Petrus Lombardus, Sententiarum Libri IV; England, s. xiii¾

Title

Petrus Lombardus, Sententiarum Libri IV; England, s. xiii¾

Shelfmark

Exeter College MS. 32

Place of origin

England

Date

s. xiii¾

Language

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

parchment FHHF

Physical extent

158 leaves, preceded by one 18th-century paper flyleaf and two medieval flyleaves and followed by one 18th-century paper flyleaf.

Hands

*1: A neat pre-anglicana cursive, s. xiiiex, punctuated by low point.

2: An excellent gothic semiquadrata bookhand of middling size, punctuated with medial and low point. Distinctio numbers were added in top margins in a decorative cursive script, s. xiv(?).

Decoration

*1: none.

2: fine 8/10-line blue lombards at the beginning of books, infilled with red-and-blue arabesques, with extenders. Throughout, 1/2-line blue initials flourished red, rubrics, running book numbers in blue flourished red, red stroking, red line-fillers (circlets). Alexander and Temple, no. 204.

Binding

Sewn on five bands. Standard Exeter binding: simple and quite elegant, calf over millboards, the calf bearing blind decoration of a floral type, early 19th century. On fols. ii–iv are holes and/or rust marks from two clasps on an earlier binding.

Provenance

On fol. iiir is ‘Liber M. Willelmi Reed ex dono magistri Nicholai de Sandwyc’. Liber sententiarum Petri’ and on fol. iiiv, all in a large anglicana formata script, ‘Willelmi Reed prepositi Wynghaminensis ex dono Reuerendi domini sui M. Nicholai de Sandwyco. Oretis igitur pro utroque. Liber Sentenciarum Petri lumbardi Archiepiscopi Parisiensis. Liber aule Exon’ in Oxon’ in communi libraria eiusdem ad vsum communem sociorum ibidem studentium cathenandus. Ex dono venerabilis patris domini Willelmi tercij Episcopi Cicestrensis. Oretis igitur pro eodem et benefactoribus eiusdem ac fidelium animabus a purgatorio liberandis.’ On William Rede, d. 1385, donor of many books to Oxford and other libraries, and Nicholas of Sandwich, see BRUO. This is one of two books surviving from Rede’s gift of 1374 recorded in Boase2, xlvii, 9; for the other see Appendix II(1). They are respectively items v and t in the deed of gift, Watson, Exeter, Appendix V. Both are referred to in Rector’s Accounts for 1374, which record payments to Rector Thomas Worth (BRUO) for his trip to London to collect the books, and for chains, bars, and chaining when they arrived.

Marginalia are mostly in a neat pre-anglicana cursive script of s. xiiiex.

Not recorded in Ecloga or CMA. Watson's plate 3(b) reproduces the Rede ex dono inscription on fol. iiiv.

Exeter College identifications, inside the front cover, are the book stamp, ‘Ex: Coll: Oxon:’, ‘Q8–12 Gall’ (deleted), ‘172–E–8’ and ‘Coxe XXXII’ (pencil). On fol. iiv is bookplate 1. ‘8’ is on a round paper label over a serrated paper label on the spine.