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Details
PORPHYRY (232/3-c.305), Isagoge; ARISTOTLE (c.384-322 B.C.), Categoriae, Liber Peri hermenias; BOETHIUS, Anicius Manlius Severinus (c.476-524), Liber de divisione, De differentiis topicis; ARISTOTLE, Liber topicorum, De sophisticis elenchis, Priora analytica, Posteriora analytica, in Latin, DECORATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM
[France, mid- and late 12th century, and 13th century]
200 x 135mm. 173 + ii leaves: 114(of 8 with a separate gathering of 6 inserted), 2-68; 7-108, 116, 125(of 6, lacking i); 13-146, 158; 16-198; 20-228, quire number in centre and catchword at inner edge of lower margin of final verso of gathering 1, separate sequences of quire numbers in centre of lower margins of first recto of gatherings 8-12, 15 and 17-22, six discrete textblocks each ruled to a different pattern of between 29 and 38 lines, written in brown or black ink in different small protogothic or gothic bookhands, four written above-top-line, opening initials of pink or brown and pink, diagrams in text on ff.132v and 138 and in margin of f.3, heavily annotated and expanded and with informal marginal sketches (first folios with a few wormholes, worn and dampstained affecting legiblity of ff.1 and 2, smudges or small stains, f.106 repaired across text, vellum repair to lower corner of f.11, outer margin of f.74 and lower margin of f.91). 15th-century bevelled wooden boards recovered with modern blindstamped calf, 15th-century French deed as lifted pastedown at end.
PROVENANCE:
1. The individual text blocks are all French, and evidence that the manuscript remained in France is provided by a number of annotations, including one on f.62 transcribing a salutation to his 'tres cher ami a michil leshaude ... salut'. An annotation recording payment on the last folio of the Priora analytica (f.117v) may give some clue as to its production: 'Mag[ist]ri karoli scriptoris p[ro] exemplari [...] ii sol[idi]'. Clues to precise provenance are usually tantalisingly illegible or incomplete: the same hand twice (f.23 & f.49v) transcribes the opening of a letter dated 1269 from a dean to a presbyter, apparently summoning members of a mendicant confraternity 'cit[a] pere[m]cione coram nobis ad diem veneris post ascensione[m] d[omi]ni [two names deleted] et omnes fratres de frat[e]rnitate s[anc]te marie [conventu?] michaestin'. A note to f.117v gives the date 1240 and refers to Jerusalem. Another 13th-century annotation to f.15 relates to more homely matters: 'nos recepimus culcit[ra]s n[ost]ras die martis an[te] festu[m] sancti luce eva[n]geliste' -- 'we received our mattresses on the Tuesday before the Feast of St Luke the Evangelist (18 October)'.
2. The manuscript appears still to have been in France when it was rebound in the 15th century: a fragmentary deed of 1407, in French, present as a lifted pastedown, relates to the marriage settlement of Johanette daughter of Jehan, living at 'Poulorgny'.
CONTENT:
Porphyry, Isagoge, with ff.5-10v a second copy inserted into the centre of the first gathering, ff.1-14v (Aristoteles Latinus, i. 6, Bruges etc, 1966); Aristotle, Categoriae ff.14v-25v (AL, i. 1-2, Bruges etc, 1961); Aristotle, Liber Peri hermenias ff.25v-31v (AL, ii. 1, Bruges etc, 1965); Boethius, Liber de divisione ff.31v-38v (PL, 64, 875-892); Boethius, De differentiis topicis Books I-III ff.38v-53v (PL, 64, 1173-1206); Boethius, De syllogismus categoricis, opening sections only ff.53v-54v (PL, 64, 793-796); Aristotle, Liber topicorum ff.55-97 (AL, v. 1, Brussels etc, 1969); Aristotle, De sophisticis elenchis ff.98-117v (AL, vi. 1, Leiden etc, 1975); Aristotle, Priora analytica in the Chartres recension ff.118-149v (AL, iii. 1-2, Bruges, 1962); Aristotle, Posteriora analytica ff.150-172v (AL, iv. 1-4, Bruges etc 1968); notes on the humours and brief quotations, additions in a 15th-century hand, ff.172v-173v.
This volume is a compendium of discretely produced sections, originally from more than one codex, that were united in the 13th century to provide the entire corpus of six works that make up Aristotle's Organon -- the main works of Greek philosophical logic.
With the exception of Posteriora analytica, these were known through the translations of Boethius. Augmented by Boethius's own logical works and commentaries and the Isagoge -- introduction -- of Porphyry, they became the basis not only for logical study but influenced the whole field of scholastic thought. The gathering together of these texts in this volume is a testament not only to the continuing and developing importance of Aristotle in the 12th and 13th centuries, but also to the recovery and revived circulation of the ideas and writings of antiquity.
The first section in the volume, apparently written in southern France in the middle of the 12th century, contains works that subsequently became known as the logica vetus (ff.1-54v). It is written in an extremely fine and elegant hand, and this may well have been a factor in its preservation and use as the core of the book: the subsequent sections of the volume were, essentially, an updating, for they contain the other logical writings of Aristotle, which were only recovered in the course of the 12th century, and thus became known as the logica nova. It is not clear whether these other sections were produced as part of a single campaign, but it seems unlikely as some appear to be late 12th-century and others early 13th-century. In an attempt to give some unity across the volume large initials of salmon pink were supplied to introduce each text, and some also have salmon pink paragraph marks.
The manuscript was attentively used and annotated by a number of 13th-century and later readers: the additions include a diagram, added in a 13th-century hand, to accompany the Isagoge. It is a schematic representation of Porphyry's questions on the status of 'universals' -- the spark that fired scholasticism. A sequence of paired and single circles shows the process of division by which things could be classified -- starting at the top with 'Substantia' then branching into 'Corporea' and 'Incorporea' with the final, lowest circle containing 'Individua'.
A less attentive reader was responsible for various unscholarly marginal sketches that include a physician holding a urine bottle, both labelled (f.51v), and a mail-clad and spurred warrior with his horse (f.109).
[France, mid- and late 12th century, and 13th century]
200 x 135mm. 173 + ii leaves: 1
PROVENANCE:
1. The individual text blocks are all French, and evidence that the manuscript remained in France is provided by a number of annotations, including one on f.62 transcribing a salutation to his 'tres cher ami a michil leshaude ... salut'. An annotation recording payment on the last folio of the Priora analytica (f.117v) may give some clue as to its production: 'Mag[ist]ri karoli scriptoris p[ro] exemplari [...] ii sol[idi]'. Clues to precise provenance are usually tantalisingly illegible or incomplete: the same hand twice (f.23 & f.49v) transcribes the opening of a letter dated 1269 from a dean to a presbyter, apparently summoning members of a mendicant confraternity 'cit[a] pere[m]cione coram nobis ad diem veneris post ascensione[m] d[omi]ni [two names deleted] et omnes fratres de frat[e]rnitate s[anc]te marie [conventu?] michaestin'. A note to f.117v gives the date 1240 and refers to Jerusalem. Another 13th-century annotation to f.15 relates to more homely matters: 'nos recepimus culcit[ra]s n[ost]ras die martis an[te] festu[m] sancti luce eva[n]geliste' -- 'we received our mattresses on the Tuesday before the Feast of St Luke the Evangelist (18 October)'.
2. The manuscript appears still to have been in France when it was rebound in the 15th century: a fragmentary deed of 1407, in French, present as a lifted pastedown, relates to the marriage settlement of Johanette daughter of Jehan, living at 'Poulorgny'.
CONTENT:
Porphyry, Isagoge, with ff.5-10v a second copy inserted into the centre of the first gathering, ff.1-14v (Aristoteles Latinus, i. 6, Bruges etc, 1966); Aristotle, Categoriae ff.14v-25v (AL, i. 1-2, Bruges etc, 1961); Aristotle, Liber Peri hermenias ff.25v-31v (AL, ii. 1, Bruges etc, 1965); Boethius, Liber de divisione ff.31v-38v (PL, 64, 875-892); Boethius, De differentiis topicis Books I-III ff.38v-53v (PL, 64, 1173-1206); Boethius, De syllogismus categoricis, opening sections only ff.53v-54v (PL, 64, 793-796); Aristotle, Liber topicorum ff.55-97 (AL, v. 1, Brussels etc, 1969); Aristotle, De sophisticis elenchis ff.98-117v (AL, vi. 1, Leiden etc, 1975); Aristotle, Priora analytica in the Chartres recension ff.118-149v (AL, iii. 1-2, Bruges, 1962); Aristotle, Posteriora analytica ff.150-172v (AL, iv. 1-4, Bruges etc 1968); notes on the humours and brief quotations, additions in a 15th-century hand, ff.172v-173v.
This volume is a compendium of discretely produced sections, originally from more than one codex, that were united in the 13th century to provide the entire corpus of six works that make up Aristotle's Organon -- the main works of Greek philosophical logic.
With the exception of Posteriora analytica, these were known through the translations of Boethius. Augmented by Boethius's own logical works and commentaries and the Isagoge -- introduction -- of Porphyry, they became the basis not only for logical study but influenced the whole field of scholastic thought. The gathering together of these texts in this volume is a testament not only to the continuing and developing importance of Aristotle in the 12th and 13th centuries, but also to the recovery and revived circulation of the ideas and writings of antiquity.
The first section in the volume, apparently written in southern France in the middle of the 12th century, contains works that subsequently became known as the logica vetus (ff.1-54v). It is written in an extremely fine and elegant hand, and this may well have been a factor in its preservation and use as the core of the book: the subsequent sections of the volume were, essentially, an updating, for they contain the other logical writings of Aristotle, which were only recovered in the course of the 12th century, and thus became known as the logica nova. It is not clear whether these other sections were produced as part of a single campaign, but it seems unlikely as some appear to be late 12th-century and others early 13th-century. In an attempt to give some unity across the volume large initials of salmon pink were supplied to introduce each text, and some also have salmon pink paragraph marks.
The manuscript was attentively used and annotated by a number of 13th-century and later readers: the additions include a diagram, added in a 13th-century hand, to accompany the Isagoge. It is a schematic representation of Porphyry's questions on the status of 'universals' -- the spark that fired scholasticism. A sequence of paired and single circles shows the process of division by which things could be classified -- starting at the top with 'Substantia' then branching into 'Corporea' and 'Incorporea' with the final, lowest circle containing 'Individua'.
A less attentive reader was responsible for various unscholarly marginal sketches that include a physician holding a urine bottle, both labelled (f.51v), and a mail-clad and spurred warrior with his horse (f.109).
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