The fragment is a lone vellum bifolium that survives as the back pastedown in a copy of Leonhart Fuchs, De historia stirpium comentarii insignes (or Notable Commentaries on the History of Plants) (Basileae [Basel, Switzerland] [place of publication]: In officina Isingriniana [publisher], 1542), in the Peter H. Raven Library in St Louis (the Missouri Botanical Library), Shelfmark QK41.F8 1542, c.2.
http://explore.searchmobius.org/search~S1?/X(de+historia+stirpium)&SORT=D/X(de+historia+stirpium)&SORT=D&SUBKEY=(de+historia+stirpium)/1%2C38%2C38%2CB/frameset&FF=X(de+historia+stirpium)&SORT=D&7%2C7%2C
The book, part of the collection of rare pre-Linnean volumes in the Missouri Botanical Garden Library, came to the Garden from the collection of E. Lewis Sturtevant (1842 –1898), a botanist and agriculturist. Sturtevant donated his personal collection of 463 volumes to the Garden in 1892.
The fragment, which has been cropped at the top, bottom and sides, has four chants on it; two on the left-hand side (the verso) and two on the right-hand side. It is the remains of a varied collection of chants, perhaps originally a supplement on the end pages of a gradual. The production is non-deluxe. 4-line black staffs with German-style neumes. Black ink. There appear to be three different hands who have written these pieces, and there is more than one music scribe. On the left-hand page, the neumes are vertical strikes with head on the left; on the right-hand page, the head is on the right. No rubrication or decoration, except for a banderole, top of right-hand page, column b, with the words “De sancta elizabeth vidua” in it.
Ruling:
Staffs ruled in ink. Distance between ruled lines of staff: ~0.4-5cm. Distance between lines where the writing appears ~ 1cm.
DIMENSIONS
Page:
~24.2cm h – x ~19.5cm (w – from gutter to edge of book) But it was originally bigger all round because the sides have been cropped. But not cropped that much because one knows the rest of the words of the chants, and not much is missing.
Number of lines:
10 lines of text are visible left-hand, column b, and also right-hand, column a.
Number of columns:
2
Height of minims:
There are possibly three hands. ~0.2cm, and smaller.
Space between lines: n/a
Height of written space: n/a
Width of written space: n/a
Upper margin:
Cropped.
Lower margin:
Cropped.
Space between columns:
~1.7 cm
Inner margin:
~2.2 – 2.5cm
Outer margin:
Cropped.
