Add MS 48987

PHILOSOPHICAL TREATISES, etc., mostly copied by Johannes de Polonia at Nuremberg, see art. (2) below; circ. 1440. Latin. Contents (contemporary list, f. 2b):-

(1) John of Salisbury, Policraticus, with a table of books and chapters, ff. 3-7, and an alphabetical index of contents, ff. 211-256b. Lacks the prefatory verse 'Entheticus'. Edited by C. C. J. Webb, 1909. ff. 3-256b.

(2) Egidio Colonna, De regimine principum, with the dedication to Philip the Fair, beg. 'Ex regia et sanctissima prosapia oriundo'. In the same hand as art. (1). Printed at Augsburg, 1473, and elsewhere. Colophon, f. 436: 'Explicit Egidius de Regimine principum finitus et completus per manus Johannis de Polonia. Sub anno domini 1440 Quarta feria post dominicam letare [9 March] Tempore quo conductus fui ['Ego Johannes de . . .' in margin, erased] pro phisico Opidi Nurembergeii. Anno meo 2°'. ff. 257-436.

(3) 'De sacramento et invencione festivitatis cuiusdam': a tract on the feast of Corpus Christi. Apparently lacks the end. ff. 436b-437b.

(4) Extracts from miscellaneous decretals. ff. 438-452.

(5) The history of Coriolanus abridged from Livy. ff. 452b-453.

(6) Abstract of the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges; 7 July 1438. ff. 453b- 456b.

(7) Miscellaneous ecclesiastical decrees. ff. 457-460b. Paper; ff. iv+463. 305 mm. ×215 mm. Circ. 1440. Watermarks: ff. 3-436, an ox's head and star, cf. C. M. Briquet, Les Filigranes, 14778; ff. 437 sqq., a cross flory, cf. ibid., 5531, 5532. Contemporary arabic foliations 1-201, extending from ff. 9-209; 192, 193, ff. 210, 211; 1-45 (in red), ff. 211-256; 1- 201 (mostly every 10th leaf only after f. 366), ff. 257-460. Running text division numbers or letters in top margins. Gatherings of twelve leaves (mostly with catchwords; i-xvi so numbered on the first leaves) except viii¹⁴ xvii¹⁴, xxi¹⁰. F. 380 is a contemporary insertion in xxii; ff. 1, 2, 463 are vellum binding leaves; f. 462 is a later insertion. Ff. 3-436 are written in a cursive hand with added red initials by Johannes de Polonia (see art. (2) above; in the Phillipps Catalogue the scribe is mistakenly given as Conrad Trant), the owner of Add. MS. 22668, and possibly the copyist identified in J. W. Bradley, Dictionary of Miniaturists, 1889, iii, p. 87. Ff. 1, 463 are two pairs of conjoint leaves containing parts of the Decretals of Burchardt of Worms, 11th cent.; Migne, Patr. Lat., cxl, cols. 969d-976c. F. 2b is part of a Florentine charter, 24 Feb. 1436. Contemporary binding of white skin on boards with metal clasps on leather straps; metal bosses now missing, leather finding tags on fore-edge. Blind-stamped inscription on front cover, now illegible. The inscription 'Liber Adriani de Goirl' is on f. 2, with the mark M, which is also on the fore-edge and fastening straps. Belonged until 1796 to the Charterhouse of St Barbara at Cologne; erased inscription, f. 2b; cf. the annotations, f. 2b, with notes in Add. MSS. 38007, f. 1b, 38021, f. 2b, 54243, f. 1. Traces of paper labels on spine bearing library press-mark ('O.171' according to the Phillipps Catalogue), cf. Add. MS. 54243. No. 201 in the library of Leander van Ess (f. 1), from whom it was acquired by Sir Thomas Phillipps, Bart., in 1823, Phillipps MS. 585; Middle Hill stamp, f. 2b. Sotheby's sale-cat., 6-9 June 1910, lot 473.