Liber metaphisice ; Liber ethicorum.

Format:

Book

Manuscript

Author/Creator:

Aristotle.

Contributor:

William, of Moerbeke, approximately 1215-1286, translator.

Lawrence J. Schoenberg Collection (University of Pennsylvania)

Standardized Title:

Metaphysics

Language:

Greek, Ancient (to 1453)

Latin

Subjects (All):

Metaphysics--Early works to 1800.

Metaphysics.

Ethics--Early works to 1800.

Ethics.

Genre:

codices (bound manuscripts)

Manuscripts, Latin.

Manuscripts, Medieval.

Penn Provenance:

Inscription dated 1368 (f. i recto); sold at Sotheby's, 10 Dec. 1980, lot 79, to Lawrence J. Schoenberg.

Deposit by Lawrence J. Schoenberg and Barbara Brizdle, 2009.

Gift of Barbara Brizdle Schoenberg, 2021.

Physical Description:

78 leaves : parchment, color illustrations ; 310 x 220 (190-228 x 123-154) mm bound to 325 x 228 mm

Place of Publication:

[Italy], [1275-1299?]

Language Note:

Latin.

Summary:

Aristotle's Metaphysics and Nicomachean ethics, in the Latin translations by the Dominican William of Moerbeke from the Greek, followed by the first page of the Oeconomica, a work commonly attributed to Aristotle, in the Latin translation known as the translatio Durandi, attributed to Durand of Auvergne. The Aristotle texts are preceded by a table of contents for the Nicomachean ethics. The outer bifolium of the first gathering (before f. 1 and after f. 10), containing the beginning of the Metaphysics, a gathering after f. 22, and two leaves after f. 72 are all lacking. Many early marginal notes, some affected by cropping, and occasional manicules.

Contents:

1. f.i recto-ii recto: [Table of contents for Metaphysics, Books 1-12]

2. f.1r-42v: Liber metaphisice Aristotelis nove translationis.

3. f.43r-77v: Liber ethicorum Aristotilis.

4.f.78r-78v: [Economica fragment]

Notes:

Ms. codex.

Title for manuscript from titles for predominant works (in explicits, f. 42v and 77v).

Collation: Parchment, ii + 78; 1¹²(-2) 2-3¹² 4⁸ 5¹² 6¹⁰ 7⁸ 7⁸(-2). Catchwords on the last versos of gatherings 5-7 (second work), lower center. Link to collation model at end of record.

Layout: Written in 2 columns of 36-37 lines (f. 1r-42v), 53 lines (f. 43r-44r), 45-46 lines (f. 44v-77v), and 44 lines (f. 78r-78v); ruled in faint ink (f. 1r-42v) and lead (f. 43r-78v) with vertical bounding lines.

Script: Written in a Gothic cursive script by a single hand (f. i recto-ii recto) and Gothic book script by at least 3 hands (f. 1r-42v, 43r-44r, 44v-78v).

Decoration: In first part of manuscript (f. 1r-42v), 2 5-line (f. 7v, 12v) and 6 4-line (f. 6v, 14r, 22v, 27v, 31v, 38v) puzzle initials in red and blue with penwork infilling and extensions, 2-line initials in red or blue with contrasting penwork and extensions, paragraph marks in red or blue, running titles in alternating red and blue letters, capitals touched with red, minimal rubrics in red; in second part of manuscript (f. 43r-78v), partial illuminated inhabited bar border (f. 43r), 1 7-line (f. 78r) illuminated inhabited initial, 2 5-line (f. 49r-inhabited, 69r) and 3 4-line (f. 46r, 62r-inhabited, 64v) illuminated initials, and 1 3-line (f. 78r) illuminated initial, 2-line initials in red with purple penwork or blue with red penwork. One initial has been cut from the manuscript at the beginning of the second work (f. 43r).

Binding: Late 15th- or early 16th-century Florentine leather over wooden boards with panels ruled in saltires and stamped with Greek-cross tools; remains of 2 clasps and a chiseled hasp-mark for chaining at the bottom edge of the lower cover.

Origin: Written in Italy in the late 13th century, with initials done in France.

Cited in:

Described in Transformation of knowledge: early manuscripts from the collection of Lawrence J. Schoenberg (London: Paul Holberton, 2006), p. 15 (LJS 25).

Publications about:

Beullens, Pieter. "Supplement to the Aristoteles Latinus: an unknown manuscript of Moerbeke's translation of the Metaphysics." Recherches de Théologie et Philosophie médiévales 69, no. 1 (2002): 66-87.

Cited as:

LJS 25

OCLC:

733082418

Online:

The Lawrence J. Schoenberg and Barbara Brizdle Manuscript Initiative Fund Home Page

Collation model