There is a ninth-century addition on fol. 53 and one of the fifteenth century on fol. 51.  On fol. 49, in the upper margin, a fifteenth-century hand using a stilus or hard point scribbled a few words, now difficult to decipher.[10] Presumably the same hand drew a bearded head with a halo.  Another relatively recent hand, using lead, wrote in the left margin of fol. 53v the monogram QR[11] and the roman numerals i, ii, iii under one another.  These numerals, as Professor Rand correctly saw, refer to the works of Pliny the Elder enumerated in the text.  Further activity by this hand, the date of which it is impossible to determine, may be seen, for example, on fol. 49v, ll. 8, 10, 15; fol. 52, ll. 4, 10, 13, 21, 22; fol. 53, ll. 12, 15, 16, 17, 20, 27; fol. 53v, ll. 5, 10, 15.

  [Footnote 10:  I venture to read dominus meus ... in te deus.

[Footnote 11:  This doubtless stands for Quaere (= “investigate"), a frequent marginal note in manuscripts of all ages.  A number of instances of Q for quaere are given by A.C.  Clark, The Descent of Manuscripts, Oxford 1918, p. 35.]

[Sidenote:  Syllabification]

Syllables are divided after a vowel or diphthong except where such a division involves beginning the next syllable with a group of consonants.[12] In that case the consonants are distributed between the two syllables, one consonant going with one syllable and the other with the following, except when the group contains more than two successive consonants, in which case the first consonant goes with the first syllable, the rest with the following syllable.  That the scribe is controlled by this mechanical rule and not by considerations of pronunciation is obvious from the division SAN|CTISSIMUM and other examples found below.  The method followed by him is made amply clear by the examples which occur in our twelve pages:[13]

fo. 48r, line 1, con-suleret
               2, sescen-ties
               3, ex-ta
               7, fal-si

fo. 49v, line 3, spu-rinnam
               5, senesce-re
               7, distin-ctius
              12, se-nibus
              13, con-ueniunt
              15, spurin-na
              18, circum-agit
              20, mi-lia
              24, prae-sentibus
              25, grauan-tur

fo. 50r, line 1, singu-laris
               4, an-tiquitatis
               5, au-dias
               9, ite-rum
              11, scri-bit
              12, ly-rica
              15, scri-bentis
              17, octa-ua
              19, uehe-menter
              20, exer-citationis
              21, se-nectute
              22, paulis-per
              23, le-gentem