PARISIAN SERMONS; S. XIV in

Title

PARISIAN SERMONS; S. XIV in

Shelfmark

Merton College MS. 239

Place of origin

France

Date

S. XIV in

Language

Old French (842-ca. 1400)

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

Parchment

Physical extent

307 leaves (vi + 301) The edges savagely retrimmed with loss of foliation and marginalia.

Hands

Written in a French gothic rotunda bookhand, and two or three less formal hands. Probably the same hands as for MS 238.

Decoration

As for MS 238: red or blue initials flourished in the other colour; red or blue paraphs; red underlining of lemmata and framing of variant readings and corrections in the margin; red initials and highlighting to the subject-index.

Binding

Standard Merton s. xvii, sewn on four bands; chained from the usual position. Fols. i-iii, 299–301, are paper binding leaves, fols. i-ii, 300–1 from the same printed book as in MS 13. The first and last parchment leaves were pastedowns in an earlier binding. The first is now upside down. Near its head are the marks of the large iron chain-staple.

Provenance

Part of a set with 238.

Given to the College by William Reed in 1374: UO49. 62. On f. ivv, upside down, ‘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 f. 298v, in red, ‘Tomas Walterus. Amen.’, s. xiv ex.

Inside the front board is a sheet of paper with the contents, ‘F. 4. 8’ (canc.) and ‘P. 3. 6. Art:’, s. xvii, modern ‘H. 2. 6 (corr. to7) (CCXXXIX)’ in red, and the College bookplate.