On this page, you can learn more about the manuscripts in our western medieval collection containing philosophical texts. You may also be interested in the Philosophy section of our western post-1500 manuscripts collection.
MS 142
MS 142 contains a copy of Petrarch’s De vita solitaria, a philosophical treatise on the ideal of the solitary life. Petrarch (d. 1374) was an Italian humanist scholar and poet. MS 142 was produced in England in the fifteenth century. Somewhat unusually, the text is written on both vellum and paper.
MS 198
MS 198 comprises three originally separate manuscripts, one of which contains the Sophismata by William of Heytesbury (d.1372/1373). Heytesbury worked with logical puzzles and was one of the ‘Merton calculators’, a notable group of scholars. MS 198 was produced in England in the fifteenth century.