Religious text, 13th century

Component identifier:

Item 1-2

Content Summary:

Origin: Probably English with Italian influence

Content: The summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas - Chapter 14 (or 114 - not clear which)

Script: Gothic textualis rotunda with some cursiva anglicana features in the marginal hands

Date: Post 1220-40 (script is below top line)

Decoration: Guide letters for initials in margins, left by scribe to instruct artist what letter to paint

Extent: 2 contiguous bifolia

Other detail: Used as a pastedown

Immediate source of acquisition:

The documents in this collection were presented to the National Library of Australia by Sir Rex Nan Kivell in 1969. He referred to it as ‘The Nan Kivell Calligraphy Collection’. The documents were collected by him as specimens of early calligraphy and/or examples of early documentation. He acquired them over a number of years from varied sources which were not recorded. However, it seems likely that the group of legal documents in Series 1 relating to the Elliott family of Salisbury would have a single provenance. Nan Kivell had a country house in Devizes, Wiltshire, which is only a short distance from Salisbury.

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