Found it!

You never know where a fragment could hide. When you search in a manuscript or printed book, a fragment is usually placed as a pastedown or a flyleaf or as a reinforce outside a quire. When it is used as a reinforce on the spine, it is much more difficult to detect its presence, since it is usually glued and hidden behind the cover… unless the binding is somehow broken. That’s when a fragment-searcher gets lucky: here there are some very small fragments from a 14th century French Breviary. Judging from the dimensions of the script and initials, the book was a portable one. The text we can see is not enough to determine the liturgical use of the original Breviary, but we can read the beginning of the first antiphon for Lauds, “Emissiones tuae”, used for the common of the virgins. (Found in Paris, BnF, fonds Latin).

Uncatalogued fragments at the BnF in Paris

On May 18th 2018 Francesco Siri and I presented at the IRHT Seminar in Paris a pretty interest discovery about fragments. Working at the BnF as part of the Polonsky project, we had the chances to find 19 boxes of fragments from bindings, which are still uncatalogued. The total amount of fragments is around 1000 pieces.

Among them, liturgical fragments are very well represented, with a bifolium from a Sacramentary dating from the 11th century and several pieces from later Antiphonals, Graduals and Missals. I was able to identify 67 fragments from an English Pontifical of the 12th century, with musical notation; what remains of a monastic Antiphonal from the abbey of Mouzon, in Lorraine notation, dating from the 12th century; and a small fragment of an Antiphonal noted in Aquitanian notation containing very rare pieces for st. Michael.

An article listing the pieces, their placement as a fragment, their actual dimensions, their date and content is currently being prepared. Stay in touch to find out more!