Texts Level:  Status of Text

Definition:  Statement as to type of problem when a text is not complete or disordered.

Comment:  In practice the choices are: incomplete (when a scribe has simply stopped copying, leaving empty space on the leaf or on multiple leaves); defective (when a book is physically mutilated); fragment (when so little of the text survives that one can only speak of a few leaves); copied out of order (when a scribe's exemplar was misbound); misbound.

Example:

• Ending defectively
• Missing several quires internally with consequent loss of text
• Beginning defectively in the chapter list
• All full page miniatures cut away with loss of text
• Fragment

Properties:  Data type: text. Field size: 75 characters.

Required?:  No.