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Jeselyn Templin 
 Manuscript Study 
 Background
 Title(s) 
 The title of the manuscript is Commentary on the Book of Numbers. The work contains commentary on the Book of Numbers, which is the fourth book of the Pentateuch in the Old Testament. Because the author of the Commentary, Rabanus Maurus, was accustomed to analyzing Biblical text, this manuscript is composed of four books with separate commentary on each of the 36 chapters, which detail “the journey of the Israelites from Mount Sinai to the borders of the land of Canaan, a journey that took forty years” (Jacobs, 2003). Context 
 This manuscript is one of a large body of work produced by Rubinus Maurus. His writing career began with a success when his Praises of the Holy Cross was published c. 810. This work is still described as “an astonishing montage of figurative verses of which the surviving manuscripts still offer a splendid depiction” (Vauchez, 2005). This literary accomplishment made way for many others, as Maurus went on to publish manuscripts on many subjects including languages and topical politics. While he was a pastor Maurus’ work took a religious attitude with Bible observation, his most famous of that time period being Commentary on Matthew’s Gospel, in eight books. Commentary on the Book of Numbers is an example of the breadth of Maurus’

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work; he produced work commenting on every book in the New and Old Testament, not to mention many other complete works on diverse subjects. What is the content of the manuscript?
 The Book of Numbers “is a composite work with its sections deriving from different periods in the history of Israel” (Jacobs, 2003). Although the original version of the Book of Numbers was reworked by the editorial process, the Pentateuch’s fourth book is seen as a work of art. It illustrates the passage of the Israelites to the land of Canaan, and is said to have been dictated by God, as is the rest of the Pentateuch. This manuscript, Commentary on the Book of Numbers, contains a preface, a list of the contents for each of the four books, and then a detailed analysis of each of the Book of Numbers’ 36 chapters. Author(s) or creator(s) 
 Rabanus Maurus (776-856) was a German theologian and teacher. Throughout his life Maurus was a deacon, a student of Alcuin, a beloved teacher at the convent school at Fulda, and later in life, the archbishop of Mainz. Maurus was best known for his commentaries on “all books of the New and Old Testaments and many of the Apocryphal ones” (Rush, 2006). Provenance 
 The provenance of a manuscript is defined as the “history of ownership beginning with the first owner for whom evidence of ownership survives” (Clemens & Graham, 2007, p. 117). The first known owner of Commentary on the Book of Numbers was the Cistercian abbey of Pontigny, near Paris. From there it was purchased by Sir Thomas Phillipps, and from him purchased again by Bernard Quaritch. After that, Edward Sanford Burgess acquired the manuscript from Quaritch

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although “unfortunately, the exact date of purchase is not known” (Rush, 2006). Julia Burgess inherited Commentary on the Book of Numbers in 1935, and subsequently gave it to the University of Oregon as part of the Burgess Collection. It is currently housed at the University of Oregon’s Special Collections Library. Physical Description:
 Size 
 The manuscript is about 41.1 centimeters high and 31 centimeters wide, or 16.18 x 12.2 inches. It contains 85 thick vellum leaves, so when the manuscript is closed it measures several inches in thickness. Because of the binding performed by the university for preservation purposes it is heavy, but even without this extra binding the work would still be quite heavy because the pages are dense and substantial by themselves. Binding 
 This manuscript unfortunately bears no remains of the original binding. However, Commentary on the Book of Numbers was “re-bound in half calf by Bretherton in 1849,” with the inscription on the backstrip, “RABANUS MAURUS, IN NUMEROS, 3724” (Rush, 2006). Material written on (parchment or paper) 
 Commentary on the Book of Numbers is written predominately on “leaves of thick, suede-like vellum with little hair/flesh contrast” (Rush, 2006). Examining this manuscript was the first time I was exposed to parchment made from animal skin, and I was surprised to find how much the material differs from paper. Vellum is thicker than paper and less malleable. When the manuscript was first produced the material might have been suppler, but when I turned the pages

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extreme caution seemed to be required so a sheet was not accidentally torn. The experience of touching the vellum was in itself a look into the time period when the work was created and eyeopening for someone who has only ever read books made of thin, modern paper. The work also contains a flyleaf at the front made of paper, which makes the texture difference between the two materials apparent. Collation and how was it put together:
 Rulings, prickings 
 The manuscript includes brown rulings on every page as guidelines for the text. There are both horizontal lines for the scribe to follow while writing, and vertical lines to show where the margins begin and end. On each page, the text is written in two columns of 40 lines each. The rulings make it possible for each page’s spacing to be identical to the one before, which creates a clean look for the work as a whole.
 In Introduction to Manuscript Studies, Clemens and Graham explain that “scribes pricked small holes in the margins of the leaves to guide their horizontal and vertical rulings…with a knife, an awl, or a compass” (2007, p. 15). Although some manuscripts of the time period had their prick marks cut off during production, Commentary on the Book of Numbers has prickings on every page. Some are very prominent and others are almost invisible, which lead me to believe the scribe put many pages together to prick at once, as was often the process to save time. The prickings in Commentary are small and round, most likely made with a compass or an awl as opposed to a knife.

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Ink 
 The ink used to write this manuscript is very dark and bold black ink. Unlike some aging works, the ink does not appear to have faded much, if at all, since its creation. It still looks as fresh, almost wet-looking, as it must have the day it was written. Rubrication and Historiated Initials 
 This work contains five illuminated initials, three large and two small, and 57 smaller initials. The preface and Book I both begin with illuminated initials that span fifteen lines, and Book II’s illuminated initial spans 35 lines, and are “reminiscent of early Celtic illumination” (Rush, 2006). Book III and Book IV’s opening illuminated initials span 5.5 and five lines respectively. The smaller initials are found throughout the text. There is no evidence of rubrication, “the use of a different colour, usually red,” for emphasis, in this manuscript (Chilvers, 2004). Decoration
 The manuscript contains no independent illustrations. The initials throughout the work account for most of the decoration. They are painted onto the pages in red, blue, and green and detailed with vines, dragons, griffins, squares, circles, geometric designs, and flowers. Since the smaller letters do not have space for such intricate designs, they are embellished with “pen-work flourishes” (Rush, 2006). Script: Handwriting style; hands of different scribes? 
 Commentary on the Book of Numbers is written “in the tradition of the Protogothic System of scripts” or Protogothic Book Script, a system which “generally corresponds with the Romanesque period of art and architecture” (Rush, 2006). It is probable that while the majority

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of the manuscript was written by one scribe, many had a hand in its creation. This is evident by the preface and text of the four books being in one consistent hand, but the listing of contents before each book being in a different one. However, the change in script for the content lists merely “contains lengthened ascenders and descenders, which…were a cheap way to elaborate script,” so the entire manuscript may have been written by the same scribe, after all (Rush, 2006). 
 A place where a second scribe clearly worked on the manuscript is at the top of the “the recto and verso of each leaf,” because the four books of Commentary (containing 17, 25, 12, and 12 chapters respectively) do not correctly match up with the chapter numbers of the actual chapter divisions of the Book of Numbers. Incipit 
 According to the listing of contents, each book has its own incipit, or opening words of a text. In this particular manuscript the incipit is not differentiated from the rest of the text by a space or section break, but they are mentioned separately in the contents list. Explicit 
 Commentary on the Book of Numbers also contains a separate explicit, the closing words of a text, for each of the four books and the preface. Again, they are not specially differentiated in the text, but have their own entry in the table of contents. Subscriptio (verse text or epigram--from Latin for "that which is written underneath"; a writing at the bottom or end of a document) and/or colophon 
 After Book IV at the end of the document, “the authorship of the text is divulged” by the scribe

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and identified as Rabanus Maurus (Rush, 2006). While this happens at two other places in the manuscript, in the phrase beginning the preface and Book I, the identification of Maurus as the author is the final phrase of the explicit of Book IV and can be considered the colophon to Commentary on the Book of Numbers. Marginalia 
 There have been many markings made in the margins of Commentary since its creation. Some are numbers, like “169” penciled in on the last page, which may be the counting of lines or columns. There are also dashes on almost every page, in fact on almost every line, that possibly act as modern-day hyphens. Scribes used the rulings as law and did not go over the lines, even if they needed to stop in the middle of a word, so someone later on may have gone over the work and noted where these line breaks took place. Toward the end of the manuscript there are some

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red, blue, and black markings that may be edits made to the work later on.

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^ Red edit marks

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^ Small illuminated initial

! ^ Prickings

^ Example of ink and dashes Book Study

Context and Content Title(s) 
 The title of the printed book I chose to study is Eight Bookes of the Peloponnesian Warre. It is an English translation of Thucydides’ history of the Peloponnesian war between Athens and Sparta, which was originally written in Greek. Author(s) 
 The original author of the Greek text is Thucydides, a Greek historian most likely born between 460 and 455 B.C. Of his eight-book work, Thucydides was known to explain that “at the beginning of the Peloponnesian War he realized that it would have a greater importance in the history of Greece than any previous wars…and therefore would be the more worth writing about” (Howatson, 2011). According to the title page, the books were “Interpreted with Faith and

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Diligence Immediately out of the Greeke By Thomas Hobbes,” an English scholar active in the 1600’s (Thucydides, 1629). Thucydides’ Eight Bookes was an achievement for Hobbes in that it was his first publication, and his first classic translation (Kors, 2005). Context 
 The original Greek Eight Bookes was published sometime between 431 and 404 B.C., a period which is also known as the Ionian or Decelean War. Thucydides worked diligently to document the events of the Peloponnesian War, of which the Ionian War was the final stage before Sparta’s victory over Athens. The original intention for the Eight Bookes was to document all events of the Peloponnesian War until its conclusion in 404 B.C. but “the narrative breaks off in midsentence with the events of the winter 411/10,” apparently because Thucydides died, and continuations by Theopompus and Cratippus were unfortunately lost (Howatson, 2011). During the Peloponnesian War Thucydides was in exile because he was unable to keep the Athens colony of Amphipolis from falling to the Spartans, so his account of the war is a unique look at the events from someone who is exclusively an observer, uninvolved in the events. Printer(s) and or publisher 
 The title page announces that this book was “Imprinted for Hen: Seile, and are to be sold at the Tigres Head in Paules churchyard” (Thucydides, 1629). There is no more specific information on the publisher of this edition of the work with the exception of the publishing location, London, and the year, 1629. The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature states that the translation was published “by” Thomas Hobbes, but also does not specify the printer or publisher.

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Place of publication 
 Eight Bookes was published in London in 1629, and was Hobbes’ first publication of any kind after graduating from Oxford in 1608. This publication is significant not only because it was Hobbes’ first, but also because this translation and his later translations of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey were his only works that did not attract controversy in London for their political, religious, or scientific ideals. Title page 
 The title page of Eight Bookes is truly beautiful. All necessary information such as the title of the book, the name of the author and the translator, and the place and year of publication are accounted for, but the title page also includes illustrations representing all eight books. The black and white images are detailed with lines and shading, and each includes a small title worked into the picture like an engraving, which has not been translated from the original Greek. The text on the title page is much more detailed than the way title pages are presented in modern books. Today they rarely contain more than only the title itself, and the publication and author information is saved for a separate page. In most early printed books, Eight Bookes included, all of this material is presented on one largely embellished page and presented in several different typefaces to effective draw the reader’s attention to each part individually. Physical Description
 Size and format (folio, quarto, octavo, etc.) 
 Hobbes’ translation of Eight Bookes measures 8.5 inches by 13 inches. In the list of standard book sizes it comes closest to a folio. Folio can also be defined as “a leaf of paper or vellum,

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whatever its size or format, comprising both recto and verso sides: i.e. two pages” (Beal, 2011). This definition is also accurate to the format of the book, because there is printing on both sides of each of the 535 numbered sheets of paper. Paper (watermarks?) 
 Watermarks “were commonly used to identify paper” in the early days of printing, and are visible when one shines light through the page because “they have a lower density than the surrounding paper” (Clemens & Graham, 2007, p. 8). With the help of librarians at the University of Oregon’s Special Collections library, I was able to identify a watermark on the pages of Eight Bookes. It appears on about every fourth page of the book, and is more pronounced on some than others. Even with the pages where the watermark is clearer it is unfortunately very difficult to tell what it pictures, although it is possibly a coat of arms. Foliation or pagination 
 Each page of the book is numbered in the top corner. This includes the title page, dedication “To the Right Honorable, Sir William Cavendysshe, Knight of the Bath, Baron of Hardwicke, and Earle of Devonshire, and an introduction to the text entitled “Of the Life and History of Thucydides,” which is another difference from a modern printed book (Thucydides, 1629). Usually contemporary printed books use a different system of numbering for the title and any introductory sections not directly part of the text (for example, lower case Roman numerals) or not numbered at all.
 A mistake in pagination is evident on the final two pages of the book. The numbers continue in the correct order from beginning to end, until the final page when the page on the left is correctly

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numbered 534, and the page on the right is mistakenly numbered 536. Upon examination of a database at the University of Oregon which details other copies of this book housed in other libraries, this mistake was not made only in the specific copy I studied. Skipping the number 535 is an error made in all other copies documented in the database. In the beginning of the book before the dedication, Hobbes includes a list of errors in the text and how they should be corrected, but this pagination error is not on the list, presumably because the errors are ones he found in the original Greek text, not that he made in the 1629 translation. Printer's device
 A printer’s device, also known as a printer’s mark, is used “to accompany – or occasionally to serve as – their imprint in a book” and are usually “found along with the colophon at the end of books printed before 1500-10, and thereafter more usually on the title page” (Carter, 1985, p. 76). On the title page of Hobbes’ translation of Eight Books, there is one illustration that stands apart from the rest. The illustrations depict groups of people in council, maps, groups of soldiers, and individual warriors in battle gear, but the illustration underneath the publisher’s information is of a thoughtful-looking man holding a scroll. This could be a representation of Thucydides and not related to the printer’s mark, but it is also possible that this is the actual printer’s device, because no other device is evident in the work. Type (i.e., Roman, Italic, Gothic, etc.) 
 Because of the heavy serifs, “short lines near the top and bottom of the long parts of some printed letters,” and the lack of contrast between thick and thin lines, the typeface used in the majority of this book is most likely Old Style (“Serif,” 2014). Old Style type was based upon the

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handwriting style of Humanistic Script, which originated in Italy in the mid-fifteenth century “in reaction to medieval scripts such as Gothic” (Beal, 2011). Color printing 
 While Eight Books contains ornate illustrations and is overall a very detailed work, it does not contain any color printing. The entire book was printed in black and white, including the pictorials and elaborate chapter headings. Binding 
 The book is bound in hardcover, and because of the design on the front and back cover, it is most likely pictorial cloth over boards. Because of the white paste-downs in both the front and back cover, the binding of Eight Bookes has a relatively modern look. The overall condition of the book would be considered fair. The front cover has completely detached from the spine, and there are many marks of age and use throughout the pages. Endleaves and flyleaves 
 At the front and back of the book there is one sheet of paper that is completely blank, and thicker and a brighter shade of white than the rest of the pages. They are the same type of thick paper used for the paste-downs. These pages could be considered flyleaves, but it is more likely that they are free end papers, in which case Hobbes’ translation of Thucydides’ Eight Bookes of the Peloponnesian Warre contains no flyleaves or endleaves, but one FFEP, front free endpaper, and one RFEP, rear free endpaper, in addition to the paste-downs.

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! ^ Title page

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^ Example of Old Style Type

! ^ Dedication page

^ Introduction page

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! ^ List of errors

! ^ Pagination mistake

^ End illustration

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! ^ Front cover

^ Watermark

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References Beal, P. (2011). A dictionary of English manuscript terminology 1450-2000. Oxford University Press. Retrieved from http://www.oxfordreference.com.libaccess.sjlibrary.org/view/10.1093/ acref/97801995761 28.001.0001/acref-9780199576128-e-0422?rskey=ZdALHV&result=1 Carter, J. (1985). ABC for book collectors (6th ed.). London: Granada. Chilvers, I. (2004). The Oxford dictionary of art (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press. Retrieved from http://www.oxfordreference.com.libaccess.sjlibrary.org/view/10.1093/acref/97801986047 61.001.0001/acref-9780198604761-e-3046?rskey=r0QxEl&result=1 Clemens, R. & Graham, T. (2007). Introduction to manuscript studies. Ithica, NY: Cornell University Press. Howatson, M. C. (Ed.). (2011). The Oxford companion to classical literature (3rd ed.). Oxford University Press. Retrieved from http://www.oxfordreference.com.libaccess.sjlibrary.org/ view/10.1093/acref/97801995485 45.001.0001/acref-9780199548545-e-2939? rskey=iEvooT&result=1 Jacobs, L. (2003). A concise companion to the Jewish religion. Oxford University Press. Retrieved from http://www.oxfordreference.com.libaccess.sjlibrary.org/view/10.1093/ acref/97801928008 86.001.0001/acref-9780192800886-e-495 Kors, A. C. (Ed.). (2005). Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment. Oxford University Press. Retrieved from http://www.oxfordreference.com.libaccess.sjlibrary.org/view/10.1093/ acref/97801951043 01.001.0001/acref-9780195104301-e-313?rskey=OSKBxI&result=7 Rush, I. (2006). Burgess collection: Rabanus Maurus, commentary on the Book of Numbers. Retrieved from University of Oregon Libraries http://library.uoregon.edu/ec/exhibits/ burgess/ms9.html “Serif.” (2014). Merriam-Webster. Retrieved from 
 http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/serif Thucydides. (1629). Eight Bookes of the Peloponnesian Warre (T. Hobbes, Trans.). London. Vauchez, A. (2005). Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages. James Clarke & Co. Retrieved from http://www.oxfordreference.com.libaccess.sjlibrary.org/view/10.1093/acref/97802276793 19.001.0001/acref-9780227679319-e-2359?rskey=pNETKk&result=2