How to analyze an 18th century manuscript: part 1

How does one analyze an 18th century manuscript? In this video I examine a French songbook, or recueil de chansons, that was created sometime during the second half of the eighteenth century. There's a lot that I don't know about this manuscript, so instead of telling you how to analyze it, I identify some questions that I'd like to explore in the weeks to come.

What I do know:
--a stamp identifies it as belonging to the library of Simon-Pierre Mérard de Saint-Just, although according to the Taylor Institution this manuscript is not identified in his printed catalogue

What I don't know (yet):
--why are some pages cut out?
--why are some sections of text crossed out and rewritten?
--what can the details of this book tell us about the history of manuscript culture in 18th century France?

This video was made for a postgraduate course in the Department of Medieval & Modern Languages at the University of Oxford. Stay tuned for updates and follow along on our class blog (coming soon)!

history of the book,literature,books,manuscript studies,oxford,french,modern languages,