Two cuttings from bifolia, each with substantial remains of two leaves of the parent manuscript, showing that it was in double columns and had at least 50 lines of a tiny university hand, Aristotelian quotations in larger version of the same, paraphs and capitals touched in red, recovered from reuse on a binding and hence with large cuts, stains and tears to edges, areas with paper adhering and folds, slightly trimmed at foot with loss of a few lines there, overall fair and legible condition, each approximately 315 by 195mm
Aristotle's Physica, originally written in Greek in the 4th century BC., was one of the fundamental cornerstones of medieval scholastic philosophy in the West. It was translated into Latin at least five times, with the earliest known being the twelfth century versions of Gerard of Cremona (from Arabic) and James of Venice (from Greek), and it was studied in universities and commented on throughout the entire Middle Ages. The James of Venice translation proliferated, and was revised by William of Moerbeke in the second half of the thirteenth century, most probably under the instruction of Thomas Aquinas. Aquinas' own commentary of this text appears to have been composed in the 1260s, and was immediately accepted as a seminal work in itself. Our author would appear to have been working in the decades immediately following, almost certainly within a university setting
