MAIN PAGEMISSAL VS BOOK OF HOURSFURTHER READINGABOUT THIS EXHIBIT|||ONLINE EXHIBITIONS
Click to Enlarge

The manuscript entered our collection sometime between 1866 and 1929 when the official name of this institution, as found on the identification stamp on the first page, was "The College of the City of New-York".

The appearance of the hyphenated name for the City of New-York on this stamp suggests that it was acquired during the nineteenth century because it matches other items in the Morris Raphael Cohen Library collection with a nineteenth-century imprint. However, the catalogue of the library collection printed in 1877 does not include an entry for this manuscript. It is possible that this manuscript was donated by an alumnus of the College who graduated in the late nineteenth-century and had an interest in medieval history.

The round, white holes are original to the manuscript because the lettering of the words is carefully arranged around these holes. They occurred when the vellum was stretched while preparing the sheep or calf skin to become a writing surface. Where there was a flaw in the skin and it was stretched so thin, a hole developed. The stationer may have evened out that gap and trimmed it to create a round hole.





BACK || NEXT

    


Copyright © The City College Library
www.ccny.cuny.edu/library