[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 _provosté_ of Meaux, and François 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-similés à l'usage de l'école des chartes_. Premier fascicule (Paris 1880), No. 1.]