AIDS TO BIBLICAL STUDY ; S. XV med.

Title

AIDS TO BIBLICAL STUDY ; S. XV med.

Shelfmark

Merton College MS. 12

Place of origin

England

Date

S. XV med.

Language

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

Parchment

Physical extent

289 leaves (iii + 286) The edges retrimmed with loss of marginalia and spattered with red. fols. i-iii and 286 are of thick, stiff parchment. The outer col. of fol. 18 excised.

Hands

Written in a single proficient secretary hand. At the foot of fol. 7 is ‘pro scriptura quat’ xv d.’ At the foot of fol. 167v, in tiny letters, ‘pro scriptura iii. s. vii d.’ At the foot of fol. 283v is pencilled ‘of gret let’ xl lett’ / of paraf ii s qa’’. Correction marks. Marginal annotation in contemporary hands.

Decoration

Blue initials flourished in red; red or blue paraphs; red underlining of lemmata.

Binding

Standard Merton s. xvii, repaired and rebacked by Maltby, 1953; sewn on six bands; formerly chained from the usual position. On a previous binding were two straps from the front board to clasps at the rear. At the foot of the front board, towards the foredge, was a brass chain-staple. The outermost leaves were pastedowns in an earlier binding.

Provenance

At the foot of fol. iiiv‘Liber Willelmi Romsey propriis sumptibus scriptus’. Romsey or Rumsey (BRUO 1606–7) was fellow c. 1449 until at least 1463, d. 1512; he also gave MSS 47 and 247. The College received this book on 25 May 1493, chaining it in the library on 2 Aug. 1494 (Registrum, pp. 173, 184).

On fol. i is ‘2’, written early but probably after rather than before the leaf was a pastedown.

Inside the front board is a sheet of paper with contents and ‘F. 7, 13’ (canc.), s. xvii, and the College bookplate. ‘B. 2. 2’ is pencilled near the head. At the head of fol. 1 is the James no. ‘208’, s. xvii in. ‘13’ is inked on the foredge.