Late praegothica/early gothic, with curved feet, occasional S and T ligatures (even when the letters are physically separated, the curve is present.) I may be long or short.

This reconstructed parchment leaf contains several fragments that are part of a series of musical binding materials ("The Ridgefield Project"). The parchment was used to bind volumes of the "Histoire Ecclésiastique pour servir de continuation à celle de Monsieur l'Abbé Fleury" (Paris, Pierre-Jean Mariette, 1722-1738). As a result, the pages (which likely originally measured some 400 x 300 mm) are now cut into several possible shapes. “Ladder pieces” are roughly 200 mm by 75 mm, with 4 “slats” (approximately 50 mm wide and 12.5 mm tall) removed at regular intervals of approximately 30 mm. “Head” and “tail” pieces, extracted from the top or bottom of the spine, are typically rectangular or square, and approximately 75 mm on each side. A few smaller pieces, no more than 50 mm square, are taken from the middle of the spine.

The parchment pieces found in the Ridgefield Project appear to be from a thirteenth-century antiphoner and gradual, both from an (as yet unidentified) Cistercian monastery, possibly in France or Belgium.

This small fragment, composed of 2 “head/tail” pieces ("Group J”) from Volume 9 of the Histoire (1720), is from the antiphoner, but contains no chants (only a roundel).

roundel "vii"