Language(s): Latin
1. Fols. 1ra–44va:
Rubric: De generacione elementorum Aliter de Naturalibus questionibus
Incipit: Grandinem hoc meo fieri si tibi affirmauero quo aput nos glacies fit
Explicit: nec enim ulli flumini dulcior gustus
SENECA,
Naturales questiones,
ed. A. Gercke, Opera 2 (Leipzig, 1907). The text is disordered: the incipit corresponds to 4b.3 (160/11); a major internal division on fol. 14ra to 7.1 (235/5); and the explicit to 4a.2 (157/10). The first three words of the rubric have been added by the same hand of s. xv ex. which supplies them elsewhere, here clarified by an addition (beginning with ‘Aliter’) provided s. xvi/xvii.
2. Fols. 44vab:
Rubric: Dicta sancti IERONIMI de lucio a\n/neo seneca excerpta ex cronica eius quam composuit de uiris illustribus
Incipit: Lvcius annevs senca [sic for seneca] cordvbensis fotini stoici discipulus et patruus lucani
Explicit: coronarentur martirio a nerone interfectus est
JEROME,
De uiris illustribus Ch. 12, ed. Richardson, TU (1896) 17.
3. Fols. 44vb–46ra:
Rubric: Epistola SENECA\E/ Pavlo
Incipit: Credo tibi paule nunciatum quod heri \de te [later]/ cum lucil\i/o nostro
Explicit: istinc properantem Vale sentia\eca/ hec misericordie nobis honores
PS.-SENECA and PS.-PAUL Epistolae ad Paulum Apostolum, et Pauli ad Senecam ed. Claude W. Barlow (1938), rep. PL supp. 1: 673–8., Followed by six verses (Walther, no. 3960), , inc. ‘Cura labor meritum sumpti pro munere | Ite alias post […] ’: HILDEBERT OF LAVARDIN, ‘Epitaphium Senece’, ed. PL 171:1446.
4. Fols. 46ra–119ra:
Rubric: SENECE literarum moralium ad Lucilium librum numero 4ti4. epistole ⟨....⟩
Incipit: Ita fac mi lvcili vendica te tibi et tempvs qvod adhvc
Explicit: oculos michi effodiunt si pithagore credo [the original explicit, extended by multiple corrections to:] nichil scire noluerunt \qui ne hoc quidem nobis reliquerunt nihil se scire [marg.]/
SENECA,
Epistolae ad Lucilium Breaking off at the end of book 13; ed. Friedrich Haase, Opera 3 (Leipzig, 1853), 3–254. The rubric is a later guide of s. xiii for a rubricator. The text has been heavily corrected, in the main in the margins. On the history of this text, perhaps thought-provoking with regard to items twice copied below, see Jeannine Fohlen, ‘Comment “fabriquer” un exemplaire complet des Epistolae ad Lucilium’, Scriptorium 49 (1995), 95–106, with a reference to our MS at 97 n. 16.
5. Fols. 119ra–45ra:
Rubric: Incipit liber primus de causis
Incipit: Exigitis rem magis iocundam michi qvam facilem iubetis enim quid
Explicit: bono exemplo dampnatus est proditor malo inuentvs
SENECA THE ELDER,
Controversiae,
ed. Lennart Håkanson (Leipzig: Teubner, 1989), 1–330 (excerpted). The rubric we cite above is a later guide to a rubricator; the contents table for the MS calls the text ‘De Rethorica alias de causis’. In the lower margin, fol. 119ra, a hand of s. xiii/xiv notes: ‘Iste liber incipit in volumine nostro folio 145.’
6. Fols. 145rb–60rb.
Incipit: Inter mvltos ac varios errores temere inconsulteque uiuentium nichil propemodum
Explicit: Non est magni animi perdere et dare
Final rubric: Explicit liber viii. annei SENECE de beneficiis
SENECA,
De beneficiis Ed. Karl Hosius, Opera 1.2 (Leipzig: Teubner, 1914), 1–209. A note on fol. 145rb in the same hand as fol. 119: ‘et hic inferius folio 165. sed minus plenarie’.
7. Fols. 160rb–3ra:
Incipit: Incipit eiusdem de clementia ad Neronem Sribere [sic for Scribere] de clementia nero cesar tibi institui ut quodam modo speculi uice
Explicit: Quo modo in rectum parua flectantur
SENECA,
De clementia,
ed. Hosius, 210–51. Again a note, as in the two previous items: ‘Idem libellus hic inferius folio 172. set alia habetur litera’.
8. Fol. 163ra–vb:
Rubric: De paupertate
Incipit: Honesta inquit epicurus res est leta paupertas Illa uero non iam
Explicit: magnitudinem animi dant diuitiȩ insolentiam
PS.-MARTIN OF BRAGA,
De paupertate (CPL 1089), , a collection of excerpts from SENECA’S Epistulae; ed. Haase, 458–61. The remainder of fol. 163vb (nineteen lines) is blank. As is the case with items 5 and 11–13, the only identification is a rubric supplied s. xv ex. (the same hand as in item 1). 9. Fols. 164ra–71rb:
Incipit: ⟨I⟩nter multos ac uarios errores temere ⟨..⟩ inconsulteque uiuentium nichil propemodum
Explicit: hoc est magna animi perdere et dare
SENECA,
De beneficiis,
the second (and abbreviated) version promised at item 6 above, with an answering note here: ‘Iste libellus plenius habetur supra folio 146.’ (fol. 164, upper margin).
10. Fols. 171rb–2vb:
Incipit: Scriere [sic for Scribere] de clementia nero cesar constitui⟨.⟩ ut quodam modo speculi uice
Explicit: hoc de uiciis dare propositum est
Final rubric: explicit de clementia
SENECA,
De clementia,
the second (and abbreviated) version promised at item 7 above. Another note (fol. 171, margin): ‘idem supra folio 161. sed ibi plenius’.
11. Fols. 172vb–4ra:
Rubric: De moribus
Incipit: Omne peccatum actio uoluntaria est Educatio et disciplina mores facit
Explicit: agnosci amat quod odium ostendit
PS.-SENECA/PS.-MARTIN OF BRAGA,
De moribus (CPL 1090), through no. 54 only, ed. Haase, 462–4. 12. Fols. 174ra–5va:
Rubric: ⟨....⟩ amor genere ad ealionem de Remediis fortuitorum
Incipit: Licet cunctorum poetarum carmina \in/geniium nostrum semper ilustrent aliquando deliberans
Explicit: Vides autem quam domi sit ista felicitas
PS.-SENECA/PS.-MARTIN OF BRAGA,
De remediis fortuitorum (CPL 1090); ed. Haase, 446–57. 13. Fol. 175va–7vb:
Incipit: Qvatuor uirtutum species multorum sapientium sentenciis diffinite sunt Quibus humanus animus
Explicit: principia autem ruentem compos ipse deuitet insaniam aut deficientem puni at ignauiam
Final rubric: Explicit tractatus SENECE de 4. virtutibus
In fact MARTIN OF BRAGA, Formula uitae honestae (CPL 1080), without the prologue, ed. Claude W. Barlow, Martini episcopi Bracarensis opera omnia (New Haven, 1950), 237–50.
Added texts:
a. Fol. ivv:
a contents table (s. xv); glued to the page is a bit of vellum with the inscription ‘Seneca’ (s. xvii), probably from an earlier binding. b. Fols. 69va–70va:
Rubric: Sentencie Sapientum
Incipit: Nulle sunt nociuiores insidie quam hee que latent in simulacione officii
Explicit: ita et uenenosos motus eius
Rubric: Sentencie sapientum Septenis uersibus explicate
HILDEBERT OF LAVARDIN,
Septem sapientum sententiae (Walther, no. 15065), ed. PL 171:1410. In mixed textura/anglicana, s. xiii2 in the lower margin. The verses (fol. 70vab) begin: ‘Senias pireneus Que nam summa bona mens semper concia recti | Pernicies hominis que maxima […] ' Secundo Folio: -teum eneo
Form: codex
Support: Vellum (HSOS/HFFH).
Extent: Fols. iv +
176 + iii (numbered fols. v–vii).
Dimensions (leaf): 320 × 230 mm.
Foliation: A medieval foliation in the leading edge lower corner of rectos: it omits fol. 8, and is one ahead of the actual foliation until fol. 176, which is numbered 179.
Collation
1–228. No catchwords; fragmentary signs of leaf signatures now cut away. Signed on the last leaves of quires in roman numerals, in brown crayon and pencil (lacking at fols. 56v, 144v, 168v); in this system, quires 1–20 = i–xx.
Layout
In double columns, each column 223 × 74 mm. with 10 mm between columns, in 36–38 lines to the column. Occasional prickings; bounded and ruled in black and brown ink.
Hand(s)
Written in gothic textura quadrata, above top line; in spite of extreme variations in duct, arguably a single hand (see fol. 159 for several script-forms in close collision). Punctuation by point and punctus elevatus.
Decoration
Blanks for rubrics usually unfilled (some instructions vertically in the margins, and many later identifications).
At text openings 7-line red and blue lombards on red and blue flourishing; at internal divisions, 2- and 3- line alternating red and blue lombards on flourishing of the other colour.
Binding
A modern replacement. Sewn on five thongs. At the front, a marbled paper leaf, two modern paper flyleaves, and a medieval vellum one (fol. iv, preceded by a stub, which is probably its conjugate); at the rear, two modern paper flyleaves and another marbled paper leaf (fols. v–vii).
Provenance and Acquisition
‘Per memoriam labiorum meus trenis obligata carcibus [sic for carceribus] xlxx xiij di c iij ch […] ’ (fol. 1, upper margin; s. xv, apparently a reference to Gratian).