Bull's Head and Mermaid - The Bernstein Project - Österreichische ...
Bull's Head and Mermaid - The Bernstein Project - Österreichische ...
Bull's Head and Mermaid - The Bernstein Project - Österreichische ...
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IV 7a<br />
IV 7<br />
Klosterneuburg, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. 179, Part I (ff. 1–135)<br />
[1370s]<br />
Origin: Klosterneuburg (?)<br />
<strong>The</strong> first part of the manuscript, which consists of two<br />
parts, is a commentary on the Bible by Nicolaus de Lyra. It<br />
contains more than a dozen different watermarks. In the<br />
14 th century, more so than in the 15 th century, manuscripts<br />
were commonly written on a number of types of paper<br />
with different watermarks, each represented by only few<br />
sheets. Why this was so remains to be explained. <strong>The</strong> watermark<br />
motifs found in Codex 179 – geometric shapes <strong>and</strong><br />
pairs of keys – were especially common in Italian paper of<br />
the last third of the 14 th century.<br />
Like the vast majority of manuscripts from the Middle<br />
Ages, this manuscript contains no indication of when it was<br />
written. <strong>The</strong> h<strong>and</strong>writing suggests that it was written in the<br />
last third of the 14 th century, but an analysis of its watermarks<br />
allows Codex 179 to be dated with still more precision.<br />
<strong>The</strong> compilation of the watermarks of Codex 179 shows<br />
that the majority are identical (indicated by =) or are variants<br />
(indicated with var1, var2, etc.) to watermarks of the<br />
following manuscripts: Klosterneuburg, Stiftsbibliothek,<br />
Cod. 304, 318, 442, 466, 564A, 566, 584, 942 <strong>and</strong> Stiftsarchiv,<br />
Rb 1/1, Rb 7/1, Rb 25/1, Vienna, Erzbischöfliche<br />
Bibliothek, Cod. 2021 <strong>and</strong> Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek,<br />
Cod. 3989 (Ill. IV 7a).<br />
Of the manuscripts with related watermarks, six are dated.<br />
Since they all fall in the period between the years 1372<br />
<strong>and</strong> 1377, it is highly likely that the first part of Codex 179<br />
dates to the 1370s.<br />
A.H. (C.P.-K.)<br />
IV 8<br />
Klosterneuburg, Stiftsbibliothek, Cod. 146<br />
1428<br />
Origin: Southern Germany (?)<br />
This manuscript contains books of the Old Testament. Johannes<br />
Lindenfels from Rottenburg, the last of the scribes<br />
who worked on the manuscript, gave, on 294r, his name<br />
<strong>and</strong> 1428 as the manuscript’s date of completion. Although<br />
this makes dating by means of the watermarks unnecessary,<br />
it is useful to record the watermarks of all dated manuscripts<br />
(if possible, photographically). On one h<strong>and</strong>, watermarks<br />
with definite dates can then be added to the collections<br />
used for comparisons with undated manuscripts <strong>and</strong><br />
thus increase the basis of comparison; on the other, they<br />
can help verify the reliability of dating by means of watermarks.<br />
Codex 146 contains nine different Bull’s head watermarks,<br />
one of the most common motifs in the extant paper<br />
of the Middle Ages. <strong>The</strong> probable reason for its widespread<br />
circulation is that the Bull’s head had become generally<br />
accepted, already in the 14 th century, as a papermaker’s<br />
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