Augustine of Ancona, Summa de ecclesiastica potestate

Title

Augustine of Ancona, Summa de ecclesiastica potestate

Shelfmark

St John's College MS 71

Place of origin

Italy

Date

s. xiv med.

s. xv med.

Language

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

Paper. The marks are indistinct and difficult to pick out through the close writing on very thin paper, and there may be a great many unwatermarked sheets. But, so far as one can ascertain, all quires are formed of sheets, usually eight, folded in folio. There are three paper stocks: A: Monts/Dreiberg: of the general type Piccard XVI 4, nos. 1151–1253, most commonly in use c.1430–50; the primary stock, its run only broken by the next two; B: Unidentified: the sole stock visible in quires 4 and 5; perhaps as many as eight sheets total; C: Monts/Dreiberg: the general type Piccard XVI 2, nos. 365–473, most commonly in use c.1420–early 1440s; at least the three central sheets of quire 25 and the sole stock of quires 26–8; as many as twenty-seven sheets total.

Physical extent

Fols. ii + 436 + i(numbered fol. iii), an accurate medieval foliation in the upper corners of rectos.

Hands

Written in continental cursiva formata . Punctuation by occasional point.

Decoration

Headings in red (although in the main unfilled).

At the head, a 15-line red lombard, with apparently an armorial (Greek cross with ermines).

At the heads of chapters 2- and 3-line lombards in text ink, many simply in outline (capitals are unfilled in quires 4–5, on a unique paper stock and with a shift in page format).

The text is broken with frequent red paraphs, text capitals at sentence heads frequently ochre-slashed (as are also some catchwords).

Binding

Brown reversed calf over millboards, s. xvi. Sewn on four thongs. Ties on both boards to hold the volume closed. Holes from a chain staple in Watson’s position 6.‘71’ in black ink on a paper lozenge at the head of the spine, in black ink on the leading edges (which have been reddened) with an ink description ‘Augustinus de ancona de potestate ecclesiastica MS’. A tab on the lower board leading edge for a shelfmark, but it is blank. Pastedowns front and rear from MS, the same as that used in binding MS 69. At the front, two modern paper flyleaves; at the rear, another (iii). The identical bindings and pastedowns, as well as the common donor, indicate that this MS and our MS 69 were bound together.

Provenance

‘Liber Collegij Sanctj Johannis Baptistae Oxon ex dono Reuerendj in Cristo Patris Johannis Roffensis olim hujus Collegij socij et Praesidis’, i.e. John Buckridge ( fol. 2, upper margin).