Shelfmark
MS 129
Author
Uniform title
[Selections. Latin]
Title
Aristoteles, Ethica, etc. manuscript
Varying form of title
Title in M. R. James catalogue: Aristotelis Ethica, etc.
Publication, distribution, etc.
Italy, ca. 1275-ca. 1300.
Physical description
1 volume (iii, 217, iii leaves) : parchment, ill. (initials) ; 27 x 19 cm.
Note
Latin translations of [1] Aristotle's Ethics (ff. 1-67v); followed by [2] Aristotle, Politics, books 1-8, in the translation of William de Moerbeka (ff. 68-150v); [3] De bona fortuna (ff. 150v-152v); [4] Boethius' De hebdomadibus (ff. 153-154); [5] Aristotle's Rhetoric in the translation of William de Moerbeka (ff. 155-206v); [6] Aristotle's Poetics (ff. 206v-217v).
Note
Described in Aristoteles Latinus, no. 282. One of two known copies of the Poetics according to Ker, as cited in the references below.
Note
Near contemporary marginalia to the Ethics, in English hands, including two couplets from Ovid on f. 46 from the Fasti (book 6, lines 5-6) and Ars amatoria (book 3, lines 349-50); more notes were added in the 15th century.
Note
Some marginalia in book 3 of the Rhetoric refer to the Greek, for example ff. 199 and 200; a facsimile of the book is in the Bodleian Library, MS Facs. d. 31.
Note
Late 13th-century annotations on f. 207v of the Poetics.
Note
Written space: ca. 180 x 112 mm.
Note
The first work (ff. 1-67v) written in 33 long lines, the other works in 32 (ff. 68-217v) long lines.
Note
Collation: 1⁶ 2-3⁸ 4-6¹² 7¹⁰ wants 10, blank, after f. 67 8-15¹⁰ 16⁸ wants 8, blank, after f. 154 17-21¹² 22⁴ wants 4, blank.
Note
Ad hoc signatures in pencil in the first work.
Note
Written in three hands, changing at ff. 68 and 155; the first is a pointed hand with flourished initials, which may possibly be English, the other two are Italian.
Note
The first work has a 4-line initial on f. 1, blue patterned in white on blue and pink ground decorated in gold and colours; each book has a red or blue initial with ornament of both colours; other initials, 2-line in red or blue with ornament of the other colour.
Note
Initials on ff. 68, 155, 173v and 193v, pink , violet, or red, patterned in white, on coloured grounds, historiated (except f. 173v): on f. 68, a picture of Aristotle, half-length, with a book, clad in red and pink; on f. 155, a teacher and a scholar holding a book and a roll respectively, and in the margin a bearded man and a trumpeting angel emerging from either end of a piece of ornament; on f. 193v, an orator. Other initials, 3- or 2-line in red or blue with ornament of the other colour, or 1-line in red or blue.
Note
Capital letters in the ink of the text marked with red in the first work (Ethics) and with pale yellow in the fifth work (Rhetoric).
Note
Secundo folio: fortassis est.
Note
Rebound at Eton around 1609.
Note
Written in Italy; the first work was in England by the turn of the 13th/14th century on the evidence of the marginalia, and possibly written there.
Note
Former Eton shelfmark: Bl.4.2.
Note
This catalogue record is based on the work of Neil Ker and M.R. James, as cited in the references below.
Citation/references note
Ker, N. R.. Medieval manuscripts in British libraries, v. 2 (1977), p. 748-749
Citation/references note
James, M. R. A descriptive catalogue of the manuscripts in the library of Eton College (1895), 129
Citation/references note
Bernard, Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliae et Hiberniae, 1697, 13
Citation/references note
Aristoteles Latinus, no. 282
Cite as
Eton College Library, MS 129
Additional physical form available
Reproduction available; Bodleian Library; Eton College Library should be contacted for permission to reproduce; SFW 2243
Provenance
At Eton by 1609 on the evidence of the binding.
Binding
Early 17th century English calf binding by Williamson, blind tooled with 'Herculis and Vena' roll.
Subject
Subject
Ancient philosophy Manuscripts.
Added entry--name
Williamson, Vincent bookbinder.
Added entry--name
Boethius Quomodo substantiae.
Added entry--place
Italy.
Added entry--place
England.
Language code
lat grc
Identifier
B50086