Abstract
"The Use of Owners' Jingles in Italian Vernacular Manuscripts." Manuscript colophons furnish imponant codicological information regarding scribes, dates, and locations of production. Additional information, in prose or verse, was often included or appended to these formal statements of completion. Most colophon Studies have focused on monastic codices in Latin or on "popular" examples in English, French and German. After the emergence of vernacular languages and the increase in literacy, clerical and professional practices passed to the noncommercial lay copyist. Scribes or book owners, often the same person, at first imitated or translated Latin concluding formulae, but soon developed new forms which reflected the exigencies of the nonscholastic reader. This study identifies verses in Italian which were copied by late medieval merchants or tradesmen into books produced for their private enjoyment. These rhymes are more than literary curiosities: they document the owners' immediate concerns for the books' preservation, indicate how vernacular texts circulated, and offer rare glimpses into book usage in a domestic setting.
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