From the collection of the medieval manuscript expert Neil Ker and bound with 2 leaves of an English manuscript of Thomas Aquinas’s Commentaries on Aristotle. Contemporary blind-stamped pig skin; remains of clasp fixings; scuffing to extremities; 4cm tear to the pigskin rising along the outer hinge between spine and lower board not affecting integrity of binding. The manuscript leaves appear slightly differently - the first is tight against the upper wooden board making it almost impossible to see the verso of the leaf; the second is hinged at the gutter and both sides are visible. These leaves are very likely mid 1300s & English: see bifurcation of some of the ascenders and the wedges on the ascenders of the Hs; the Es also have a bit of a dip in some of them, for example: additio est in which reads as English in origin. The text is from Aquinas's Commentaries on Aristotle, the section on the soul, Lectio 11 starting with ‘actu ens et proprie sciens hanc litteram A.’ through "duas esse modos alterationis". The second portion of the text is from later on, Lectio 17, which is on hearing. The text runs ‘aer. Hic autem est faciens audire..." to "... signum est audiendi aut non...’ Lengthy presentation inscription from 1538 opposite the title page with further early notes at the foot of the title. There are scattered ownership marks of two later English owners, ‘Liber William Woodiate’ and ‘Thomas Mannder his book’ with Latin reading marginalia scattered throughout as well as gaps in the foliation filled in. The printed text collates: A-Z8, Aa-Zz8, a-i8; lacking two leaves of the index, i1&2. Soiling to the title page and a little dog-earing. Remnants of the title in ink to the foreedge. Laid in is an obituary of Neil Ker and the following inscription: ‘It was in the summer of 1969 that Neil Ker, who had been depositing the Magdalen (1551) copy of Unio Dissidentium for my use in the Bodleian, told me that he had “a copy of this thing....’ and then the next day let me have a copy... in original binding, for £2.00!! Requiescat in Pace’.
A fascinating copy of this book which was printed in Antwerp but bound with English 14th century manuscript waste and subsequently owned by English readers from at least the 17th century onwards including the distinguished scholar Neil Ker. The book itself is an early edition of an irenic work on systematic theology by Hermann Bodius (Bode), originally published 1527. Virtually nothing is known about the author, whose name was sometimes thought to be a pseudonym used by perhaps Martin Bucer or Joannes Oecolampadius.
