As the printing trade developed in the 15th and 16th centuries, printed books gradually replaced manuscripts as the primary product for readers. Manuscripts which were unwanted or falling apart were reused by early bookbinders to cover the spines and boards of new books coming off the press. This was a common practice and the fragments are known as binders’ waste. While some pieces of binders’ waste remain hidden underneath the covers or spine, there is one fragment of a medieval manuscript in full view inside the back cover of Bibliotheca Sancta F Sicxto Senesis ex praecipius catholicae exxlesiae authoribus collecta, et in octo libros digesta.
It is a portion of Gregory the Great’s Epistles, and the handwriting has been identified as being a fourteenth century English court or business hand*. The large capital, finished with red and blue ink, is known as a rubricated capital. Many early printed books also feature illuminated or rubricated capitals finished by hand.
The book itself is an introduction to the Bible and its interpretation, issued following the Council of Trent, by Sixtus of Siena (1520-1569). He was an Italian Jew who converted to Roman Catholicism and joined the Dominican Order. It was published in Cologne in 1586, and was donated by M.J. Routh, the President of Magdalen College, Oxford.
* Sinclair, K.V. “A fragment of Gregory the Great’s Epistolae in Sydney” Scriptorium, Vol. XVII, No. 1, 1963, pp. 129-130.
