Commentary on Sext, grammatical texts

Title

Commentary on Sext, grammatical texts

Shelfmark

St John's College MS 184

Place of origin

England

Date

s. xv3/4

Language

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

Mixed vellum and paper. With the exception of a single bifolium (fols. 119 + 124), quires 10–12 are entirely vellum (HSOS/ HFFH). Elsewhere, the scribe has taken roughly equivalent numbers of vellum and paper bifolia (most usually three of each; the last three quires are larger) and folded them together. The paper usually appears folded in quarto, and although regular paper-vellum-paper alternation is not universal, the quires appear to have been formed from half-sheets. The watermarks are uncertain: A: Uncertain: fols. 152 and 155 in quire 14. B: Tête humaine: of the type Briquet, nos. 15600 et seq., most common s. xv2/4, in quires 15–17.

Physical extent

Fols. iii + 202+ iii (numbered fols. iv–vi).

Hands

Written in anglicana (although secretary a and g) by a scribe named Wylton (see Provenance below). Punctuation by occasional point and medial point.

Decoration

Lemmata written in textura with anglicana letter forms (item 1).

Some effort at running titles to indicate topics treated.

To the end of booklet 2, fol. 62, lemmata underlined in red, red-slashed capitals, some marginal red paraphs.

Binding

A modern replacement. Sewn on five thongs. At the front, a marbled paper leaf and two paper flyleaves (the date 1767 appears on the verso of fol. 1); at the rear, two paper flyleaves and another marbled paper leaf (iv–vi).

Provenance

Camargo suggests that the scribe ‘Wylton’ should be identified with a man who took his Oxford BCL before 1451; for him, see BRUO 2118.

‘hic codex pertinet Iohanni lacocke’ (fol. 202v, lower margin; s. xvi in., below an erased line, probably of ownership, illegible under ultraviolet light). The script may be too late to support identification with Camargo’s candidate, the lawyer described at BRUO 1081.