theology at the University of Paris. Aquinas’s commentary on Peter Lombard’s Sentences
was composed ca. 1254–56 but was probably revised later in his life. On page 693 is a
portion of Aquinas’s commentary from a manuscript of the third book, produced in Paris
ca. 1270 (Beinecke 207). Recent scholarship has proven that this manuscript was
transcribed from an exemplar of the stationer William of Sens, who lived and worked on
the rue Saint-Jacques; this shop, conveniently located down the street from the
Dominican house of studies, assumed a significant role in the dissemination of Aquinas’s
works. Beinecke 207 bears internal evidence that it was a product of the pecia system.
The lower edges of some leaves contain notes where the scribe recorded the number of
the piece just completed; most of these numbers, however, were trimmed when the
volume was bound or rebound. In addition, the manuscript contains a remarkable
statement by the scribe in the lower margin, just below an unsightly erasure: Nota
confundatur stacionarius qui me fecit deturpari librum alicuius probi uiri (“Take note!
Confound the stationer who made me disfigure the book of some worthy man.”)
Arthurian romances in Gothic script
(Vulgate version), late 13th century.
Yale MS 229, fol. 272v. Courtesy of
Beinecke Library, Yale University.
Medieval france: an encyclopedia 1306