COMMENTARIES ON ARISTOTLE; S. XIII-XIV

Title

COMMENTARIES ON ARISTOTLE; S. XIII-XIV

Shelfmark

Merton College MS. 275

Place of origin

France, Paris

script of French (?) appearance.

script of Italian appearance.

Date

s. xiii

s. xiii in.

S. XIII-XIV

Language

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

Parchment

Physical extent

245 leaves (ii + 243) The edges retrimmed, affecting running heads and marginalia, and spattered with red. Fols. i-ii are of thick, stiff parchment.

Hands

French gothic rotunda bookhands influenced by cursive, except for arts 13 and 14, in anglicana. The same hand wrote fols. 4–85v, 90v-104a, 209–23v. The texts are heavily corrected in the margins.

Decoration

Parisian. Red and blue flourished initials with long extensions; red or blue initials flourished in the other colour; red or blue paraphs; running titles in capitals of the colours.

Binding

Standard Merton s. xvii, sewn on four bands; formerly chained from the usual position. Fols. i and 243 were formerly pastedowns, the latter in reverse position to the present. f. 240 was also a pastedown, with the marks of the large iron and brass chain-staples.

Provenance

Although works tend to begin and end with quires, with changes of hand at that point, the formatting and decoration is uniform throughout, so that the book was probably made as a single unit, and in Paris.

Certainly at the College by c. 1500. Perhaps the copy of Thomas Aquinas, ‘in quo continentur multi tractatus’, bequeathed by Henry de la Wyle (d. 1329; BRUO 566).

On f. 110v pen trials include ‘Edmunde Palmer’, s. xvi. For Palmer, fellow in 1540–3, see MS 126.

At the head of fols. i and 1 is the James no. ‘95’, s. xvii. Inside the front board is a sheet of paper with contents, s. xvii, and ‘Q. 1. 7. Art:’, canc. and replaced with ‘H. 2. 7 (CCLXXV)’, both corr. in pencil to H. 3. 6 and (275); the College bookplate. ‘7’ is inked on the foredge.