Codicology
•There was either one scribe working in different inks or two scribes trained in the same scriptorium.
•The scribes were probably copying the layout of their exemplar: Liber de pulsu has a different layout from the rest.
•However, they did make small changes. Both these initials appear in Diete universales:
•Text division does not correspond to quire division except in 2 cases: Diete universales begins with Quire 3, Liber urinarum begins with Quire 9.
•There are no indications that they circulated separately.
•Missing text:
–Likely a singleton was lost before Quire 9 (the beginning of Liber urinarum is missing).
•Oddity 1:
Only three quires have signatures, all very different.
-Quire 3 has signatures in blue ink:
-Quire 4 has very large signatures in light brown ink that looks to be the same as the unusually large guide letters in this quire:
-Possible explanation: the finishing work on this quire may have been done by a different scribe, possibly at a later time?
-Quire 8 has large signatures in light brown ink, but they are bizarre in form and do not reflect the modern collation:
-Possible explanation: the first two leaves in this quire are singletons; if the first leaf was originally stitched to Quire 8, the signatures would be correct.
•Oddity 2:
–Except for Liber de pulsu (different layout), space has been left for rubrics throughout, but only in Quires 11-13 (not following divisions in text) are there guides for the rubricator written into the bottom margin. These rubrication guides seem to be written less formally but in the same ink as the one that made textual corrections in the margins throughout the book.
-Possible explanation: the proof-reader checked the text out of order, beginning in Quire 11 and writing rubrication guides as he went, but his diligence gave out after Quire 13.
-Quire 3 has signatures in blue ink:
-Quire 4 has very large signatures in light brown ink that looks to be the same as the unusually large guide letters in this quire:
-Possible explanation: the finishing work on this quire may have been done by a different scribe, possibly at a later time?
-Quire 8 has large signatures in light brown ink, but they are bizarre in form and do not reflect the modern collation:
-Possible explanation: the first two leaves in this quire are singletons; if the first leaf was originally stitched to Quire 8, the signatures would be correct.
•Oddity 2:
–Except for Liber de pulsu (different layout), space has been left for rubrics throughout, but only in Quires 11-13 (not following divisions in text) are there guides for the rubricator written into the bottom margin. These rubrication guides seem to be written less formally but in the same ink as the one that made textual corrections in the margins throughout the book.
-Possible explanation: the proof-reader checked the text out of order, beginning in Quire 11 and writing rubrication guides as he went, but his diligence gave out after Quire 13.
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- LJS 24 (A medical miscellany) Christine Schott
