home Resources and Services, Special Collections and Archives Manuscript Monday: A Tiny Dutch Bifolium

Manuscript Monday: A Tiny Dutch Bifolium

We think this week's post counts for manuscript Monday and maybe even miniature Monday too!  This is a bifolium – a sheet folded to make two leaves, or four pages of text – from a very small prayer book in Dutch.  It was produced in the Low Countries sometime during the fourteenth century. The dimensions of each page are 72 x 76 mm, or about 2.8 x 3 inches.  

You can find more about this bifolium in the Digital Scriptorium.  It's fragment number 128 in the Fragmenta Manuscripta Collection: a group of leaves, binding waste, and other manuscript fragments assembled by John Bagford in the seventeenth century.

fm128-bifolium

home Resources and Services, Special Collections and Archives Monday Manuscript: 630-year-old notebooks from notary Bernard de la Turade

Monday Manuscript: 630-year-old notebooks from notary Bernard de la Turade

This week's manuscript is the register of Bernard de la Turade (or Iurade), a medieval notary.  The two notebooks contain documentation of wills, marriage contracts, and sales in several cursive hands.  The first volume has a large vellum tab that would have helped its original owner to identify it on the shelf – think of it as the ancestor to a modern-day file folder tab.  There are even a few fourteenth-century doodles at the end!

More information and images at the Digital Scriptorium, or view the MERLIN catalog record.

La-Turade-Notarial-Registry-4

La-Turade-Notarial-Registry-1

La-Turade-Notarial-Registry-2

La-Turade-Notarial-Registry-3

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