The verses are written in littera textualis by a single hand.

Based on a number of characteristics, such as the very fine 'hairlines' after the final letters t and r, the hand can be dated to the second half of the fourteenth century. Erik Kwakkel reached the same conclusion after studying photographical reproductions of the manuscript fragments. He notes that the fragments are probably to be dated earlier rather than later in second half of the fourteenth century on the basis of some particular paleographic features, such as the elongation of the first two strokes of the letter w. The small tail sometimes found on the e and the style of the h with a short stem also support this hypothesis. 

No foliation visible.

The fragment originally formed part of a single-quire booklet of five bifolia, a quinio. A reconstruction of the original collation (by the author of this Description) is available on VisColl: 1V(10). The surviving fragments once formed the two inner bifolia of the original booklet, which also contained the Derde Martijn.

The original height was estimated based on J.P. Gumberts’ (1980) statistical study of manuscript page dimensions. Gumbert has shown that the ratio of height to width generally ranges between 0.60 and 0.80.

The strips left no offset in the host volume: apart from discoloration, no text was visible, with the exception of a few letters. The discoloration is quite noticeable in some places, which suggests that the strips were once glued in the host volume. 

Plain initials (red) indicate the start of the stanzas; rubric (red); initial 'S' (red); colour-stroked letters (red) at the start of each verse.

The fragments do not appear to have been written in Maerlant's usual Flemish dialect. For the dialectological identification of the sewing guards, I consulted Evert van den Berg. Our analysis shows that the copyist eliminated forms typical of Flanders – and replaced them with forms from the Denderstreek (Dender region) and Brabant. We find the following examples:

• ‘soe’ > ‘si’ (Eerste Martijn: vs. 73, 732-733, 735)
• ‘sulc’ > ‘selc’ (Eerste Martijn: vs. 700, 898; Tweede Martijn: vs. 192)
• ‘dincken’ > ‘duncken’ (Eerste Martijn: vs. 570, 901; Tweede Martijn: vs. 202)
• ‘bin’ > ‘ben’ (Eerste Martijn: vs. 973; Tweede Martijn, vs. 15, 28, 202)
• ‘up’ > ‘op’ (Eerste Martijn: vs. 593, 898; Tweede Martijn: vs. 11, 29, 31)
• ‘rene’ > ‘reine’, ‘clene’ > ‘cleine’ en ‘bede’ > ‘beide’, ‘heleghen’ > ‘heyleghen’ (Eerste Martijn: vs. 582, 732, 799; Tweede Martijn: vs. 138, 166, 313)
• ‘vul’ > ‘vol’ (Eerste Martijn: vs. 781)
• ‘deelt’ > ‘deilt’ (Eerste Martijn: vs. 733, 853).
• ‘tlanghe’ > ‘dlanghe’, ‘toude’ > ‘doude’, ‘tnieuwe’ > ‘dnuwe’, ‘twater’ > ‘dwater’ (Tweede Martijn: vs. 189, 302)
• ‘eerst’ > ‘ierst(e)’ (Tweede Martijn: vs. 250, 275)
• ‘lettel’ > ‘luttel’ (Eerste Martijn: vs. 924)

In 2003, the fragments were identified by Jan Deschamps and Herman Mulder in the Latin manuscript at the Royal Library of Belgium.

Based on contemporary ownership marks on folia 1v and 264v, it appears that the Latin codex, now in the Royal Library of Belgium, was brought by Henricus van Loen when he joined the Carthusians at Herne in 1441. (Fol. 1v and fol. 264v: “1ste liber pertinet domui Capelle. beate marie. prope angiam. ordinis carthusiensis. Quem contulit frater henricus de loe monachus. professus eiusdem domus. Oretur pro eo propter deum”).

Van Loen (1406–1481) became rector of the University of Leuven in 1437. In 1441, he entered the Carthusian monastery at Herne. Van Loen brought several manuscripts from Leuven to Herne.

In 2003, Jan Deschamps and Herman Mulder reported the discovery of 22 sewing guards ('hartstrookjes' in Dutch) in this Latin paper codex. The manuscript was too tightly bound to allow for proper study of the strips, but they did report that they were remnants of Jacob van Maerlant's Eerste Martijn and Tweede Martijn. They transcribed the 15 most legible verses: from the Eerste Martijn, they listed verses 564, 609, 667, 711–712, 742, 947, and 950; from the Tweede Martijn, verses 18, 20, 89, 152, 156, 198, and 279.

After thorough consultation between Sofie Moors, Jan Pauwels, curator of Manuscripts and Early Printed Books (KBR), and July Van Malderen, a staff member of the restoration and conservation workshop, it was decided in 2025 to remove the strips from the modern binding. Not 22, but 23 sewing guards were found.

While removing the modern binding from manuscript 77-78, July van Malderen discovered that the underlying structure was likely original to the fifteenth century and that the manuscript had been bound only once. This technical finding has implications for our understanding of when and where the manuscript was fragmented. Unless Henricus van Loen took the manuscript to Herne in unbound form – which is unlikely given its size – the strips must have been inside it before it arrived in Herne in 1441.