A catalogue of Western manuscripts at the Bodleian Libraries and selected Oxford colleges

St John's College MS 10

Hippocrates, with Galen’s Commentaries and Tegny

Contents

Language(s): Latin

1. Fols. 1ra–36vb:
Rubric: Prefacio domini CONSTANTNI [sic for CONSTANTINI] AFFRICANI montis cassianen\sis/ [later] monachi ad glauconem discipulum suum
Incipit: Licet peticionibus tuis continuis adquiescens fili mi cum mihi sepius diceres […] [the text] Uita breuis ars uero longa tempus autem acutum experimentum uero fallax […] [the gloss] Plurimi interpretes huius libri in hoc maxime sunt concordati
Explicit: [fol. 36va, the text ends] quanto magis dabit tanto plus peiorabuntur. […] [the gloss ends] quia quilibet posita inueniet flegma et non esse ypocratica confirmare poterit
Final rubric: Explicit commentum G super librum afforismorum ϒPOCRATIS

CONSTANTINE’S translation of HIPPOCRATES, The Aphorisms, with GALEN’S commentary (Kibre 56), ed. Articella, 2:1–139, ending in 7.61. The final column has only eight written lines and the explicit. This text particularly has been subjected to heavy use by readers; there is considerable marginal notation in a variety of hands, mostly anglicana of s. xiv in. One such hand has, throughout the book, added marginal numbering of the individual sections.

2. Fols. 37ra–60rb:
Incipit: Quia omnis qui medicine artis studio seu gloriam seu delectabilem amicorum consequi […] [the gloss] Manifestum est quod ypocrates non utitur hoc nomine preuisio nisi loco
Explicit: [fol. 60ra, the text ends] dierum nostro quoque sunt exposite ordine preceptorum […] [the gloss ends] in quibusdam earum in die xl. et in quibusdam earum in die lx.
Final rubric: Explicit commentum pronosticorum cum dupplici translacione

CONSTANTINE’S translation of HIPPOCRATES, Prognostici, with GALEN’S commentary (Kibre, 206), ed. Articella, 2:141–67v, ending in 3.47. About half of fol. 60rb and the entire verso are blank. The marginalia decrease in this text and remain fairly restrained hereafter.

3. Fols. 61ra–98va:
Incipit: Qui de egrotancium accidentibus in singulis egritudinibus tractantes pocius in unum […] [the gloss] Non solum scripserunt rememorationem sentenciarum relatarum illis de assidis
Explicit: [the text ends] lacte cocto et rapam radens stiptica offert si hora calera fiat […] [the gloss ends] adiacent autem quedam et in inmanifesta de quibus deinceps faciam sermonem
Final rubric: Finit liber de dieta acutarum egritudinum

CONSTANTINE’S translation of HIPPOCRATES Acutorum regimen, with GALEN’S commentary (Kibre, 9), ed. Articella, 3:1–42. About a third of fol. 98va and all of the remaining column are blank.

4. Fols. 99ra–120rb:
Incipit: || [in the gloss] eam tactus aut grauat uirtutem animalem ab animali et cognoscitur per pulsum […] [the text] Ita uero et secundum quamlibet partem tensio aut tribulacio aut punctio
Explicit: [fol. 119vb, the text ends] quot sunt et qualia determinabo oracionem in eis […] [the gloss ends] addiscas artem medicine secundum quod magis completum est deo gracias
Final rubric: Explicit tegni G cum commento HALI Amen
GALEN, Tegny,

with the commentary of HALY IBN RIDWAN

beginning, after missing quires, in the gloss to 2.63, ed. Articella, 3:121v–55v. The remainder of the book, from fol. 120v was originally blank, but all pages to fol. 122v have been bounded.

Added texts

Both the originally blank leaves at the end of the book, as well as the three medieval flyleaves, now have a variety of later medical notes in many hands, some now erased (especially fols. 120va–1rb, but also 122v, 123rv, 124v–5).

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: -ta epar (in the gloss)
Form: codex
Support: Vellum (HSOS/HFFH).
Extent: ii + 122 + v (numbered fols. 123–25, iii–iv).
Dimensions (leaf): 375 × 245 mm.

Collation

1–312 [fol. 36, a production break] | 4–512 [fol. 60, a production break] 6–712 814 [fol. 98, a production break] | [two lost quires] 9–1012. Catchwords boxed and in the gutter; all leaves in the first halves of quires signed with roman numerals in the ink used for page rules (in quire 8, arabic numerals in red ink). Each text was produced separately in its own booklet, although they were planned to form a single unit.

Layout

In double columns, each column 282 × 69 mm. , in 73 lines to the column for the gloss, the text commented on written in a larger display script on alternate lines. No prickings; bounded and ruled in reddish-brown ink.

Hand(s)

Written in two sizes of gothic textura quadrata. Punctuation by point, punctus elevatus, and double punctus.

Decoration

No headings but colophons in text ink, introduced by a red or blue paraph or a 1-line blue lombard on red flourishing.

At the heads of the texts, 8-line red and blue lombards on red and blue flourishing with red and blue bar extenders in the upper and left margins; similar 4- to 6- line lombards for major inner divisions with extended marginal bars.

The individual sections of the text are introduced by 2- or 3-line blue lombards on red flourishing, the commentary by 1-line red examples on blue flourishing.

Running titles in alternate red and blue lombards indicate the title (abbreviated to one or two letters) and book number.

Binding

A modern replacement. Sewn on five thongs. At the front, a marbled paper leaf and a modern paper flyleaf; at the rear, three medieval flyleaves (fol. 123 single and pasted to fol. 124, fols. 124 + 125 a bifolium), a modern paper flyleaf, and another marbled paper leaf (iii–iv).

History

Origin: s. xiii ex. ; England

Provenance and Acquisition

‘simile habetur de experimento a Iohanne de sancto amando’ (fol. 1ra upper margin in the gutter, s. xiv).

A series of cautiones , all but the first erased: ‘Caucio Magister Waltter de Kelmescot exposita in cista Viennie in die Sancti Edmundi achiepiscopi [sic for archiepiscopi] in heme pro xx solid.. Anno domini ⟨M⟩o cccmo tricesimo quinto et tradatur eidem ..d Magistro Iohanni de Tichemersh(fol. 125v), as well as a note ‘precij xxiiij s.’. For these two, neither recognized as a physician, see BRUO 1030 and 1875 respectively.

An institutional ex-libris, only partially legible under a reagent stain, apparently beginning ‘⟨Liber⟩’ and concluding with the donor’s name ‘⟨per Magistrum Willielmum Walmete⟩' (fol. 1, lower margin, s. xiv ex.?). Perhaps to be associated with what appears an old shelf-mark ‘picus vus’ in the upper margin. A William Walmete was at Merton 1324 x 1335, an MA in 1331; his first benefice was in the gift of Glastonbury Abbey. For him, see BRUO 1959.

‘Liber Collegii Divi Johannis Baptistae Oxon’ ex dono Domini Gulielmi Paddej Militis et ejusdem Collegij olim Convictoris 1634’ (fol. 2, upper margin).

Record Sources

Ralph Hanna, A descriptive catalogue of the western medieval manuscripts of St. John's College, Oxford (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002)

Availability

For enquiries relating to this manuscript please contact St John's College Library.

Bibliography

    A. B. Emden, A Biographical Register of the University of Oxford to A.D. 1500, 3 vols. (Oxford. 1957–9).
    Pearl Kibre, 'Hippocrates latinus'. Traditio 31–38 (1975–82) variously.

Funding of Cataloguing

Conversion of the printed catalogue to TEI funded by the Thompson Family Charitable Trust

Last Substantive Revision

2020-12: First online publication

See the Availability section of this record for information on viewing the item in a reading room.