A polyptych in the margins: accounting notes from early tenth-century Laon

Abstract

This paper provides the first edition and thorough examination of marginal notes added to a ninth-century Carolingian manuscript (Laon, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 424). A detailed paleographic, codicological, linguistic, and historical analysis of these additions allows us not only to trace their provenance to the early tenth-century see of Laon but also to show that their anonymous author was a high-status cleric on the episcopal staff. The range of his practical marginalia – which included polyptych notes, lists of payments, and a list of names – points at various accounting practices he was involved in and indicates that he played an important role in facilitating the social power of ecclesiastical lordship over its localities.