VINCENT OF BEAUVAIS; S. XIV in. (before 1330)

Title

VINCENT OF BEAUVAIS; S. XIV in. (before 1330)

Shelfmark

Merton College MS. 123

Place of origin

France, Paris

Date

S. XIV in. (before 1330)

Language

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

Parchment

Physical extent

246 leaves (iv + 242) Fols. iii-iv are of thick, stiff parchment.

Hands

The expert French gothic rotunda bookhand of Robert of Longjumeau (see MS 124). Corrector’s marks at the end of each quire.

Decoration

Splendid 9- or 10-line historiated initials in colours and gold with partial vinet borders open each book : fol. 5 Q on a square ground, enclosing Vincent seated expounding his text, his library at his elbow; a full border, on the lower limb a hound chases a hare; fol. 37 D enclosing God the Creator; fol. 72v E enclosing horned Moses expounding the Ten Commandments to the Israelites; fol. 104 A enclosing seated king with sword, giving orders to two knights; in the background a Master expounds a text; a hound chases a hare across the lower limb of the border; fol. 127v A enclosing seated king with sword, a hound and hare at the foot; fol. 144 I with coiled foliage, a patch excised from the foot; fol. 170v R, in the upper register a seated queen with sword, below the Nativity, a hound chases a rabbit at the foot; fol. 202v M, to the left two kings with swords, divided by a fortified tower; on the right, the Assumption of the Virgin; a hound chases a hare at the foot. Red or blue initials flourished in the other colour, with long 1-sided borders; running heads in capitals of the colours; red highlighting.

Binding

Maltby 1965, brown goatskin; resewn on four bands. Fols. i-ii, 241–2 are blank paper binding leaves. On fol. iii, formerly a pastedown, are the marks of two foredge straps, of a chain-staple at the foot, and possibly of a brass chain-staple near the foot of the foredge.

Provenance

Made in Paris, vol. 1 of the set with MSS 124–6.

This is presumably the ‘4or librorum Vincencii’ rebound and (?re-)chained in 1466–67: Appendix B, no. 116.

On fol. 1v ‘Liber domus scolarium de Merton’ ex legato Magistri Rogeri de Martiuall’ quondam episcopi Sarum’, in the same hand as the inscriptions in MSS 56, 124–6. Martival (BRUO 1233) was chancellor of Oxford University 1293–5, bp. of Salisbury, d. 1330.

Appendix B, no. 30 (1330) records ‘Item Iohanni Wyly versus Sarum ad querendum libros nobis legatis iiis vjd.’ UO47. 12.

On fol. iiiv are titles, s. xvii, ‘O. 2. 7. Art:’, and the College bookplate. ‘7’ is inked on the foredge. Inside the front board is pencilled ‘M. 2. 7’ and ‘Merton College MS. CXXIII’.