2020 Essays

Making Ms. Fr. 640

Smith, Marc

A close physical and visual examination of Ms. Fr. 640, in terms of codicology (material structure) and paleography (handwriting), can tell us much about how it was created and handed down to its present location, and thus allows us to better understand its contents. Contrary to the first impression it might give the reader of a smoothly coherent whole written from front to back cover, it is instead the result of complex intellectual and technical movement back and forth between experimenting and writing, both at the time of its composition and later when it became embalmed as a valuable library item, right down to the present day in its most recent avatar as a digital facsimile, edition, and translation.