St John's College MS. 68

Aldobrandino of Siena, Le Regime du corps; Brunetto Latini excerpts

Language(s): Middle French

1. Fols. 1^ra–69^va

Rubric: Cy commence le regime de sante fait par les souuerains docteurs en medecine

Incipit: Dieu qui par sa grant puissance tout le monde crea

Explicit: vertueux accidentelement mais bien naturelement comme dessus est declarre

Final rubric: Cy fine le regime de sante fait par les souuerains docteurs en medecine pour entretenir lomme en sante

ALDOBRANDINO OF SIENA, Le regime du corps

The work more usually called Le regime du corps, ed. Louis Landouzy and Roger Pepin (Paris, 1911), here reorganized into three parts, abbreviated, and paraphrased, but corresponding to ed. 4–202. There are only five text lines and an explicit in fol. 69^va; the second column is blank, as is also fol. 70^rv (the recto is bounded and ruled, the verso bounded only). We are grateful to Tony Hunt for suggesting an identification of this text.

2. Fols. 71^ra–6^ra

Rubric: Cy commence vng petit traictie extrait du liure nomme le Tresor Lequel parle de la nature et de la propriete de aucuns oyseaux de proye Et comment on les doit choisir et nourir Et premierement De laigle et de sa nature et propriete

Incipit: Le aigle est vng oyseau le mieulx voiant de tous les oiseaux

Explicit: son seigneur plus que beste qui soit au monde

Final rubric: Cy fine vng petit traictie de aucuns oyseaux de proye Et de la nature et propriete du chien

BRUNETO LATINI, Li Livres dou Tresor,

1.145–50, 184, paraphrased, ed. Francis J. Carmody (Berkeley, Calif., 1948), 136–41, 161–2. The join between the two sets of chapters (fol. 74^vb) treats the second—'De la nature du chien et da sa propriete’—as if it were a separate text, but the final rubric clearly considers them together. There are only seven lines and an explicit in fol. 76^ra; the remainder of the page and the entire verso are blank but bounded and ruled.

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: principales

Form: codex

Support: Vellum (FSOS/FHHF).

Extent: Fols. iii (numbered fols. ii–iv) + 76 + iv (numbered fols. v–viii).

Dimensions (leaf): 287 × 195 mm.

Collation

1⁸ 2⁶ 3–4⁸ 5⁴ [fol. 34, the end of book 2 and a booklet boundary] | 6–9⁸ 10⁴ [fol. 70, the end of item 1 and a booklet boundary] 11⁶. Catchwords vertically along the gutter rule; most signatures have been cut away, but fols. 25–6 = d iii–iiii, 68 = k ii, and 71–2 have parts of ascenders implying the quire signature l. In quire 2, there may be a leaf missing after fol. 9, where the text appears discontinuous. But in the remainder of the quire, the text certainly runs straight from one leaf to the next.

Layout

In double columns, each column 178 × 56–7 mm. , with 13 mm between columns, in 27 lines to the column. Prickings occasionally show on the leading edges (pinholes around the margin of fols. 20–4); bounded and ruled in reddish ink.

Hand(s)

Written in French bastard secretary (lettre bâtarde). Punctuation by point only.

Decoration

Headings in red, 2-line champes at chapter heads.

Text 2 introduced by a 4-line champe with bud sprays.

Contents tables preceding each book of item 1 introduced by 3-line champes; individual entries preceded by 1-line lombards, alternating gold on black flourishing and blue on red flourishing.

On fol. 1^ra an illumination, two doctors consulting in a columned portico, with a full vine and leaf border, primarily in blue and gold, with strawberries, roses, etc., and a 4-line blue and violet champe capital with vine and leaf design on gold leaf.

AT, no. 811 (81), associate the book with 'the style of Willem Vrelant' (Bruges) and plate liii (fol. 1^ra); they also cite his work from Lincoln College, MS Lat. 149; and Keble College MS 46 (nos. 812 and 813, ibid.).

Binding

Brown leather over millboards, s. xvii, lozenge stamp in the centre of both boards. Sewn on six thongs. ‘68’ in black ink on a paper lozenge in the upper spine compartment, on the leading edges in black ink between two parts of a vertical inscription, ‘Regimen Sanit’. No pastedowns, a College bookplate inside the upper board. At the front, fol. i is a strip of medieval vellum, followed by two modern paper flyleaves and a medieval vellum flyleaf; at the rear, two medieval vellum flyleaves, two modern paper flyleaves, and a companion strip of medieval vellum (fols. v–ix).

The outermost full vellum leaves appear to have been paste-downs in an earlier binding.

History

Origin: s. xv² ; ? Flanders

Provenance and Acquisition

‘Edward Hill’ (fol. 1, lower margin, s. xv/xvi); ‘kat kat katheryne’ (fol. vi, s. xvi in.); ‘These are in his we⟨ ⟩’ (fol. vi^v, s. xvi, partly erased).

'Mr. Iohn Hill', 'Richard sedbury’, and perhaps other names in various states of erasure (fol. iv, s. xvi).

Richard Heddington (twice, s. xvii in.), Charles Longland Sargh⟨..⟩ (s. xvii in.), a couple of further erasures and some pen-trials (fol. vi^v).

An old shelfmark ‘Abac: ij. N. 64’ (inside upper board).

‘Liber Collegii Divi Joannis Baptistae Oxon’ ex dono Domini Georgij Bate Medicinae Doctoris ex Aula Sancti Edmundi’ (fol. 2, upper margin). Alexander and Temple say he was physician to Charles II and d. 1669; noted in the Benefactors’ Book.

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

J. J. G. Alexander and Elźbieta Temple, Illuminated manuscripts in Oxford college libraries, the University Archives and the Taylor Institution (Oxford, 1985).

Francis J. Carmody (ed.), Le livres dou tresor (Berkeley, CA, 1948).

Louis Landouzy and Roger Pepin (eds.), Le Régime du Corps de maître Aldebrandin de Sienne (Paris, 1911).

Funding of Cataloguing

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

Abbreviations

View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.

Last Substantive Revision

2021-07: First online publication