[Sidenote:  Later history of the Morgan manuscript]

The vicissitudes of a manuscript often throw light upon the history of the text contained in the manuscript.  And the palaeographer knows that any scratch or scribbling, any probatio pennae or casual entry, may become important in tracing the wanderings of a manuscript.

In the six leaves that have been saved of our Morgan manuscript we have two entries.  One is of a neutral character and does not take us further, but the other is very clear and tells an unequivocal story.

The unimportant entry occurs in the lower margin of folio 53r.  The words “uir erat in terra,” which are apparently the beginning of the book of Job, are written in Carolingian characters of the ninth century.  As these characters were used during the ninth century in northern Italy as well as in France, it is impossible to say where this entry was made.  If in France, then the manuscript of Pliny must have left its Italian home before the ninth century.[31]

  [Footnote 31:  This supposition will be strengthened by Professor
  Rand; see p. 53. {Further consideration of...}]

That it had crossed the Alps by the beginning of the fifteenth century we know from the second entry.  Nay, we learn more precise details.  We learn that our manuscript had found a home in France, in the town of Meaux or its vicinity.  The entry is found in the upper margin of fol. 51r and doubtless represents a probatio pennae on the part of a notary.  It runs thus: 

“A tous ceulz qui ces p_rese_ntes l_ett_res verront et orront Jeh_an_ de Sannemeres garde du scel de la provoste de Meaulx & Francois Beloy clerc Jure de p_ar_ le Roy nostre sire a ce faire Salut sachient tuit que p_ar_.”

The above note is made in the regular French notarial hand of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.[32] The formula of greeting with which the document opens is in the precise form in which it occurs in numberless charters of the period.  All efforts to identify Jehan de Sannemeres, keeper of the seal of the provoste of Meaux, and Francois Beloy, sworn clerk in behalf of the King, have so far proved fruitless.[33]

[Footnote 32:  Compare, for example, the facsimile of a French deed of sale at Roye, November 24, 1433, reproduced in Recueil de Fac-similes a l’usage de l’ecole des chartes.  Premier fascicule (Paris 1880), No. 1.]

[Footnote 33:  No mention of either of these is to be found in Dom Toussaints du Plessis’ Histoire de l’eglise de Meaux.  For documents with similar opening formulas, see ibid. vol. ii (Paris 1731), pp. 191, 258, 269, 273.]

[Sidenote:  Conclusion]

Our manuscript, then, was written in Italy about the year 500.  It is quite possible that it had crossed the Alps by the ninth century or even before.  It is certain that by the fifteenth century it had found asylum in France.  When and under what circumstances it got back to Italy will be shown by Professor Rand in the pages that follow.