THE PALAEOGRAPHY OF THE MORGAN
FRAGMENT

by

E. A. LOWE

THE PALAEOGRAPHY OF THE MORGAN FRAGMENT.

DESCRIPTION OF THE FRAGMENT.

[Sidenote: _Contents size vellum binding_]

The Morgan fragment of Pliny the Younger contains the end of Book II
and the beginning of Book III of the _Letters_ (II, xx. 13-III, v. 4).
The fragment consists of six vellum leaves, or twelve pages, which
apparently formed part of a gathering or quire of the original volume.

The leaves measure 11-3/8 by 7 inches (286 x 180 millimeters); the
written space measures 7-1/4 by 4-3/8 inches (175 x 114 millimeters);
outer margin, 1-7/8 inches (50 millimeters); inner, 3/4 inch (18
millimeters); upper margin, 1-3/4 inches (45 millimeters); lower,
2-1/4 inches (60 millimeters).

The vellum is well prepared and of medium thickness. The leaves are
bound in a modern pliable vellum binding with three blank vellum
fly-leaves in front and seven in back, all modern. On the inside of the
front cover is the book-plate of John Pierpont Morgan, showing the
Morgan arms with the device: _Onward and Upward_. Under the book-plate
is the press-mark M.462.

[Sidenote: _Ruling_]

There are twenty-seven horizontal lines to a page and two vertical
bounding lines. The lines were ruled with a hard point on the flesh
side, each opened sheet being ruled separately: 48v and 53r, 49r and
52v, 50v and 51r. The horizontal lines were guided by knife-slits made
in the outside margins quite close to the text space; the two vertical
lines were guided by two slits in the upper margin and two in the lower.
The horizontal lines were drawn across the open sheets and extended
occasionally beyond the slits, more often just beyond the perpendicular
bounding lines. The written space was kept inside the vertical bounding
lines except for the initial letter of each epistle; the first letter of
the address and the first letter of the epistle proper projected into
the left margin. Here and there the scribe transgressed beyond the
bounding line. On the whole, however, he observed the limits and seemed
to prefer to leave a blank before the bounding line rather than to crowd
the syllable into the space or go beyond the vertical line.

[Sidenote: _Relation of the six leaves to the rest of the manuscript_]

One might suppose that the six leaves once formed a complete gathering
of the original book, especia