ARTICELLA &c.; S. XIII ex.

Title

ARTICELLA &c.; S. XIII ex.

Shelfmark

Merton College MS. 221

Place of origin

Script of English appearance.

Date

S. XIII ex.

Language

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

Parchment

Physical extent

268 leaves (ii + 266)The edges savagely retrimmed with loss of marginalia and spattered with red. The last six leaves have been affected by ?heat, causing shrinkage and warping.

Hands

Neat English gothic rotunda bookhands, slightly less formal in the gloss.

Decoration

Red and blue initials flourished in the colours and violet, with partial borders; blue initials flourished in red, red initials flourished in violet; red paraphs, highlighting and underlining; running heads in red and blue capitals.

Binding

Standard Merton s. xvii, repaired, rebacked and resewn on six bands; formerly chained from the usual position. Fols. i-ii, 265–6 are modern paper blanks. fol. 1, a pastedown in an earlier binding, has marks of two foredge straps and of straps at head and tail.

Provenance

On fol. 1v ‘Liber magistri Willelmi Duffeld ex empcione’. Below, in a very formal hand, is ‘Liber domus scolarium de Merton Hall Oxonie ex dono Magistri Willelmi Duffeld archidiaconi Clyuelandie ad inchatenandum infra librariam ibidem.’ At the foot of fol. 264v ‘Magister Willelmus Duffeld dedit librum istum magistro Ioh’ Somerseth ad terminum uite sue ita quod post uitam eius remaneat in collegio de Merton’ Oxon’ in eternum.’ For Duffield, fellow in 1398, no longer in 1422, see MS 91. Somerset (BRUO 1727–8) studied at Oxford then migrated to Cambridge because of the plague, MD by 1428, physician to Henry VI from that year, still in 1447, d. by 1455.

Inside the front board is a sheet of paper with table of contents, s. xvii, and ‘P. 2. 4. Art:’, canc. and replaced with ‘No. CCXXI’ and ‘N. 3. 4’ in red. The College bookplate. ‘4’ is inked on the foredge.