DUNS SCOTUS, WILLIAM OF ALNWICK, SCOTULUS &c. ; S. XV

Title

DUNS SCOTUS, WILLIAM OF ALNWICK, SCOTULUS &c. ; S. XV

Shelfmark

Merton College MS. 87

Associated place

Erphordia

Magdeburg

Date

S. XV

Language

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

Parchment

Physical extent

265 leaves (iii + 262) The edges stained yellow. fols. i-iii are of thick, stiff parchment.

Hands

Written in neat secretary hands: art. 1 (the hand of MS 91); art. 2; arts 3–5; art. 6, the hand of Gybbys.

Decoration

Art. 1: on fol. 1 a red and blue flourished initial with 3-sided border; blue initials flourished in red; red or blue paraphs. Otherwise unfilled spaces for coloured initials and rubrics.

Binding

College binding of c. 1500; tawed skin over reverse-bevelled oak boards with slightly projecting squares; sewn on five bands, raised on the spine and outlined with string; formerly two broad straps of brown leather from recesses in the front board to catches at the back. A possibly contemporary title is lettered on the spine: ‘Doctoris Subt. Repertorium.’ Formerly chained from the foredge of the front board, near the foot. Tears near the foot of the back pastedown may be from the large chain-staple.

Provenance

At the foot of fol. 1, in a tiny hand, partly cropped, ‘Memorandum quod cum isto libro concordant liber de Thewkysbury et liber Bredon et liber de abbathia Glouernie quem librum habet dominus Walterus et liber Abyndon quem habet Asshynden.’ Powicke suggests that these other books were available at Gloucester College. ‘Asshynden’ may be William Ashenden (BRUO 56–7), D. Th., abbot of Abingdon 1435–68. On fol. i are ‘B lir. 3us’, and ‘Orate pro anima magistri Ricardi Scardeburgh sacre theologie professoris qui istum librum fieri fecit quem postea magister Thomas Bloxham in medicinis doctor ab eodem emit et huic collegio dedit; orate pro utroque’, in the usual hand (see above, MS 60). For Scarborough, see above, MS 17; for Bloxham, see MS 41.

Inside the front board is ‘N. 7. 7. Art:’, s. xvii, canc. and replaced with ‘G. 1. 7 (LXXXVII)’ in red, ‘G. 1. 7’ canc. and replaced by ‘E. 1. 1’ in red, itself canc. and replaced with ‘P. 1. 5’. Below is the College bookplate. ‘7’ is inked on the foredge.