First page gap

Léandre (Règle de saint), suivie d’opuscules des pères et de vies de saints. Ms. visigothique du X e ou du XI e siècle
Source: gallica.bnf.fr
Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département des manuscrits, NAL 239, fol. 1r.

It’s not uncommon to see holes in parchment, but I can’t help wondering why a scribe would want this giant hole to appear on the first page rather than tucking it in in some later folio. Any ideas?

2 Responses to "First page gap"

Mario Longtin says:

February 26, 2014 at 4:08 pm

It seems that the scribe wanted to make use of even the poorest of parchment. The ruling is rather crude and suggest a personal usage. The principal of economy seems the most obvious to me, but I could be wrong.

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1. jesse says:
  
  February 26, 2014 at 5:49 pm
  
  I certainly understand the notion of economy, but leafing through the rest of the manuscript, this is by far, the worst hole in the parchment. My modern sensitivity suggests that the first page should be the nicest one. I think if I needed to use damaged parchment, I’d put the big hole in a later page, and perhaps at the bottom, rather than at the top. Certainly, folio 1r received priority considerations in the later middle ages (presentation pages, borders, etc.), but perhaps in the 10th and 11th centuries, this was not yet the case?
  
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