Documentary hand, possibly from France

Parchment bifolium in University of Victoria Libraries MS.Brown.It.1 (a c16 - c17 recipe miscellany)

Fragment once constituted two leaves of a Poetria nova quire written in single columns, ruled in pencil for 24–31 lines per page. This bifolium was once in the 3-6 position in a quire of 8, likely the first quire of a copy of the Poetria nova that, if a complete, had 5 quires of 8 (about 100 lines per bifolium, or about 400-425 lines per quire; the full poem is 2120 lines long).

The bifolium has been washed and flattened to make a single leaf in situ, rotated 90 degrees to the left, and reused. One side is almost entirely covered by two pieces of paper (with recipes in Italian) glued to the parchment.

Host volume donated to the University of Victoria in 1992 by Bruce and Dorothy Brown; purchased by the Browns from Maggs Brothers Ltd, London 

Miscellany of medical recipes, culinary recipes, and other ephemera, mostly in Italian (Bolognese dialect), some in Latin. Incomplete composite manuscript, compiled for personal use. Variety of scribal hands. One dated folio (32v): "3 Dbre 1614 in bolog (n) oa." Some lively pen trials and doodles (ff. 50-51). 33 leaves, old 17th-century foliation 31-62, modern foliation in pencil, on paper with the exception of one leaf of reused medieval parchment (f. 36). Paper quality and size inconsistent, some watermarks visible. Bound in plain modern boards. 300 x 220 cm.