Durham University Library Archives & Special Collections Catalogue
Averroes, Commentarium medium in de generatione et corruptione Aristotelis; Commentarium magnum in de anima. Alfred of Sareshel, In Meteora Aristotelis; etc. Written in England, 14th/15th century.
Parchment: modest quality with glaring H/F distinction, some flaws (including a large slit in f.64). Arranged: FH, HF.
Foliated in modern pencil.
I-IX12, X14 (=12 with an extra bifolium, f.113+114, inserted between leaves 4 and 5), XI8
Text block: 195 x 113 mm. Two columns (width, 50-52 mm).
Lines: 59. (Space, 3+ mm. Height of minims: lemmata, 3+ mm; commentary, 2 mm).
Pricking: awl. Prickings preserved in all three outer margins
Ruling: ink or crayon. Planned for all-round glossing. A pair of vertical flank the outer edge of main text columns; single verticals define their inner edge; a further pair of verticals, then a outer single vertical divide the outer margin into three zones. The first three, the middle three and the final three horizontals are extended; all horizontals continue across the intercolumnar space and project irregularly into inner and outer margins. A further pair of horizontals divides the upper margin into two zones; another pair of horizontals and a separate single horizontal divide the lower margin into three zones.
Written in Textualis semi-quadrata (with different gauges for lemmata and commentary in (c), (f) and (g)). The number of hands uncertain, possibly four: 1. f.1r-18r (items (a)-(b)). Possibly also did the red rubrics in (b); be that as it may, the rubricator in question was certainly responsible for the hands, heads and dragons etc. that were drawn in the margins of (a) and (b). 2. f.20r-108v (items (c), (d1), (d2)), with a change of manner (or hand) at f.99r/99v). Also perhaps f.115r-116v (item (e)), where the writing is midway between the typical manners of 2 and 4. 3. f.109r-114v (items (d3), (d4)). 4. f.117r-130v (items (f), (g), and (h)). Extensive contemporary corrections and annotations in cursive glossing/documentary scripts; the number of hands uncertain.
Items (a)-(g) and the individual books within (c) are all headed by a red and blue initial (5-30 lines high, the largest being the first), flourished in both colours. Subdivisions in (a), (b), (d), (f), (g) and (h) are headed by alternately red then blue initials, 2 lines high, those in (a), (b), and (d) being flourished in the other colour, those in (f), (g) and (h) being plain. Alternately red then blue paraphs for subsections within (a)-(d) and (g). Sentence capitals in (b) are stroked in red. Running headings in red and blue capitals giving book number in items (a)-(c), then summary title for items (d)-(g).
Early 18th century full brown calf over pasteboards, 2 re-used clasps.
Written in England, 14th/15th century.
Inscription: “.C.”, later 14th century, f.1r, top centre.
Inscription: “C Tractatus de generacione et corrupcione cum alijs tractatibus ix naturalis philosophie De communi libraria monachorum dunelm'”, early 15th century, f.1r, top.
Pressmark:
“1a 10i P”, 15th century, f.1r, top right.
Recorded in 1395 Cloister catalogue.
Copy classified as a member of the fifth family. Though written continuously, the text has lacunae and a disjunction. There are extensive contemporary corrections in the margins on f.1r-2v, f.7r, and f.10v-11v, and contemporary faces and pointing hands in the margins of f.1r-3r and f.11v (attention focused on the outer three sheets of the quire, plus the incipit of Book II). Notes flagging subject-matter were added throughout. Contemporary running heading in red and blue: ‘L’ on versos’, ‘I’ then (from f.7r) ‘II’ on rectos.
One of only two complete copies, the other being Lincoln Cathedral 113. A couple of small gaps were left within the text on f.17v. Some but not all lemmata are underlined in the ink of the text. Contemporary marginal headings, faces, hands, dragons and flourishes, all in red, on each page up to f.16r; none thereafter. Contemporary running headings in red and blue: ‘L’ on versos, ‘I’ on f.11r, ‘IIII’ corrected to ‘II’ on f.13r, ‘IIII’ corrected to ‘III’ on f.14r, and ‘IIII’ on rectos from f.15-18. f.18v-19v were originally blank. Notes in lead were added to f.19v, 14th century; they are very faint and are partly obliterated by water damage.
Set out with the lemmata written in a larger script on every other line and flagged by a blue paraph, the commentary in a smaller script on every line and flagged with a red paraph, the different blocks interweaving at top and bottom. Contemporary corrections, flagging of themes, and Nota marks throughout. Contemporary numbering in Arabic numerals of the Averroan sections. A subsequent hand, working in crayon, inserted a ‘2’ at the appropriate point in the conflated first commentary in Bk II and continued adding numbers one in advance of the originals up to ‘23’. Additional lead numbers were subsequently added beside the Aristotelian extracts from f.49r. Running headings in red and blue: ‘L’ on versos, the book number on rectos.
Four parts: De memoria et reminiscentia; De morte et vita; De sensu et sensatu; De sompno et vigilia (respectively sections 3,1, 4, 2 in the printed edition) Contemporary corrections and annotations throughout.
Light contemporary marginal glossing
The theorems are written to a larger gauge on every other line, the demonstrations to a smaller gauge on every line, the different blocks sometimes interweaving at top and bottom. Contemporary glossing, marginal and interlinear, throughout.
The propositions are written to a larger gauge on every other line, the expositions to a smaller gauge on every line, sometimes partly alongside the propositions. An annotating hand subsequently marked the incipits of III and IV, but not V; the same hand numbered the propositions within Books I-III, placing the numbers within the very narrow pairs of rulings in the borders. Minimal subsequent annotation.
No annotation.
Both added at an early date in a glossing hand, the former longer, with more subsections, than the latter.
Alfred of Sareshel’s Commentary on the Metheora of Aristotle 
, ed. J. K. Otte, Studien und Texte zur Geistesgeschichte des Mittelalters (Leiden: Brill, 1988)
Averrois Cordubensis Compendia librorum Aristotelis qui parva naturalia vocantur , ed. E. L. Shields and H. Blumberg, Corpus Commentariorum Averrois in Aristotelem versionum Latinarum VII (Cambridge, Mass.: Mediaeval Academy of America, 1949)
Averrois Cordubensis Commentarium Magnum in Aristotelis De anima libros , ed. F. S. Crawford, Corpus Commentariorum Averrois in Aristotelem, Versionum Latinarum VI.1 (Cambridge, Mass.: Mediaeval Academy of America, 1953)
Averrois Cordubensis Commentariorum Medium in Aristotelis De generatione et corruptione libros , ed. F. H. Fobes and S. Kurland, Corpus Commentarium Averrois in Aristotelem, versionum latinarum IV.1 (Cambridge, Mass.: Mediaeval Academy of America, 1956)
O. Bardenhewer, Die Pseudo-aristotelische Schrift über das reine Gute unter dem Namen Liber de causis (Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder, 1882)
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]).
G. Lacombe, Aristoteles Latinus Codices (Leiden: Brill, 1957)
R. J. Long, "Alfred of Sareshel’s Commentary on the Pseudo-Aristotelian De plantis: a critical edition", Medieval Studies 47 (1985), 125-167