The RGME presents a pair of Workshops on Looking at Manuscripts, in a new series of online teaching workshops, to start with a single medieval manuscript leaf now on loan from the Jennah Farrell Collection. On loan to the RGME Library & Archives since June 2024, for conservation, photography, research, teaching, and publication, the vellum leaf contains part of the Old Testament Book of Numbers in a Latin Vulgate Bible.

The Farrell Collection acquired the leaf in a modern non-archival frame, without identifying information about its text, original manuscript, date and place of origin, travels from its original home to the former owner, who had abandoned it. Our challenge is to discern what the leaf might itself have to say about these different stages, and what we might discover about its original identity, its former manuscript, and its dispersal.

In preparation for this pair of workshops, the leaf has been removed from the modern frame and placed in a clear archival envelope and an archival folder, for protection and ease of safe consultation. The RGME has a long tradition of research on medieval and other manuscript fragments, documents, and other original sources, as witnessed, for example, in our blog on Manuscript Studies and its Contents List. See:

https://manuscriptevidence.org/wpme/manuscript-studies/
https://manuscriptevidence.org/wpme/manuscript-studies-contents-list/

Now, we open the process of research and discovery about this detached leaf to others -- beginners, advanced scholars, and others alike -- to help us solve its puzzles and learn more about its individual 'voice' as a witness, with evidence to decipher and power to teach.

Workshop 1 introduces the leaf and sets the groundwork
Sunday 17 November at 1:00-2:30 pm EST (GMT-5)

[For registration for Workshop 1, see this link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/rgme-workshop-on-looking-at-manuscripts1-introducing-the-farrell-leaf-tickets-1074899125219]

Workshop 2 follows up the lines of investigation as we might collectively compare notes and refine our inquiries more fully to understand the leaf and its relatives.
Sunday 16 December 2024 at 1:00-2:30 pm EST (GMT-5)

If we wish, we could publish our discoveries, for example in the RGME blog. Join the team!

Information about the leaf:

https://manuscriptevidence.org/wpme/a-latin-vulgate-leaf-from-the-book-of-numbers/ (Part 1)
https://manuscriptevidence.org/wpme/latin-vulgate-bible-leaf-in-the-collection-of-jennah-farrell-part-2/

Questions? Contact rgme.social@gmail.com.

Image: Collection of Jennah Farrell, Single Bible Leaf, Verso: top. Latin text in double columns, with running title in the top margin, decorative branching foliate ornament rising from the bar of the chapter initial in one column, and enlarged animated heads rising from the top of one letter in the top line of each column. Photography by Mildred Budny.

RGME Workshop on Looking at Manuscripts, 2: Follow-up for the Farrell Leaf

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