Bod-Inc: M-190
Mensa Philosophica
Analysis of Content
a2r [Table of contents.]
2a1r Mensa philosophica. Mensa Philosophica. Faksimile und Kommentar, ed. Erwin Rauner and Burghart Wachinger, Fortuna vitrea, 13 (Tübingen, 1995). Sometimes attributed to Michael Scotus, but certainly not by him; see Thorndike–Kibre 1485 and Lynn Thorndike, Michael Scot (London, 1965), 10; listed among the dubious works of Konrad von Halberstadt in Kaeppeli no. 773, it is not listed among Konrad's works in VL. The editions of Paris and Rouen give Theobaldus Anguilbertus Hiberniensis as author. See VL VI 395-7.
Imprint
Imprint: Louvain: Johannes de Westfalia, [c.1477-83]. 4°.
Remarks: As dated by HPT. Dated [c.1481] in Mensa Philosophica, 168 no. 3; Sheppard dates [1477-83].
Collation
Collation: a6 2a–h8 i12.
References
ISTC: im00492000
Hain: H 11078?;
Goff: Goff M‑492;
BMC: BMC IX 148;
Proctor: Pr 9276;
Others: Campbell 1240; HPT I 59-61, II 436, 492; ILC 1566; Oates 3749-51; Polain 2669, 2669A; Sheppard 7116-17.
LCN: 14452990
Copies
Copy number: M-190(1)
Bound with:
2. Poggius Florentinus, Facetiae. [Louvain: Johannes de Westfalia, c.1477] (P‑413);
3. Poggius Florentinus, Facetiae. Paris: [Au Soufflet Vert (Louis Symonel et Socii), c.1475] (P‑411).
Wanting the blank leaf a1. The first gathering is signed on the second and third leaves.
Binding: Contemporary English (Oxford) blind-tooled calf over wooden boards, two clasps and catches lost. Rebacked, the spine gold-tooled. Double fillets form an intersecting double frame. Within the outer frame a circular rosette stamp. Fillets form the inner frame within which is a repeated foliate and floral stamp. The inner rectangle is decorated with square mythical beasts and dragon stamps. See Gibson, Oxford Bindings, 21 pls xxxiv–xxxv nos 44, 45, 49, 51 (`Rood and Hunt' binding); Isabelle Pingree, ‘A Catalogue of the Bindings of the Fifteenth-century Bookbinder called the Rood and Hunt Binder', Library, 7th ser., 4 (2003), 371-401, no. 4. Parchment index tabs.
Size: 210 × 150 × 40 mm.
Size of leaf: 205 × 137 mm.
Pasted to the inside of the lower cover is an engraving of Lorenzo Valla with the scroll: ‘Defuncto Valla Musis plorantibus inquit | Phoebus, hic antistes nostri Hiliconis erit'.
Occasional marginal notes and marks in a contemporary hand.
On2 a1r a pen-flourished five-line initial ‘S' is supplied in red; other initials, paragraph marks, underlining of chapter headings, and line-fillers are supplied in red; capital strokes in red. The same decoration in item 2 and 3.
Provenance: Francis Douce (1757-1834); armorial book-plate and circular stamp with the initals: ‘F. D.' on a2r. Bequeathed in 1834.
SHELFMARK: Douce 104(1).
Copy number: M-190(2)
Leaves b1 and b8 transposed.
Binding: Nineteenth-century half calf with brown cloth; bound for the Bodleian Library. ‘M. 57' (from the present shelfmark) across the head of the fore-edge and ‘57' across the lower edge.
Size: 217 × 153 × 15 mm.
Size of leaf: 210 × 140 mm.
References to the pope (for example, on i7r) have been erased. Occasional marginal notes extracting key words and scribbles, in two different sixteenth/seventeenth-century English hands.
Provenance: John Selden (1584-1654); see MS. Broxb. 84. 10, p. 56: ‘Mensa philosophica. Lovan.', listed under the quartos. Presented in 1659.
SHELFMARK: 4o M 57 Art. Seld.
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