A catalogue of Western manuscripts at the Bodleian Libraries and selected Oxford colleges

Merton College MS. 134

Former shelfmark: L. 1. 6

NICHOLAS OF OCKHAM; S. XIV in.

Contents

Language(s): Latin

Fols. fols. i-1 blank. On fol. 1v is a title, s. xvii.

(fols. 2–189v)
NICHOLAS OF OCKHAM OFM, Commentary on I-IV Sent.
Incipit: Veteris et noue legis &c. Questio de subiecto theologie et quod sit Deus uidetur
Explicit: (ends impf. in d. 43 q. 6) Item ratione morali (catchwords uniuersalis finis)’||
(II fol. 48; III fol. 106; IV fol. 127v). There is also a lacuna from II. d. 30 until III. d. 17.

Unpr.; Stegmüller, Sent. 552; Little and Pelster, Oxford Theology and Theologians, pp. 88–9; Sharpe, Handlist, p. 390.

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: hec est talis
Form: codex
Support: Parchment
Extent: 192 leaves (i + 191)
Dimensions (written): 320 × 230 mm.
Dimensions (leaf): 235 × 150 mm.
The edges savagely retrimmed with loss of running heads and marginalia, spattered with red.

Collation

A bifolium, 14, 2–312, 48, 5–612, 78, 8–1612; catchwords. Quires are missing after 10 and from the end.

Layout

Ruled with crayon in 2 cols of 42 lines. Running heads, from fol. 62 between separately ruled lines.

Hand(s)

Two proficient English scribes writing low-grade bookhands of university type, including many anglicana forms. The first finished his stint at the foot of fol. 62, well into d. 9. The second, however, took up the text at d. 6 (which already occurred at fol. 57vb). An early reader signalled the resulting overlap with ‘Va—cat’ and alteration of the catchword at fol. 61v. The second scribe writes the running heads, corrects the work of the first, and writes distinctio- and quaestio-numbers in the margins, the titles of the quaestiones in the lower margins. Marginal annotation in early anglicana hands.

Decoration

Blue initials flourished and with partial borders in red and blue; blue initials flourished in blue; red or blue paraphs.

Binding

Standard Merton s. xvii; sewn on four bands; formerly chained from the usual position. fol. i was a pastedown in an earlier binding. Fols. 190–1 are paper endleaves, 191 from the same printed book as in Merton College MS. 19 (fol. 9).

History

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

Provenance and Acquisition

Probably made at Oxford and owned by the Franciscans.

At the head of fol. i is a damaged inscription, of which ‘[?] L. iii s. Willelmi durant ’ can be read. At the head of fol. 1vis ‘Iste liber est liber domus scolarium de Merton’ in Oxon’ ex dono M. Willelmi Durant quondam custodis eiusdem domus. Oretis igitur pro anima eiusdem’, a version repeated below in a hand of s. xvii. For Duraunt, warden from 1351 until his death in 1375, see MS 84.

On the same leaf is ‘O. 3. 6. Art:’, s. xvii, canc. and replaced with ‘L. 1. 6 (CXXXIV)’ in red. At the head of fol. 2 is ‘D. 6, 15’, s. xvii. ‘6’ is inked on the foredge.

Record Sources

R. M. Thomson, A descriptive catalogue of the medieval manuscripts of Merton College, Oxford (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer), 2009.

Availability

For enquiries relating to this manuscript please contact Merton College Library.

Bibliography

    Coxe, p. 58; Powicke, no. 501.

Funding of Cataloguing

Conversion of the printed catalogue to TEI funded by the Warden and Fellows of Merton College .

Last Substantive Revision

2019-06-18: First online publication

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