ASTRONOMICA ; c. 1200

Title

ASTRONOMICA ; c. 1200

Shelfmark

Merton College MS. 259

Place of origin

England, perhaps West Midlands, Worcester

England

Date

c. 1200

Language

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

Parchment

Physical extent

102 leaves (ii + 100) The edges retrimmed and spattered with red.

Hands

Small, neat English early gothic bookhands of scholastic type, that of I perhaps somewhat later than those of II, which are very homogeneous. Later additions and marginal notes in bookhand and early anglicana.

Binding

Standard Merton s. xvii, sewn on four bands; formerly chained from the usual position. Fols. i-ii, 100–1 are paper binding leaves, the outermost from the same printed book as in MS 68. At the foredge of f. 1 is the mark of single strap, near the foot the mark of the large iron chain-staple. Although f. 1 is covered with text, it was used as a pastedown in an earlier binding. ‘10’ is inked on the foredge.

Provenance

At the head of f. 2 is an early press-mark ‘h vo’.

On f. 1v are inscriptions, the first two in the hand of Walter Roberti: over erasure, ‘Liber M. Willelmi Reed’ archidiaconi Roffensis ex dono reuerendi domini sui M. Nicholai de Sandwyco. Oretis igitur pro utroque’; ‘Liber aule de Exon [mutil. and obliterated with ink] in communi libraria eiusdem aule et ad usum communem sociorum ibidem studencium cathenandus. Ex dono uenerabilis patris domini Willelmi episcopi Cicestrie. Oretis igitur pro eodem et benefactoribus eiusdem ac fidelium animabus a purgatorio liberandis’; two words, obliterated with ink, the first perhaps ‘Volumen’. Not in the list of Reed’s books given to Exeter College in 1374 (UO34). For William Reed, fellow from 1344, still in 1357, d. 1385, see MS 8.

Inside the front board is a sheet of paper with contents, s. xvii, and ‘P. 4. 10. Art:’, canc. and replaced with ‘C. 2. 10 (CCLIX)’ in red; the College bookplate.