Marston MS 282     Southern France, 1448
Ars dictandi

ff. 1r-19v Incipiunt aliqua dicta cum aliquibus exemplis extracta 
de libro quj vocatur aurea gemma de arte dictandi.  Ordo litterarum 
talis est. Quicumque.  litteras alieni persone dirigere voluerit
...ipsius presentia simul fuerimus.  [colophon:]  Explicit aurea gemma
deo gracias scripta per me anthonium vincentj dyocesis Mimatiensis 
[precise form and spelling unclear] anno dominj m#o cccc#m#o xlviij 
In mense aprilis In domo domini abbatis deydiaco aux.  [Latin 
abbreviation for Auch] In ciuitate commorantem.

Epistolary forms extracted from an unidentified Aurea gemma de 
arte dictandi.  Leaves of the text have been misbound, with 
ff. 5, 6, 7 now at conclusion.  The text appears to be complete.


	Paper (watermarks, in gutter:  unidentified bull's head), 
ff. ii (1 = front pastedown paper, with French accounts dated 1791) 
+ 19 + ii (paper, with French records; ii = rear pastedown), 
225 x 155 (152 x 103) mm. Ca. 32 long lines.  Frame-ruled in ink.  
Prickings in upper, lower and outer margins.
	Collation difficult due to fragile condition of leaves and 
incorrect rebinding:  I 3 (horizontal catchwords enclosed in red 
decorative rectangle, below written space near gutter), II 20 
(includes ff. 5-7 bound at end; quire and leaf signatures, cj, 
cij. etc. in lower right corner, recto; wanting 17-20, blanks).
	Written in hasty batarde script by a single scribe.
Crude initials, 3- to 2- line, headings, underlining, paragraph 
marks, in red.
	Binding:  France, s. xix.  Semi-limp vellum case made from 
French document, with only dorse visible.

Written in 1448 by the scribe Antonius Vincentius from the diocese 
of Mende in Southern France while residing in Auch (see Colophons, 
v. 1, no. 1279, another [?] manuscript cited as "Paris, Au Velin d'Or,
cat. 26, n. 9379, cf. ibidem n. 9315).  Quire and leaf signatures 
indicate the text was formerly part of a longer manuscript.  
Purchased from Bernard M. Rosenthal at an unknown date by Thomas 
E. Marston (bookplate).

secundo folio:  monasterij

Barbara A. Shailor