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Fragmentology (manuscripts)

Fragmentology is the study of surviving parts of medieval or renaissance manuscripts typically made of vellum. Manuscript fragments may consist of whole or partial leaves, conjugate pairs or sometimes gatherings of a book or codex, or individual documents such as notarial acts. Manuscript fragments also are commonly found used in book bindings, especially printed books from the 15th to the 17th centuries, in a variety of ways such as wrappers or covers for the book, as endpapers, or cut into pieces and used to reinforce the binding. In recent years, fragmentology has become an active part of scholarly medieval studies fueled, in part, by the abundance in institutional libraries of binding fragments that have never been studied or cataloged. A number of symposia, websites and projects have been formed to pursue the study.

Fragments used in bookbindings


Leaves and parts of vellum leaves have been used in bindings of manuscripts since the middle ages. The use of manuscript fragments in bindings increased greatly at the end of the 15th century when printed books began to appear in increasing numbers, surplanting many older manuscripts. The conversion of northern Europe to Protestantism and the closing of monestaries and convents resulted in the discarding of many Catholic religious and liturgical manuscripts some of which were used by bookbinders. Sometimes, manuscript fragments have been removed from bookbindings either because the fragments were viewed as significant or valuable, or in the course of rebinding. Removal of these fragments destroys important context and evidence and is strongly criticized by scholars. Where it is necessary to remove such fragments, accepted practice requires they be preserved with the book and their original location recorded.

Evidentiary value of fragments
Manuscript fragments may provide a variety of useful evidence for medievalists, bibiographers and paleographers, including:


 * Preservation of a unique or rare text or other writing.
 * Preservation of early or significant script.
 * Evidence where a book was bound. Since medieval manuscripts generally did not travel far from where they were produced, the fact that a binding incorporates fragments of a manuscript from a given location may be evidence that the book was bound there or nearby.
 * Evidence concerning the book binder. The fact that fragments of the same manuscript are found in various bookbindings may connect the bindings, perhaps to a specific binder.
 * Evidence of ownership or provenance.
 * The internal and external structure of the bookbinding.

Modern breaking of manuscripts
Beginning in the nineteenth century, collectors cut ornamented initial letters and miniatures from illuminated manuscripts. In the twentieth century some book dealers began removing leaves from manuscripts to be sold for greater profit as individual pages or keepsakes. This "breaking" of manuscripts has been most common with books of hours which contain illuminated pages, gilding and attractive decorations. "As a result, today there are tens of thousands of single leaves in several hundred U.S. collections." This practice continues today and many individual leaves of books of hours and antiphonals are available on eBay and from book and manuscript dealers. Scholars strongly condemn this practice, even where the manuscript is incomplete to begin with, as it destroys the integrity and evidence of the entire manuscript. The most famous or infamous manuscript breaker was Otto Ege, who dismembered many complete and fragmentary manuscripts to sell the leaves individually or in large boxed collections.

Digital fragmentology
Scholars have studied Otto Ege's dismemberment and sale of manuscript leaves and have attempted to locate the present locations of the leaves of some of those manuscripts. A number of online projects have been started to collect images of these and other leaves leaves in a virtual reconstruction of the original manuscripts. This has been referred to as "digital fragmentology."

General

 * Research Group on Manuscript Evidence

Digital fragmentology projects

 * Fragmentarium-International Digital Research Lab for Medieval Manuscript Fragments
 * Broken Books Project Center for Digital Humanities, College of Arts and Sciences at Saint Louis University
 * Manuscriptlink University of South Carolina

Symposia and studies








Catalogs of manuscript fragments

 * Gumbert, J. P., Illustrated Inventory of Medieval Manuscripts in Latin Script in the Netherlands, Introduction: Rules-Instructions, Hilversum, Netherlands (2009), ISBN 978-90-8704-110-6.  Rules for describing manuscript fragments.
 * Gumbert, J. P., Illustrated Inventory of Medieval Manuscripts in Latin Script in the Netherlands, Vol. 1 Utrecht, Museum Catharijneconvent, Hilversum, Netherlands (2011), ISBN 978-90-8704-261-5. (Illustrated)
 * Gumbert, J. P., Illustrated Inventory of Medieval Manuscripts in Latin Script in the Netherlands, Vol. 2 Leiden, Universiteitsbibliotheek, Hilversum, Netherlands (2009), ISBN 978-90-8704-111-3. (Illustrated)
 * Ferrari, Mirella, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts at the University of California, Los Angeles, University of California Press (1991), ISBN0-520-09687-8,pp. 92-144. Collection of 134 medieval manuscript leaves.
 * Ker, Neil R., Fragments of Medieval Manuscripts Used as Pastedowns in Oxford Bindings, with a Survey of Oxford Binding c. 1515-1620, Oxford Bibliographical Society Publications, Third Series, No. 4., Oxford: Oxford Bibliographical Society (1954), ISBN 0 901420 55 7.
 * Skemer, Don C., Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts in the Princeton University Library, Princeton (2013), Vol. II, Ms. 132, pp. 371-381, Taylor Collection of 89 Manuscript Leaves and Documents, Ms. 138, pp. 387-400, 133 Princeton general collection of Manuscript Leaves and Documents.