GALEN, ARNAUD DE VILLENEUVE &c.; S. XIV

Title

GALEN, ARNAUD DE VILLENEUVE &c.; S. XIV

Shelfmark

Merton College MS. 230

Place of origin

script of French appearance.

Date

S. XIV

Language

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

Parchment

Physical extent

112 leaves of parchment prepared in the Italian manner (ii + 110) The edges retrimmed removing running heads, and spattered with red. Early foliation in roman numerals, mostly cropped: the highest surviving number is 76 (mod. f. 62).

Hands

Probably a single French scribe, though variable, writing rather rough gothic rotunda bookhand.

Decoration

None: unfilled spaces for coloured initials and rubrics, which are supplied occasionally; underlining in red.

Binding

Standard Merton s. xvii, sewn on four bands; formerly chained from the usual position. ff. i-ii, 110–11 are paper binding leaves, the outermost from the same printed book as in MS 11. On f. 1, near the foot of the foredge, is the mark of an iron chain-staple. Another mark further up may be from a central strap.

Provenance

It is not known when this book entered the College prior to s. xvii. However, McVaugh (edn. of art. 8, p. 43 n. 78) believes that it may correspond to the ‘libros Arnaldi de Villa nova’ named in Simon Bredon’s will (Powicke, p. 84).

At the head of f. 1 is ‘Lucensis’, s. xvii.

Inside the front board is a sheet of paper with a table of contents, s. xvii, and ‘P. 2. 13 Art:’ (not in the usual hand), and modern ‘N. 1. 3 (CCXXX)’ in red; the College bookplate. ‘13’ is inked on the foredge.