United Kingdom, Oxford, Merton College, 278

Miscellany
Physical Description
  • Material: Parchment
  • Pages: II + 198 leaves
  • Leaves Format: not available
  • Dimensions: 305 x 215 mm
Detailed Description
  • Collation:
    A^4, (1-16)^12; with catchwords.
  • Decoration:
    Titles on top of the pages in alternating red and blue letters. We have running heads in red and blue capitals between the lines, ruled right across the page. Large, handsome initials, flourished in red and blue; on f. 5r the initial has a long ornamental flourish into the lower margin and is associated with a picture of a beast. We also have initials in blue or red, flourished in the alternate colour. We have red or blue paraphs. The long opening rubric is flanked with an initial "I" in red and blue, with humorous heads of humans, animals and birds in the ink of the text and red. On f. 5r we have a picture of a beast, with which the initial on said folio is associated. F. 196r has some pencilled diagrams, but is otherwise blank.
  • Layout:
    Text is set in two columns. The written area is 190 mm x 110 mm, ruled with crayon.

    38 lines to the page.
  • Hand Description:
    Text is written by one Anglo-Norman hand, if Lacombe is not mistaken. Thomson describes the hand as a proficient English gothic rotunda bookhand.
  • Binding Description:
    Standard Merton binding sewn on five bands, formerly chained from the usual position, College bookplate. Ff. I - II and 197r- 198v are paper binding leaves, the outermost from the same printed book as in Oxford, , 68. An earlier binding had two straps from the front board. The Merton binding is from the 17th century.
  • Provenance:
    According to Thomson , the manuscript is from the 13th century , according to Lacombe from the end of the 13th to beginning of the 14th century .
    The manuscript was made in England and was at the College by 1600 .
    At the top of f. 5r we have a James no. "87", probably wrongly assigned, from the beginning of the 16th century , which is cancelled.
    On a sheet of paper, pasted inside the front board (the same, where we have a 17th century table of contents, cf. Additional), we have: "Q. 1. 10. Art" from the 17th century , cancelled out and replaced with "O. 1. 6 (CCLXXVIII)" in red.
History
  • Origin Date: End of the 13th to beginning of the 14th century
  • Origin Place: England
  • George Lacombe , Aristoteles Latinus Vol. Pars Prior, Rome (1939) , p. 413
  • Rodney Malcolm Thomson , A Descriptive Catalogue of the Medieval Manuscripts of Merton College, Oxford, Oxford (2009) , pp. 215 - 216
Content
Al-Kindi Liber de intellectu 183v - 184r
  • Incipit:
    Incipit liber de intellectu et intellecto. Intellexi quod queris tibi scribi sermonem breuem de intellectu ...
  • Explicit:
    ... et intencionem tuam tamen sermonis de his sufficiat.
Anonymous Extracts from works of Augustine on the soul 184r - 185v
  • Incipit:
    Incipit liber Augustini de anima. Augustinus . Vidisti ne unquam oculis corporeis ... Quero utrum sit anima qualiter sit ...
  • Explicit:
    ... summa nominatur cum autem non uidet mens.
Anonymous Hadriani imperatoris cum Secundo philosopho dialogus 194v - 195v
  • Incipit:
    Adrianus imperator Secundo philosopho quedam problemata proposuit quorum unum est quid sit mundus ...
  • Explicit:
    ... rei miranda cercitudo.
Aristotle De animalibus 5r - 180r
  • Incipit:
    In nomine Domini nostri Ihesu Christi omnipotentis misericordis et pii incipit tractatus libri quem composuit Aristotiles in cognicione naturarum animalium, agrestium et marinorum, a magistro Michaele Scoto apud Tholetum translatus et in illo est modus coniunctionis animalium in generacione ... Quedam partes corporum animalium dicuntur composite ...
  • Explicit:
    ... propter causam finalem et propter causam mouentem. Explicit liber de animalibus.
  • Note:
    This is the translation of Michael Scot . The textus is given in lemmata, only. The same text can be found in Oxford, , 270, item 1.
Averroes De Substantia Orbis 187v - 194v
  • Incipit:
    Incipit liber Aueroiz de constructione orbis et ipsius substantia. In hoc tractatu intendimus perscrutari de rebus ex quibus ...
  • Explicit:
    ... quia hec questio est ualde bona. Explicit tractatus Aueroiz de compositione orbis, et continet v. partes nobillissimas.
Dominicus Gundissalinus De unitate et uno 185v - 187v
  • Incipit:
    Incipit liber de unitate et uno. Vnitas est qua unaqueque res est una ...
  • Explicit:
    ... et est id quod est.
Galen De compage membrorum 180v - 183v
  • Incipit:
    Hic incipit liber de humana natura. Cerebrum est natura frigidum ...
  • Explicit:
    ... membrum sine ratione inmutat.
  • Note:
    Thomson gives Constantine the African as author and titles: "De Natura Humana".