PARISIAN SERMONS; S. XIV in.

Title

PARISIAN SERMONS; S. XIV in.

Shelfmark

Merton College MS. 238

Place of origin

script of French appearance.

Date

S. XIV in.

Language

Old French (842-ca. 1400)

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

Parchment

Physical extent

311 (viii + 303) leaves Savagely retrimmed affecting marginalia, the edges spattered with red. To the foredge of f. 136 is sewn a parchment sheet with lists of sermon texts on both sides. Two sets of early foliation, both cropped: i-cclxxxv (cxxxiiii twice, three unnumbered leaves after cclxxv, ccxxxix-lviii missing), supplemented by another series which attempts to mend these errors, beginning with 133, numbering the previously unnumbered leaves, but still skipping the same twenty (and omitting 288 on its own account), and continuing on at least as far as 300 (mod. 282). The last sermon in the index (see below) began on the orig. f. 323 (mod. 296).

Hands

Several French hands, varying from low-grade bookhand to cursive.

Decoration

Rough red initials, paraphs, highlighting and underlining.

Binding

Standard Merton s. xvii, repaired and rebacked by Maltby; sewn on four bands; chained from the usual position. Fols. i-ii and 302–3 are modern paper blanks. The outermost parchment leaves were formerly pastedowns in an earlier binding. f. iii has unintelligible rust-marks; f. 318v has marks of two foredge clasps and of the large iron chain-staple near the foot.

Provenance

Part of a set with 239. Given to the College by William Reed in 1374: UO49. 61. On f. iiiv: ‘Liber M. Willelmi Reed episcopi Cicestrensis quem emit a uenerabili patre domino Thoma Tryllek’ episcopo Roffensi. Oretis igitur pro utroque’; ‘Liber domus scolarium de Merton’ in Oxon’ in communi libraria eiusdem et ad usum communem sociorum ibidem studencium cathenandus. Ex dono uenerabili patris domini Willelmi tercii episcopi Cicestrie. Oretis igitur pro eodem et benefactoribus eiusdem ac fidelium animabus a purgatorio liberandis. Walterus Roberti.’ See MS 237. On the verso of the stub of the original first leaf are the remains of another inscription, probably in the same hand: ‘atus a domino [ ... ut]roque inuicem collecti.’

On f. 301v is a note of s. xv, apparently copying an earlier one at the foredge, most of which has been cropped: ‘Enchiridion quem fecit Parisius frater predicator cuius anime propicietur Deus amen amen dico’, followed by two more partly obliterated lines: ‘ Parisiensi uicinia coram papam Sic loqui non fratrum communibus eque ’, the two lines bracketed with ‘Qui bene uult fari bene debet’.

Inside the front board is a sheet of paper with the contents, ‘F. 4. 14’ (canc.) and ‘P. 3. 4. art:’, s. xvii, modern ‘H. 2. 5 (CCXXXVIII)’, in red, and the College bookplate.