Abstract

When in the 1950s Antoine Dondaine published his work on Thomas Aquinas’ “secretaries,” he relied on his study of codices BAV, Vat. lat. 718 and Vat. lat. 9851. He claimed that the scribe C and the other scribes on the same staff were in the service of Thomas Aquinas when they executed those codices. The present contribution deals with the work of C in those two codices and in two more manuscripts, i.e., Paris, Bibliothèque Mazerine, Ms. 873 and Wien, ÖNB, Cod. 1479. In Vat. lat. 718, C, a French scribe, works in the service of A, the Italian scholar who upon examination proves to be the original owner of that codex. In Vat lat. 9851, no direct link can be substantiated between Thomas Aquinas and C. On f. 5va C simply begins to copy a model without special quality, while on f. 5rb, scribe E, an Italian scholar who was a direct associate of Thomas, finishes his copy from an independent and excellent textual tradition. In Paris Maz. 873 and Wien ÖNB 1479, C writes in the service of the original owners, who...