VARIA; S. XIII, XIV

Title

VARIA; S. XIII, XIV

Shelfmark

Merton College MS. 140

Place of origin

script of English or French appearance.

script of French appearance.

script of English appearance.

Date

s. xiii

s. xiv in.

s. xiii.

Language

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

Parchment

Physical extent

204 leaves (ii + 202) Five originally independent volumes or fragments, together by an indeterminate date before s. xvii. The edges retrimmed and stained red. fol. 179, the first leaf of V, is dirty and was clearly without a binding for a long time.

Binding

Standard Merton s. xvii, sewn on five bands; formerly chained from the usual position. fol. 198 was a pastedown in an earlier binding. fol. i was the rear pastedown, or else the front pastedown in reverse position to the present, in a binding sewn on four bands. It has traces of a brass chain-staple on a piece of parchment pasted to the verso, near the top of the foredge, and possible traces of straps at head and tail, two more at the foredge. fol. 198 has the mark of a central strap or clasp, corresponding to a mark on fol. 1 (there is no corresponding mark on fol. i). Near the foot of fol. 1 are rust-marks of irregular pattern, perhaps from the large iron chain-staple. fol. ii is a paper binding leaf, s. xvii.

Provenance

On fol. i, upside down: ‘Hunc librum M. Willelmus Reed habuit ex accomodacione magistri Willelmi Lynham in quaternis pro quibusdam libellis quos dictus M. W. Lynham habuit ex accomodacione M. W. Reed predicto’; ‘Liber domus scolarium Mertone Oxon’ ex assignacione magistrorum Willelmi Lynham et Willelmi Reed episcopi Cicestrensis quondam sociorum domus eiusdem. Oretis igitur pro utroque.’ For William Reed, fellow from 1344 until at least 1357, d. 1385, see MS 8. William Lynham (BRUO 1193) was fellow in 1330, until 1349, d. by July 1361. But it is not certain that these inscriptions apply to this book, since fol. i shows signs of having belonged elsewhere.

An erased cautio at the foot of fol. 11v: ‘Caucio magistri Iohannis de Gl[ ... die ... festum / anno Domini M CCCC XXX VIII ...]’. I at least was distributed in the electio of 1519 (UO63. 3).

At the head of fol. 1 is the James no. ‘109’ (wrongly, for that is MS 145), s. xvii in.

On fol. iiv is a table of contents and ‘O. 3. 12. Art:’, s. xvii.

Inside the front board is a sheet of paper with contents, s. xvii, and ‘O. 3. 12. Art:’ again, canc. and replaced with ‘M. 1. 2 (CXL)’ in red; the College bookplate.

‘12’ is inked on the foredge.