VI.1919.01 — The Vigil Book (the Nigrine Codex)

Register of names and degrees. Blackened boards over wooden covers, veined stone-effect lacquer, brass clasp and cornerpieces; c. 480 leaves, of which 61 excised. 285 × 220 × 90 mm. English, the binding probably c. 1770–1790, rebacked in the nineteenth century.

Provenance: The Order, 1770s–1917 (entries in at least nine hands); the 1919 Deposit.

A thick blackened leather register with brass clasps, photographed on a plinth in the Institute's conservation room. — VI.1919.01 in the conservation room, photographed before the rebacked spine was last consolidated.

An opened blackened register showing the sewn gutter, where a run of leaves has been cut away close to the binding; the stubs remain. — The excisions, made by the compilers, at intervals, with a knife. The stubs remain.

Note. The register opens with the “re-erection of the Gates” (1768, entered retrospectively) and closes with a convocation of eleven members in 1917. Members sign in religion-names throughout; the Institute has identified no civil name with confidence. The excisions were made by the compilers, at intervals, with a knife; the stubs remain. The final sequence of leaves is intact and includes the only occurrence of the cipher used in the Instrument of Dissolution (VI.1919.40).