enough and lasted long enough).\u00a0 Could mean almost anywhere with some form(s) of human habitation, providing that a priest was included.<\/p>\n

Various places nowadays carry the name Preston<\/a>, in England and elsewhere. The Preston in question here is the one situated near Ipswich<\/a> (whose medieval forms included Gippeswic<\/em>, Gyppewic<\/em>, etc) in Suffolk, United Kingdom. Now this place is called Preston St Mary<\/a>. Its present name emphasizes the ‘priest’ element and the patron saint of its church.\u00a0 Double Take.<\/p>\n

\"Detail<\/a>

Naming the Church at Preston and the Holy Trinity at Ipswich (‘Gyppewic’)<\/p><\/div>\n

The reasons why we cannot entertain the possibility that the Preston named in the 2 documents showcased here relates to some other Preston instead\u00a0\u2014 as said, there survive many<\/a> with that name \u2014 center upon their cited reference points to associated locations, Ipswich included. So, with these tidbits, clearing the field, we offer some hints for the hunt.<\/p>\n

First Case:\u00a0 “Preston Charter 1”<\/h2>\n

This deed concerns a transaction of circa 1200 CE.\u00a0 As it says, it comprises the deed of a sale of a plot of land at Preston, near Ipswich. The\u00a0 document includes among its reference points both the ‘Church at Preston’, now the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin<\/a> (an exterior view appears here<\/a>), and the Priory of the Holy Trinity<\/a> at Gyppewic<\/em>, now known as Ipswich.\u00a0 (A newer Church of the Holy Trinity<\/a> continues to function among the waterfront churches of Ipswich).\"The<\/a>Beautiful, clear script.\u00a0 Single, long column of 12 lines written by a professional.\u00a0 The text is entered upon the whitish flesh side of the animal skin, with the yellowed hair side turned to the recto.\u00a0 Rough edges, unevenly trimmed.\u00a0 The ensemble makes an empathetic statement.<\/p>\n

The inward fold at the bottom of the sheet offers a nest for the lacing of the tab for the seal.\u00a0 The lacing passes through the roughly horizontal slits in the sheet, first facing front and then disappearing into the fold, to re-emerge at the bottom.\u00a0 Simple, given the hang of it.<\/p>\n

Shame about the lost seal.\u00a0 A done deal.<\/p>\n

Next Case:\u00a0 “Preston Charter 2”<\/h2>\n

A document also relating to Preston.\u00a0 Mid 13th-century this time.<\/p>\n

Now for a document on vellum of 16 long lines in a single column.\u00a0 Professional, too.\u00a0 Same type of fold-over, same sorts of unevenly-trimmed edges, same sort of tag.\u00a0 Except that now the simple plain-weave textile bag to cover and protect the original seal remains sort-of intact, with a cut edge at both top and bottom leaving an empty wrap.\u00a0 Not sure about the date of the bag.\u00a0 The seal is gone.\u00a0 Gone forever?\u00a0 Hope not.<\/p>\n

We could figure the approximate original size of the seal (whose?) by the diameter of the bag.\u00a0 We can lament the severance and the loss (it may be) of the seal.\u00a0\u00a0 Maybe we can discern where the seal has gone?\u00a0 Perhaps it survives on some other collection, and its existence may be recognized.<\/p>\n

\"zoo13poster<\/a><\/h3>\n

The inner fold encloses and mostly hides a line of text in the original hand.\u00a0 Visible within the fold, it stands to the right of the seal-tag; its show-through appears on the forward-folded dorse.\u00a0 The area to the left within the fold remains blank.<\/p>\n

Back to Back<\/h3>\n

Each document has a mostly bare dorse, but for the modern inventory numbers 5<\/em> or 7<\/em> in black ink and the medieval docketing inscriptions of 2 lines in brown ink.<\/p>\n

The pronounced fold lines and darkened stains demonstrate that each document formerly was stored folded in half lengthways, then folded across in thirds, to form a sub-rectangular packet.\u00a0 The lower center portion on the dorse, as the outermost fold of the packet, carries the identifying inscription above the seal tag.<\/p>\n

“Preston Charter 2” = Charter 5<\/h4>\n
\"Preston

Preston Charter 5 Dorse.<\/p><\/div>\n

“Preston Charter 1” = Charter 7<\/h4>\n
\"Preston

Preston Charter 7 Docketing.<\/p><\/div>\n

Up Close<\/h4>\n

The docketing inscription in brown ink, surmounted by a simple cross in lighter brown ink.<\/p>\n

\"Docketing<\/a><\/p>\n

Back to Now<\/h3>\n

I offer a book prize to the first person correctly to transcribe the texts of these documents and translate them into English.<\/p>\n

(This is not a trick question.\u00a0 I haven’t had the time to do it, and I welcome help.)<\/p>\n

Also, I offer a book prize to the first person to identify a surviving version of the seal for either document.\u00a0 That is, there might survive, somewhere, the original seal for one or other of them, or another impression, say on some other document, of the same authenticator’s seal.\u00a0 Such identifications are known to happen, although not as frequently as we might wish.<\/p>\n

Remember, this prize \u2014 no, these prizes \u2014 are available to the correct responders.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. First Accurate Transcription for the Latin texts of Documents 1 and 2 (front and back) and their Translation into English<\/li>\n
  2. Identification of the Current Location of the Lost Seal of Document 1, of Another Surviving Impression of the Same Seal, and\/or of the Original Seal Matrix from which this Former Seal was Formed<\/li>\n
  3. Similar Identification of the Lost Seal of Document 2<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Fun Stuff, Bonus Included<\/h4>\n

    For Real.\u00a0 First Time Ever that the Research Group on Manuscript Evidence has offered Book Prizes for a Competition.<\/p>\n

    Fun, huh?<\/p>\n

    The Books:<\/p>\n

    \"Front<\/a>\"Front<\/a>\"Front<\/a><\/p>\n

    1 Book per category of Competition (1, 2, 3 above):<\/p>\n