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St John's College MS 164

Nicole Oresme and Pèlerin de Prusse, astronomical tracts translated for Charles V

Language(s): Middle French

1. Fols. 1–31:

Rubric: Ci commence lespere en francois Le prologue

Incipit: La figure et la disposicion du monde le nombre et ordre des elemens […]

Rubric: [fol. 2, the text] Le premier chapistre de la figure du monde et de ses parties principauls

Incipit: Le monde est tout roont aussi comme vne pelote Et les philosophes

Explicit: chascun est expose ou diffini ou chapistre la ou il est premierement trouue

NICOLE ORESME, Traité sur l’espère

unedited, but see Jean Frappier et al. (eds.), Grundriss der romanischen Literaturen des Mittelalters, viii/1: La Littérature française aux XIVe et XVe siècles (Heidelberg, 1988), no. 53920 (322), first identified by G. W. Coopland, Nicole Oresme and the Astrologers (Liverpool, 1952), 13–20, our MS mentioned at 184 n. 27. For Oresme as a translator for Charles V, see Leopold Delisle, Recherches sur la librairie de Charles V, 2 vols. (Paris, 1907), 1:104–7, 252–7, with a description of our MS (with erroneous shelfmark MS 182) at 1:266–9; Delisle did not realize the text was Oresme’s. A double-column table of chapters appears between the prologue and text (fols. 1–2). Fols. 31–2 have an alphabetical index to the work; for its innovative features, see Claire Richter Sherman, Imaging Aristotle (Berkeley, Calif., 1995), 27 and 344 n. 25. Fol. 32v is blank, but bounded and ruled. For a general study of our MS, see Edgar S. Laird, ‘Astrology at the Court of Charles V of France, as Reflected in St John’s College, MS 164’, Manuscripta 34 (1990), 167–76.

2. Fols. 33–110v:

Incipit: [the page badly rubbed] En nom du tres misericordes et pitea⟨ble⟩ dieu ⟨nostre⟩ sires ihesu crist urai dieu […]

Rubric: [fol. 35] Par quelle maniere ceste partie introductoire est ordonee

Incipit: En ceste partie premiere ie ne metray pas toutes choses applicables

Explicit: les signifieins premieres et nostres selonc que nous auons mestier en notre eleccion

‘Ci commence la seconde partie de ce liure qui tient les generales eleccions des 12. maisons’ (the heading at fol. 73), the unpublished work of PÈLERIN DE PRUSSE, another copy, in BAV, MS Reginensis lat. 1337, fols. 45–88, mentioned by Frappier et al., 325 n. 24. The composition is dated in the colophon: ‘ie ai acompli per laide de dieu a mon pouoir lan de grace 1361. le ii^e. iour de iullet […] En la petite consergerie de lostel de mon seigneur de normendie [Charles V’s style during his father’s reign] de coste saint pol lez paris’. Book 1 ends at fol. 69, with a scribal note explaining the following blank fols. 70–2, ‘Et ie ay laissie ces 3. fueillez voiz afin se il plaist de exposer aucune chose que elle soit ci escripte etc.’ Fols. 39v–40v are ed. by Laird and Fischer (see the next) 92–100.

3. Fols. 111–18v:

Incipit: La science du firmament et du mouuement des estoiles en la partie de practique […] [fol. 111v] Deuant les proffis deuant dis faut il monstrer et exposer et sauoir nommer les cercles

Explicit: des costes de quarteirre et leur 12. pointes en ce faisant bonne diligence Et ainssi ay Ie PELERIN DE PRUSSE lan 1362. le 9^e. Iour de may a leure de prime par laide de dieu acompli les proffiz et chapitres de la practique de astralabe briefment et simplement […]

PÈLERIN DE PRUSSE, Practique de Astrolabe

Frappier et al., no. 54880 (323), ed. from our MS, the unique copy, Edgar Laird and Robert Fischer, Pèlerin de Prusse on the Astrolabe (Binghamton, NY 1995), 32–62.

4. Fols. 119–44v:

Rubric: [the rubric is now rubbed past legibility; Coxe read] Cy comence le prologue de ALCHABIZ introducteur as iugemens des estoiles interprete de IOHAN DE YSPALENSE qui le translata de arabis en latin

Incipit: Require de notre seigneur prolixite de vie et du glaiue de son reigne […] [fol. 120, the text] Nytach du cercle des signes est diuise en [repeated] 12. parties equales selonc la diuision

Explicit: et sera multiplie et se maunes la chose a raempirement

PÈLERIN DE PRUSSE, translation of AL-QABĪ’SĪ, Liber introductorius minor, from the Latin version of JOHN OF SEVILLE, unpublished; see Frappier et al., no. 10520 (325) and Francis J. Carmody, Arabic Astronomy and Astrological Sciences in Latin Translation (Berkeley, Calif., 1956), pp. 145–9 (our MS cited at 148).

A chapter table appears between the prologue and the text (fols. 119v–20), and another table at the end (fol. 144v). Fols. 145–7v have a table to cover the entire volume, added s. xv² or ex., in French secretary on leaves originally left blank. The original fols. 127–34 (no longer included in the foliation) are now missing, and seem to have been when the MS was last bound. These must have been removed s. xix, since Coxe saw 161 fols. and began the nativities on fol. 158.

5. Fols. 147v–8:

a table aligning zodiac signs and planets,

further notes by the s. xv scribe of the preceding table appear at the foot of fol. 148; fol. 148v is blank, as is the modern supply fol. 149rv.

Added texts:

a. fol. i

Incipit: Latitudo stelle est eius distancia ab Ecliptica patet ergo quod sol non habet latitudinem […]

astronomical terms defined, s. xv (‘Exaltaciones planetarum’ etc.). Further examples in a similar hand fol. v^v

‘Booklet 6’ = fols. 150–3, quire 21⁴.

b. Fols. 150v–1:

astronomical notes

Secretary, s. xv

c. Fols. 151v–3v:

Five elaborately decorated horoscopes: for Charles V (b. 1338), his dauphin (later Charles VI, b. 1368), his daughter Marie (b. 1371) his son Louis de Valois (b. 1372), and (probably a later addition), a further daughter Ysabella (b. 1373).

Laird and Fischer discuss (5) the astrologer André Sully, who cast horoscopes for three of Charles V’s sons in 1369/70. On the horoscopes, see E. Poulle, ‘Horoscopes princiers des xiv^e et xv^e siècles’, Bulletin de la Société national des Antiquaires de France (1969), 63–77.

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: Des causes (fol. 2)

Secundo Folio: lair (fol. 3)

Form: codex

Support: Vellum (FSOS/FHHF).

Extent: Fols. iv + 148 + i + 4 + i (numbered fols. 149–53, v).

Dimensions (leaf): 204 × 140 mm.

Dimensions (written): 135 × 83 mm.

Foliation: A foliation of s. xv running 1–161 (including an eight-leaf quire now lost following fols. 126).

Collation

1–4⁸ [fol. 32, a booklet boundary] | 5–9⁸ [fol. 72, a booklet boundary] | 10–13⁸ 14⁶ [fol. 110, a booklet boundary] | 15⁸ [fol. 118, a booklet boundary] | 16⁸ [an eight-leaf quire, now lost] 17–18⁸ 19⁴ 20². Catchwords, none at booklet ends, in booklets 3 and 5 all boxed; no signatures.

Layout

In long lines, 38 lines to the page. No prickings; bounded and ruled in sepia ink.

Hand(s)

Except for additions, written by two scribes in textura rotunda, one responsible for booklet 1, the other for the remainder. Punctuation by point and medial point.

Decoration

[original portions only] Headings in red.

Four-line champes with floral sprays (most extended to full bar borders) at the head of major divisions; 2-line champes with sprays for less important ones.

In item 1 especially, elaborate diagrams and drawings; one of these (fol. 2v) is reproduced by Edgar S. Laird, ‘Robert Grosseteste, Albumasar, and Medieval Tidal Theory’, Isis 81 (1990), 684–94 at 693.

Line-fillers in red, blue, and gold.

Texts broken with blue paraphs on red flourishing, sometimes alternating with red paraphs on blue flourishing.

In items 1 and 4, running titles ‘Spera’ and ‘Alcab^m’ added later.

Incipits elaborately decorated with paintings etc.: At the head of item 1 (fol. 1), an illumination covering one-third of the page: Charles V enthroned, reading the book on a stand which also holds an astronomical instrument, with a book chest with other volumes to the side, on a ground of gold-diapered red and blue with gold fleur-de-lis, together with a 6-line champe and bar vinet with floral sprays in gold leaf and blue. Laird and Fischer identify (27) the illuminator here and at fol. 33 with one of the artists who painted a Bible historiale presented to Charles V in 1372, now The Hague, Rijksmuseum Meermanno-Westreenianum MS 10 B 23.

At the head of the text (fol. 2), a 15-line high historiated champe, within a pair of demivinets (as the preceding, here one terminating in a wyvern): Oresme dressed as a Franciscan and holding the same kind of globe instrument Charles has on his reading stand.

At the head of text 2 (fol. 33), an illumination covering half the page: Charles in the same setting but now leaning forward to take the book offered him by a kneeling Dominican author together with a 5-line champe and double demivinet with two wyverns.

Within the text, 7- or 8-line champes with vinets at fols. 73, 111, and 120.

At head of text 4 (fol. 119), a 12-line high historiated champe, with vinet: a seated scholar studying the book as he alternately looks at the starry sky.

See AT, no. 738 (7) and plate xliii (fols. 1 and 2; the figure in the second is Oresme, not Pèlerin, as Alexander and Temple say). The illuminations have often been reproduced; see Claire R. Sherman, The Portraits of Charles V of France (1338–1380) (New York, 1969), 22, 74 and plates 6 (fol. 33) and 70 (fol. 1); ‘Representations of Charles V of France (1338–1380) as a Wise Ruler’, Medievalia et Humanistica NS 2 (1971), 83–96 at 87–8 and figures 4 (fol. 1), 5 (fol. 33); and Imaging Aristotle, figures 2 (18, fol. 33) and 4 (21, fol. 1); La Librarie de Charles V (Paris, 1968), no. 199 (115) and plate 5 (fol. 151v); Les Fastes du gothique: le siècle de Charles V (Paris, 1981), no. 289 (335), with plates of fols. 1 and 151v.

Binding

Red velvet over millboards, with remaining seats for ties on both boards, s. xviii. Sewn on four thongs. ‘164’ on a damaged paper lozenge at the head of the spine, rather indistinctly in black ink on the leading edges. Pastedowns modern vellum, a College bookplate on the front pastedown. At the front, three medieval vellum flyleaves (a four-leaf quire, lacking the first leaf, now a stub) and a modern vellum flyleaf; at the rear, fol. 149 is early modern vellum, inserted between the main MS and the added material at the end, and fol. v a medieval vellum flyleaf the remains of a bifolium with its conjoint a following stub.

This manuscript received conservation treatment by Jane Eagan c.2008/9.

History

Origin: 1365 x 1377. It is unclear whether our book should be considered a datable manuscript. A terminus a quo might be established by Oresme’s work here: ‘Pour le XIVe siècle, l’œuvre la plus importante est sans doute le traité De l’espère 53920 de Nicole Oresme, qui date des environs de 1365’ (Frappier et al., 322). The terminus ad quem is provided by the most recent horoscope, for a child born in 1373; and by the fact that one of Charles’s children for whom a horoscope is provided, Marie, died in 1377. But the opening leaves of surviving booklets show substantial wear, suggesting that the book may have existed for a good while as a series of separate parts. And the 1418 description of a schedule of nativities as separate from the volume at large may also suggest piecemeal accretion. ; France (Paris?)

Provenance and Acquisition

Appears in the inventory of the royal study at Vincennes 1418: ‘Un livre de parchemin couvert de velluy au roye vert, et signe du signet du roy Charles le quint, et y a atachee une cedule contentant ce qui s’ensuit: “La nativite de monseigneur le Daulphin, ainsne filz du Roy nostre sire, et la nativite de monseigneur Loys, second filz du Roy” (cited Delisle, 1:266).

Four horoscopes, the first two rubbed to illegibility; dated 1350 and 1386 (fols. iv–iii; cursive, s. xv).

'Henry Sythry’ (fol. i, s. xvi/xvii).

The old shelfmark ‘C. 52. I’ (the front pastedown).

A list ‘The following manuscripts are some of the most curious’, in a hand dated ‘1871’ (the front pastedown).

Liber Collegii Sancti Joannis Baptistae Oxon Ex Dono Guilielmi Paddy Equitis Aurati 1633’ (fol. iv^v).

Record Sources

Ralph Hanna, A descriptive catalogue of the western medieval manuscripts of St. John's College, Oxford (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002) with an update to the binding description to reflect conservation work.

Availability

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

Digital Images

Digital Bodleian (full digital facsimile)

Bibliography

Alexander, J. J. G., and Elźbieta Temple, Illuminated Manuscripts in Oxford College Libraries, the University Archives and the Taylor Institution (Oxford, 1985).

Baron et al, Les Fastes du gothique: le siècle de Charles V (Paris, 1981).

Carmody, Francis J., Arabic Astronomy and Astrological Sciences in Latin Translation (Berkeley, Calif., 1956).

Coopland, G. W., Nicole Oresme and the Astrologers (Liverpool, 1952).

Delisle, Leopold, Recherches sur la librairie de Charles V, 2 vols. (Paris, 1907).

Frappier, Jean, et al. (eds.), Grundriss der romanischen Literaturen des Mittelalters, viii/1: La Littérature française aux XIVe et XVe siècles (Heidelberg, 1988).

La Librarie de Charles V (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, 1968).

Laird, Edgar S., ‘Astrology at the Court of Charles V of France, as Reflected in St John’s College, MS 164’, Manuscripta 34 (1990), 167–76.

Laird, Edgar S., ‘Robert Grosseteste, Albumasar, and Medieval Tidal Theory’, Isis 81 (1990), 684–94.

Laird, Edgar, and Robert Fischer, Pèlerin de Prusse on the Astrolabe (Binghamton, NY 1995).

Poulle, E., ‘Horoscopes princiers des xiv^e et xv^e siècles’, Bulletin de la Société national des Antiquaires de France (1969), 63–77.

Sherman, Claire Richter, Imaging Aristotle (Berkeley, Calif., 1995).

Sherman Claire R., The Portraits of Charles V of France (1338–1380) (New York, 1969).

Sherman, C., ‘Representations of Charles V of France (1338–1380) as a Wise Ruler’, Medievalia et Humanistica NS 2 (1971), 83–96.

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

2023-10: First online publication

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