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Compendium of texts or lecture notes on philosophical subjects, probably written in France in the 17th century.

 Item
Identifier: Acc.14312

Content Description

A compilation of texts, possibly lecture notes, on philosophical subjects, written in a continental humanistic hand possibly of the late 16th or early 17th century. There are leaves missing at the beginning and end, and two leaves have been torn out in the middle after page 284.

The watermark, located at the top edge of the leaves and cropped down to a fragment throughout, seems to be of a bunch of grapes with a thick stem. A number of possible matches are French and date from the later 16th century.

The first half of the book is paginated by the scribe, wanting all before page 13. The scribal pagination ends with the first section of text on page 284.

This first part, pages 13-284, concerns logic. Two leaves that followed the end of this part were torn out. There follows an unpaginated second section headed "Compendium thesium physicae", beginning with "Thesis 1a proprie dicta sc[ient]ia physica est prob." and covering four theses. This part is followed by three blank leaves.

The remaining leaves contain "Disputatio 2a de summo bono et ultimo fine". A third and fourth 'disputatio' are included in the initial section of the book, while the heading for a first disputatio was possibly contained within the set of lost initial leaves. The text breaks off at the end in the third article of the second question of this disputation; the remaining leaves are lost.

Dates

  • Creation: 17th century.

Creator

Extent

1 Volumes

Language of Materials

Latin

Custodial History

The scribe of the Latin text has not been identified, and it is not clear whether the inscription on the spine bears reference to either the author or scribe.

Inscription on the back fly leaf, detached: "Patrick Murray Edin[...]", followed by "Febry 26t 1751." This is followed by a quote, in the same hand, from 'The Rambler' which had been published three days previously. The same hand adds a further quote from the same piece in the 'Rambler' on the back paste-down.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Bought, Forum Auctions, 27 May 2021, lot 70.

Physical Description

In a French red morocco binding with gold tooling, probably of the first half of the 17th century. Both boards are covered uniformly with a small fleur-de-lys tool (0.9 x 0.6 cms) with golden dots in between and triple gilt fillets around the edges of the board. The spine is in five compartments and decorated with the same fleur-de-lys design and rings. The second compartment bears the gold-stamped inscription "COMPEN IOAN COEVR ROY". The leaf edges are gilt. The back board and final fly leaf are detached.

The binding is very similar to the binding of a printed book dated 1629 held in the British Library (see the British Library Database of Bindings, shelfmark given as 'Davis546'), and to a binding dated ca. 1614 in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France (see its Base des Reliures, shelfmark RES-E*-244), on a volume stated to have belonged to King Louis XIII and to have been bound by Clovis l'Eve (d. ca. 1634), one of the king's binders.

Dimensions

16.5 x 11.3 x 3 cm.

Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Repository Details

Part of the National Library of Scotland Archives and Manuscripts Division Repository

Contact:
Archives and Manuscript Division
National Library of Scotland
George IV Bridge
Edinburgh EH1 1EJ
0131 623 3700