Mellon MS 3

 ARISTOTELES
 Ethica ad Nicomachum, in the Latin translation attributed to
 Robert Grosseteste
 France (Paris?), unsigned, about 1350

Parchment codex in Latin, 270 x 185, ff. 86, the last blank except for
ruling, modern pencil foliation in a continental hand; no signatures.
Collation: (1-6)^^12, (7)^^14; catchwords at quire-endings, written by the
first scribe in the extreme lower, inner margin of f. 12v only in pale brown
ink, elsewhere by the second scribe within penwork frames in the center of
the lower margins in the ink of the text; the first quire faintly ruled in
ink, the remaining leaves ruled in blind or faint plumbum; single column 167
x 110, 29 lines; headlines throughout in alternating red and blue capitals,
chapter numbers in margins also in alternating colors, and large capitals at
beginnings of books and chapters of the text in red or blue, with extensive
filiform decoration bordering the left margin in the contrasting color on
leaves with such capitals, all the work of a rubricator, performed separately
from the writing of the text; written by two scribes employing differing
forms of Gothica textualis, the first having written the first quire, the
second the remainder of the codex; heavy abbreviation, standard forms; ink
brownish in the first quire, dark brown or black elsewhere, book and chapter
headings in red by the scribes throughout; occasional marginal correction
with signes de renvoi, apparently by a separate Corrector; marginal and
interlinear notes in ink and plumbate in several hands, fourteenth and
fifteenth century, partly trimmed at the outer margins and obscured at the
inner by tight rebinding; geometrical trials with a compass on f. 86v, with
what was perhaps a name, now erased, written calligraphically on this page
between concentric circles. Parchment thin and rather well prepared, though
subsequently cockled by dampness, but with many small imperfections, sewn
repairs with the stitching removed, and irregularities in the lower margins;
each membrane, the original size of which exceeded 570 x 370, folded twice, a
half membrane inserted in the last quire.

BINDING: Modern European parchment-covered boards, backstrip calligraphically
lettered in gothic script with the author's name and title.

PROVENANCE: An inscription, possibly of ownership, in a fifteenth-century
cursive hand in the lower margin of f. 1r, beginning "Liber ethicorum," has
been largely torn away; a square piece of paper, possibly a bookplate or
pressmark, glued to the lower margin of f. 2r, has been torn off; pen and
compass trials on f. 86v may have included a name, now erased; Mellon MS F=
143, acquired from C. A. Stonehill, Inc. (bookseller), New Haven, 1957. De
Ricci-Bond 34.

CONTENTS

f. 1r, headline: E T H

f. 1r, 1: Incipit liber ethicorum aristotelis stagelite ad nichbruacum amicum
suum de | operatione humana ordinata [sic]...

f. 1r, 5: Omnis ars et omnis doctrina. similiter au- | tem et actus et
electio bonum quoddam appetere videntur. [?] Ideo | bene enunciaverunt
bonum...

f. 85v, 15:... et qualiter unaquaque ordinata et quibus | legibus et
consuetudinibus utens. Dicamus igitur incipientes | [one-line space] Explicit
liber ethicorum

f. 86r: [Blank, except for ruling.]

f. 86v: [Pen and compass trials, scribbles, above which is written, in a
small cursive (Gothica textualis hand, at place of running-title:] In nomine
patris |
 [Aristoteles, Ethica ad Nicomachum, in the Latin translation attributed to
Robert Grosseteste, Bishop of Lincoln, by Georges Lacombe, Aristoteles
latinus, Rome, 1939, I, pp.69-70 (entry no. 48). Cf. also his pp. 158-159
(cod. Parisin. B. Nat. lat. 6305). See also E. Franceschini, "Roberto
Grossatesta vescovo di Lincoln e le sue traduzioni latine," in Atti del R.
Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti XCIII (1933-1934), pp. 51-56. GW
attributes this translation to Henricus Krosbein.]

SUMMARY: This manuscript, which is of mediocre execution, is probably the
product of a Parisian professional shop specializing in the writing of
standard texts for university students. There are no traces of Pecia
markings, but these are in any case uncommon in copies of classical texts.
Not located by Georges Lacombe in his Aristoteles latinus. Though the
Nicomachean Ethics, a genuine work of Aristotle, is certainly not an
alchemical or occult work in any sense, it represents in the Mellon
collection Aristotle's immense influence on the thought of Western Man from
the Middle Ages, through the Renaissance, and beyond. Aristotle was
constantly referred to and quoted as the universal and undeniable authority
in both practical and speculative alchemies for centuries; and one cannot
help thinking that he was particularly important to alchemists and early
scientists as an acceptable pagan authority.