AL-GAZALI, ALBERTUS MAGNUS; S. XIV med.

Title

AL-GAZALI, ALBERTUS MAGNUS; S. XIV med.

Shelfmark

Merton College MS. 285

Place of origin

England, Oxford

Date

S. XIV med.

Language

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

Parchment

Physical extent

362 leaves (i + 360, incl. 229A) The edges retrimmed and spattered with red. Foliated early on in arabic numerals, 1 (mod. 5)-60 (mod. 64), 61 (mod. 75)-101, 103–167, 173–354 (360), the replacement quire 6 not then being present; the two breaks in the sequence are due to the subsequent loss of blank leaves.

Hands

Written in several English hands, mostly gothic rotunda bookhands, sometimes approaching textualis, sometimes anglicana. Fols. 5–64v, 93–115, 154–228 at least are in the hand of John Wylyot, who signs on f. 228. He may be responsible for more, as even on these leaves his hand varies in size and formality: Parkes, English Cursive Bookhands, pl. 16(ii). Quire 6 (fols. 65–74v), replacing a lost or damaged quire, is written in an expert anglicana, s. xv2.

Decoration

Spasmodic, probably Oxford work; many unfilled spaces for coloured initials and rubrics. Red and blue flourished initials; red or blue initials flourished in the other colour; plain red initials and paraphs. Occasional marginal sketches in pen and ink: on 154v a drollery blows a large trumpet with gonfanon; a ?jester, tinted with colours, at the foot of f. 155; on 160v a goat eats leaves from an oak tree.

Binding

Standard Merton s. xvii, sewn on six bands; formerly chained from the usual position. f. i, formerly the pastedown in an earlier binding, has a rust mark at the foot perhaps from a chain-staple. Rust marks on the early leaves suggest that a previous binding had a central foredge strap replaced by two, and one each at head and tail.

Provenance

Made mainly by and presumably for John Wyliot (BRUO 2119), who doubtless gave or left it to the College. He was fellow of Merton in 1338, no longer in 1347–8, d. by Dec. 1383. Perhaps to be identified with the record of payment ‘in luicione libri Wylioti et est Albertus super naturali philosophia’ (Appendix B, no. 62, dated 1379).

On fols. i and 5 is the James no. ‘99’, s. xvii in. Inside the front board is a sheet of paper with table of contents, s. xvii, and ‘Q. 2. 1. Art:’, canc. and replaced with ‘O. 2. 1 (CCLXXXV)’ in red; the College bookplate.