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Notes on the handwritings and the marginal drawings

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2009

Julian Brown
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Extract

In spite of several differences in the general appearance of the handwriting, the main text of W1 was all written by the same experienced but not particularly elegant scribe. One or more of the following significant details can be found on most pages throughout the manuscript, a is narrow, open at the top, and usually rather tall, especially at the end of a word. The ascender of round d is rather long and low, and a common variant has a separate hairline stroke projecting upwards and to the right from the top of the ascender (ff.xxii/18r, 82/75r, 116/107r, 165/156r, 197/180v). At the beginnings of words and lines, the ascender is horizontal, with a downward flourish at the end (108/99r, 209/192r). Straight d occurs at 89/80r, 213/196r. e and r, at the ends of words, both finish in a brisk, upward-sloping hairline. g is usually open below the line, with a powerful horizontal tail ending well to left of the upper compartment. A less elegant alternative form (predominant from 197/180v to the end), substitutes a tight, angular loop for the long tail; but where both forms occur in the same line (169/160r, 193/176v), it is obvious that the upper compartment and the descender to which tail or loop is attached are made in the same way. Now and again (88/79v, 208/191v), a hairline closure is added at the end of the long tail. The second stroke of h ends well below the line. At the ends of words, the last strokes of m and n may descend and carry a heavy flourish on the right (201/184r).

Type
Further Observations on W1
Information
Journal of the Plainsong & Mediaeval Music Society , Volume 4 , January 1981 , pp. 55 - 58
Copyright
© The Plainsong and Medieval Music Society 1981

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References

Notes

1 Cf. Flotzinger, R., in ‘Beobachtungen zur Notre-Dame-Handschrift W1 und ihrem 11. Faszikel’, Mitteilungen der Kommission für Musikforschung. Anzeiger der philosophisch-historischen Klasse der Österreichen Akademie der Wissenschaften, CV/19 (1968), pp.247–8Google Scholar: ‘Ausserdem ist nicht nur f.214v “als letzte Seite des offenbar lange ungebunden gebliebenen Codex stark abgegriffen and daher nur z.T. mit Mühe lesbar” [Ludwig], sondern auch die erste Seite des 11. Faszikels f.193r weist deutliche Gebrauchsspuren auf (wenn auch in weniger starkem Grade als jene, was nur natürlich ist: Auf der letzten Seite lag das aus zwei [sic] Lagen bestehende Konvolut ständig, während die erste Seite obenauf nur bei tatsächlicher Benützung abgegriffen wurde).

2 Palaeographical terms are derived from Lieftinck, G.I.: ‘Pour une nomenclature de l'écriture livresque de la période dite gothique’, in Bischoff, Bernhard, Lieftinck, G.I. and Batelli, Giulio: La nomenclature des écritures livresgues du IXe au XVIe siècle (Paris, 1953), pp.15–32 Google Scholar, and from Parkes, M.B.: English cursive book hands, 1250–1500 (Oxford, 1969)Google Scholar; but the average grade of a script is here called media.

3 The two manuscripts of Hugo de Sancto Caro are Postillae in Vet. Test., pars I, Paris, Bibl. Nationale, lat.363, and Expositio in Historiam Scolasticam P. Comestoris, etc., Uppsala, Univ. Lib., C.134: see Samaran, Charles and Marichal, Robert: Catalogue des manuscrits en écriture latine portant des indications de date, de lieu ou de copiste, vol.II (Paris, 1969), pl.XXVIIGoogle Scholar, and Hedlund, Monica: Katalog der datierten Handschriften in Lateinischer Schrift vor 1600 in Schweden, vol.I (Stockholm, 1977), pl.4Google Scholar. The breviary is Troyes, Bibl.Municipale, 1158: see Samaran and Marichal, op.cit., vol.V (Paris, 1965), pl.XX.

4 See Ker, N.R. in Celtica, 5 (1960), pp.13–16 Google Scholar

5 Compare the charter of Robert I, [1308–9], reproduced by Simpson, G.P.: Scottish handwriting, 1150–1650 (Edinburgh, 1973), pl.6Google Scholar.

6 St.Andrews University Library ms. BR.65.A9, Augustinus. Opera varia, 13th century, has exactly the same inscription at the top of f.lr, as the Keeper of Manuscripts, Mr.R.N.Smart, has kindly informed us. The script, a simple textualis slightly contaminated by cursive (st, for example), is hard to date and may well be 15th-century, in my opinion.

7 The verse was presumably generated by confusion between two common formulas: ‘Hic liber est scriptus, qui scripsit sit benedictus’ and ‘Qui librum scripsit, … sit benedictus.’

8 Compare documents of 1384 and 1430 in Simpson, op. cit., pll. 8 and 9. Roesner, p.345, follows Baxter in dating the inscription at 148/139v to the early 14th century and the name(s) on the drawing at 62/54v to the 14th tout court.

9 Randall, Lilian M.C.: Images in the margins of Gothic manuscripts (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1966), pp.121, 172 Google Scholar, cites examples of bell-ringing men (one a hybrid) from six psalters or horae and one volume of romances produced in the Franco-Flemish region in the late 13th or early 14th century.

10 Again, compare Simpson, op.cit., pll. 8 and 9.

11 For an English example of ‘ribbon’ letters, c.1400, see Wolpe, Berthold: ‘Florilegium alphabeticum: alphabets in medieval manuscripts’, in Calligraphy and palaeography: essays presented to Alfred Fairbank, ed. Osley, A.S. (London, 1965), p.72, pl.22Google Scholar.