On this page, you can learn more about the various western medieval manuscripts that contain political works in the St John’s collection. You may also be interested in the Politics section of our western post-1500 manuscripts collection.
MS 12
MS 12 contains a copy of De regno ac regis institutione, a political treatise written by Francesco Patrizi of Siena (d. 1492). This manuscript was produced in France at the beginning of the sixteenth century. The beginning of book 1, depicted here, features an elaborate border and decorated initial.
MS 69
MS 69, which was produced in fifteenth-century Italy, contains part 1 of William of Ockham’s Dialogues, a political treatise. Ockham (d.1357) is perhaps best known in relation to the methodological principle of ‘Occam’s razor’. MS 69 survives in a sixteenth century binding with recycled manuscript pastedowns.
MS 135
MS 135 principally contains a copy of De ludo schaccorum by Jacobus de Cessolis. This thirteenth-century political treatise treats the game of chess allegorically. MS 135 was produced in England in the middle of the fourteenth century.