Manuscripts Cataloguing

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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.