Single leaf, 190 by 124mm, from a pocket copy of the Speculum doctrinale (parts of book 10, chs. CVI-CVIII), written in double column of 36 lines in a scrawling and much abbreviated university hand, paraphs in red or blue, quotations underlined in red, recovered from reuse as a pastedown in a later book, and hence trimmed at outer vertical edge with loss of a few letters at head of outer column, small holes, spots and stains, overall fair condition
Vincent of Beauvais (c. 1190-1264) was a Dominican cleric who taught in the monastery at Beauvais, with occasional visits to the royal court of Louis IX. His connections to the king served him well and gave him access to the 1200 manuscripts in the royal library. From these, as well as the large libraries held by his order, Vincent spent several decades compiling a vast encyclopedia of all Western knowledge, his Speculum majus. This work, the Speculum doctrinale formed an important part of this grand work, detailing in 2374 chapters all scholastic knowledge of the age, including astronomy, anatomy, geometry, industrial and mechanical arts, passions, poetry, logic, medicine, rhetoric, surgery, the philosophy of law, and the administration of justice. The text here comes from the last part of that and deals with usury
