COMMENTARIES ON THE WISDOM BOOKS ; c. 1125

Title

COMMENTARIES ON THE WISDOM BOOKS ; c. 1125

Shelfmark

Merton College MS. 181

Place of origin

England, Malmesbury Abbey

Date

S. XII 2/4

c. 1125

Language

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

Parchment

Physical extent

233 leaves (ii + 231) The edges retrimmed and spattered with red.

Hands

English protogothic bookhands of varying quality, belonging to Malmesbury monks contemporary with William:

Hand I fols. 1–6.

Hand II fols. 6v-54va line 16 (end of work).

Scribe B fols. 54v line 22–87vb line 3 (end of work).

Hand IV fols. 87vb line 11–90va line 21, 147vb-149vb line 21, 155a line 11–155vb.

Scribe D fols. 90va line 22–94b line 23, 100vb-111va, 120va line 19–120vb lines 1–6.

Hand VI fols. 94b line 24–100va.

Hand VII fols. 111vb-17b line 22.

Hand VIII fols. 117v line 22-l20va line 13 (end of work), 137a lines 1–27.

Hand IX fol. 117vb.

Scribe C fols. 120vb line 7–136va (end of work), 196va line 15–220va (end of work).

Hand XI fols. 137 line 28–147va, 149vb line 21–155a line 10.

Hand XII fols. 131va lines 2–14, 165a-196va line 14. person_205295992Hand XIII fols. 221a-229b line 11 (all of art. 7). This hand is of s. xii2.

There are three rubricators, all of whom use a mixture of upper- and lower-case letters: R. I to fol. 87; R. II (this is Hand XII) fols. 87v-220v; R. III fols. 221–9.

Decoration

Modest arabesque initials in 1–4 of red, blue, purple, green and yellow. On fols. 1–54 alternating plain red and purple; fols. 55–87, small minium or red-touched initials; fols. 88–220v, alternating plain red and green.

Binding

Standard Merton s. xvii, sewn on four bands; formerly chained from the usual position. Fols. i and 231 were once pastedowns.

Provenance

Made at Malmesbury Abbey for William of Malmesbury (d. c. 1143). To fol. iivis pasted a sheet cut from a former flyleaf, with a table of contents, s. xiv, and ‘.xvi.’, the abbey pressmark.

On the dorse, which is partly raised, is the monogram of the Oxford stationer John Godsond (1438–56) and his valuation ‘xxx s.’

Above is an erased cautio of John Gygur in the Selton chest. Given to the College by Gygur, fellow 1438–54, d. 1504, for whom see MS 98. The donation was made in July 1486 (Registrum, p. 79).

The James no. ‘226’ is at the head of fol. 1. Inside the front board is a sheet of paper with ‘E. 5, 5’ (canc.) and a table of contents, s. xvii, and ‘O. 7. 9. Art:’, canc. and replaced with ‘A. 1. 9 (CLXXXI)’ in red; the College bookplate. ‘9’ is inked on the foredge.