Durham University Library Archives & Special Collections Catalogue
Thomas Aquinas, Scriptum super libros Sententiarum I; De potentia Dei, written in England (possibly Oxford), at the start of the 14th century
Parchment
unnumbered medieval flyleaves are a bifolium, I-XVIII12, XIX9 (= 12, with leaves 9 and 10 (probably blank) excised, and leaf 12, probably used as the pastedown in an earlier binding, lost during rebinding)
Text-block: 280 x 170 mm. Two columns (width, 80 mm).
Lines: 47 (space, 6 mm; height of minims, 2.5 mm).
Pricking: awl and knife.
Ruling: ink. Single verticals flank both columns (2 in total in the intercolumnar space); one or two further verticals supplied intermittently in the outer margin. The top two horizontals are extended; from f.1r-67r the bottom two horizontals are extended; thereafter the bottom horizontal is extended and an extra extended horizontal is supplied 4 mm below it. From f.1r-75r a further pair of narrowly-spaced horizontals bisects the lower margin; the practice was discontinued thereafter. All horizontals run across the intercolumnar space and project unevenly into the margins.
Written in Textualis libraria, heavily abbreviated; generally spaciously written until the last two quires when (especially from f.212r) it becomes smaller, more compressed, less consistent and often untidier. Probably the work of a single scribe who was also responsible for the item numbering in the margins. The occasional contemporary corrections in a more cursive script (e.g. f.39v, f.40r, f.86r) may be by the same hand.
Item (a1) is headed by a decorated initial “E”: a pink letter shape, 5 lines high, filled with simple foliate curls set against a gold leaf ground; enhanced by a border bar of sparse pink ivy set against a blue with gold leaf details that extends across the upper margin. A free-standing border bar in the inner margin features a hybrid (with a stork-like head and dragonesque body) whose tail turns into sparse ivy. Item (b1) is headed by a 6-line-high blue “Q” delicately flourished in red (including the motif of a dragon), the flourishing of its main bowl extending across the upper margin and on into the outer one, that of its tail flowing right down the intercolumnar space. Distinctions and articles within (a1) and Questions and articles in (b1) are headed by 2+-line high blue initials, flourished in red (the quality of the flourishing rudimentary); subsections therein are flagged by paraphs, alternately red then blue. Paraphs head every entry in the lists of tituli, (a2) and (b2).
18th century, pasteboard boards (now detached), covered in brown ?calf, blind-tooled with an inner and an outer rectangle joined at the corners; sewn on 5 narrow raised bands; 2 metal clasps; marbled endpapers.
The first unnumbered flyleaf bears stains from channels in the boards, from turnovers, and from a pair of clasps of earlier binding(s); a set of small rust stains aligned parallel to the spine may be from metal pins used to secure the cords into the board channels.
Written in England, Oxford (?), start of 14th century.
In Oxford, early 14th century, where repeatedly pawned as shown by the partially erased cautio records on f.225r-v:
“Caucio magistri [I-?-s de -?- ...-?- in cista] comitisse de Warwyc die sabati proxima ante festum Sancte margarete [pro -?- ...-?-]”. f.225r, top, in part vigorously erased
“[Caucio Roberti Mala-?- Walteri fratris eius] exsposita in cista comitise de Warwyc die sabati proxsima post festum translacionis beati Thome Martiris pro viij s anno domini Mo CoCoCo xvijo et tradatur Magistro Iohanni de Hemlyngtun et habet suplementum]”, f.225r, bottom, the first line partially erased, the whole struck through; for John of Hemlington as a fellow of Merton College Oxford, see BRUO, II, p.861.
Associated with Durham monks at Oxford between 1317 and 19 January 1324: “Caucio domini ade de Weremouht exposita in cista domine de gildeforde in vigilia beatorum Fabiani et Sebastiani [ ?- pro dimidia marcha an]no domini Mo CoCoCo visesimo tercio. tradatur alicui monacho Dulnemie”, f.225v, top (partially eroded). Adam of Wearmouth, monk of Durham approximately 1325-1354.
Durham Cathedral Priory inscription: “Liber sancti Cuthberti de Dunolmo.”, earlier 14th century, second unnumbered folio, verso, top; to which was added in 14th century, “et est de communi almariolo Dunolm′”. Lower on same page: “Prima pars \scripti/ [summe - deleted] fratris thome de aquino [cum questionibus de potentia dei – erased] | Liber Sancti Cuthberti de donelm”, mid 14th century, the listing of contents amplified 15th/16th century by Thomas Swalwell, monk of Durham: “super primum sentenciarum cum titulis questionum Item questiones eiusdem sancti -?- de potentia dei cum ?eius titulis.”
“.R.”, later 14th century, f.1r, outer margin.
“R Prima pars Scripti Thome De communi libraria Dunelm′”, early 15th century, f.1r, upper margin.
Cloister catalogue 312 marked “In libraria”, see Catalogi Veteres p. 73.
Commentary on Book I of the Sentences. Distinctio numbers are supplied as running headings both in red and blue Roman numerals, and in black Arabic ones.
Tituli of the articles in (a1), clearly subdivided by paraphs, distinctio numbers being given both in black Arabic numerals and in red and blue Roman numerals, the latter sometimes running over the former. The columns of text are numbered in Arabic numerals throughout 1 and 2 (1-544), bar the final column of 2 (545, but unnumbered).
Quaestiones I-X, article 4 only (i.e. lacks X, article 5)
Tituli of the Questions and Articles of (b1) (also stopping at X.4), the entries for questions being numbered 1-10 in Arabic numerals and written in a larger, more formal script than those for articles. The scribal colophon, by the same hand, is presented as the final entry in the list, written in the larger, more formal script.
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.
,
Surtees Society 7, (London: J.B. Nichols and Son, [1838]).
Dondaine, H-F. and Shooner, H. V., Codices manuscripti operum Thomae de Aquino (Roma: Commissio leonina, 1967-1982), p.252 no. 675
Emden, A. B., A biographical register of the University of Oxford to 1500 (Oxford: OUP, 1957-59)
S. Thomae Aquinatis Quaestiones disputatae. 2, De potentia. De anima. De spiritualibus creaturis ..., ed. P. M. Pession et al. (Rome: Marietti, 1965)
S. Thomae Aquinatis, Scriptum super libros Sententiarum magistri Petri Lombardi episcopi Parisiensis I , ed. P. Mandonnet (Paris: Lethielleux, 1929)