Contents

Data Source: Mmmonk

• Manuscript 39 combines two heavily glossed parts of the Bible with a theological treatise: (ff. 1r-60v) Prologi Hieronymi in Biblia sacra, written by Saint Jerome (d. 420); (ff. 61r-74v) the seven Catholic letters provided with a prologue; and (ff. 76r-115v) the Summa de anima. The first two texts have been copied simultaneously. They date from the thirteenth century and follow the same layout. The main text is written in two columns, while the glosses were added in the wide margins and in between the lines of the main text. All initials have been added in red ink, though the ones at the beginning of each text [f. 2r and f. 61r] are more lavishly decorated with blue ink and additional penwork. Because a blank leaf after the second text contains an ownership inscription of Ter Doest that has been extended to include a book curse, these two texts likely formed a manuscript together, before the third text was added. This third text is different both in content and execution. The Summa de anima is one of the main writings by Franciscan theologian Jean de la Rochelle (Johannes de Rupella, d. 1245), a student of Alexander of Hales. This summa, a medieval genre aiming at synthesizing all knowledge regarding a particular subject, discusses the nature of the soul and made use not only of Christian texts, but also of the newly translated works of Aristotle and Plato. The text was probably copied in the fourteenth century. Here the layout of two columns is maintained as well, though this time without the addition of glosses or marginal texts. While the text is complete, rubrication has never taken place. In fact, it appears the text was never studied and used as intensely as the other texts in the manuscript, with only a fifteenth-century hand having added short titles to each chapter and question. The manuscript is bound in a seventeenth-century binding of the 'Campmans' type. [Summary by Dr. Mark Vermeer]