Paper Stocks in Western Medieval Manuscripts : Paper stock

Paper Stocks in Western Medieval Manuscripts

<p style='text-align: justify;'>A copy of Jean de Jandun’s <i>Questiones de anima</i> and George of Trebizond’s translation of Aristotle’s <i>De anima</i>, written on one paper stock and on quires with inner and outer parchment bifolia. A folio measures 385 mm in height x 257 mm in width after trimming. These measurements suggest that the original sheet – that is to say, the folio and its conjugate – most probably had dimensions of about 420 mm in height x 600 mm in width, which indicate a size called royal.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>This large folio paper is marked by the Arms of France with a crown and a pendant, likely of French origin, but with no identical match yet published in watermarks albums. Despite a similarity with Briquet <i>armoires: trois fleurs de lis</i>, n. 1741, the size of the sheet of paper differs: n. 1741 appears on a smaller sheet of paper measuring 300 mm in height x 430 mm in width.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>The paper stock in Add. 6190 is datable to the 1470s. It appears in <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://collections.library.yale.edu/catalog/10269855'>New Haven, Beinecke Library, MS 226</a>, a copy in French of the <i>Commentarii de Bello Gallico</i>, copied by Hellin de Burchgrave in 1476 in Flanders, and in <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://www.mossercatalogue.net/record.php?recID=Gl'>Glasgow, University Library, Hunter MS 197</a>, ff. 1-47, a copy of Chaucer’s <i>Canterbury Tales</i> by the Norwich scribes Geoffrey and Thomas Spirleng, dated to January 1476 (scribal colophon on f. 102v). This paper stock, then, was in circulation in the East of England by the end of the third quarter of the fifteenth century and on the continent at the same time. </p><p style='text-align: justify;'>These images have been produced through MSI in order to capture physical details of the item. For a full digitised version and description see <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='/view/MS-ADD-06190'>here</a>.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Orietta Da Rold and Logan Rivers, with assistance from Carlotta Barranu</p>