Royal MS 12 D XIV

THE METAPHYSICS (with the commentary of Ayerroes) and Ethics of Aristotle, and the Liber de Causis, in Latin, viz.: 1. 'Nova Metaphysica' (so in a pencil heading), i. e. the version made from the Arabic (see Brechiliet-Jourdain, Recherches sur les Traductions, Paris, 1843, p. 434, specimen xxxvii). This text begins with book a ( ), to which is joined part of A (from 987a 3) followed by B, (divided into two), , E, Z, H, , I, and , making eleven books in all. Cf. another copy below, 12 F. I. The text and the commentary of Averroes (Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Rushd) are written in alternate paragraphs and often separated by the words 'in Greco album' or (f. 59) 'Alb[um] in Romanum' (sic). The commentary is printed in the Junta edition of Aristotle (Venice, 1552), viii. The famous digression on the three religions (f. 128), sometimes called Quaestiones Nicolai Peripatetici, has here, as in the printed text, no special title. Text beg. 'Consideracio quidem in ueritate difficilis est uno modo'; commentary, 'Quia ista perscrutatur sciencia'. Additional annotations are made by a writer who had access to the other translation (made from the Greek). f. 3.

2. 'Liber de causis ab Alpharabio expositus-Serme de pura bonitate-Canones Aristotelis de intelligentiis siue de esse sui et de essentia pure bonitatis' (all these alternative titles in the colophon): a work often assigned to Aristotle, but really, according to Albertus Magnus, compiled by one David, a Jew, consisting of brief theorems extracted from Aristotle, Avicenna, Alpharabius, and others, with demonstrations added by the compiler (see Jourdain, op. cit. p. 445). Printed in the Fontana Aristotle (Venice, Gregori, 1496), fol. 380. For another copy see below, 12 F. 1, art. 2, and cf. Add. MS. 19582, f. 151 (imperf.). The demonstrations, except the first, are in a smaller writing than the theorems. The leaves are transposed; f. 147 should follow f. 149. Beg. 'Omnis causa primaria plus est influens'; demonstration, 'Cum ergo remoueat causa secundaria uirtutem'. f. 145 b.

3. Part of the Nicomachean Ethics, in two sections, viz. :-(a) [Part of the Ethica Nova] viz. lib. i; (b) 'Vetus Ethica' (so the colophon), i.e. libb. ii and iii. Without commentary, but a few annotations are added as in art. 1. The translation of (a) is that of which Jourdain gives a specimen at p. 436, spec. xxxix. For another fragment see 12 D. II, art. 5. Beg. 'Omnis ars et omnis doctrina similiter autem et proheresis et operacio'. f. 150. The translation of (b) is that of which Jourdain gives a specimen at p. 435, spec. xxxviii. Beg. 'Duplici autem uirtute existente, hac intellectuali, hac uero consuetudinali'. f. 152 b.

Vellum; ff. 157. 10³/₄ in. x 7¹/₂ in. Late XIII cent. Gatherings of 12 leaves. Double columns. Sec. fol. 'res enim medie' or 'recta et intendit'. Illuminated initials of French style, with figures and grotesques; small, but well executed. The MS. contains (f. I b) a note 'caucio dom. Willelmi de T[um?]brig. exposita in cista dom. Gilberti de Routheberi [at Oxford] pro x. s. die lune prox. post festum S. Augustini Anglorum episcopi a. d. m ccc.xxi' [1 June, 1321], and also the note 'Ioh. Roffensis monachi prec. xvi s.'. This may be John of Shepey, Prior of Rochester 1333-1352, who gave it to the monastery, 'Liber de claustro Roffensi per mag. Iohannem de Scapeya priorem' (f. 1). Old Royal press-mark 'no. 549' (Westm. invent. of 1542, Add. MS, 25469, f. 31); cat. of 1666, f. 12 ; omitted in CMA.