A new approach to scribal abbreviation in the Bestiaire in Merton College Library, MS 249

Abstract

Macro-level, quantitative approaches to certain scribal features such as spelling have offered much to the development of the field of manuscript studies, and yet the evidence afforded by abbreviation remains hitherto largely unexamined. This paper examines a bestiary found within a discrete section of a codex in Merton College Library in Oxford, using it as a case study to assess the value of examining features of scribal abbreviation through mixed-method analysis. Such an approach has utility in allowing us to reinforce or challenge existing hypotheses regarding the production of individual manuscript units, but it has not yet reached its full potential, and future work is required, particularly in the analysis of dated and datable manuscripts, in order to reveal how quantitative facts about scribal preferences changed over time, and how this can be used in the examination of manuscripts for which no date of creation is known.