Origine: southern Italy (Salerno)

Ancienne Cote: Sammlung der Handschriftenfragmenten, Nr. 136

Acquisition du manuscrit: It is unclear when the urbarium reached Solothurn. Based on the additions datable to the 13th century, the urbarium was still in Salerno at the time. It was displaced from Salerno by the beginning of the 18th century since it is not recorded in the list of manuscripts present in Salerno produced at the time by a local scholar Matteo Pastore.

Origine: the archepiscopal scriptorium of Salerno (Brown/Mottola, Di Muro)

Période: last decades of the 12th century (Brown/Mottola, Di Muro). The urbarium was presumably compiled in the last years of the incumbency of the Salernitan archbishop Romuald II. Guarna (d. 1181) or the first years of the incumbency of his successor, Nicholas of Ajello (1181 – 1221). The note on fol. 1r referencing the year 1232 (Anno Domini MOCCOXXXIJO mense aprili) is a later addition.

Support: Parchment (palimpsest, see below)

Volume: 31 folia corresponding to five quires of the original codex preserved. Given that the existence of at least ten quires can be substantiated based on the modern foliation, the codex must have once had at least 80 folia.

Format: 211 x 146 mm (155 x 105 mm).

Numérotation des pages: modern foliation by three hands, two using ink, the other pencil. The pencil foliation includes folia 1-8, 42-46, and 55-72. The older foliation runs to fol. 73 (72).

Composition des cahiers: The original codex consisted of regular 8-leaf quires. Based on the pencil foliation, the currently preserved folia represent quires 1 (fols. 1-8, preserved completely), 6 (fols. 42-44, preserved partially), 7 (fols. 45-46, preserved partially), 9 (fols. 55-62, preserved completely), and 10 (fols. 63-70, preserved completely). Based on their content, folia 71-72, currently singletons, belonged to quire 7.

Mise en page: The number of lines varies from 22 (6r) to 23 (45r). Pages are mostly laid out in long lines, but lists of names on fols. 45r-45v and 71r-72v appear in two columns.

Type d'écritures et copistes: Copied by three principal scribes using Beneventan minuscule of the Cassino type datable to the 12th century. All three scribes use Caroline minuscule for tituli (e.g., fol. 68r).

• Scribe A: fols. 1r-8v;
• Scribe B: fols. 43r-45r, 64r-69r, and 70r-71v;
• Scribe C: fols. 46r-46v, 56r-63v, 72r-72v.

Notices on fols. 46r-46v were added by different, coeval scribes.

Ajouts: Two scribes using Gothic script added various notes about the status of various tenements on fols. 1r-6v. Since one of these hands added the dating clause referencing April 1232 on fol. 1r, it can be assumed that these additions reflect an updating of the Salernitan urbarium during the incumbency of the archbishop Caesarius of Alagno (1225 – 1263).

Origine: southern Italy

Période: 10th century (Brown/Mottola)

Support: Parchment

Volume: 28 of the 31 surviving leaves of the urbarium bear palimpsested text (fols. 63, 70, and 71 do not appear to be palimpsests). The twelfth-century urbarium was produced by rotating and folding the larger leaves of the larger palimpsested codex so that one leaf of this codex served as a bifolium of the urbarium. In this manner, 13 complete leaves (fols. 1-8, 43-44, 45-46, 55-62, and 64-69) and 2 half-leaves (fols. 42 and 72) of the tenth-century codex are preserved.

Format: The current size of a bifolium of the urbarium is 290 x 210 mm. The original page size can be reconstructed as 310 x 230-235 mm.

Numérotation des pages: modern foliation by three hands, two using ink, the other pencil. The pencil foliation includes folia 1-8, 42-46, and 55-72. The older foliation runs to fol. 73 (72).

Etat: The script was erased vigorously before reuse.

Mise en page: The writing window of the palimpsested codex can be reconstructed to have measured approximately 245 x 190 mm and amounted to 32 long lines.

Type d'écritures et copistes: Beneventan minuscule by two scribes (Brown/Mottola).

Décoration: Large initials mark the beginnings of books II (R, 8r) and XVIII (P, 57r). Smaller initials appear at the beginning of some of the chapters (46v, 59v).