Beschreibung:

PETER AURIOL (c.1280-1322). Commentary on the second book of the Sentences of Peter Lombard, in Latin; ARISTOTLE (384-322 B.C.). Metaphysics Books 1-14.3, in the Latin translation of WILLIAM OF MOERBEKE (c.1215-c.1286), DECORATED MANUSCRIPT ON VELLUM [Switzerland, ?St Johann im Thurtal, second quarter 14th century and late 13th century] 205 x 155mm. 126 leaves: 1-3 1 2, 4 6, 5 2, 6 1 6, 7 4, 8 1 0, 9 1 2, 10 1 6, 11-12 1 2, catchwords on final versos at ff.60, 74 and 114; ff.1-44: 38 lines written in two columns in a small gothic bookhand in black ink between four verticals and 39 horizontals, ruled in brown, justification: 153 x 51-9-51mm, paragraph marks in red or blue, three-line initials in blue flourished with red or red flourished with light blue, one large initial with staves of red and blue reserving beast forms, extensively flourished in red and light blue; ff.45-126: 29-32 lines written in a second small gothic bookhand in black ink between two verticals and 30-33 horizontals, ruled in grey, vertical prickings on many leaves, justification: 141 x 92mm, some headings in red, paragraph marks and large initials in red, large initials not supplied from f.116, numerous marginal annotations with maniculi and sketches of clerics, ff.64-72 with extensive gloss (slightly trimmed by binder at vertical edge, other marginalia faded or erased, edges of many leaves worn and slightly stained, tears into margins on some leaves). Late 14th-century tawed skin over bevel-edged wooden boards, sewn onto three thongs, two pins for securing strap at centre edge and chain staple hole at top of upper cover, marks of pasted-on title and pin for fastening clasp at centre of lower cover, front pastedown of vellum leaf written in a 14th-century hand (worn, joints split, sections of back-strip lacking). AN INTRIGUING PAIRING OF TEXTS BY A CRITIC AND A COLLABORATOR OF THOMAS AQUINAS. PROVENANCE: 1. Probably the Benedictine Abbey of St Johann im Thurtal, Alt St Johann, in the diocese of Constance: the front pastedown is a legal record with the dates 1373 and 1374 concerning Abbot Henry of St Johann im Thurtal (Heinrich Vorster, abbot 1369-1380/1), the count of Reichenbach, Margaret, widow of Conrad von Zehender and Conrad Burg. The late 14th-century binding, originally with chain, of which this pastedown is an integral part, must have been executed for a communal library. It unites two texts, one of which, the Peter Auriol, has decoration typical of the Lake Constance area in the second quarter of the 14th century, and the other, the Aristotle, late 13th century, has annotations and marginalia showing that it was in a monastic collection before it was trimmed to be bound with the later manuscript. This monastic collection can reasonably be identified as St Johann im Thurtal, founded in 1152, although little is known of its history in the 13th and 14th centuries and even less of its library. Indeed, it has been stated that, of all the Swiss monastic libraries, least is now known about St Johann (P. Ochsenbein in Das Kloster St Johann im Thurtal , exh. cat. St Gallen, 1985). This is largely because pressure from the Calvinists, who purged the monastic church in 1528, led to the abbey's amalgamation with St Gall in 1555. When refounded in 1626, a library was begun with volumes supplied by St Gall, to be dispersed in the revolutionary period; among the manuscripts subsequently re-assembled at St Gall are only two that may have belonged to St Johann before 1555, both dating from the 14th century and inscribed Liber sancti Johannis : St Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek, Mss 472 and 1157 ( Verzeichnis der Handschriften der Stiftsbibliothek von St Gallen ), although Ochsenbein considers Ms 472 the only known manuscript with this possible provenance. The presence of these two texts in St Johann, apparently very soon after their respective dates of composition, and the copious annotations constitute significant new evidence for the intellectual life of the commu