The story is often told of how our chapter divisions go back to Stephen Langton in the early thirteenth century. That’s true enough, but it’s worth noting sometimes how close even earlier divisions can get to our current ones. Here’s BnF Ms 268 from the late 8th/early 9th century.
It’s listing the sections of Matthew. I’ve chosen this page because it’s a particularly good example, but it lists ‘chapters’ 11 to 20 (the first x of xx/20 is no longer visible) of Matthew. The surprising thing is that when we look at the content of each chapter, we see that it only misses our current chapter beginnings for ‘chapters’ 16 and 19.
So what Langton really achieved was to produce a standard system where one had not existed previously.
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It’s listing the sections of Matthew. I’ve chosen this page because it’s a particularly good example, but it lists ‘chapters’ 11 to 20 (the first x of xx/20 is no longer visible) of Matthew. The surprising thing is that when we look at the content of each chapter, we see that it only misses our current chapter beginnings for ‘chapters’ 16 and 19.
So what Langton really achieved was to produce a standard system where one had not existed previously.
The ninth century BnF Ms 265 is similar:
