Merton College MS. 11

Former shelfmark: B. 2. 1

Ps.-JOHN CHRYSOSTOM; S. XIV med.

Language(s): Latin

fol. iii blank.

(fols. 1–135; 135v-6v, 138rv blank)

Ps.-John Chrysostom, Opus Imperfectum in Mattheum

Incipit: Sicut referunt Matheum conscribere euuangelium causa compulit talis

Incipit: Liber generacionis ...; Liber quod apotheca gratiarum sicut in apotheca dei(ta)tis alicuius

Explicit: abhominacionem desolacionis in loco suo

CPL 707; Stegmüller, Bibl. 4350; PG 56. 611–946. MSS listed and classified by van Banning, this copy at pp. ccxliv-ccxlvi, cccii. The scribe writes running heads and brief marginal guides and comments, sometimes framed.

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: plicaretur sic

Form: codex

Support: Parchment

Extent: 143 leaves (iii + 140)

Dimensions (leaf): 310 × 205 mm.

Dimensions (written): 255 × 150 mm.

The edges heavily retrimmed affecting running heads and marginalia, and spattered with red.

Collation

a singleton, 1–11¹², 12⁴ / two singletons; pencilled leaf-numbers and catchwords. At the foot of fol. 136v is pencilled ‘Vltimus’.

Layout

Ruled with pencil in 2 cols of 52 lines.

Hand(s)

A single expert anglicana formata.

Decoration

Blue initials flourished with red, the first with a partial border in the colours; red or blue paraphs.

Binding

Standard Merton s. xvii, sewn on six bands; formerly chained from the usual position. fols. i-ii, 139–40 are paper binding leaves, the outermost from a copy of a printed book, s. xvi or xvii, running head bk. 5 ‘De romano pontifice’. fol. 138 was a pastedown in an earlier binding. At its head are four spots of rust, probably from the large iron chain-staple. These marks can only have originated when the leaf was in the reverse position to the present, i.e. when the recto was the verso, and the leaf not pasted down. A rust-spot at the foot of fol. iii, near the foredge, may be the mark of a former chain-staple.

History

Origin: S. XIV med. ; England, Oxford (?)

Provenance and Acquisition

Probably made commercially at Oxford.

At the head of fol. iii^v ‘Liber domus scolarium aule de Mertone quem dedit collegio scolarium predictorum Iohannes Turk quondam socius aule predicte incathenandum in communi libraria eiusdem collegii.’ John Turk (BRUO 1916–17), fellow in 1352, still in 1355, chancellor of the University in 1376, canon of Salisbury &c., d. by Feb. 1397.

Below is a table of contents, s. xvii, and the College bookplate. At the head of fol. 1 is the James no. ‘117’ (recte 187), s. xvii in. Inside the front board is a sheet of paper with contents, s. xvii, and modern pencilled ‘N. I. 11’, replaced by ‘B. 2. 1 (XI)’, in red. ‘11’ is inked on the foredge.