GILBERT, PRISCIAN, GILES OF CORBEIL, SIMON OF FAVERSHAM; S. XIV in.
Merton College MS. 288
Merton College, University of Oxford
Description
From Medieval manuscripts in Oxford libraries
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Title
GILBERT, PRISCIAN, GILES OF CORBEIL, SIMON OF FAVERSHAM; S. XIV in.
Shelfmark
Merton College MS. 288
Place of origin
script of English appearance.
Date
S. XIV in
Language
Latin
Contents
Form
codex
Support
Parchment
Physical extent
68 leaves (ii + 67) The edges retrimmed, affecting marginalia, and spattered with red.
Binding
Standard Merton s. xvii, sewn on five bands; formerly chained from the usual position and also from near the head of the front board. Fols. i-ii, 66–7 are paper binding leaves, the outermost from the same printed book as in MS 68. On f. 58v are the marks of two foredge straps or catches and, near the foot, of the large iron chain-staple.
Provenance
At the foot of f. 40v, in early pencil, is ‘Hornecastr 4’, of f. 42v ‘Graham. 5.’, of f. 45 ‘Barthon 4’, of 46 (in ink) a quaestio‘... etiam opponit Donatus. Barton. 3’, of f. 49 ‘Graham secundario’, of 50v ‘Hornecastr 3’. Hornecastr may be William de Horncastr’ (BRUO 966), in charge of expenditure for scholars of the founder’s kin at Merton College in 1340 and 1347. Barton may then be William de Barton (BRUO 123–4), fellow in 1356, until 1361. According to Dr J. Catto, these notes suggest that the manuscript was used by a master to lecture and organize disputations in-house for Mertonian bachelors proceeding to the status of Master.
At the foot of f. 57v is ‘prec’ xv s.’ At the foot of f. 11 is ‘Wylkyn be war of Jankyn’, probably only a pen trial.
On f. 58v, among the pen trials, is ‘Vinum bibat mane cerebrumque reformat inane Quem profudit heri crapula multa meri. Quod Wyttham’, and ‘O quam iocundum quam amenus foret dominari S mors non posset dominantibus insidiari Sed quia mors semper comes est et causa doloris Non est honor sed onus assumere nomen honoris. Quod W[erased]’. Possibly Thomas Wytham (BRUO 2129), fellow in 1419, no longer in 1422, d. by 1470.
At the head of f. 1 is the James no. ‘103’ (wrongly), s. xvii in., canc.
Inside the front board is a table of contents, s. xvii, and ‘Q. 2. 4. Art:’, canc. and replaced with ‘O. 2. 4 (CCLXXXVIII)’ in red; the College bookplate.
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