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

Merton College MS. 295

Former shelfmark: K. 1. 5

BURLEY, GROSSETESTE; c. 1200, XIV in.

Contents

Language(s): Latin

ff. iv-v blank; a table of contents and ‘5’, s. xvii, on f. vv.

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: medium
Secundo Folio: (f. 94) est melior dispositio
Originally three volumes, probably bound as two by the time they entered the College library, and together by c. 1500. IV was clearly used earlier as endleaves in ?another College book and need not have entered this one long before s. xvii.
Form: codex
Support: Parchment
Extent: 156 leaves (v + 151)
Dimensions (leaf): 305 × 215 mm.
All edges heavily retrimmed and spattered with red.

Collation

A bifolium, 1–612, 7–810 / 912, 1010, 116 / 1212 /134 / 1412; catchwords and leaf-numbers to I.

Binding

Standard Merton s. xvii, repaired and rebacked by Maltby; sewn on four bands; formerly chained from the usual position. Fols. i-iii, 149–51 are paper binding leaves, fols. iii and 149 modern, the rest of s. xvii, the outermost from the same printed book as in MS 118. The outermost parchment leaves were pastedowns in an earlier binding. Near the foot of f. 147 are the marks of the large iron chain-staple. There are more such marks on f. 1 but not on fols. iv-v, and again on f. 136v. Near the foot of the foredge of f. iv is the mark of a brass chain-staple.

History

Provenance and Acquisition

Near the foot of f. 120v, erased, is ‘Supplementum Iohannis’, s. xiv, and some erased words in pencil, possibly a price. The second line appears to read ‘f ii iii s.’

Given to the College by William Reed in 1374: UO49. 16. At the foot of f. 1, autograph, ‘Liber M. Willelmi Reed ex empcione de bonis sibi datis per M. Nicholaum de Sandwyc. Expositio m. Walteri Burley super 7 libros Topicorum Aristotelis.’ At the foot of f. 93 ‘Liber Magistri Willelmi episcopi Cicestrie quem emit a domino Thoma Tryllek’ episcopo Roffensi. Oretis igitur pro utroque.’ For William Reed, fellow from 1344 until at least 1357, d. 1385, see MS 8.

Inside the front board is a sheet of paper with ‘E. 4. 13’ (canc.) and a table of contents, s. xvii, and ‘Q. 2. 11. Art:’, canc. and replaced with ‘K. 1. 5 (CCXCV)’ in red; the College bookplate. ‘11’ is inked on the foredge.

Merton College MS. 295 – Part I (fols. 1–92v)

Contents

Language(s): Latin

1. (fols. 1–91; 91v-2v blank)
WALTER BURLEY, Commentary on ARISTOTLE, Topica I-VII
Incipit: Vt de dicendis in hoc opere cognicio distinctior habetur
Incipit: Propositum quidem negocii. Aristoteles intendens dare artem seu methodum inueniendi medium sillogismi
Explicit: igitur inter omnia predita difficilium est destruere accidens. Loci igitur. Epilogat igitur determinata sunt a principio secundi libri usque hic et in hoc finitur liber septimus.
Final rubric: Explicit ...

Each book is followed by a list of quaestiones.

Unpr.; Lohr, p. 178; Sharpe, Handlist, pp. 713–14, one of four copies.

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: Parchment
Dimensions (written): 240 × 150 mm.

Collation

Layout

Ruled with pencil in 2 cols of 49 lines

Hand(s)

Written in English gothic rotunda bookhands more or less heavily influenced by anglicana.

Decoration

Rather rough red initials, paraphs, highlighting, and underlining of lemmata.

History

Origin: s. xiv in. ; England, Oxford (?)

Provenance

Possibly made in Oxford.

Merton College MS. 295 – Part II (fols. 93–120v)

Contents

Language(s): Latin

2. (fols. 93–120v)
ROBERT GROSSETESTE, Commentary on ARISTOTLE, Posterior Analytics
Incipit: Omnis doctrina et intentio. Intentio Aristotelis in libro isto est inuestigare et manifestare essentialia demonstracionis
Explicit: in omni sillogismo se habente.
Final rubric: Heccine librorum sentencia posteriorum | Scribitur ut cernis istis manifesta quaternis. | Explicit hic totum, pro Christo da mihi potum.

Ed. P. Rossi (Florence, 1981); Thomson, Grosseteste, p. 84; Lohr, pp. 103–4; Sharpe, Handlist, p. 542.

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: Parchment
Dimensions (written): 270 × 165 mm.

Layout

Ruled with crayon in 2 cols of 58 lines.

Hand(s)

Written in English gothic rotunda bookhands more or less heavily influenced by anglicana.

Decoration

Rather rough red initials, paraphs, highlighting, and underlining of lemmata.

History

Origin: s. xiv in. ; England, Oxford (?)

Provenance

Possibly made in Oxford.

Merton College MS. 295 – Part III (fols. 121–32v, 137–148v)

Contents

Language(s): Latin

3. (fols. 121–32v, 137–46)
ROBERT GROSSETESTE, Commentary on ARISTOTLE, Physics
Rubric: (In a later hand Lincolniensis super libros phisicorum.)
Incipit: Cum scire et intelligere adquiritur ex principiis ut sciantur
Explicit: cum cessabit hominum generacio.
Final rubric: Explicit Lincolniensis super libros Phisicorum Aristotelis. Deo gracias alleluia amen. Et uocabatur magister Robertus Groceteste et fuit Lincolniensis episcopus.

There is no loss of text between fols. 132v and 137.

Ed. R. C. Dales (Boulder, CO, 1963); Thomson, Grosseteste, p. 82; Lohr, p. 104; Sharpe, Handlist, p. 543.

5. (f. 146rv)
ROBERT GROSSETESTE, De Potentia et Actu
Incipit: Omne quod est aut ens actu aut ens in potentia
Explicit: de potentia ad affectum.

Ed. J. Baur, BGPTM 9 (1912), pp. 126–9; Thomson, Grosseteste, p. 112, one of three copies.

6. (fols. 146v-8; 148v blank)
ROBERT GROSSETESTE, De Luce
Incipit: Formam primum corporale quasi corporeitate nominant
Explicit: et gesticulationibus et rithmicis temporibus.
Final rubric: Explicit tractatus de luce Lincolniensis &c.

Ed. Baur, pp. 51–9; Thomson, Grosseteste, p. 108; Lindberg, no. 85D.

Followed by a short note, s. xv, ‘Nota quod aliquid dici magis notum alio potest tripliciter intelligi ...’, and pen-trials and doodles.

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: Parchment
Dimensions (written): 265 × 180 mm.

Layout

Ruled with crayon in 2 cols of 50 lines.

Hand(s)

Written in English gothic rotunda bookhands more or less heavily influenced by anglicana. The scribe of part III was certainly professional; the others are less good.

Decoration

Rather rough red initials, paraphs, highlighting, and underlining of lemmata.

History

Origin: s. xiv in. ; England, Oxford (?)

Provenance

Possibly made in Oxford.

Merton College MS. 295 – Part IV (fols. 133–6v)

Contents

Language(s): Latin

4. (fols. 133–6v)
VACARIUS, Liber Pauperum

Glossed, fragm.

On Codex 6 tit. 37–49, 7. 11–17. The innermost (and presumably outermost) bifolia of the original quire are missing.

Ed. F. de Zulueta, The Liber Pauperum of Vacarius (Selden Soc. 44, 1927), this copy pp. xxviii-xxix.

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: Parchment
Dimensions (written): 225 × 120 mm.

Layout

Ruled with pencil in 2 cols for 46 lines of text; the surrounding gloss ruled for ad hoc, or not ruled for at all.

Hand(s)

Written in expert early gothic bookhands, one for the text, another for the earliest glosses, of French and ‘scholastic’ appearance.

Decoration

Red or green initials.

History

Origin: c. 1200. ; England, West Midlands (?)

Provenance

The book of which IV is a fragment was probably made, like other surviving copies of the work, in the west midlands.

Additional Information

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. 117; Powicke, nos 533, 563.

Funding of Cataloguing

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

Last Substantive Revision

2019-10-25: First online publication

See the Availability section of this record for information on viewing the item in a reading room.