Manuscript: leaf from a copy of a commentary on Aristotle, De Anima ?Paris c. 1300

Abstract

An unusually early example of a western manuscript made of paper rather than parchment. The original book was probably made commercially for use at the University of Paris; the highly-abbreviated gothic rotunda script is typical, as is the flourished initial. The text of Aristotle is written, in slightly larger script underlined in red, in blocks followed by commentary. Students found it hard to afford books, so the writing of university texts such as these were usually heavily abbreviated to keep the number of leaves to a minimum. This fragment had been used as a flyleaf in an unidentified 16th-century printed book. Collection of Prof. R.M. Thomson, acquired from an Oatlands farmer in the 1980s.