THOMAS AQUINAS; S. XIV

Title

THOMAS AQUINAS; S. XIV

Shelfmark

Merton College MS. 79

Place of origin

England

Date

S. XIV

Language

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

Parchment

Physical extent

182 leaves (iii + 179)The edges retrimmed and spattered with red.

Hands

One English gothic rotunda bookhand of university type. A very little early annotation, and nota-marks in the form of pointing hands and profile heads.

Decoration

Red and blue flourished initials with partial borders; blue initials flourished in red; red or blue paraphs. The capitula have small red or blue initials. Red underlining and line-fillers.

Binding

Standard Merton s. xvii, sewn on five bands; formerly chained from the usual position. fols. i-ii, 178–9 are paper binding leaves, fols. iii and 178 from the same book as in MS 78. On fols. iii and 177 are the marks of two straps and clasps. On fol. 177 are marks from an iron chain-staple, probably the usual large one.

Provenance

Made in England.

At the foot of fol. 177v is pencilled ‘de fide catholica contra gentiles. prec’ xv s.’, s. xiv or xv. The chain-staple suggests that the book had reached the College by s. xv ex.

At the head of fol. 1, partly cropped, is the James no. ‘14’ (also in MS 78), s. xvii in. Inside the front board is a sheet of paper, with titles and ‘D. 4, 11.’ (canc.), s. xvii; (on the board itself) ‘N. 6. 13. Art:’, s. xvii, canc. and replaced with ‘N. 2. 7 (LXXIX)’, in red; the College bookplate. ‘13’ is inked on the foredge.