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Primary sourceBookc.1250-1300

Silloge of Thomas Aquinas texts

c.1250-1300

A medieval manuscript anthology of Aquinas's texts, made near his lifetime and photographed for the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana. It shows how his writings were copied and circulated.

This manuscript gathers Aquinas's own texts, made near his lifetime, so it shows how his writings were copied and read soon after he wrote them.

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An open medieval manuscript volume lying flat on a dark surface, showing two pages. The left page is blank parchment with a few lines of faded ink at the top. The right page is densely filled with columns of small handwritten Gothic-style text in brown ink, with some marginal annotations. The book has a worn brown leather binding visible at the edges.
Silloge of Thomas Aquinas texts, c. 1250-1300. Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana. Photograph by Francesco Bini, 2021.

About this source

What it is

This is a photograph of an open medieval manuscript, an anthology called a silloge, containing texts by Thomas Aquinas. The manuscript is dated c. 1250-1300. The photograph shows two pages: the left is blank parchment with a few faded lines at the top, and the right is densely filled with columns of small Gothic-style handwriting in brown ink, with some marginal notes. The worn brown leather binding is visible at the edges. The photograph was uploaded in 2021 and is held by the Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana.

Why it matters

A silloge gathered several works into one book, so readers could carry the texts of a teacher together. Because this manuscript was made close to Aquinas's lifetime, it is among the earliest kinds of evidence for how his writings were copied. The copyists and readers who made and used it are unnamed in the facts, but their work helped spread Aquinas's ideas across Europe.

Look closer

  • What differences do you notice between the blank page and the page full of writing?
  • Who do you think copied these texts, and why would they have wanted them?
  • What can a photograph of two pages not show about how the book was used?

This book is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Saint Thomas Aquinas on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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