Merton College MS. 278
Former shelfmark: O. 1. 6
ARISTOTLE; S. XIII2
Contents
Language(s): Latin
In an anglicana hand little later than the main text.
s. xv, incl. items now missing from the end: ‘Liber Euclidis de geometria cum commento Adelardi’, ‘Liber de cohitu’, ‘textus methaphisice’, ‘Liber boicii de disciplina scolarium’.
As MS 270 art. 1.
Pr. with the works of Isaac Iudaeus, Lyon 1515, I, fols. 40v-1v.
eTK 0201FEd. A. Nagy, BGPTM 2/5 (1897), pp. 1–11; eTK 0755B; Diaz 1027.
Ed. P. Correns, BGPTM 1/1 (1891); eTK 1601F; Diaz 1015.
Pr. Opera Aristotelis, Venice 1573–6, IX, fols. 3–14v; eTK 0681G, 0718K.
M. Manitius, Geschichte der lateinischen Literatur des Mittelalters, 3 vols (Munich, 1911–1931), I, pp. 268, 284; Roger of Howden, Chronica, ed. W. Stubbs (RS, 1868–71), IV, p. 173.
f. 196 is blank but for pencilled diagrams. On the verso is a long paragraph of notes in an early anglicana hand, quoting Avicenna.
Throughout, but especially in art. 1, copious but neat marginal annotation in an early anglicana hand, associated with profile heads and pointing hands. These features are suggestive of a monk of St Peter’s Abbey, Gloucester, perhaps studying at Gloucester College: N. R. Ker, English Manuscripts in the Century after the Norman Conquest (Oxford, 1960), p. 6, pl. 27b-c; R. M. Thomson, Books and Learning in Twelfth-Century England: The Ending of ‘Alter Orbis’ (Walkern, 2006), pp. 36, 38.
Physical Description
Collation
Layout
Ruled with crayon in 2 cols of 38 lines; running heads between lines ruled right across the page.
Hand(s)
A single proficient English gothic rotunda bookhand.
Decoration
Large and handsome red and blue flourished initials, the one on f. 5 associated with a beast and long ornamental flourish into the lower margin. The long opening rubric is flanked with an initial I in red and blue, with humorous heads of humans, animals and birds in ink of text and red. Blue or red initials flourished in the other colour; red or blue paraphs, running heads in red and blue capitals.
Binding
Standard Merton s. xvii; sewn on five bands; formerly chained from the usual position; fols. i-ii, 197–8 are paper binding leaves, the outermost from the same printed book as in MS 68. An earlier binding had two straps from the front board.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
Made in England; at the College by 1600.
At the foot of f. 180 is an erased inscription of four lines, probably not of ownership.
At the head of f. 5 is the James no. ‘87’ (wrongly?), s. xvi in., canc.
Inside the front board is pasted a sheet of paper with a table of the present contents, s. xvii, ‘Q. 1. 10. Art:’, s. xvii, canc. and replaced with ‘O. 1. 6 (CCLXXVIII)’ in red; the College bookplate.
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
2019-10-14: First online publication