Marston MS 232     Northern Italy, s. XIII ex
Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae, pars I

1. ff. 1r-4r  Incipiunt Rubrice summe theologie fratris thome de aquino
ordinis fratrum predicatorum.  Questio prima de ipsa scientia theologie.  et
queruntur x./ .j  Vtrum preter alias scientias theologia sit necessaria./
ij.  Vtrum sit scientia./...ij.  Vtrum semen quod humane generationis
principium sit de superfluo alimenti.  Deo gratias  Amen.  f. 4v blank

Table of questiones and articuli in art. 2.

2. ff. 5r-206r  Incipit prima pars summe fratris Thome de aquino ordinis
predicatorum.  Quia catholice ueritatis doctor non solum perfectos debet
instruere.  sed ad eum etiam pertinet...Talis enim partus decebat eum
qui est super omnia benedictus in secula Amen.  [colophon:]  Ego scripsi .ix.
sexternos de isto opere.  finito libro sic laus et gloria christo.  amen.
[later addition:]  explicit liber primus summe fratris thome de aquino quem
incepit ipse componere neapolim et perfecit eum parisius.  anno domini .m.
cc. lxviij.  f. 206v blank except for miscellaneous notes

Stegmueller, Rep. Sent., 847.  Marginal notes in several hands.

Parchment (some end pieces; yellow and speckled on hairside),
ff. 206, 326 x 224 (229 x 138) mm.  2 columns, 52 lines.  Double outer and
single inner vertical bounding lines, full length; double upper and sometimes
one or two horizontal bounding lines, full across.  Additional pair of
rulings in upper (trimmed), lower and outer margins, and pair for running
headlines.  Ruled in lead or hard point.  Remains of prickings in upper,
outer and lower margins.
I 4, II-VII 10, VIII 8, IX 6, X-XXI 10, XXII 8.  Catchwords, enclosed by
simple decorative rectangles, between rulings in lower margin below inner
text column, verso.
Written in small gothic bookhand, below top line.
One historiated initial with partial border, of good quality but rubbed, f.
5r:  mauve on blue rectangular ground both with white highlights; a
kneeling figure in monk's robe, presumably the author, holding
a book and pointing to the beginning of the text, on gold ground.  A bar border
extending down inner margin and across lower margin with beads in
pale green, blue, blue-green and gold, and stylized leaves, green and blue
swirling around bar.  Border ending in lower margin in stylized scroll
inhabited by a human figure supporting a cupola [?]; a bird perched on bar
beneath inner column.  12-line initial divided red and blue (f. 79r for
questio 44) with red and blue penwork designs.  Many small flourished
initials, 3- to 2-line, red with blue penwork designs and vice versa.
Paragraph marks alternate red and blue.  Running headlines in red or blue.
Instructions for decorator.  Most rubrics wanting.
Binding:  Spain, s. xv.  Resewn on three double thongs laced into wooden 
boards.  Yellow edges.  Plain wound endbands are sewn through a vellum spine 
lining which extends inside the boards between supports.
Covered in brick-red goatskin; Catalan multiple-line concentric frames
and Moorish overtones.  Spine:  multiple fillets at head and tail.  An
X
with 3 eight-petalled flowers at the intersections and in the 4 compartments.
Double fillets outlining the panels.  Two fastenings, the catches on the lower 
board.  Damage from a chain attachment and a vellum label with title "Prima pars
sancti thome," both on the upper board. The boards do not fit the bookblock.

Written in Northern Italy at the end of the 13th century to judge from the
style of decoration.  Evidence of early provenance was removed sometime
after 1954 when the codex was photographed at the Biblioteca del Cabildo,
Saragossa, by the Leonine Commission (H. V. Shooner, ed., Codices
manuscripti operum Thomae de Aquino v. 3 [Montreal and Paris, 1985] p.
34).  Evidence removed includes:  1. 15th-century inscription of an
owner or reader along upper edge, f. 4v:  "Anno domini m#o cccc#o xi#o madii
in die translationis beati dominici domino dante incepi hunc librum" (this
same hand wrote marginal notes throughout the volume); 2. inscription
on an original front flyleaf that recorded the donation of the codex to the
Library of the Santa Iglesia del Pilar in Saragossa and the death of the
donor, Petrus de Monflorit, in 1477:  "hanc primam partem beati thome de
aquino.  donarunt bibliothece eclesie sancte marie del pilar venerabiles viri
scilicet dominus dominicus burian porcionarius sedis cesaraugustensis et
dominus martinus vielo capellanus eiusdem sedis. executores testamenti domini
petri de monflorit quondam porcionarij sedis cesaraugustensis ac elemonisarij
reuerendissimi jn christo patris domini dalmacii de mur quondam archiepiscopi
cesaraugustensis ad honorem et reuerenciam dei genitricis marie et
proffectum studencium in supradicta biblyotheca./ obijt predictus dominus
petrus de monflorit XXVIJ mensis septembris.  anno natiuitatis domini.
M#o CCCCLXXVII#o."  (a similar record of donation also occurs in El Escorial
T. I. 16, a copy of the Prima Secundae); 3. a modern book label:  
"Biblioteca del Cabildo Metropolitano de Zaragoza, Armario 12, No. del 
registro 732, No. de orden 332."  The 19th-century bookplates glued to the
front pastedown ("del Marques de Ovando" and "Tho. St. George Esquire")
were not present in 1954.  Purchased in 1959 from Enzo Ferrajoli through
Nicolas Rauch, Geneva, by L. C. Witten (inv. no. 2519), who sold it the
same year to Thomas E. Marston (bookplate).

secundo folio:  [table, f. 2:]  i.  Vtrum
[text, f. 6:]  debeas

Bibliography:  Faye and Bond, p. 91, no. 232.

Barbara A. Shailor