Here is a list of the fields pertaining to provenance in the database Material Evidence in Incunabula (MEI).
Copy Features
Made up copy
Composite volume
Evidence that a copy may have been (or certainly was) formerly in a composite volume, or Sammelband, includes: ms. foliation, index tabs part-way down the title page, number on the title page, occasionally a partial fore-edge title, the other part having been on the rest of the volume, or a ms. contents note of some sort (John Lancaster, Oct. 2019). An interesting case is described in Neil Harris, Statistiche e sopravvivenze di antichi romanzi di cavalleria, ne Il cantare italiano fra folklore e letteratura. Atti del convegno internazionale di Zurigo, Landesmuseum, 23-25 giugno 2005, a cura di Michelangelo Picone e Luisa Rubini, Firenze, Olschki, 2007 (Biblioteca dell’«Archivum Romanicum», s. I. Storia, letteratura, paleografia, 341), pp. 383-411 which describes a set of Italian chivalric romances in the Rossi collection in the Vatican Apostolic Library. All of them have been rebound separately and expensively in morocco in the Nineteenth century, but the presence of original cartulation and other signs shows that they came from two separate miscellanies bound up at the end of the Fifteenth century. Most of these items are unique and so these disbound miscellanies saved editions of which otherwise all record would have been lost.
Variant
Cancellans/cancellandum
Parts of text in facsimile
Parts of text in manuscript
Manuscript signatures
No rubrication
Chain-hole
Fallen Type
See Claire Bolton_Fallen-type_v.3
Bound with manuscript
Binding waste
Later decoration
Former owners
Former owners are identified as private or institutional, religious or lay, female or male, and by profession or type of institution. The Index of former owners further provides geo-references and chronological limits.
Type of Provenance evidence
Inscription
Coat of arms
Genealogical tables
Supralibros
Exlibris
Mottos
Emblems
Stamps
Firestamps
Binding (see also below)
Decoration (see also below)
Manuscript notes (see also below)
Bibliographical evidence
Documentary evidence
Shelfmark
Accession mark
Deaccession mark
Seller’s mark/note
Unknown
Methods of Acquisition
Purchase
Donation
Bequest
Exchange
Institutional transfer
Dedication copy
Consignment
Requisition/theft
Restitution
Decoration
Illustration coloured in by hand
Illumination
Ornamental letters
Coat of arms
Rubrication
Partial rubrication
Pen initials
Illustration stamped in
Manuscript Notes
Marginal and interlinear manuscript annotations are described by typology, frequency, and location in the book. See the Reading Practices page for a detailed description and examples of the features we capture.
Binding
Date
Type:
limp;
sewn textblock (unbound);
boards
Measurements: H x W x D
Link to EBDB
Board material:
wood; paper; other
Cover material:
parchment/vellum;
leather
bookcloth;
paper;
exotic textile;
alum tawed skin;
mixed
other
Furniture:
yes
no
Binding status:
untouched
rebound
repaired
Titling:
manuscript
tooled
print label
Tooling:
blind;
gold
blind and gold;
none
Edges:
gilt
coloured;
marbled
Writing on Edges:
along: when the writing goes along the length of the leaves
across: when the writing is vertical, cutting across the length of the leaves
both; none
Gauffered:
yes
no
Stamps
Historic Shelfmarks
Their pattern is classified in a separate table:
Pattern of Historic Shelfmarks
Price and currency