Describing Complex Objects: Notes for a Catalogue of Twelfth-Century Logical Manuscripts

This paper examines twelfth-century Latin logical commentaries as complex written artefacts, focusing primarily on their codicological rather than their purely textual features. Commentaries on the logical works of Porphyry, Aristotle, and Boethius produced in the French schools of the late eleventh and twelfth centuries appear to have been transmitted mostly as individual units later assembled into composite manuscripts. This preliminary survey (a first step towards a catalogue of such manuscripts) suggests that a structural and historical approach can reveal important aspects of their modes of production and circulation. The evidence indicates that most commentaries were originally produced as booklets and may have circulated unbound for use within school contexts