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Another Friday, another discovery
Although most of our manuscripts are well documented and often well studied, this manuscript is a bit of a mystery. Our printed documentation for Mun.A.4.105 describes it as a ‘transcript of printed book – dated 1643’, but we are struggling to find any printed source for the half title Methodus utiliter philosophandi or the title Philosophia Aristotelis disputata in gymnasio monasteriensi anno millesimo 643.
The suspicion is that this is a fine example of a 17th-century manuscript that has been designed to look like a printed book with its architectural half-title and title pages, and formal dedication leaf. The rubrication and colourful decorative borders, though, also remind us of an earlier manuscript tradition.
Any ideas?
