St John's College S.24 (James 417)

Commentary on the Physica of Aristotle. Latin, seventeenth century

 

A commentary on the Physica of Aristotle. The volume appears to lack title page and a conclusion. No date, but perhaps early seventeenth century. Cowie notes a similarity in hand and binding to MS I.37, which he described as 'the common-place book of a student at Rome, at the beginning of the seventeenth century'. However, the similarities are not perhaps sufficiently marked.

Manuscript extra information

152x110 mm. Unfoliated (c. 300 fos). Two pen and ink diagrams in the text. Scribbles on flyleaf include: 'ID' (thrice), 'BEL' or 'BEH', 'Petrus', and 'John ... '. No further internal clue as to provenance. SJC, MS I.37 came to the College via Wagstaff and Thomas Baker.

A fine clean copy. Paper, 20-21 lines to a page with catchwords, the text measuring c. 95x62 mm. Limp vellum binding, which may slightly post-date the MS: gold tooling on covers and spine, which has three raised bands. The binding repaired by David Yates of J. P. Gray & Son Ltd, July 1973 (inscription inside back cover).