Manuscript on parchment (poor quality), composed of two distinct parts. Part I: Thomas Aquinas, Super Metaphysicam. Part II: Thomas Aquinas, Super de causis.
Description:
Binding: 14th-15th centuries, Spain. Original sewing on five tawed skin, double supports laced into beech boards. Plain, wound natural color endbands. Single parchment leaf (front) and bifolium (rear), from what appear to be two different Hebrew Bible manuscripts, serve as pastedowns and spine-lining; they have been cut out around the sewing supports. Yellow edges. Covered in what was originally blue tawed skin (now faded) with two fastenings, the catches on the lower board and the straps attached with star-headed nails. Traces of title (?) scratched onto skin of upper board., Part I: One illuminated initial, rubbed, f. 1r: blue with white highlights on dark red ground with white highlights; terminals of ground extend up and down as modest border in blue, dark red and gold. Flourished initials of various sizes, styles and quality: blue with red penwork designs, red with blue, red with purple (ff. 75r-119r) and red and blue divided with penwork in purple (e.g., f. 88v); some flourished initials with border extensions (e.g., f. 110v). Running headlines in red and blue; paragraph marks alternate red and blue. Traces of guide letters for decorator. Part II: Spaces for decorative initials remain unfilled., and Script: Part I (ff. 1-120): Written by a single scribe in small gothic book hand. Part II (ff. 121-132): Written in a less accomplished gothic script than that in Part I.
Subject (Name):
Aristotle and Thomas,--Aquinas, Saint,--1225?-1274
Subject (Topic):
Illumination of books and manuscripts, Medieval, Manuscripts, Medieval--Connecticut--New Haven, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in Beinecke Library, Philosophy, Ancient, Scholasticism, and Scholia