ARISTOTLE; S. XIII2

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Description

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Title

ARISTOTLE; S. XIII2

Shelfmark

Merton College MS. 278

Place of origin

England

Date

S. XIII

Language

Latin

(fols. 1–4v) List of contents of art. 1

(fol. 4v) Table of contents of the book

1. (fols. 5–180) ARISTOTLE De Animalibus

2. (fols. 180v–3v) CONSTANTINE THE AFRICAN De natura humana

3. (fols. 183v–4) ALKINDI De Intellectu

4. (fols. 184–5v) A catena of extracts from works of Augustine on the soul

5. (fols. 185v–7v) DOMINICUS GUNDISSALINUS De Vnitate et Vno

6. (fols. 187v–94v) AVERROES De Substantia Orbis

7. (fols. 194v–5v) Hadriani imperatoris cum Secundo philosopho dialogus

f. 196 is blank but for pencilled diagrams. On the verso is a long paragraph of notes in an early anglicana hand, quoting Avicenna.

Throughout, but especially in art. 1, copious but neat marginal annotation in an early anglicana hand, associated with profile heads and pointing hands. These features are suggestive of a monk of St Peter’s Abbey, Gloucester, perhaps studying at Gloucester College: N. R. Ker, English Manuscripts in the Century after the Norman Conquest (Oxford, 1960), p. 6, pl. 27b-c; R. M. Thomson, Books and Learning in Twelfth-Century England: The Ending of ‘Alter Orbis’ (Walkern, 2006), pp. 36, 38.

Form

codex

Support

Parchment

Physical extent

200 leaves (ii + 198)

Hands

A single proficient English gothic rotunda bookhand.

Decoration

Large and handsome red and blue flourished initials, the one on f. 5 associated with a beast and long ornamental flourish into the lower margin. The long opening rubric is flanked with an initial I in red and blue, with humorous heads of humans, animals and birds in ink of text and red. Blue or red initials flourished in the other colour; red or blue paraphs, running heads in red and blue capitals.

Binding

Standard Merton s. xvii; sewn on five bands; formerly chained from the usual position; fols. i-ii, 197–8 are paper binding leaves, the outermost from the same printed book as in MS 68. An earlier binding had two straps from the front board.

Provenance

Made in England; at the College by 1600.

At the foot of f. 180 is an erased inscription of four lines, probably not of ownership.

At the head of f. 5 is the James no. ‘87’ (wrongly?), s. xvi in., canc.

Inside the front board is pasted a sheet of paper with a table of the present contents, s. xvii, ‘Q. 1. 10. Art:’, s. xvii, canc. and replaced with ‘O. 1. 6 (CCLXXVIII)’ in red; the College bookplate.

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