Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard
Scriptum super IV libros Sententiarum
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General Information
Humanist minuscule, inset capitals in blue or red with paraph markers also alternately red or blue.
Original Condition
The original manuscript consisted of 310 folios. Many of the identified leaves are foliated, the number written in modern pencil on the diagonal in the upper right margin.
Description of the original binding: “rich-coloured brown morocco elaborately tooled in blind to a Veneto-Oriental design heightened with pointille decorations in gold”.
Reference: Davis & Orioli, Catalogue 41, Rare Books & Interesting Manuscripts (1925), Lot # 4.
Current Condition
Content
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Content Item
- Persons Thomas Aquinas
- Text Language Latin
- Title Scriptum super IV libros Sententiarum [Writing on the Four Books of the Sentences]
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Content Description
The Libri Quattuor Sententiarum, composed by Peter Lombard circa 1150, a collection of sentences or authoritative statements on biblical passages derived from the Bible and texts of Church Fathers, served as a principal theological textbook through the Middle Ages.
Thomas Aquinas' commentary, dating to 1255-56, is linked to his first teaching years in Paris, where he began teaching around the year 1252.
The text of this leaf treats d. 33 (on divine properties), q. 1, a. 3 "Whether the divine properties are in the Persons of the Trinity and the Divine Essence", and a. 4 "Whether adjectives pertaining to the Divine Essence and the Perosons of the Trinity can be predicated of the properties".
History
The opening leaf of the manuscipt, now held by Beinecke Library, includes the arms (azure, 3 crescents or between a chevron of the same) of a Tuscan patron. Peter Kidd links the arms to a member of the Vannicini Pillotti or Bonfigli families of Siena.
The manuscript first appeared on the market in 1908, listed for sale by the rare book dealer Tammaro de Marinis (1878-1969) Manuscrits et livres rares (Florence, 1908), no. 3, plate IV. In 1925 it was offered for sale by London bookseller J. Irving Davis (1889-1967) in Davis & Orioli, Catalogue 41 (no. 4) and again the following year in Catalogue 45 (no. 1).
About a decade later the manuscript was broken apart, quires and individual leaves offered for sale by Philip C. Duschnes in several catalogues from 1939 to 1946.
Otto F. Ege acquired a number of fragments, selecting 105 leaves for inclusion in three specimen sets of medieval manuscript leaves he compiled in the 1940s. There are 42 leaves in the "Fifty Original Leaves from Medieval Manuscripts". It is no. 40 of the 50 chosen exemplars. 40 leaves were included in "Original Leaves from Famous Books, Nine Centuries, 1122 A. E. – 1923 A. D." and 25 leaves in "Original Leaves from Famous Books, Eight Centuries, 1240 A. D. – 1923 A. D."
After Ege's death, a cache of leaves were auctioned by Sotheby's Western Manuscripts and Miniatures, 26 November 1985 (London, 1985), lot 80. A futher two leaves were acquired by Beinecke Library in 2016.
This leaf was listed for sale in Maggs Bros, European Miniatures and Illumination & Calligraphy also early writing from Egypt, Bulletin No. 11 (London: November 1982), no. 79, plate XXXIII.
Bibliography
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T. de Marinis & C., Catalogue VIII: Manuscrits et livres rares (Florence, 1908), no. 3, plate IV.
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Davis & Orioli, Catalogue 41., Rare Books & Interesting Manuscripts (1925), Lot # 4.
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Davis & Orioli, Catalogue 44., Early Printed Books: Literature, Science, and Medicines (1926), Lot # 1.
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Philip C. Duschnes, Catalogue 42., Pages from Medieval Manuscripts (undated, c. 1939/40).
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Philip C. Duschnes Catalogue 48 (1941), nos. 9, 9A.
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Philip C. Duschnes, Catalogue 53., 101 original Leaves & Sets of Leaves from Medieval Manuscripts, Incunabula, Famous Bibles and Noted Presses, 1150 A.D. - 1935 A.D. (Autumn 1942), no. 50.
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Philip C. Duschnes, Catalogue 74., Original Vellum Leaves From Medieval Manuscripts (1946), no. 50.
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Maggs Bros, European Miniatures and Illumination & Calligraphy also early writing from Egypt, Bulletin No. 11 (London: November 1982), no. 79, plate XXXIII.
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Sotheby's, Western Manuscripts and Miniatures, 26 November 1985 (London, 1985), lot 80.
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Maggs Bros. Ltd., Illuminated Leaves and Medieval Miniatures, Catalogue 1227 (London: 1997), item 96.
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Sotheby's, Antiquarian Books and Manuscripts, 15 June 2021 (London, 2021), lot 21.
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Peter Kidd, "Otto Ege's Copy of Thomas Aquinas on Peter Lombard's Sentences", Medieval Manuscripts Provenance: Notes and observations, 22 May 2021.
https://mssprovenance.blogspot.com/2021/05/otto-eges-copy-of-thomas-aquinas-on.html -
Mildred Budney, "Otto Ege’s Aquinas Manuscript in Humanist Script (Ege Manuscript 40) Part I of III in a series on this manuscript", Manuscript Studies, March 4, 2021.
https://manuscriptevidence.org/wpme/otto-eges-aquinas-manuscript-in-humanist-script-ege-manuscript-40/ -
Mildred Budney, "Otto Ege Manuscript 40, Part II: Before and After Ege Part II of III in our series on this manuscript", Manuscript Studies, April 3, 2021.
https://manuscriptevidence.org/wpme/otto-ege-manuscript-40-part-ii-before-and-after-ege/ -
Mildred Budney, "Specimens of the Aquinas Manuscript in Humanist Script (Ege Manuscript 40) in the ‘Ege Family Portfolio’ Part III of III in the series on this manuscript", Manuscript Studies, March 19, 2021.
https://manuscriptevidence.org/wpme/specimens-of-ege-manuscript-40-in-the-ege-family-portfolio/