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THOMAS AQUINAS, Saint (ca. 1225-1274). Quaestiones de veritate. MANUSCRIPT ON PAPER
[South Germany, mid-15th century]
2o (315 x 210 mm). 328 leaves (of probably 348, lacking the final 20 folios): 1-2912, horizontal catchwords at right margin on last verso of each quire, modern pencilled foliation 1-341 including the front flyleaf and with numerous errors, 2 columns of ca. 44 lines, frame-ruled in brown ink, justification: 240 x 150 mm, written in German bastarda script in dark brown ink. Simple one- to four-line Lombard initials, paragraph signs, capital strokes and headlines in red. (Losses to upper corner of first 10 leaves affecting up to 6 lines of text, clean tear across flyleaf, two small wormholes to blank inner margin of first ca. 6 leaves, clean slits to inner blank margins of ca. 4 leaves, faint staining to ca. 12 leaves.)
Binding: contemporary grayish pigskin over wooden boards, blind-ruled with single fillets in a simple pattern of frame and St. Andrew's cross on each cover, evidence of two strap closures catching on brass pins on the front cover, ten plain brass bosses, ORIGINAL FORGED IRON CHAIN consisting of a staple, three elongated links and a ring, total length approximately 21 cm, attaching to center upper edge of back cover, original leather flap intact at top of spine, vellum label on front cover, Lombard initial "H" inked on front cover, contemporary manuscript titles on head- and tail-edges of bookblock, fragments of at least two earlier manuscripts on vellum as spine linings and sewing guards (front cover detached, without the clasps, two tiny natural holes in leather, closed 16 cm tear to leather of front cover).
Provenance: Johannes de Helb (d. ca. 1463/64), parish priest in Ebern bei Bamberg (contemporary inscription on back pastedown recording cost of writing or binding: Sexterni 27 [sic] pro 34lb 12d; partially effaced contemporary ownership inscription inside front cover: Pertinet ad Johannem de Helb plebanum in opido Ebern; lists of offerings received inside front and back covers); chained library of the parish church of St. Laurence in Ebern (binding).
Thomas Aquinas's treatise Quaestiones disputatae de veritate fidei, composed in Paris ca. 1256-1259, was among his earliest works. Although the complete text should consist of 29 quaestiones, the present manuscript breaks off after the first four leaves of a quire, midway in the text of quaestio 28, article 6, with evidence that further leaves have been torn out. If the entire manuscript consisted of sexternions, then the remaining 8 leaves of the incomplete quire and one additional gathering would have been needed to complete Aquinas's text. In any case, the inscription recording the cost of the book is incorrect: there were more than 27 sexterniones, presumably 29.
Johannes de Helb was parish priest in Ebern, north of Bamberg, from 1429 until 1459. During this period he amassed a collection of 64 books, which he left to the church in 1463. The charter confirming this gift made particular reference to works of Thomas Aquinas, and several other works by this doctor of the church may be identified among the manuscripts known to have been in the collection. In addition to purchasing manuscripts, Helb seems to have commissioned a number of codices for his library. The physical characteristics of the present volume are shared by other manuscripts from Ebern: the paper stock (with watermark similar to Briquet 11786 or 11787, attested in Wrzburg ca. 1444-1452), the format of the text in two columns without illumination, the older manuscript fragments used as binding waste, the manuscript titles on the edges of the bookblock, the ownership and cost inscriptions, the plain pigskin binding with simple bosses, and the three-link iron chain terminating with a ring. In commissioning this collection of chained codices, Johannes de Helb undoubtedly intended to provide a theological reference library for himself and his successors as parish priest in Ebern. (Cf. S. Krmer in Mainfrnkisches Jahrbuch, vol. 28, 1976, pp. 36-47.)
The chained library of Ebern remained essentially intact until 1878, when the 56 surviving volumes, i.e., 42 chained manuscripts and 14 early printed books, were sold to the Munich antiques dealer Friedrich Bhm and were subsequently dispersed through the book trade. 19th-century descriptions of 8 of these volumes survive (cf. E.F. Krenig in Mainfrnkisches Jahrbuch, vol. 12, 1960, pp. 293-299); 9 codices from Ebern (two of which correspond to 19th-century descriptions) are now known to be in public collections; and 6 more manuscripts, the whereabouts of which are unknown, may be identified from descriptions in dealers' catalogues (S. Krmer, Handschriftenerbe des deutschen Mittelalters, Munich 1989, I, p. 183). The present manuscript constitutes an addition to this list.
[South Germany, mid-15th century]
2
Binding: contemporary grayish pigskin over wooden boards, blind-ruled with single fillets in a simple pattern of frame and St. Andrew's cross on each cover, evidence of two strap closures catching on brass pins on the front cover, ten plain brass bosses, ORIGINAL FORGED IRON CHAIN consisting of a staple, three elongated links and a ring, total length approximately 21 cm, attaching to center upper edge of back cover, original leather flap intact at top of spine, vellum label on front cover, Lombard initial "H" inked on front cover, contemporary manuscript titles on head- and tail-edges of bookblock, fragments of at least two earlier manuscripts on vellum as spine linings and sewing guards (front cover detached, without the clasps, two tiny natural holes in leather, closed 16 cm tear to leather of front cover).
Provenance: Johannes de Helb (d. ca. 1463/64), parish priest in Ebern bei Bamberg (contemporary inscription on back pastedown recording cost of writing or binding: Sexterni 27 [sic] pro 34lb 12d; partially effaced contemporary ownership inscription inside front cover: Pertinet ad Johannem de Helb plebanum in opido Ebern; lists of offerings received inside front and back covers); chained library of the parish church of St. Laurence in Ebern (binding).
Thomas Aquinas's treatise Quaestiones disputatae de veritate fidei, composed in Paris ca. 1256-1259, was among his earliest works. Although the complete text should consist of 29 quaestiones, the present manuscript breaks off after the first four leaves of a quire, midway in the text of quaestio 28, article 6, with evidence that further leaves have been torn out. If the entire manuscript consisted of sexternions, then the remaining 8 leaves of the incomplete quire and one additional gathering would have been needed to complete Aquinas's text. In any case, the inscription recording the cost of the book is incorrect: there were more than 27 sexterniones, presumably 29.
Johannes de Helb was parish priest in Ebern, north of Bamberg, from 1429 until 1459. During this period he amassed a collection of 64 books, which he left to the church in 1463. The charter confirming this gift made particular reference to works of Thomas Aquinas, and several other works by this doctor of the church may be identified among the manuscripts known to have been in the collection. In addition to purchasing manuscripts, Helb seems to have commissioned a number of codices for his library. The physical characteristics of the present volume are shared by other manuscripts from Ebern: the paper stock (with watermark similar to Briquet 11786 or 11787, attested in Wrzburg ca. 1444-1452), the format of the text in two columns without illumination, the older manuscript fragments used as binding waste, the manuscript titles on the edges of the bookblock, the ownership and cost inscriptions, the plain pigskin binding with simple bosses, and the three-link iron chain terminating with a ring. In commissioning this collection of chained codices, Johannes de Helb undoubtedly intended to provide a theological reference library for himself and his successors as parish priest in Ebern. (Cf. S. Krmer in Mainfrnkisches Jahrbuch, vol. 28, 1976, pp. 36-47.)
The chained library of Ebern remained essentially intact until 1878, when the 56 surviving volumes, i.e., 42 chained manuscripts and 14 early printed books, were sold to the Munich antiques dealer Friedrich Bhm and were subsequently dispersed through the book trade. 19th-century descriptions of 8 of these volumes survive (cf. E.F. Krenig in Mainfrnkisches Jahrbuch, vol. 12, 1960, pp. 293-299); 9 codices from Ebern (two of which correspond to 19th-century descriptions) are now known to be in public collections; and 6 more manuscripts, the whereabouts of which are unknown, may be identified from descriptions in dealers' catalogues (S. Krmer, Handschriftenerbe des deutschen Mittelalters, Munich 1989, I, p. 183). The present manuscript constitutes an addition to this list.