Peter of Spain (d. 1277) - photo 1
Peter of Spain (d. 1277) - photo 2
Peter of Spain (d. 1277) - photo 3
Peter of Spain (d. 1277) - photo 4
Peter of Spain (d. 1277) - photo 5

Peter of Spain (d. 1277)

Lot 4
10.12.2025 12:00UTC +00:00
Classic
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CHRISTIE'S
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 1514484
Lot 4 | Peter of Spain (d. 1277)
Estimate value
£ 6 000 – 9 000
Peter of Spain (d. 1277)
Tractatus, or Summule logicales I–VI, in Latin, illustrated manuscript on vellum [Germany, 14th century]
A charming pocket-sized single-text volume in its original binding, with a large coloured drawing of a king.

c. 140 x 95mm, 18 leaves, collation: 18, 27 (of 8, lacking viii), 33 (of 6, lacking i-iii), one catchword survives, two columns of 29 lines written in gothic script, ruled space: c. 100 x 70 mm; rubrics, paraphs, and initials in red, some with a human face, a few diagrams incorporated within the text (ff.2v, 4, 5v) (lacking four leaves of text, the upper outer blank corner of many leaves missing; thumbed throughout). Contemporary binding: sewn on three bands laced into thick wood boards flush with the leaves, covered with undecorated leather, originally with a strap-and-pin fastening at the fore-edge (scuffed, scratched, and with losses, but in very appealing unrestored condition). In a blue cloth and leather slip-case, the spine lettered in gilt capitals ‘Aristotle Porphyry Summaries 14th century Student’s MS’.

Provenance:
(1) Among ‘Other properties’, sold at Sotheby’s, 23 April 1945, lot 31; bought by:

(2) Maggs Bros Ltd, London, with their price-code and acquisition-notes; apparently sold and re-acquired by them in March 1949 and sold in the same year to:

(3) Howard Lehman Goodhart (1884-1951), stockbroker and bibliophile: his leather book label inside upper cover. By descent to his daughter:

(4) Phyllis Goodhart Gordan (1913-1994): her leather book label inside upper cover, MS 92. On deposit at Bryn Mawr, BMC 52. Published in Faye & Bond, Supplement, p.402, no 92.

Content:
Peter of Spain, Tractatus: ‘Dyalectica est ars artium scilicet scientia scientiarum ad omnium methodorum principia viam habens [...] signa universalia vel particularia non dicimus esse terminos’, ff.1–18v.

Despite the very different list of contents in Faye & Bond (who itemise six ‘Summaries of treatises on logic by Aristoteles and Porphyrius’), the text appears instead to be Peter of Spain’s Tractatus or Summule logicales (ed. by L. M. de Rijk, Assen, 1972; a more recent edition is Peter of Spain: Summaries of logic, ed. by Brian P. Copenhaver, Oxford, 2014): the text and its diagrams correspond closely to Tractatus I–VI of the editions, but ends near the beginning of Tractatus VI and thus lacks VII–XII. The manuscript is apparently not imperfect at the end, however: the text is followed by five lines of ‘Versus locorum’ (as in the critical apparatus of the 1972 edn., pp. 77–78) and a rubric, ‘Expliciunt tractatus’, so this is where the scribe originally ended his copy.

Illustration:
There are three diagrams incorporated within the text (ff.2v, 4, 5v), and a ‘Tree of Porphyry’ in the form of a standing king with five heart-shaped leaves in front of him and five to each side, with captions (e.g. ‘Substantia’ in flanked by ‘Corporea’ and ‘Incorporea’; ‘Corpus’ is flanked by ‘Animatum’ and ‘Inanimatum’), at the bottom are ‘Pl(at)o’, ‘Ho(mo)’ and ‘Soc(rates)’ (f.6v).




Literature

Faye & Bond, Supplement to the Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada, 1962, p.402, no 92.
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