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

Exeter College MS. 33

Alexander of Hales, Summa theologica I; England, s. xiv1

Contents

Language(s): Latin

*1. (fols. *iiirv)
[a subject index referring to the numbered sections of item 2.]
Incipit: ‘Adam’
Explicit: ‘Ymago’

The date is s. xiiiex.

2. (fols. 1r-170v)
Alexander of Hale, Summa theologica 1.
Rubric:
Incipit: Quoniam sicut dicit Boecius in libro de trinitate ... Queret igitur aliquis in primis utrum doctrina theologiae sit sciencia
Explicit: [fol. 108v] tercie racio non potest intelligi poni ordo ||
Incipit: || [fol. 109r] ... voluntas uero ut voluntas in ordine nature
Explicit: et hoc in specie columbe ||

Pr. Nürnberg, 1482 (Hain, 643, GW 871), etc.; ed. Quaracchi, i (1924). Stegmüller, Sent., 59; Glorieux, Théologie, 301a; Glorieux, Arts, 593. Because of the excision of a leaf our text breaks off in Quaracchi edn. 476ª/22, resuming ibid. 480ª/12. On fol. Ir is a note ‘Only a few lines are wanting H. O. C⟨oxe⟩’, but the loss of the final leaf means that our text breaks off 33 lines before the end of the 1481 Quaracchi edn. 750b/43. At the top of fol. 1r the scribe wrote ‘Sancti spiritus assis nobis gracia.’ On Alexander see Sharpe, Latin Writers.

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: amoris.
Form: codex
Support: parchment FHHF
Extent: 170 leaves preceded by two 18th-century paper flyleaves and one medieval membrane leaf, and followed by two 18th-century paper flyleaves.
Dimensions (leaf): 343 × 240 mm.
Dimensions (column): 230 × 70 mm.
Foliation: Leaves are numbered in pencil in the same hand both bottom left and top right; these modern numbers are superseded by new numbers top right.

Collation

1–412 510 6–812 912 (wants 3) 10–1312 5 leaves. Collation of the last five leaves is impossible since they are partly glued together. Catchwords are probably by the scribes, although some are inaccurate in comprising a word or words which do not quite match what follows, and almost three lines that open quire 12 had to be deleted because they had already been written at the end of quire 11. Quire signatures are limited to the use of small red letters a–f on the first leaves of 12-leaf quires.

Layout

Two columns, 55–56 lines. Ruled in crayon.

Hand(s)

*1, anglicana.

2, a small gothic bookhand undecided between rotunda and semiquadrata, perhaps by one scribe throughout. Punctuated with low point and double virgula. Quaestiones are numbered in ink, s. xv.

Decoration

*1, none.

2, a quite good 7-line illuminated initial with extender on fol. 1r (Alexander and Temple, no. 232),

otherwise 2-line blue lombards flourished red, and red flourished blue, with extenders. Blue and red paraphs and blue-and-red running head numbers.

Binding

Sewn on four bands. Standard Exeter binding: simple and quite elegant, calf over millboards, the calf bearing blind decoration of a floral type, early 19th century. The spine, like that of MS 35, is elaborately blind-tooled.

History

Origin: 2: s. xiv1 *1: s. xiiiex ; England

Provenance and Acquisition

No early history is known and the book is recorded in neither Ecloga nor CMA, but at the foot of fol. iiir is ‘Liber Coll. Exon’ in a hand which may be of s. xvi and can hardly be later than s. xvii1 and is found in manuscripts that were certainly in the College’s medieval library. It is likely that this book was in the medieval library too. See further Watson, Exeter, Introduction, pp. xxii–xxiii.

Exeter library identifications, on the front pastedown, are: bookplate 3 and on it ‘Q8–13 Gall’ (deleted), ‘72’, ‘172–E–9’, ‘Coxe XXXIII’ and a title ‘Alexandri de Ales Summa Theologica’ in a modern hand. ‘9’ is on a serrated paper label at the top of the spine.

Record Sources

Andrew G. Watson, A descriptive catalogue of the medieval manuscripts of Exeter College, Oxford (Oxford: Oxford University Press), 2000.

Availability

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

Funding of Cataloguing

Conversion of the printed catalogue to TEI funded by the Rector and Fellows of Exeter College.

Last Substantive Revision

2020-04-29: First online publication

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