Commentary on Book IV of the Sentences of Peter Lombard, First Half

MS 200

Theology, Commentary, Peter Lombard, Scholasticism

This first manuscript codex was created around 1460 in the north of France. This item is 31 cm tall, 24 cm long, and 8 cm wide, with 350 leaves on a combination of parchment and paper. This codex is the first half of St. Thomas Aquinas’s Commentary of Book IV of the Sentences of Peter Lombard (“On the Doctrine of Signs”). This is one of Aquinas’s earlier works, completed before his work on the Summa Theologiae. It was common for theologians of the time to write commentaries on the Sentences. This manuscript is particularly valuable, mainly because it is the oldest book we have of a work of St. Thomas Aquinas. There are a couple of visual components that make this item compelling, first being the combination of paper and parchment. Secondly, the ruling lines are still visible. Thirdly, there is a parchment leaf that might still have hair on it, but this is unconfirmed (3rd picture).

St. Thomas Aquinas

France

ca. 1460

Peter Lombard, Bishop of Paris, approximately 1100-1160 Sententiarum libri IV

31 cm tall, 24 cm long, and 8 cm wide

Parchment and paper

Latin

Celestine monastery of St. Anthony at Amiens, France ; Sir Thomas Phillipps (ms. 271).

Book