The recto originally contained rulings for staves 1 and 3-7, out of the twelve possible on the leaf.
Four staves on each page, ruled with a rastrum.
The cryptograms combine poetic texts, engraved initial letters (sometimes two to a page), staves, standard musical notation and special symbols.
Why do the written space and ruled staves match one another so precisely?
All staves which remain blank would have belonged to the companion composition, which only partially survives on staves 1 and 2 of the surviving fragment and is thereby unrecoverable.
They do not seem to present any significant problem, however, as they are spacious on the page, with welcome room between staves for the performers to insert their own notations.
Additionally, while the musical notator of staves 1 and 2 may be the same person as that of the rest of the leaf, the text hand is clearly very different.
The wooden barrels have come apart, but the staves and the planks cut for the top and bottom, with holes in some to accommodate the supporting pole, are evident.
