#binding waste

[upennmanuscripts]

This early 16th century collection of papal letters and instruments dealing with the order of the Eremite Friars of St. Augustine has a secret hiding in the binding - specifically a scrap of unidentified earlier manuscript that lurks in the depths of the spine. What could it be? We don’t know. (UPenn Ms. Codex 85)

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[riesenfeldcenter]

We tell visitors that our oldest printed book is from 1490, a beautiful copy of Statham's Abridgement of English cases. This is true, but our earliest printed fragment of a leaf (as binding waste) is somewhat earlier. We have a leaf printed on vellum of a key work of medieval canon law, the Sextus Decretalium of Pope Boniface VIII.  

The work was printed by Fust and Schoeffer, probably in 1465 as the first printed edition, or possibly a little later, in 1470 or 1473. Fust lent Johannes Gutenberg the money to set up his press and later sued him for it, which effectively ruined the modern inventor of printing. Fust continued to print with Peter Schoeffer, and their press was successful. Fust has been linked by some to the Faust legend, perhaps in part for his dealings and the association of the press with magic, but an obscure "magician" named Johann Faust is more likely. At least, early books from Gutenberg's press and that of Fust and Schoeffer stimulated wonder (and some displeasure among the traditional book trade).     

[muspeccoll]

One of my favorite things about our Fragmenta Manuscripta collection is how the leaves survived -- you can see from the dark patches on this 13th century fragment that it was glued into a binding once upon a time! . . . #manuscriptmonday #manuscript #medieval #parchment #binderswaste #provenance #bookbinding #bibliophile #bookstagram #booklover #rarebooks #specialcollections #librariesofinstagram #iglibraries #mizzou #universityofmissouri #ellislibrary #ifttt

[hdslibrary]

Waste Not Want Not

This 16th century bible commentary on the Prophets was bound with two “waste” manuscript leaves as pastedowns.

We’ve identified the content of the manuscript leaves as being from De Excessu Fratris by Saint Ambrose (ca. 340-397), a work about the death of the author’s brother. The text is from separate, non-contiguous sections of the work, so we’re guessing other parts of this manuscript are out there in other books!

This book was owned by the Rev. John Barnard of Marblehead, Mass. (1681-1770) who gave it and other books to Harvard after the great fire of 1764.

Oecolampadius, Johann, 1482-1531.   In Jeremiam prophetam commentariorum ... libri tres ...  [Geneva] E typographia Crispiniana. 1558.

[uispeccoll]

Palimpsest

This leaf was reused many times. It was wrapped around a 16th century book re-used as a book cover. 

It also is a palimpsest - you can see old writing that was mostly scraped off before they reused it to print the text.

We don’t know which book was cut up and re-used. We haven’t identified it yet.

(Digital images here)

Do you know what it is?

[upennmanuscripts]

Sometimes books are bound in (parts of) other books. Here is LJS 195, a 15th c. Medical Miscellany bound in a leaf from a 15th c. liturgical book. At the end of the clip is an unfolded leaf that was once used to cover another book; you can see the spine and the folds around the edges. That’s how the cover of LJS 195 would look if we removed it (removal of fragment bindings is no longer best practice, so this one is staying where it is - “in situ” as the professionals say!)

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[upennmanuscripts]

Today’s #FragmentFriday is Ms. Codex 1162, a single sheet of parchment from an undated medieval liturgical text used to cover late 16th century lecture notes on Aristotle’s Parva naturalia.

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[upennmanuscripts]

For #FragmentFriday here's a Parchment leaf from a lectionary used as pastedown and front flyleaf in the binding of a late 15th century collection of papal letters and instruments regarding the order of the Eremite Friars of St. Augustine of Rouen (UPenn Ms. Codex 736)

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