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

Abstract

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.