In Quest of Jean des Murs’s Library: An Overview of His Readings and Uses of Manuscripts

Abstract

Jean des Murs benefited from his connections to the Collège de Sorbonne, of which he was a member at least between 1321–1324 and the end of the 1330s. His annotations in various manuscripts formerly at the Sorbonne show that he took great advantage of the college library. Although few extant manuscripts are certain to have been Jean des Murs’s own, the list of book loans in ms El Escorial, Real Biblioteca de San Lorenzo, O.ii.10, shows that he had a personal library and that he loaned his books to some of his acquaintances. This article aims at analysing some of the uses Jean des Murs made of the manuscripts available to him as well as reconstructing part of his personal library through the list of loans and extant manuscripts linked to him.