The German pamphlets (pressmark DC.5) were published between 1586 and 1603, beginning with ‘Von der Erbsünde’ by Egidius Hunnius, the Elder (Franckfurt am Mayn, 1594).

(i) An almost complete conjugate pair of consecutive vellum leaves (being the innermost bifolium of a gathering) lacking the lower margins and the last few lines, from a commentary on the Decretals. The portion contained in this fragment relates to Book I, Title 43, chapter 12 to Book II, Title 1, chapter 4. The authorship of the commentary is not known, an incorrect attribution to Johannes Andreae at the end of Book I being deleted in red. Each leaf is written in double columns in a hand apparently of 15th-century Northern European provenance, with decorated initials and underlinings in red. Each is also pricked, and ruled in dry-point. The fragment, which has a number of small holes, and is badly worn in places, was used as the cover of the pamphlet volume; the names of the authors of the pamphlets have been written in an early 17th-century hand on the part of the fragment that served as the spine.

(ii)-(iii) Two pairs of strips of vellum stitched together from the same source as (i), possibly from the same bifolium, apparently used at the ends of the spine of the pamphlet volume. One strip has a line of writing which may fit the lower edge of the outer column of the right hand leaf of (i); the other three strips are blank.

(iv)-(v) Two contiguous vellum fragments of the last 8 lines and the lower margin of a leaf from a different source. The last line of text is `In die sti Stephani`, but the nature of the text is unknown.

(vi) The upper portion of a paper bifolium containing a list in an early 17th-century hand of the pamphlets bound up in the volume.

(vii)-(ix) Fragments of three paper leaves from a printed German Bible or Psalter, doubtless contemporary with the pamphlets, used as printer`s waste. The leaves, which are printed in Gothic Letter in double columns in folio, contain parts of Psalm 78, 27 - Psalm 80, 9 and 88, 9 - 89, 34; the third, which is a small, mostly blank fragment, is of uncertain location.