Merton College MS. 272
Former shelfmark: O. 1. 4
COMMENTARIES ON ARISTOTLE; S. XIII ex.
Contents
Language(s): Latin
Fols. iii, ivrv blank. On f. iiiv is a table of contents (without authors’ names), c. 1500, including three items now lacking from the end: quaestiones on the De Caelo, De Memoria and Metaphysics.
Ed. H. Powell, The Life and Writings of Adam of Buckfield, B. Litt. diss. (Oxford University, 1964), pp. 5–232; Lohr, pp. 320–1, citing eleven copies; Sharpe, Handlist, p. 6.
Unpr.; Lohr, pp. 321–2; Sharpe, Handlist, p. 7, citing four copies.
Unpr.; Lohr, pp. 322–3; Sharpe, Handlist, p. 7, listing three copies. f. 24v, originally blank, has a quaestio in a slightly later anglicana. The same hand writes another in the blank space remaining at the foot of f. 24 col. b.
Unpr.; Lohr, p. 320; Sharpe, Handlist, p. 7, recording sixteen copies.
Also in BnF lat. 16149, f. 51 seq.
Also in Cambridge, Gonv. & Caius Coll. 367 (589), fols. 112–20.
‘secundum magistrum Galfridum de Haspyl’, in an early hand at the head of f. 87.
Unpr.; Lohr, p. 151; Sharpe, Handlist, p. 121. One of five copies.
Lohr treats this as part of art. 8.
f. 136v blank but for faint pencil-notes.
Unpr.; Sharpe, Handlist, p. 120, but an entirely different incipit in Lohr, p. 152, who does not cite this copy. Preceded on fols. 177–8v by a connecting passage ‘Cuiuslibet diuisibilis extensi aut multiplicati per naturam est indiuisibile principium ... respondentes ei in sua communitate. Et sic determinatur de ipso in libro phisicorum.’ Followed by a quaestio in a slightly later hand.
Ed. V. Cizmic (Munich, 2006); Sharpe, Handlist, p. 120; the unique copy.
Originally blank. A quaestio added on 239v; on 240 the title ‘quaestiones super .3. de anima’.
On f. 244v, originally blank, is added ‘Questio magistri … de Monteforti in uesperis. Questio est de actione et passione … quia fieri non ex aliquo est fieri per creationem, ergo &c.’ Perhaps William de Montfort (BRUO 1297–8), chancellor of Oxford University 1282–3, dean of St Paul’s, London, d. 1294.
See art. 14.
Unpr.; Sharpe, Handlist, p. 121.
Unpr.; Sharpe, Handlist, p. 121; the unique copy.
Unpr.; Sharpe, Handlist, p. 120.
Preceded, on fols. 284v-5, by a connecting passage: ‘In fine nobilitatis lux prima existens increata duas rationales creaturas ... ut habetur in fine secundi. W.
For arts 8–19 see E. Macrae, ‘Geoffrey of Aspall’s commentaries on Aristotle’, MARS 6 (1968), 94–134; R. Plevano, ‘Richard Rufus of Cornwall and Geoffrey of Aspall. Two questions on the instant of change’, Medioevo19 (1993), 167–232, at pp. 186–9.
Copious marginal annotation in early anglicana hands throughout.
Physical Description
Collation
Layout
Ruled with crayon in 2 cols of 49–65 lines.
Hand(s)
Mostly small, neat early anglicana hands, lemmata in gothic rotunda, written larger. The script is uniform except for art. 4, in a larger hand with lemmata in gothic rotunda bookhand. Arts 1–3 are in a small rotunda bookhand influenced by anglicana. Arts 8–13 have running heads in the same hand. A single conspicuous, untidy anglicana hand annotates from art. 6 on.
Decoration
Red and blue flourished initials; blue initials flourished in red, red or blue paraphs. The decoration between fols. 62 and 244 seems to be in one hand.
Binding
Maltby 1970; Powicke described the previous binding, doubtless rightly, as s. xvii. Fols. i-ii, 300–1 are modern paper flyleaves. f. 299, from the former binding, part of an incunable (running head ‘Edi. I/II. in Por.’). At the foot of f. 298 is the mark of a brass chain-staple, and of two brass pins for straps.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
Made in England, presumably at Oxford.
In the College electio of 1408–9: UO51. 5.
On f. i, in the hand of the table of contents, ‘Istum librum reparauit Magister Rogerus Martyn. Orate igitur deuote pro isto benefactore’. Martyn (BRUO 1237) was fellow from c. 1434 until at least 1439, canon of St Paul’s, London, d. by 1462. He also gave a Missal to the College chapel for use at St Michael’s altar (MCR 3992).
Near the foot of f. 176 an inscription has been obliterated by reagent, and another erased.
On f. iiv is the James no. ‘17’ (wrongly), s. xvii in.
Inside the front board is a sheet of paper with table of contents, s. xvii; the College bookplate. An indecipherable number is inked on the foredge.
Merton College MS. 272 - fragment (fol. 298)
Contents
Language(s): Latin
Extracts pr. C. H. Kneepkens, ‘Roger Bacon’s Theory of Double Intellectus’, in The Rise of British Logic, ed. P. O. Lewry (Toronto, 1985), pp. 115–44; Pinborg, Sprachlogik, p. 325 (An); Sharpe, Handlist, p. 561.
Physical Description
Layout
Ruled with pencil in 2 cols of 67 lines.
Hand(s)
Written in a tiny, neat early anglicana hand.
Decoration
None.
History
Additional Information
Record Sources
Availability
For enquiries relating to this manuscript please contact Merton College Library.
Bibliography

Funding of Cataloguing
Conversion of the printed catalogue to TEI funded by the Warden and Fellows of Merton College .
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
Last Substantive Revision
2019-10-01: First online publication