Paper Stocks in Western Medieval Manuscripts : Paper stock

Paper Stocks in Western Medieval Manuscripts

A copy of the Brut Chronicle in English. On f. 3 an inscription in a fifteenth-century (mid to late) hand notes: 'Iste liber constat lohanni Boxell (?) grocero London', which places the book in London during this time. The name Iohanni was erased and 'Richardo Millis' was added in its place, keeping the reference to the profession of the grocers. In the corner of the folio a price is included of 's 6 d 8'. Other, almost illegible, inscriptions on the same folio demonstrate that the manuscript circulated in London at that time (see further discussion in Ringrose, Summary Catalogue of the Additional Medieval Manuscripts, 2009, p. 24). The manuscript is written on one stock across the 248 paper folios. Each folio measures about 282 mm in height x 205 mm in width. These measurements suggest that the original sheet – that is to say, the folio and its conjugate – most probably had dimensions of about 282 mm in height x 420 mm in width, indicating a popular size, widely in circulation in medieval England, called chancery.This paper stock includes a watermark of a mitre with a lily. Similar, though not identical, instances of this watermark are attested on the <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://www.memoryofpaper.eu/BernsteinPortal/appl_start.disp'>Bernstein Project</a> from 1445 to 1470. MS Add. 2775’s paper stock does appear in quire 12 (ff. 142r -150v) of the Liber Gratiarum Alpha (<a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-UA-GRACE-BOOK-A/1'>UA Grace Book Alpha</a>) of the University of Cambridge, which contains the Proctors' annual accounts, 1454-89. In the Grace Book, this paper is used exclusively for the accounts of 1487, suggesting that the stock was also in circulation in Cambridge.These images have been produced through MSI in order to capture physical details of the item.Orietta Da Rold and Logan Rivers