manuscripts cataloguing from bologna to the blogosphere. a history of written correspondence’...
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Manuscripts Cataloguing
From Bologna to the Blogosphere.A History of Written Correspondence’ Summer School
June 23rd - July 4th 2014
Flavia Manservigi
What does cataloguing means?
Cataloguing =
Process of classifying something according
to categorical systems
What does cataloguing a manuscript mean?
Cataloguing manuscripts =
To describe, analyze and classify manuscripts,
considering their external and internal features
A manuscript to be catalogued =
a body of writing material usually having the shape of a book and more or less covered with hand
writing, usually preserved, completely or in fragments, in a
public institution
Description =
the exposition, made in a fixed order and in a homogenous
way, of a series of data concerning elements of a
physic, historical and textual kind considered fundamental
for the correct patrimonial and scientific individuation
Every country has got its own cataloguing methods,
BUT
There a number of elements concerning the manuscripts’ description that are common to every place and country
Parts of a catalogue
• description of the external features of the manuscript;• description of the internal
features of the manuscript;• bibliographical information
and eventual reproductions of the manuscript.
EXTERNAL DESCRIPTION
Identification of the manuscript
• city;
• preservation place;
• archive or collection;
• signature mark.
Material
• Parchment
• Paper
• Mixed material
Date• s. XIII in.’ = beginning of the thirteenth
century; • s. XIII2 = second half of the thirteenth
century;• s. XIII ex. = end of the thirteenth century;• s. XIII/XIV = turn of the thirteenth century;• s. XIII = middle of the thirteenth century;• s. XIII ex. – XV in. = late thirteenth- century
and part of the early fifteenth century
Origins =
The place where a document has been
written
Watermark=
the trade mark of the different paper factories
Leaf/Leaves
V + 194 + V=
Manuscript made of 194 leaves, with 5 fly-leaves at
the beginning of the manuscript and five at the
end
Foliation /Pagination
• Foliation: up to the 16th century
• Pagination: after the 16th
century
Measurements (mm)
• Height
• Width
• If the leaves have huge differences, it is better to point out the measurement of two or three representative leaves.
Gathering• A quire is made of a certain number of
leaves folded in their centre, put the one into the other and sewed along their central folding.
• You have to count all the quires of the manuscript to verify is they are all made of the same number of leaves.
• 16 (the first quire has 6 leaves) + 25 (one leaf lacking)
Quire signatures and leaf signatures
These signs can usually be found on the verso of the last
leaf of each quire and they are expressed in roman
numbers or letters of the alphabet
Pricking
• Pricks were used to guide the ruling of the horizontal lines.• Pricking can give some data
about the dating and the place where the manuscript has been written.
Ruling
• dry-point stylus
• plummet
• crayon
Ruled mirror
Figurative scheme deriving from the straight lines traced
for the writing and the vertical ones used to close
the writing field
Rule=
The pure mark, made dry-stone or in colors, to lodge
writing.
Layout
• Unique page
• Columns
Catchwords=
Writing of the first word or two of the next quire at the
bottom side of the last leaf of the quire they had just
finished.
Signs of pecia
University-approved exemplars of texts were divided into
sections (peciae) and were hired out by approved
librarians (the stationers) to the scribes for copying (pecia
means “piece” in Latin)
Type of script and writing hands
• It is necessary to conform to the Palaoegraphical terminology of the sixteenth century.
• It is necessary to mark out that the leaves has been written by different scribes just in cases of absolute evidence.
Rubrication and Decoration
• Rubrication: paragraph-marks and simple initials as well to titles, chapter headings, and colophons in red and blue.
Rubrication and DecorationDecorations: pictures,
initials, borders, line-fillers, colored strokes used to emphasize the capital
letters in the ink of the text, etc…
Glosses and marginalia
Linear glosses, commentaries and marginalia, note on the
text, nota marks and maniculae, and indexing
apparatus
Seals and stamps
• Certification of the authenticity of the document.• It is necessary to specify the
material and the shape of seals and stamps.
Binding and covers
The description of this element requires a particular
diligence, since here the cataloger has to make
understand to the reader the general aspect owned today
by the manuscript.
Fragments
State of preservation
• Damages
• Mutilations
• Restorations
Copyists and other makers
• It is necessary to write the whole colophon.
• It is necessary to indicate if the copyist’s name has been taken from the submission or from other sources.
• It is necessary to point out if the manuscript has been totally or partially written from the author of text.
Revisions and annotations
• Corrections
• Marginal or interlinear annotations
• Lists and indexes joined from scholars or librarians
Old signature marks
It is necessary to write all the signature marks that are
present on the manuscript
Owners and History of the manuscript
• Ownership
• Donation
• Loan
• Sell
Historical information from other sources
• Catalogues
• Inventories
• Other sources
Varia
• Probations calami• Formula • Remarks• Prayers• Alphabets• Short poems • Historical indications
INTERNAL DESCRIPTION
Composed manuscripts
It is always necessary to indicate if the code is
composed by one text or more
Author/s• author’s name according to the various forms it
has in the different parts of the document and in other versions of it;
• transcription of the author’s name (at the nominative Latin case) in the form it has in the manuscript’s title;
• name of author joined by a coeval or later hand, specifying its dating and its position;
• indication of the name of the author as it was identified by the cataloger.
Title
• Title appearing at the beginning of the text
• Titles joined by a coeval or later hand
Incipit and explicit (opening and closing
words)
If in the manuscript there are different texts, it will be
necessary to indicate the incipit and explicit of all of
them
Typographical notes
= Printed parts of a manuscript
Sources
• Publications
• Critical editions (possibly the most recent)
• Catalogues etc
Bibliographical references
This is a preliminary operations, which must
precede the description of the manuscript, and it is an essential operation for a
correct interpretation of it.
Reproductions of the manuscript
Bibliography
• N. R. Ker, Medieval Manuscripts in British Libraries, Oxford and the Clarendon Press, 1969.
• W. J. Wilson, Manuscript Cataloging, in “Traditio”, XII (1956), pp. 457-555.
• M. Ferrari, Medieval and Renaissance manuscripts at the University of California, Los Angeles. Preliminary descriptions, The UCLA for Medieval and Renaissance studies, 1978.
Bibliography
• A. Petrucci, La descrizione del manoscritto. Storia, problemi, modelli, NIS (La Nuova Italia Scientifica), 1984.
• Guida a una descrizione uniforme dei manoscritti e al loro censimento, a cura di V. Jemolo, M. Morelli, Istituto Centrale per il Cataologo Unico delle Biblioteche Italiane e per le Informazioni BIbliograpiche, Roma, 1990.