ARISTOTLE, DE ANIMALIBUS; S. XIII 3/4

Title

ARISTOTLE, DE ANIMALIBUS; S. XIII 3/4

Shelfmark

Merton College MS. 271

Place of origin

France, Paris (?)

Date

S. XIII 3/4

Language

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

Parchment

Physical extent

155 leaves (ii + 152, incl. 120A) The edges savagely retrimmed, removing the running heads and damaging the decoration, spattered with red and later gilded.

Hands

A single expert gothic rotunda bookhand. The scribe ends the text on f. 150 with ornamental script and line-fillers.

Decoration

Twenty-one large and exceptionally handsome 9-line initials, mostly in colours and gold, with foliage or figures, on square grounds and with partial borders: fol. 1 (12-line) E, enclosing a lion, a squirrel, two hounds hunting a hare, the whole on a background of oak-leaves; at the foot of the border three hounds hunt a stag; f. 6 A enclosing oak-leaves, a squirrel and rabbit; at the foot of the border a hound chases a hare; f. 11 D enclosing birds in boughs above fish in water; at the top of the border is a singing bird; at each end of the foot a rabbit and hound; f. 17v initial ditto, at the foot of the border are rabbit, hound and two fish; f. 24v O enclosing a pair of cattle mating; at the top of the border a running hare, at the foot, a hare, and two dogs and two small birds mating; f. 33 S with oak-leaves, hound and bull, many animals in the border, in a continuous line across the foot; f. 43 O enclosing a stallion and ?dead mare, sprays of oak with a bird; in the border a rabbit, a hare and a donkey; f. 52v M enclosing oak foliage and two striped quadrupeds of uncertain identity; in the border a pair of ?weasels, a pair of birds, a pelican in her piety, a parrot, a hive of bees and another bird; f. 65v D enclosing a clothed man and woman copulating in woodland above, below a woman rocking a crib; at the foot of the border are two leaping hairs, a clothed man and woman copulating, and a woman tending her baby before a fire; f. 69v P enclosing man and woman in bed; on the foot of the border a clothed man and woman copulate; f. 73v D, enclosing a line of four dogs, below birds singing in a tree; in the border two dogs and two birds; f. 77v D enclosing God the Creator holding the globe of the world containing trees and water; in the border a hare and three dogs; f. 80v C enclosing animal and human body parts; more at the foot of the border; f. 84v E ditto; f. 92v C ditto; a phallus on the foot of the border has been erased; f. 100v E ditto; f. 111v Q enclosing oak foliage, a hare, two dogs mating, a hound chasing a boar; in the border a rabbit and two horses copulating; f. 120v G enclosing oak foliage with a hare, mating birds and hares, in the border mating boars and birds, partially erased; f. 129 D enclosing oak foliage and two birds with nest and eggs; in the border are a songbird, a cock, and a cock and hen mating; f. 136v D enclosing oak foliage and two lions mating; in the border are ?foxes and boars mating; f. 144 D enclosing oak foliage; in the border are two birds and ?foxes mating. Red or blue initials flourished in the other colour, with 2-colour marginal extensions; chapter-numbers and (formerly) running heads in both colours; red or blue paraphs.

Binding

s. xix; full calf, sewn on six bands. Near the foot of f. 150v is the mark of the large iron chain-staple. fols. i-ii, 151–2 are modern paper blanks.

Provenance

Made in northern France, probably Paris.

At the College by 1372: UO48. 8.

At the head of f. 150 is ‘21us sunt libri animalium per [mutil.]’, s. xiv ex.

In the margin of f. 52v, s. xv, ‘9us liber secundum nouam translacionem’.

At the head of f. 1 is the James no. ‘87’, s. xvii in. Inside the front board is the College bookplate with modern shelf-marks in pencil: ‘O. 4. 9. Art.’, canc., ‘271’, ‘Q. I. 3’, canc. and replaced by ‘O. 1. 3’ and ‘CCLXXI’, in red.