Me too!

When asked just what do I do, I often utter darkly, “I rescue manuscripts before they become someone’s découpage project.” I never truly believed that anyone selling a fragment would encourage such a practice — then I saw this on eBay. Perfect entry for “10 Word Horror Story” contest. #fragmentology

I know about book breaking but had no idea that fragment breaking was a thing. A martyrology leaf offered recently by a respected dealer is now offered on eBay, having been recently (within the past 2 months) sliced in half. The other half has gone missing. *angry sigh* Caveat emptor fragmentorum.

For me, this is what #fragmentology is all about. So much information can be gleaned from a multi-faceted approach to researching a single fragment. It’s impossible to pose too many questions.

See Pickwoad, Nicholas, "The Use of Fragments in Medieval Manuscrips in the Construction and Covering of Bindings on Printed Books" in Brownrigg and Smith (eds.), Interpreting and Collecting Fragments of Medieval Books, p. 2. #fragmentology

"If the famous lament of John Bale is to be believed, there was a considerable international trade in the material as old manuscripts were 'sent ouersee to the bokebynders, not in small nombre, but at time whole shyppes full, to the wonderynge of the foren nacyons.'"

What a great thread! I hadn’t realized how much I missed #breakfastpaleography.

When I first encountered this ampersand in a fragment of Vita sancte marthe, I had to turn my screen sideways to make sense of it.

Do you have a leaf of this manuscript in your collection that we might not know about? DM me!

Nice! I wish this 15thC fragment of Book III (on a sammelband of Aldine Ciceros) had been as legible! It took me a while (and MSI) to figure it out. archive.org/details/vir....

Like so many, I’m making the switch to this site and looking forward to reconnecting with the book community I have missed. Will be posting early printed/manuscript fragments as they come my way, linking to @fragmentarium.bsky.social and IA (when it’s back).

Pic is just a teaser. More to come…

Wait, what? This is fantastic and a fantastic goal!

Please share far and wide!! It's the course's first year, and it won't run without sufficient enrollment 🥹

An absolutely WONDERFUL presentation — informative, engaging, enlightening! Wish it had lasted many more hours.
Case closed!

Devin, although I recognize that this has been a challenging process, I am very happy to hear that you will be back at UCLA. Congratulations. LA welcomes you.