Merton College MS. 157

Former shelfmark: L. 3. 5

WILLIAM OF NOTTINGHAM; S. XIV ex.

Language(s): Latin

fols. i-ii^v blank.

(fols. 1–358v)

WILLIAM OF NOTTINGHAM, Commentary on CLEMENT OF LANTHONY, Vnum ex Quattuor

Incipit: Da michi intellectum ...; Dionisius de diuinis nominibus capitulo tercio dicit quod ante omne et maxime theologiam

Explicit: que Dominus ipse promisit, Ipso adiuuante Qui ...

Unpr.; Stegmüller, Bibl. 3002; Sharpe, Handlist, p. 796.

(fols. 359–61)

A table of gospel readings for Sundays and feast days throughout the year

Also found in Oxford, Magdalen Coll., lat. 160, St John’s Coll. 2, and Bodl. Libr., Laud. misc. 165: H. L. Spencer, English Preaching in the Late Middle Ages (Oxford, 1993), p. 372 n. 60.

fol. 361v blank.

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: loquium

Form: codex

Support: Parchment

Extent: 364 leaves (ii + 362)

Dimensions (leaf): 395 × 260 mm.

Dimensions (written): 295 × 180 mm.

The edges retrimmed and spattered with red. Contemporary foliation, mostly trimmed away.

Collation

A bifolium, 1–2¹², 3⁴, 4–30¹², 31¹²(9–10, 12 canc.), a singleton glued to the stub of 12; catchwords; the quires numbered at the beginning.

Layout

Ruled with pencil in 2 cols of 55–8 lines.

Hand(s)

A single scribe writing anglicana formata. Running heads between specially ruled lines.

Decoration

Large red and blue initials flourished in the colours and violet, with borders featuring oak leaves and grotesques; blue initials flourished in red, red initials flourished in violet; red or blue paraphs, red highlighting and underlining.

Binding

Standard Merton s. xvii; sewn on nine bands (though four are actually stubbed off); formerly chained from the usual position. Possibly once chained from the foot of an earlier front board. fol. 362 was formerly reversed and the rear pastedown in another, smaller book, sewn on six bands.

History

Origin: S. XIV ex. ; script of English appearance.

Provenance and Acquisition

At the foot of fol. 2, in formal script, ‘Ex dono Iohannis Woode in theologia baccalarii quondam consocii collegii de Merton in Oxonia’.

To fol. ii^v is pasted a label, doubtless originally under horn and nailed to the back cover, in the same hand: ‘Notyngham super euuangelia. Ex dono M. Iohannis Wode quondam archdiaconi Midd’’. For John Wode, fellow c. 1445–50, d. by Nov. 1475, see MS 55.

Pen-trials and scribbles of s. xvi occur in the margins passim, e.g. at the foot of fol. 189 ‘Henry the Wyte’ and ‘Thomashe Dury’.

More at the head of fol. 214 incl. ‘Iohannes Lod'.

At the head of fol. 1 is the James no. ‘124’, s. xvii in.

Inside the front board is a sheet of paper with contents, s. xvii, and ‘O. 5. 8. Art:’ canc. and replaced with ‘L. 3. 5 (CLVII)’ in red. Below is the College bookplate. ‘8’ is inked on the foredge.