Durham Cathedral Library MS. C.IV.20AJohn Dinsdale, Aristotle
Held by: Durham Cathedral Library: Durham Cathedral Manuscripts

Late 13th century copy of commentaries on Aristotle by John Dinsdale.

Digitised: https://n2t.durham.ac.uk/ark:/32150/t1mcz30ps65b.html

Physical description of manuscript
Support

Parchment

Extent: i+258+i f
Size: 255 mm x 172 mm

Foliation

Modern pencil foliation.


Secundo folio: dicant ore
Collation

I14 (structure uncertain: f.3-12 are 6 regular bifolia; how 1-2 and 13-14 are joined to them is unclear), II-XXI12, XX4

Layout

2 columns; 33-35 lines, frame ruled

Script

(a) and (b) written in cursive Anglicana. (c) in a more formal Anglicana

Binding

Standard Tuckett binding, mid 19th century full brown calf over thick wooden boards (Charles Tuckett, binder to the British Museum, rebound many Durham manuscripts in the 19th century). Rust stain from a metal fixture of an earlier binding on f.1, fore-edge.

Manuscript history
Creation

Written in England, later 13th century (after 1283).

Provenance

Durham Cathedral Priory shelfmarks: f.1r, upper margin: M, 15th century (crossed through); Questiones super libros methaphisice .M., 15th century; 1a 1?i (very rubbed, the third numeral unclear).
Identifiable in 1392 Spendement Catalogue in Libri philosophici et logici section.

Manuscript contents
(a)     f.1r-196v
Modern title: Lectures on Aristotle's Metaphysica
Original title: Quaestiones in Metaphysica Aristotelis
Author: John Dinsdale, - after 1286
Incipit: Sicut dicit philosophus in quarto metaphysicorum uersus finem
Explicit: tibi sit honor et gloria per seculorum secula amen
Rubric: Hic incipiunt quaestiones super libros metaphysicorum reportate a magistro J de Ditneshale
Language: Latin
Cited: Thro 1992
(b)     f.196v-254v
Modern title: Lectures on Aristotle's Ethica
Original title: Quaestiones in Ethica Nicomachea Aristotelis I-IV
Author: John Dinsdale, - after 1286
Incipit: Omnis ars et omnis doctrina etc. cuius ratio est duo sunt principia operationis humanae
Explicit: sed excessum
Rubric: Hic incipient quaestiones super libros Ethicorum
Language: Latin
(c)     f.255r-258r
Modern title: Summary of Questions for (a) and (b)
Original title: Tabula
Language: Latin

Microfilm
Microfilmed in 1985/86 by the Hill Monastic Manuscript Library, St John's Abbey and University, Collegeville, Minnesota. Copies held by them and Durham University Library.

Digitised material for Durham Cathedral Library MS. C.IV.20A John Dinsdale on Aristotle
Digitised January 2016 as part of the Durham Priory Library Recreated project
https://n2t.durham.ac.uk/ark:/32150/t1mcz30ps65b.html
Bibliography

Catalogi veteres librorum Ecclesiae cathedralis dunelm. Catalogues of the library of Durham cathedral, at various periods, from the conquest to the dissolution, including catalogues of the library of the abbey of Hulne, and of the mss.   OCLC citation, Surtees Society 7, (London: J.B. Nichols and Son, [1838]).

Lohr, C. H., Medieval Latin Aristotle commentaries (Florence: SISMEL, Edizioni del Galluzzo, 1988-2013)

Thro, L. J. and Ermatinger, C. J., "Questions on Aristotle, Metaphysics X and XII by Master John Dymsdale", Manuscripta 36 (1992), 71-124 and 37 (1993), 107-167

Index terms