{"id":7847,"date":"2016-09-07T00:48:46","date_gmt":"2016-09-07T00:48:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/?p=7847"},"modified":"2019-08-13T21:08:26","modified_gmt":"2019-08-13T21:08:26","slug":"seminar-on-the-evidence-of-manuscripts-august-1994","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/manuscriptevidence.org\/wpme\/seminar-on-the-evidence-of-manuscripts-august-1994\/","title":{"rendered":"Seminar on the Evidence of Manuscripts (August 1994)"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Medieval Manuscript Fragments:
\nA Seminar”
\nParker Library
\n15 August 1994<\/h2>\n
\"Invitation<\/a>

Invitation Letter Page 1<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Invitation<\/a>

Invitation Letter Page 2<\/p><\/div>\n

In the Series of Seminars on “The Evidence of Manuscripts”<\/a>
\nThe Parker Library, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge<\/p>\n

Invitation<\/strong><\/a> in pdf, with 2-Page Invitation Letter and 1-page RSVP Form<\/p>\n

The previous Seminar in the Series considered
\n\u201cMarginalia in Manuscripts”<\/strong><\/a>
\n(Parker Library, 24 June 1994).<\/p>\n

[First published on 6 September 2016<\/em>]<\/p>\n

This seminar was “devoted to medieval manuscript fragments at the Parker Library and elsewhere, in both public and private collections.”\u00a0 As usual, the existence of manuscripts in other collections relevant to the theme under consideration was taken into account, but now, thanks to their collector, our Associate Toshiyuki Takamiya, some of those manuscripts came to the Library for Seminar to see and to compare.<\/p>\n

[Update in September 2017:\u00a0 See the end of this post for news about the Takamiya Collection now at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.]<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Plan<\/h3>\n

The 2-page Invitation Letter (both shown here and downloadable here<\/strong><\/a> with its RSVP Form) presents the plan:<\/p>\n

This will consider the myriad problems and challenges of manuscript fragments:\u00a0 their discovery, rediscovery and recovery; their present contents, both original and acquired; their states and locations, both present and past; their contexts (present, intermediary and original); their handling and conservation; the identification of their texts; assessment of their dates, origins and provenance; and reconstruction of their original manuscripts.<\/p>\n

For the first time in the Series, manuscript materials not belonging to Corpus Christi College would be brought to the table.<\/p>\n

For the seminar Toshiyuki Takamiya<\/a> will bring from Japan some examples of Western manuscript fragments in his own collection<\/a>.\u00a0 Beforehand these will be deposited in the Parker Library for a period of consultation, photography and image-enhancement of damaged and mostly illegible passages by members of the Research Group and other speakers.<\/p>\n

The Speakers and Subjects<\/h3>\n

Nigel Wilkins will speak about musical manuscript fragments and elsewhere (for example in Corpus MSS 8<\/a> and 233<\/a>), including some new discoveries.<\/p>\n

R.I. Page will consider an Anglo-Saxon fragment from Westminster.<\/p>\n

Mildred Budny will survey Anglo-Saxon and Irish manuscript fragments at Corpus, including those comprising MSS 197<\/a>B, 214<\/a> and 557<\/a> and those contained in MSS 111<\/a>, 144<\/a>, 270<\/a> and 321<\/a>, together with the burnt or displaced fragments in the British Library from the same manuscript as MS 197B (Cotton MS Otho C.v<\/a> plus two leaves in Royal MS 7 C.xii<\/a>, folios 2\u20133).<\/p>\n

David Ganz will remark on the surviving fragments of a glossed Anglo-Saxon or Continental manuscript of the Aeneid,<\/em> including its portion discovered in an early printed book at Corpus (EP\u2013O\u20136).<\/p>\n

Nicholas Hadgraft and Tony Parker will assess the problems of handling and conserving manuscript fragments.<\/p>\n

Toshiyuki Takamiya will speak about the joys and challenges of collecting manuscript fragments<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Richard Marsden will discuss the early biblical fragments in the Takamiya collection.<\/p>\n

Andrew Prescott will consider a pontifical fragment in the same collection.<\/p>\n

Simon Keynes might be able to attend to discuss the challenges of rediscovering, examining, deciphering, identifying and assessing manuscript fragments, focusing upon British Library, Cotton MS Otho A.i<\/a> (badly damaged by fire in 1731<\/a>), from which another (undamaged) leaf survives in Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Arch Selden B.26 (3340)<\/a>, folio 34.<\/p>\n

And there’s more.<\/p>\n

Besides the Takamiya fragments, a group of volumes in the Corpus collection will be available for examination during the seminar. Among them will be fragments of various kinds considered by the speakers. Other volumes may emerge for inspection in the course of the session.<\/p>\n

And so we set to work.<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

An Aside:
\nHow Fortunate That Some Fragments of Dispersed Manuscripts Escaped the Fire
\nAnd That Some Elements Before the Fire Were Reproduced<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\u00a9<\/a>

\u00a9 The British Library Board. Royal MS 7 C XII folio 2v. Reproduced by permission.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\u00a9<\/a>

\u00a9 The British Library Board. Royal MS 7 C XII folio 3r. Reproduced by permission.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"\u00a9<\/a>

\u00a9 The British Library Board. Stowe MS 1061, folio 36r. Reproduced by permission.<\/p><\/div>\n

Such escape was the case with some detached leaves with parts of the prefatory Eusebian Canon Tables<\/a> from the same Insular Gospel Book as the Cambridge\u2013London Gospels<\/em>. Now part of Royal MS 7 C.xii<\/a>, they were removed from the book well before the Cotton Fire of 1731<\/a>, which badly damaged the portions of Matthew and Mark in Cotton MS Otho C.v.<\/p>\n

The Corpus portions of John and Luke (in that order) had been separated from the original manuscript before that fragment came to Matthew Parker<\/a>, who died in 1575, also long before the fire. However, Parker, who entered the page numbers and an attributing inscription upon its pages, had the Gospel fragment rebound. In the process, its edges suffered trimming, with the losses of some original script and decoration.\u00a0 Boo Hoo!<\/p>\n

A set of 18th-century antiquarian reproductions of elements of the Cotton portion were made while it was still unburnt. It belongs to a collection of specimens assembled by Thomas Astle<\/a> for his book on The Origin and Progress of Writing<\/em> (1784).\u00a0 Preserved also at the British Library (Stowe MS 1061<\/a>), and shown here, the samples of script and decorated lettering in the Cotton portion of the Gospel Book offer glimpses of the original across time and Once-Upon-A-Time, albeit in antiquarian and somewhat self-conscious fashion.\u00a0 The array of specimens on the antiquarian page resemble the approach of a scrapbook.<\/p>\n

A similar antiquarian reproduction, spread over 4 quarto-sized pages of coloured plates in print, addressed portions of script, decoration, and illustration in the Corpus portion of the same manuscript.\u00a0 It was the work of the Rev. James Goodwin, Fellow of Corpus Christi College, for An Historical and Illustrative Description of the MSS. No. CCLXXXVI. and No. CXCVII. in the Parker Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge<\/a> (1847), plates VIII – XI. But those plates, because the original remains more-or-less unscathed (page-trimming notwithstanding), retain their antiquarian interest, rather than acquiring the stature of a primary witness to the monument, albeit after the fact, as in the case of Thomas Astle’s poignant images from the Cotton portion.<\/p>\n

The result over time and through the assaults by knife, by dispersal, and by fire yield Scraps of manuscripts and of pre-photographic reproductions of manuscripts. Scraps of Books.\u00a0 Better than nothing!<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

Participants<\/h3>\n

Invitations sent to:<\/p>\n

R.I. Page, Mildred Budny, Nigel Wilkins, Tim Graham, Leslie French, Catherine Hall, Nicholas Hadgraft, Tony Burne, Mel Jefferson, Alan Farrant, Simon Keynes, Andrew Prescott, Tony Parker, Toshiyuki Takamiya, David Ganz, Richard Marsden, Bob Proctor, Annie Winklar, Joyce Hill, Don Scragg, Raymond Grant, Malcolm Godden, Michael Borrie, Stephanie Kenna, Nigel Ramsay, Michael Gullick, Tessa Webber, Nigel Ramsay, James P. Carley, Sue Hitch, Rohini Jayatilaka, Rowan Watson, Joan Lazenby, Kate Lowe, Graham Woan, Shinsuke Ando, Emiko Kinebuchi, Chieko Hirose<\/p>\n

Present (according to a set of annotated notes in our Research Group Archives, along with the completed RSVP forms as returned):<\/p>\n

\"Old<\/a>

Old Court at Corpus Christi College, Summer 1994. Photograph \u00a9 Mildred Budny.<\/p><\/div>\n

R.I. Page, Mildred Budny, Nigel Wilkins, Tim Graham, Leslie French, Catherine Hall, Nicholas Hadgraft, Tony Burne, Mel Jefferson, Alan Farrant, Simon Keynes, Andrew Prescott, Tony Parker, Toshiyuki Takamiya, David Ganz, Richard Marsden, Bob Proctor, Annie Winklar, Joyce Hill, Don Scragg, Malcolm Godden, Michael Borrie, Nigel Ramsay, Michael Gullick, James P. Carley, Sue Hitch, Rowan Watson, Joan Lazenby, Anthony Hugget, Taki Takeuchi, Emiko Kinebuchi, Chieko Hirose, Brigitte Schliedemann, Karen Parhau<\/p>\n

In the spirit of the event, Nicholas Hadgraft made a fresh set of chopped fragments from the first sheet of the photocopied paper handout showing some musical fragments.\u00a0 The Research Group Archives preserves them, along with the folder of correspondence, preliminary notes, handouts as distributed on the day, and a set of handwritten notes taken on the day.<\/p>\n

Party<\/h3>\n

The Seminar was followed by a Party, hosted by the Librarian, Nigel Wilkins, and Mildred Budny, with Wine and Cheese in Room P3 (Old Court).<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

\"Invitation<\/a>*****<\/p>\n

Report<\/h3>\n

An detailed, unnumbered 16-page handwritten report by Mildred Budny survives in the Research Group Archives. Comprising a form of notes in pencil on the day, this text mainly reports the sequence and contents of the presentations and discussions.\u00a0 It also cites the other mentioned manuscripts, at Corpus (for example, MS 145<\/a>, 459<\/a>, 102<\/a>, 104<\/a>, 105<\/a>, 109<\/a>, 120<\/a>, 130<\/a>) and elsewhere (London, Paris, Brussels).<\/p>\n

*****<\/p>\n

Suggestions for Further Reading<\/h3>\n

Some publications relate to the fragments under inspection either directly or at a distance.\u00a0 Here are a few by speakers at the seminar or others.<\/p>\n

The Takamiya Collection<\/h4>\n