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St John's College MS 172

Miscellany: grammar/dictamen, alchemy, medicine

Contents

Language(s): Latin

1. Fols. 1–30:
Rubric: Hic aurum tibi non valet vbi filet philobiblon
Incipit: Uniuersis cristi fidelibus ad quos tenor scripture presentis peruenerit RICARDUS DE BURY miseracione diuina Dunulmensis Episcopus Salutem in domino sempiternam piamque ipsius presentare memoriam iugiter coram deo in vita pariter […]
Rubric: [the text, fol. 2v] Quod thesaurus sapience potissime sit in libris
Incipit: Thesaurus desiderabilis sapiencie et sciencie
Explicit: prothotipum ac eiusdem concedat perpetuum fruibilis faciei conspectum Amen
Final rubric: Explicit philobilon domini RICARDI DE AUNGERUILE cognominati de Bury quondam Episcopi Dunelm’ completus est autem tractatus isle in Manerio nostro de Aukeland 24. die Ianuarij Anno domini Millesimo ccc0xliiijto. Etatis nostre …
Explicit: Amen
RICHARD DE BURY, Philobiblon

Sharpe, no. 1296 (462), ed. Antonio Altamura (Naples, 1954), 71–134, with a notice of our MS at 32–3. A contents table follows the prologue on fol. 2v.

2. Fols. 30v–69v:
Incipit: In lacrimas risus in luctus gaudia verto | In planctum plausus in lacrimosa iocos
Explicit: excitatum in sompno prior mistice apparitionis reliquit aspectus Tractando planus hic liber finit ALANUS | In quo nature planctum pandit periture
ALAIN OF LILLE, De planctu nature,

ed. Nikolaus M. Häring, Studi medievali 3rd ser. 19 (1978), 797–879.

3. Fols. 70–83
Incipit: Dilectissime frater in qudam [sic for quodam] timoris et amoris intersticio positus ineuitabili torqueor cruciatu
Explicit: inter hunc nominatiuum sacerdotes et hoc verbum choruscarent est nimis prolixa distancia
THOMAS MERKE, bishop of Carlisle (d. 1409), 'Formula moderni et usitati dictaminis’ (Sharpe, no. 1791 [668–9]), ed. Martin Camargo, Medieval Rhetorics of Prose Composition (Binghamton, NY, 1995), 105–47. See also Noel Denholm-Young, ‘The Cursus in England’, in Collected Papers (Cardiff, 1969), 42–73 at 69.
4. Fols. 83v–100:
Incipit: Uniuersis tabellionibus Ciuitatis Bononie denizenis et amicis karissimis Magister LAURENCIUS AQUILEGIUS salutem et per semitam omni tempore incedere veritatis […]
Rubric: [the text] Prima tabula salutaciones ad summos pontifices
Incipit: Sanctissimo […] in cristo patri et domino domino N
Explicit: amici sunt et amice Quot sunt virtutes tot vobis mando salutes
Final rubric: Explicit practica siue vsus dictaminis edita Bononie ad vtilitatem rudium et nimis proueccorum per M LAURENCIUM AQUILEGIUM et GUYDONEM de Ciuitate Parisiensi ad quorum facundiam nos perducat saluator dominus noster
Explicit: [form ending] Amen
LAWRENCE OF AQUILEGIA, ‘Practica sive usus dictaminis’,

a collection of tables which will automatically generate letters; see Denholm-Young, 67. For a similar work, by Lawrence’s disciple, John of Bondi, see Ludwig Rockinger ‘Briefsteller und Formelbucher’, Quellen und Erörtenungen 9 (1863).

5. Fols. 100v–24:
Rubric: Incipit sompniale dilucidarium Pharaonis copositum [sic for compositum] per IOHANNEM LENONIENSEM
Incipit: Uictoriosi principi potestate areas debellanti domino Theobaldo dei gracia Regi Nauarrie […] Rex virtutum progressurus ad presencium aduersus principes tenebrarum viris […]
Rubric: [fol. 101] Secunda epistola pharonis ad magos super sompnij declaracione
Incipit: Pharao diuina magnificencia Rex Egipti dilectis suis disertis philosophis
Explicit: infamia solepnius celebrentur gaudium et leticia graciarum accio et vox laudis Corpus scribentis saluet pater omnipotentis
JOHANNES LEMOVICENSIS, abbot of Zirc (OCist, Hungary), 'Morale somnium Pharaonis’,

ed. Constantine Horváth, Opera omnia 1 (Veszprém, 1932), 71–126. I am grateful to James J. Murphy for notes deposited at St John’s on the contents, esp. the rhetorical texts; his ‘Caxton’s Two Choices: “Modern” and “Medieval” Rhetoric in Traversagni’s Nova Rhetorica and the Anonymous Court of Sapience’, Medievalia et Humanistica ns 3 (1972), 241–55 mentions this item at 250, 254–5 n. 34 and our MS 184, item 4, at 246, 253 n. 16.

6. Fols. 124v–8:
Incipit: Qvot sunt littere xxti. que A B C D E etc. Ex istis litteris quot sunt vocales quinque que A E I O V
Explicit: naturaliter correpta producatur Sexto si silliba naturaliter producta breuiatur
Final rubric: Explicunt regule versficacionum

This text and the next are noted in Bursill-Hall, 184; another copy is in Worcester Cathedral MS F.61, fols. 217–18v.

7. Fols. 128v–140v:
Incipit: A Ante b in prima silliba corripitur vt labor oris et stabo is
Explicit: propria nomina tam prime quam secunde declinacionis ponuntur indifferenter
‘Accentuarium de breuibus et longis’ (the contents table), another copy in Cambridge, Trinity College MS O.5.4, fols. 66vb–9v; and a similar text cited by Bursill-Hall, from Douai, BM, MS 748, fols. 224–6.
8. Fols. 141–53v:
Incipit: Philosophantes antiquos siue Indos siue Persas egipcios siue gregos in visionibus sompniorum sequentes
Explicit: vellimus intelligere rem quesitam sicut etiam in priori parucula fuit tactam Et hec sufficiant de pronosticacionibus visionum
WILLIAM OF ARAGON, 'De somniis et visionum prognosticacionibus’,

ed. as ARNOLD OF VILLANOVA, ‘Expositiones visionum quae fiunt in somnis’, in Opera omnia (Basel, 1585), 623–40. See further M. C. Diaz y Diaz, Index scriptorum latinorum medii aevi hispanorum (Madrid, 1959), no. 1593 (326), with notice of our MS., At the foot of fol. 153v are ten verses: ‘Prima domus vite possessio sitque secunde | Tercia sit fratrum […] ’ (Walther, no. 1473). The text, and our MS, mentioned by Beryl Smalley, ‘Robert Holcot OP’, Archivum Fratrum Praedicatorum 26 (1956), 5–97 at 39–40 and Marcel Thomas, ‘Guillaume d’Aragon, auteur du Liber de nobilitate animi’, Bibliothèque de l’école des chartes 106 (1945–6), 70–9 at 72 n. 1.

9. Fols. 154–211:
Incipit: Svmmus opifex deus qui [repeats word] postquam hominem ad ymaginem suam plasmauerat animam racionalem eidem coniunxit
Explicit: visio autem orama oraculum vero cheymatisinos sed enim insompnium enypnion et visus nuncupantur
‘Tractatus de quintessencia valde bonus’ (TK 1539), the contents table title, which covers this text and the next, cited as a unique copy, mentioned in Thorndike, 2:302 n. 3. Followed (fols. 211v–14) by a table of topics treated.
10. Fols. 214v–44:
Rubric: Rebus ab hijs centum quintum stillas elementum Primus liber de consideracione 5e essencie […] Incipit liber de cumulatu philosophie ewangelici […]
Incipit: Dixit salomon sapiencie capitulo 7o deus dedit mihi harum scienciam veram que sunt vt sciam disposicionem
Explicit: ad consolacionem ewangeliorum virorum et honorem ecclesie sancti dei
RAYMOND LULL?; or JOHN OF RUPESCISSA?, 'De consideratione quintae essentiae'

TK 1316, eTK 0458A

11. Fols. 244v–60v:
Rubric: Infirmis cuncta superest essencia quinta
Incipit: In nomine domini nostri Ihesu cristi Incipit liber secundus qui de generalibus remedijs appellatur sicut primus liber qui est de consideracione
Explicit: Et preceptum ypocratis est vt serues illud et nulli mortalium reueles

‘De 7. herbis 7. planetis attributis’ (tabula), a continuation of the preceding item.

12. Fols. 261–6:
Rubric: Tractatus de epidimia id est de pestilencia compositus a IOHANNE DE BURGUNDIA aliter vocatus cum barba magno phisico et experto magnoque Astrologo
Incipit: Qvoniam omnia inferiora tam elementa quam elementata a superioribus reguntur
Explicit: fiat minucio consilium est magistrorum non expectando quia multis mora periculum pant
JOHN OF BURGOYNE, 'de epidemia'

TK 1290, ed. Karl Sudhoff, ‘Pestschrifen aus den ersten 150 Jahren nach der Epidemie des “Schwartzen Todes” 1348’, Archiv für Geschichte der Medizin 5 (1912), 36–87 at 61, beginning as the variant textual tradition cited 61 n. 2.

13. Fols. 266v–72:
Incipit: Fleobotmia est multum iuuatiua in tempore sanitatis potissime in illis
Explicit: ad me aut quia non fit comuniter et ideo discrecioni lectoris relinquo
BERNARD OF GORDON, ‘De flegbotomia’ (TK 563), the text cited as unique (perhaps an excerpt?).
14. Fols. 272v–304:
Incipit: Urina est colamentum sanguinis et aliorum humorum de nature quidem accionibus natum
Explicit: significatur quod ibi est aliqualis colour resoluens materiam et vaporem

‘BERNARDUS [i.e. OF GORDON] de vrinis’ (the contents table, TK 1608/1214), breaking off in ch. 27, ed. Practica Gordoni dicta Lilium, Hain 7800*, BMC 5:451 (Venice, 1498), Pt. 2, fols. 9vb–31vb.

15. Fol. 304rv:
Incipit: Nota quod 8. sunt species pulsus inequales et inordinati Primus pulsus dicitur caprisans
Explicit: Isti ergo pulsus possunt intelligi per istos versus sequentes Capre marcello serre ramo similatur | Fluctuat atque tremit vermem formica sequatur

‘De pulsibus’ (the contents table), not an excerpt from PHILARETUS or BERNARD OF GORDON.

16. Fols. 305–13:
Incipit: Galienus in tegni testatur quod qui agnitor interiorum esse membrorum desiderat eum in athonomijs
Explicit: partem matricis vnde tantum masculos vel feminas generant | Ossibus ex denis bis centis atque nouenis | Constat homo denis bis dentibus et duodenis | Et tricentenis decies sex quinque que venis
RICARDUS ANGLICUS, De anathomia (Sharpe, no. 1318 [468–74]), ed. Karl Sudhoff, ‘Der “Micrologus”-Text der ‘Anatomia” Richards der Engländers’, Archiv für Geschichte der Medizin 19 (1927), 209–39.
17. Fols. 313v–23v:
Incipit: Cvm per naturam mundi noscas genituram | Et que sit rerum mutacio [eight verses] […] Omnium corpora constancium tam perfecta quam imperfecta a creacionis principio ex 4or naturis composita sunt
Explicit: Ideoque corpus solutum quod est ⟨....⟩ permanens si igne preparetur debito multas M’c’ partes et infinitas coagulat’
JOHN SAWTRY, monk of Thorney, 'Radix mundi' (Sharpe, no. 874 [311]), lacking the prologue and apparently breaking off in a paraphrase of ch. 14; cf. the parallel material in BL, MSS Harley 1747, , fols. 1v–13; Harley 3542, fols. 69–79, , and the edn. ‘De lapide’. Ed. as ‘De lapide phiosophorum’, by Hermannus Condeesyanus (Johannes Grassaeus), Harmoniae imperscrutabilis chymico-philosophicae decas (Frankfurt, 1625), 1:153–78, without the epilogue. Fol. vrv is blank but ruled on both sides.

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: IN TUO
Form: codex
Support: Vellum (FSOS/FHHF).
Extent: Fols. iv + 324 (numbered fols. 1–323, v) + ii (numbered fols. vi–vii).
Dimensions (leaf): 195 × 135 mm.
Dimensions (written): 128 × 78 mm.

Collation

1–178 184 [fol. 140, a booklet boundary] | 9–338 [fol. 260, a booklet boundary] | 34–418. Throughout, catchwords towards the gutter. All leaves in the first half of each quire signed with arabic numerals, in the first seven quires in red, thereafter in text ink. Sporadic remainders of quire signatures: fol. 100 a, fol. 124 c?, fol. 141 f?, fol. 151 g, fol. 214 h, fol. 261 l?, fol. 294 m.

Condition

Water stains in the top right corner, with some effect on the text of the final item.

Layout

In long lines, 31 lines to the page. Frequent prickings; bounded and ruled in brownish ink.

Hand(s)

Written in anglicana with a few secretary forms. Punctuation by point only.

Decoration

Headings in red.

Three-line champes with marginal floral sprays at the heads of texts.

In works with chapters, 2-line blue lombards on red flourishing at chapter heads; some works have chapters broken with red paraphs and/or red-slashed capitals.

In item 10, later added running titles to indicate chapter numbers.

See AT, no. 450 (45), where it is suggested that the volume may be Oxford work.

Binding

A modern replacement (the spine from an earlier binding). Sewn on three thongs. At the front, a marbled paper leaf (dated ‘1747’ on the verso), a modern paper flyleaf, and two medieval vellum flyleaves (formed by folding a blank waste sheet, pricked, bounded, and ruled in double columns for about 50 lines), a College bookplate on fol. iiiv; at the rear, a modern paper flyleaf and another marbled leaf (vi–vii). Fol. iii has holes and verdigris stains from a staple clasp in Watson’s position 6.

History

Origin: s. xv2/4 ; England

Provenance and Acquisition

A contents table in the scribal hand (fol. iiiv).

Pen-trials (fols. iiiv and vv, s. xv).

‘Istum librum Magistri Ald⟨.⟩ert \egauit ⟨......⟩ / Ad orandum pro anima eius et animabus parentis et parochialibus eius. [then more formally:] Istum librum legauit Magister Iohannes Alwart quondam Rector ecclesie parochialis de Stoke bruern vniuersitati oxon’ vt oraret pro anima eius et animabus parentum et parochianorum eius’, followed in another hand? by ‘Tr qa qa (fol. vv; anglicana, s. xv) (Ker, MLGB 143, 289). The inscription transcribed in William Dunn Macray, Annals of the Bodleian Library Oxford (1890; rept. Oxford, 1984), 11.

‘Liber Collegii Sancti Joannis Baptistae Oxon (fol. 1, upper margin).

Two cancelled shelfmarks ‘Abac: ij. No. 9’ and ‘D.10’ (fol. iiiv).

‘Liber Collegii Divi Johannis Baptistae Oxon’ ex dono Domini Gulielmi Paddei Militis et ejusdem Collegii 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), with an additional author suggested for work 10 and an added reference to eTK for work 10.

Availability

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

Bibliography

    Alexander, J. J. G., and Elźbieta Temple, Illuminated Manuscripts in Oxford College Libraries, the University Archives and the Taylor Institution (Oxford, 1985).
    Altamura, Antonio (ed.), Richard de Bury, Philobiblon (Napoli: Fiorentino, 1954).
    Bursill-Hall, G. L., A Census of Medieval Grammatical Manuscripts, Grammatica speculativa 4 (Stuttgart, 1980).
    Camargo, Martin (ed.), Medieval Rhetorics of Prose Composition (Binghamton, NY, 1995).
    Catalogue of Books Printed in the XVth Century Now in the British Museum, 8 vols. (London, 1909).
    Denholm-Young, Noel, ‘The Cursus in England’, in Collected Papers (Cardiff, 1969), 42–73.
    Diaz y Diaz, M. C.,Index scriptorum latinorum medii aevi hispanorum (Madrid, 1959).
    Häring, Nikolaus M., “Alan of Lille, ‘De planctu Naturae’”, Studi medievali, 3rd series, 19 (1978): 797–879
    Hain, L., Repertorium bibliographicum, 8 vols. (Stuttgart, 1826–38, repr. Milan, 1948), with Supplement by W. A. Copinger (London, 1895–1902; repr. Milan, 1950).
    Horváth, Constantin (ed.), Johannis Lemovicensis, Opera omnia 1 (Veszprém, 1932).
    Ker, N. R., Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books. Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks. 2nd edn. (London, 1964), extended by Andrew G. Watson, MLGB: Supplement to the Second Edition. RHS Guides and Handbooks 15 (1987).
    Macray, William Dunn, Annals of the Bodleian Library Oxford (1890; rept. Oxford, 1984).
    Murphy, James J., 'Caxton’s Two Choices: “Modern” and “Medieval” Rhetoric in Traversagni’s Nova Rhetorica and the Anonymous Court of Sapience’, Medievalia et Humanistica ns 3 (1972), 241–55.
    Richard Sharpe, A Handlist of the Latin Writers of Great Britain and Ireland before 1540. Publications of the Journal of Medieval Latin 1 (Turnhout, 1997).
    Rockinger, Ludwig, ‘Briefsteller und Formelbucher’, Quellen und Erörtenungen 9 (1863).
    Sudhoff, Karl, ‘Der “Micrologus”-Text der ‘Anatomia” Richards der Engländers’, Archiv für Geschichte der Medizin 19 (1927), 209–39.
    Sudhoff, Karl, ‘Pestschrifen aus den ersten 150 Jahren nach der Epidemie des “Schwartzen Todes” 1348’, Archiv für Geschichte der Medizin 5 (1912), 36–87.
    Smalley, Beryl, ‘Robert Holcot OP’, Archivum Fratrum Praedicatorum 26 (1956), 5–97.
    Thomas, Marcel, ‘Guillaume d’Aragon, auteur du Liber de nobilitate animi’, Bibliothèque de l’école des chartes 106 (1945–6), 70–9.
    Thorndike, Lynn, and Pearl Kibre, A Catalogue of Incipits of Medieval Scientific Writings in Latin, 2nd edn. (Cambridge, Mass., 1963).
    Walther, Hans, Initia carminum ac versuum Medii Aevi posterioris Latinorum, 2nd edn (Göttingen, 1969).

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

2023-09: First online publication

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