ISAAC IUDAEUS; c. 1200

Title

ISAAC IUDAEUS; c. 1200

Shelfmark

Merton College MS. 263

Place of origin

Southern France or Italy

Date

c. 1200

Language

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

Parchment

Physical extent

120 leaves (ii + 118) All edges savagely retrimmed with loss of marginalia, and spattered with red. Medieval foliation, partly in pencil, mainly cropped.

Hands

A single protogothic bookhand, of southern French or Italian appearance.

Decoration

On fols. 1 and 49, 6-line initials in blue, pink and white, outlined in black, on a gold square ground edged with green. Blue or red initials stroked or flourished in the other colour. At the foot of f. 90 is a large ornamental spray of red and blue.

Binding

Standard Merton s. xvii, sewn on three bands; formerly chained from the usual position. Fols. i-ii, 117–18 are paper binding leaves. On f. 112v, but not fols. 113–16, are marks of a central pin, of two foredge clasps, and of a chain-staple at the foot, all with associated rust stains.

Provenance

At the foot of f. 1, in red, partly erased, ‘Iste liber est in abbatiam de ordine orum quod saluato consobrino huius adsunt per omnem euum et postea eterna secula fuerit fratrum eiusdem ordinis’, s. xiii.

On f. 112v are rough initials, s. xvi, ‘J. A.’

At the College by 1556: UO65. 412.

Loose at the front of the book are the College bookplate and a slip of paper with contents, s. xvii, and ‘P. 4. 14. Art.’, canc. and replaced with ‘C. 2. 14 (CCLXIII)’ in red. The latter is also written inside the front board. ‘137’ and ‘14’ are inked on the foredge.