Beinecke MS 622
Venice, 1481
Germany, s. XV/XVI
Walter Burley, Walter de Wervia, Commentaries on Porphyrius, printed and ms.

I. ff. 1r-119v 	[incunable] Walter Burley (Gualterus Burlaeus, 1275-after 1344), Expositio in 
Artem veterem Porphyrii et Aristotelis (Venice, Johannes Herbort, 1481). GKW 5767.

II. ff. 1r- 44v		Utrum logica sit scientia rationalis una ab aliis distincta. Arguitur quod 
non. Et primo quod non sit scientia sic : Nichil quod est modus sciendi est scientia. Sed loyca est 
modus sciendi. Ergo loyca non est scientia. Maior  ... Sic finitur exposicio textus Porphyrii cum 
questionibus super ordinatis secundum intencionem Doctoris subtilis, editus per magistrum 
Galterum de Werula in collegio Burgundie, de cuius finicione laus et graciarum accio sit filio (?) 
Virginis gloriose, qui est verus Deus, regnans cum Patre et Spiritu Sancto per infinita secula 
seculorum. Amen. In Czwickaw. Conditus in alma universitate Parisiensi per magistrum Galterum 
in collegio Burgundie.		ff. 45-48 blank

Walter (Gualterus) de Wervia (also called de Wernia, de Warnia, de Vernia, born at Rijswijk in 
the Netherlands, d. after 1472), Expositio in Isagogen Porphyrii cum quaestionibus Iohannis 
Duns Scoti, written  in the College de Bourgogne at Paris. About the author, see Ch.H. Lohr, 
"Latin Aristotle Commentaries", Traditio, 24 (1960), pp. 188-189. Lohr mentions only one 
manuscript of this text: Zwickau, Ratsschulbibliothek, MS I.XIII.25 (15), ff.  289r-334v; its 
colophon is very close, but not entirely identical, to the one in our manuscript. Among the 
authorities quoted by the author: Thomas of Aquino, Henry of Ghent, John Duns Scotus, the 
Moderni, Giles of Rome.


Paper, ff. II + 119 (Part I) + 48 (Part II) + II, 310 x 215 mm.; the two parts separately foliated. 

Part. I.

The first page only is rubricated and decorated with a blue initial.

Part II.
Watermarks

I-IV 12 . A horizontal catchword close to the fold and to the lower edge on f. 12v.

Frame-ruling in lead for two columns (225/230 x 128/130 mm., intercolumnar space 19 mm.) of c. 
50 lines.

Copied by one hand in small Gothica Semihybrida Currens with many abbreviations. Lemmata, 
names of quoted authorities and terms marking the argumentation are written in large and bold 
but clumsy and fancy Northern Gothica Textualis Formata or Semihybrida Formata. Marginal 
notes. The acid ink has on many pages faded and damaged the paper and made reading difficult.

Undecorated. Drawing of a bearded bishop's (?) head, with the caption "Albertus" (i.e. Albertus 
Magnus), in the margin of f. 27v.

Binding: brown pigskin over pasteboard, the covers framed with a gold-tooled fillet. Rebacked. 
Spine with five raised bands and s. XIX red leather label with gold-tooled inscription in Gothic 
letters "Gualt. Burley 1481".

Premonstratensian abbey of Weissenau , Baden-Wuerttemberg (Part I, f. 1r: "Monasterii Augiae 
Minoris", s. XVI/XVII). If the two Parts were bound together from the beginning this is also the 
provenance of Part II. The meaning of the words "in Czwickaw" following the explicit and 
written in the scribe's hand  is not clear. It is anyhow noteworthy that the only other known 
manuscript containing this text is preserved in a library at Zwickau. The final sentence equally 
presents difficulties, as the subject of "conditus" is not specified. Purchased on the Edwin J. 
Beinecke Fund.

Albert Derolez

R 02.06.08