View online

MS. Laud Misc. 676

Summary Catalogue no.: 1043

Petrus Hispanus, Giles of Corbeil, et al., Medical works. France, late 13th century, with additions, Germany, 15th century

Language(s): Latin

(front pastedown)

Table of contents

A late 13th-century hand lists the first three items. A 15th-century hand, probably also responsible for the ink foliation, noted how many leaves they each occupy (24, 28, and 2 leaves respectively) and lists three added texts: the two by Gilles (3 folios and 5 1/4 folios) and (now missing) ‘Item species dirigentes medicamenta(?) membris’ (1 folio)

(fol. i verso)

Table of contents

By a 17th-century (Laudian?) hand, listing the five main texts, noting that the second lacks its first 9 leaves.

1. (fols. 1r-24r)

Petrus Hispanus, Thesaurus pauperum

Incipit: In nomine sancte et indiuidue trinitatis que omnia creauit uel donauit uirtutibus propriis

Explicit: et distempera cum uino albo et tercia parte ter dum uenit da pacienti cocliar plenum qualibet uice

The last several words in paler ink running below the lowest ruled line of the page; the verso ruled, otherwise blank; this text occupies quires 1–3.

Obras médicas de Pedro Hispano, ed. Maria Helena da Rocha Pereira (Coimbra, 1973), 79–323, using the present MS (apparently the earliest surviving copy), with the siglum ‘B’; the Latin text is on odd-numbered pages, facing a Portuguese translation.

2. (fols. 25r–42r)

Concordantia auctorum (anonymous medical compilation, beginning incomplete)

Incipit: || aliquibus oleis calidis non multum sicut oleo

Explicit: Nota quod Aur. est pondus quatuor danich et dimidii

Final rubric: Explicit concordantia auctorum

Authorities cited include ‘A’(vicenna), ‘G’(alen), ‘Geraldus Bituricensis’ (i.e. Gerard de Berry, fol. 34r, cf. fol. 31r), ‘H’(ippocrates), ‘Iohannes Damasc.’ ‘Rasis’, and ‘Serapion’.

The text occurs in two other medical compilations: Paris, BnF, ms. lat. 6891, fols. 92r–113r, and Vatican, BAV, Pal. lat. 1253, fols. 97r–122r, with the incipit ‘In dolore capitis de [/ ex] causa calida cum materia …’; eTK 0671K

Narrow stubs of 9 excised leaves precede the first surviving leaf, which has medieval foliation ‘10’.

3. (fols. 42v–43r)

De septem herbis septem planetis appropriatis siue Compendium aureum

Rubric: De uirtute .7. herbarum

Incipit: Prima autem herba est Saturni que affodillus dicatur, succus autem eius multum ualet per se siue mixtus cum storace

Explicit: et colligendo herbam fiat passionis mencio uel rei propter quam colligitur et tales habere conseruantur in ordio uel frumento. Explicit.

Final rubric: Explicit virtutibus .7. herbarum

Attributed in other manuscripts to an otherwise unknown 'Flaccus Africanus' or 'Alexius Africus'. Singer, Catalogue of Latin and vernacular alchemical manuscripts, III (1931), p. 766 K3, citing four MSS. of this anonymous version including Bodleian MS. Digby 147, fols. 106r–v, and MS. Ashmole 1448, pp. 44–45; eTK 1088K, citing the present MS.

4. (fol. 43r)

Medical recipies

Two short cures, Contra sciaticam, and Contra maculam novellam

The verso is unruled and blank except for an added inscription (see below, Provenance).

5. (fols. 44r–46v; addition, 15th century)

Giles de Corbeil, De pulsibus

Incipit: Ingenii vires modicis conatibus impar | Materies honerosa premit perplexa figuris

Explicit: Debilis in reliquo fit languida nulla sequenti

Final rubric: Expliciunt versus de iudicio pulsus

Aegidii Corboliensis carmina medica ad fidem manu scriptorum codicum et veterum editionum recensuit, ed. Ludwig Choulant (Leipzig, 1826), 21–43; the MS. omitting the preface, and thus beginning with the Pars prima at p. 28 of the edition; and ending a few lines before the Epilogue of the edition, at p. 43 line 370.

Language(s): Latin

6. (fols. 47r-52r; addition, 15th century)

Giles de Corbeil, De urinis

Incipit: Dicitur urina quam fit renibus una

Explicit: Agrauat et cumulat mala circumstancia culpam

Final rubric: Expliciunt uersus Egidii et cuius est commentum(?) Gilleberti. [in red:] Deo gratias

(fol. 53v)

Pen-trial in German, see Provenance.

Language(s): German

Physical Description

The original core of the book seems to be fols. 1-47, possibly two codicological units (fols. 1-24, 25-48), but very similar in script, layout and decoration and probably always together. Fols. 44-7 were originally blank with text added in the fifteenth century. It is unclear if fols. 48-53 were added in the fifteenth century or were a blank part of the original volume.

Form: codex

Support: parchment, with fairly frequent holes and uneven edges

Extent: i + 53 + i leaves

Dimensions (leaf): 185 × 135 mm.

Foliation: i, 1–54 in 19th-century pencil; 1–24, 10–38 in medieval Arabic numerals in ink in the centre of the upper margin

Collation

1–3(8) (fols. 1–24), [quire excised], 4(8-1) (first leaf excised; fols. 25–31) 5–6(8) (fols. 32–47), 7(8-2) (last two leaves excised, with fragments of text remaining; fols. 48–53), the final flyleaf and pastedown are the outer leaves of another quire of 6 leaves of which the central four leaves have been excised; quires 1–2, 4-5 with catchwords.

Layout

Fols. 1r-43r: ruled in plummet for 2 columns of 40 lines. Ruled space 135-40 × 105 mm.

Fols. 44r-46v: ruled in plummet for 2 columns of 38 lines (earlier pricking for 40 lines, as fols. 1-43); ruled space c. 150 × 120 mm.

Fols. 47r-52r: ruled in plummet, the first page in 2 columns of 24 and 30 lines, the remainder in a single column of 28–32 lines; ruled space c. 145 × 105 mm.

Hand(s)

Fols. 1r-43r: Gothic bookhand

Fols. 44r-46v: cursive bookhand

Fols. 47r-52r: cursive bookhand

Decoration

Fols. 1r-43r: puzzle initial 'I' at the beginning of the first texts, in red and blue with penwork in both colours extending most of the height of the text; similar initial at the beginning of the second text, now mostly excised; spaces for 2-line initials usually blank (one in plain red)

Fols. 44r-46v: 2-line initials in plain red.

Fols. 47r-52r: none; capitals stroked in red

Binding

Medieval binding. Original(?) sewing on five bands laced into wood (beech?) boards with cushioned edges covered with plain undecorated (alum-tawed?) leather; with vestiges of a strap and pin fastening, with the pin extant near the centre of the back board. The spine with three (damaged) paper labels printed ‘[Lau]d’, ‘676’ (upside-down), and ‘Lau[d] | F | 6.’

The volume does not appear to have been re-sewn, yet the spine, back pastedown, and back flyleaf all have the old Laud shelfmark and a paper label printed with the SC number, upside-down, for no apparent reason, suggesting that the boards and endleaves may have been removed and reversed at some stage.

History

Origin: 13th century, end; France ; additions, 15th century ; Germany

Provenance and Acquisition

With a 14th(?)-century price ‘xij s[olidi?] par[isiensis?]’ (fol. 54r, upper right corner).

Presumably in Germany when the Giles de Corbeil texts were added.

Inscribed in German ‘Meyn freuntlichen gruß zu vor’ (fol. 53v).

‘Maria Greffin’, 16th-century (back pastedown, cf. fol. 54v).

Erased inscriptions on the back pastedown; pen-trial alphabet, fol. 52v.

A 16th-century name (?) on fols. 1r, 43r is difficult to read: possibly 'Ad. Hall' or 'Hale'.

William Laud, 1573-1645, with the usual inscription, dated 1633 (fol. 1r).

Part of his first donation to the Bodleian, 1635; former Bodleian shelfmarks: ‘F.6’ (fol. i verso; cf. spine), ‘Laud 676’ (fol. 54v, upside-down).

Record Sources

Summary description (March 2021) by Peter Kidd, edited by Matthew Holford. Previously described in the Quarto Catalogue (H. O. Coxe, Laudian Manuscripts, Quarto Catalogues II, repr. with corrections, 1969, from the original ed. of 1858-1885).

Quarto Catalogue, col. 489

Quarto Catalogue, p. 578

Summary Catalogue, vol. 2, part 1, p. 44