thorndike 1957

Notes on Some Astronomical, Astrological and Mathematical Manuscripts of theBibliothèque Nationale, ParisAuthor(s): Lynn ThorndikeSource: Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Vol. 20, No. 1/2 (Jan. - Jun.,1957), pp. 112-172Published by: The Warburg InstituteStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/750154Accessed: 20-04-2016 16:35 UTC

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NOTES ON SOME ASTRONOMICAL, ASTROLOGICAL AND MATHEMATICAL MANUSCRIPTS OF THE BIBLIOTHEQUE

NATIONALE, PARIS

By Lynn Thorndike*

These notes upon some astronomical, astrological and mathematical manuscripts at the Bibliothbque Nationale, Paris, call attention to little known works or to less familiar versions, publish portions of them, discuss questions of authorship, compare their text with that of other manuscripts and printed editions, or correct their present foliation and arrangement. All the manuscripts here noted are in mediaeval Latin, unless otherwise stated, and none antedates the twelfth century. BN will be used as an abbreviation for Latin manuscripts of the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris. For the reader's convenience in reference, they will be considered as far as possible in the numerical order of their shelfmarks, and, under these, in briefer numbered sections, to which the indices of authors and subjects, manuscripts, and incipits, given at the close of the article, refer.1 In some cases, in order to compare the same work in different manuscripts, the aforesaid strictly numerical order will be violated. Com- parison will also be made to manuscripts outside of Paris, especially at Cambridge, Erfurt, Munich, Oxford, London, and Madrid. An asterisk prefixed to an incipit indicates that it is not found in Thorndike and Kibre, A Catalogue of Incipits of Mediaeval Scientific Writings in Latin, I937, which work will usually be cited as A Catalogue of Incipits or, more briefly, as TK.

BN 7196 (I) In BN 7 96, of the fourteenth century, as the leaves are at present bound together and numbered, the text of the Computus of Sacrobosco is interrupted by two leaves from some treatise on the quadrant; later on the work of Campanus of Novara on the quadrant breaks off incomplete at fol. 28vb; then two leaves follow from some treatise on Computus. If, however, we transpose the leaves which are now numbered 6 and 7, with those now numbered 29 and 30, everything falls into its proper place.2 The Algorismus of Sacrobosco, here anonymous, opens on fol. Ira, with marginal glosses which become numerous only towards its close. At fol. 5ra it is followed by his Computus, accompanied by fuller marginal glosses, which in all occupies fols. 5ra-vb, 29ra-30vb, and 8ra-I8rb.3 His Sphere, with a bit of commentary, at fols. 18rb-25ra, is followed by his tract on the quadrant at fols. 25rb-27va:

rubric, Tractatus magistri lo. de Sacrobosco super compositione quadrantis simplicis et compositi et utilitatibus utriusque et cetera

incipit, Omnis scientia per instrumentum operativa instrumenti sui notitiam de neces- sitate perquirit...

desinit,... et hec michi dicta de simplici et composito quadrante sufficiant. Explicit.

Then at fols. 27va-28vb, and 6ra-7rb:

titulus, Tractatus magistri Campani super composito quadrante incipit, Scire debes quod circulus solis ..

* At the author's request, italics have not been used and quotation marks have been omitted in references.

1 Previous Notes upon some medieval Astronomical, Astrological and Mathematical Manuscripts at the Vatican, and Notes on some medieval Astronomical, Astrological and Mathematical Manuscripts at Florence, Bologna and Venice, have appeared or will be published in due course in Isis. Brief reference was made to some of these BN. MSS. in my Pre-Copernican Astronomical Activity, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 94, I950, 321-26.

2 The paragraph opening, Est autem septimana . . . , which occurs in the edition of 1543 of the Computus of Sacrobosco on the recto of the leaf bearing the signature b, is found in BN 7196 at fol. 29rb. That opening, Mensium autem alius solaris . . . , is in the edition on

the recto of the leaf with the signature b ii, in BN 7196 on fol. 29va. That which opens, Est autem signum certa zodiaci portio . . . , is on the recto of the leaf with the signature b iiii in the edition, on fol. 30rb in BN 7196, where the bottom half of fol. 3ora had been left blank, probably for insertion of a figure. Fol. 30rb ends, ... Quilibet autem mensis 8 habet ydus, unde versus, words found in the edition at (b vii) recto.

8 It closes with the three lines from Boethius, and the fourth line,

Tu stabilire velis opus hoc per temporis evum, but without the further five lines dating the work. In BN 7267, I3th-I4th century, fols. 7rb-.23vb, all nine lines are written in solid as if they were prose and with some minor errors.

II12


NOTES ON MANUSCRIPTS OF THE BIBLIOTH1'QUE NATIONALE I13 That there are divergences between the text of the Computus of Sacrobosco in our

manuscript and in the edition of 1543 may be illustrated by the following passage:

BN 7196, fol. 29ra

. . . recipit appellationem et ita de aliis. Secundum

hoc igitur sagaces medici, cum dant potiones vel fa- ciant minutiones, considerant utrum planeta benivolus vel malivolus dominetur in illa hora. Benivoli sunt

Iupiter et Venus; malivoli, Saturnus et Mars; indiffe- rentes quidem sol luna et Mercurius. Unde versus:

ed. of 1543, fol. (a v) verso- (a vi) recto

. . diversas habent appellationes.

Philosophi enim gentiles quemlibet diem septimanae ab illo planeta qui dominatur in prima hora illius diei denominant. Dicunt enim planetas successive dominari per horas diei quorum nomina et sphaerarum ordina- tio in subscripta figura4 clarescunt.

Sol et Mercurius cum luna

sunt mediocres. Qualitates quidem eorum complexionales in his versibus patent:

(2) After a short paragraph, In quo signo sit luna, arithmetical problems occupy the rest of fol. 7rb and all fol. 31 :

rubric, Incipiunt cautele algorismi incipit, Sint hic milites pedites et puelle . . .5

There follow at fol. 32r, Tabula venerabilis Bede; at 32va a note opening, *Ad notitiam tabule umbre nota quod tres sunt ordines de litteris rubeis . . . , which evidently belongs with some missing Table; at fol. 32vb, rubric, Incipit practica geometrie; incipit, Geometrie due sunt partes principales theorica et practica . . . introduce what appears to be an incomplete text of Quadrans vetus.6 At fol. 35vb it and the manuscript break off unfinished.

BN 7267

(3) Although most of the components of BN 7267 are well known, this particular manuscript seems to be less so, so that it may be helpful to catalogue its contents. It is a double- columned folio on membrane of the 14th century, with 68 lines to the column.

fols. Ira-4ra The Sphere of Sacrobosco 4rb.-6vb The Theory of the Planets commonly ascribed to Gerard of Cremona, inc.

Circulus eccentricus...

6vb-7rb Rubric, Incipit liber de iudiciis in astrologia; Incipit, *A philosophis sic diffinitam accipimus astronomiam esse astrorum certa lex et natura...

The author lists the properties of each of the seven planets, their rule over the months of the foetus, the sort of men born under each of them, etc; then turns to the twelve signs but gets only to Libra, and the bottom of col. 7rb and top of 7va are left blank.

In BN 16208, an earlier MS. of the late 12th and early 13th century, fol. 13ra, the incipit is *Philosophis astronomiam sic diffinitam accepimus . . . and likewise in Madrid iooo9, 13th century, fols. 133ra-143ra, where John of Seville is named as author, Incipit liber magistri lohannis Ispaniensis (sic).7

* No figure follows in the 1543 edition. 5 For another MS. with this incipit, TK 693; for

other Cautelae algorismi with other incipits, TK 189, 220, 564, 675, 707, 727. Yet others are BN 14070, fols. 92va-96ra, Cautele diversorum numerorum, in both, verse and prose, opening, *Hic cautelarum doctrina detur variarum... ; Boston Medical Library 20o, late I4th century, fols. I747-I 78v, Cautele algorismales, opening, *Si duo homines procedunt iuxta unam viam . . .; British Museum, Sloane 3281, 14th century,

fols. 54rb-56va, Cautele algorismi, opening, *Tres fratres sunt habentes sororem nubilem...

6 See my Who Wrote Quadrans Vetus? Isis 37, 1947, I50-53. Also our account of the next MS., BN 7267, fols. 15rb- 17rb. SSee further, Millds Vallicrosa, Las traducciones orientales en los manuscritos de la Biblioteca Catedral

de Toledo, Madrid, I942, pp. I77-78. At Catania is another MS., Catin. 85, 15th century, fols. 10o2-138.


x 14 LYNN THORNDIKE These three MSS. lack the preface to Robert de Beaumont, Earl of Leicester, found in

two MSS. in English libraries: Royal i2.E.XXV, c. 1300, fols. I 72v-(1 76v) of the British Museum; and Digby 57, 14th or 15th century, fols. 137v'-142, of the Bodleian at Oxford. This preface opens: Que in gloriosissimis libris antiquorum philosophorum. . . and the text in the Royal MS. opens, A philosophis astronomiam accepimus . . . Only these two wordings of the incipit were noted in A Catalogue of Incipits, where Zi 861 seems to apply to a different text on the astrolabe.

7va-15ra Canons of Arzachel (here anonymous) on the Tables of Toledo: Quoniam cuiusque operis (actionis is more usual) quantitatem temporis metitur ... /... Expliciunt Canones in motibus supercelestium corporum. Some notes follow.

This manuscript is not noted by E. Zinner, Die Tafeln von Toledo, Osiris I, 1936, 747-74, nor by Millds Vallicrosa, Estudios sobre Azarquiel, 1943-1950.

15rb-I 7rb Incipit Quadrans magistri loannis Anglici in geometria, followed by the usual incipit of Quadrans vetus.

I7rb-23vb Computus of Sacrobosco, here anonymous, with the nine concluding verses written as prose.

23vb-26rb Thebit, De recta imaginatione sphere, here called, Tractatus in assignatione circulorum magnorum cum suis cordis et sectionibus.

26va-27rb Richard of England(?), De minutiis, inc. Minutiarum vulgarium scribes superius numeratorem...

27rb-28ra Thebit, De iis que indigent expositionem antequam legitur Almagestum, inc. Equator diei est circulus magor (sic) que describitur...

28rb-32v Are left blank. 33ra-40vb Alfraganus, Liber de agregationibus stellarum. 41ra-57vb Albertus Magnus, De mineralibus, neatly written but without the fifth book,

ending in IV, 8. 58ra-vb Thebit, De motu octave spere.

BN 7276B

(4) BN 7276B, called Liber desideratus of Guillaume de Carpentras, astrologer, is not a text but consists of inset celestial figures intended to revolve and which comprise:

Motus 9e et 8e spere Epiciclus Saturni Epiciclus lovis Epiciclus Martis Epiciclus Veneris Epiciclus Mercurii Motus capitis draconis Epiciclus lune Motus augis lune Astrolabium phisicum.

Before this last item it is stated that the latitude of Fontainebleau is 480 38'.8 The name of Guillem de Carpentras, astrologien, appears in the accounts of King Rene of Provence on July 9, 1476, August 17 and November 23, 1477, in May and on October 22, 1478, on March 27 and June 7, 1479, when he was called mM decin de Carpentras and was paid for an astronomical clock, and in documents of September 15, 1479, and January 9, I480.9 Under the year 1495, the closing paragraph of the Recueil des plus celebres astrologues which Symon de Phares wrote for King Charles VIII of France, ran as follows:

I495. Maistre Guillaume, surnomm6 de Carpentras, de la nacion de Almaigne, homme

8... latitudo fontis bellau est 48 gradus et 38 irunutias.

9 L'Abb6 G. Arnaud d'Agnel, Les Comptes du Roi

Rene ..., Paris, III, IgIo; A. Lecoy de la Marche, Le roi Ren6, sa vie, son administration, ses travaux artistiques et litt6raires, Paris, 1875, II, 195, 379.


NOTES ON MANUSCRIPTS OF THE BIBLIOTHIQUE NATIONALE I15 subtil et perspicu, fut en ce temps audit Carpentras, grandement erudicq en la theorique des planetes et en fist de singulieres euvres et, entre les autres, en fist une spere pour le roy Rend de Sicille et une autre pour le duc de Millan et finablement en fist une autre pour vous, Sire, qui vous costa I2oo00 escuz, laquelle contient plusieurs utilit6s et est fabriqu6e en telle maniere que tous les mouvemens des planetes en toutes heures et en tous temps, jour et nuyt, tres certenement se y peust trouver et depuis I'a redig6e par escript en tables moult exquises.10

BN 7277

(5) Fol. Ir has only the present and previous numbers of the manuscript: Io090, 5462 and 7277.

Fol. Iv, Tabula mansionum verificata Tornaci anno domini 1367 completo. The Table, in six columns, gives the Hebrew, Greek and Latin names of the mansions of the moon, their longitude, initia and qualitates. The "Greek" names all begin Al- except the last, Betanaos. Beneath the Table are given the positions in 14o07 of the north star (Nautica) and Maior fratrum (Maior frater and Minor frater were the names of stars in Ursa minor). Also that of Nautica on March 20, 1420, when it was in 80 45' 16" Aries. In 1407 its true position was 180 52' Gemini and its mean position 80 30' Aries, while those for Maior fratrum were 50 5.2' Leo and 140 o' Scorpio.

Fol. 2r-v (most of the verso is left blank), Nomina stellarum verificatarum ad annum domini nostri Ihesu Christi 1340 per Henricum Selder. In the left-hand margin of fol. 2r, opposite the beginning of Henry's list is written in the same hand, Hoc non est de Henrico Selder, I take this note to apply, not to Henry's list proper, but to the following statement which is crowded in between the titulus and the Table of stars:

Declinatio prime stelle scilicet Nautice per sinum 840 cuius longitudo est signa 2 180 o', latitudo ab ecliptica 660.

The Table, in three columns, gives for each star: (i) the sign, degree and minute; (2) longitude; (3) latitude. At the close is written: Super istis stellis hic positis si addas 54', habebis loca earum ad annum domini nostri Ihesu Christi 1400oo.

Fols. 3r-4v, Tabula stellarum fixarum verificata Tornaci anno domini 1367 conpleto.11 Here a fourth column is added for the year, 1420, and at the close is a comparison between the time of the Alfonsine Tables and the year, 141o, as to the movement of the apogee and perigee (Motus augium, motus accessus, equatio eius, motus augis equatus).

Fols. 5r-6r, Tabula stellarum fixarum secundum quod sunt in ymaginibus signiorum, first for the time of Ptolemy, then for that of Alfonso, third for the year I367, with their longitude added for 1420 in a later hand as before. At the bottom of fol. 5v, Motus pro anno Christi 14o07 completo ad meridiem Parisiensem. At the bottom of fol. 6r, Initium octave spere creditur esse anno Christi 1407 completo 18 0o' 32" Arietis ..

Fols. 6v-7r, lists of stars without Tables being added or even outlined. At the bottom of fol. 7r, the movement in the time of Alfonso is compared with that in the year 142o. Fol. 7v is blank and therewith the manuscript ends.

10xo Edited by Ernest Wickersheimer, Paris, 1929, p. 269.

xx There is only this propinquity to suggest that Henry Selder's 1340 list of stars was made at Tournai or that the Tables for 1367 are by him. The two things were run together in the longhand catalogue in BN 9359, made when our MS. was numbered 5462 and where we read, Nomina stellarum verificatarum a.d. I340-I360 (sic) Tornaci.

Similarly the printed catalogue of 1744 lists as the second item in BN 7292, Nomina stellarum fixarum Tornaci verificatarum per Henricum Selder a. I340, but in the MS. itself the heading at fol. I3r is, Nomina stellarum fixarum verificatarum ad annum domini M.CCCC.3o (corrected to 1340)--completum per Henricum Seldei (sic), with no mention of Tournai.

E. Zinner, Verzeichnis der astronomischen Hand-

schriften des deutschen Kulturgebietes, 1925, p. 297, lists three other MSS. of Selder's star list of I340, and six of his Canons on the Alfonsine Tables, of which Erfurt, Amplon. F. 37 is a copy made at Paris on December I9, I377, by a Kristianus de Hag. The incipit of the Canons, which Zinner does not give, is Licet multi libri sint conscripti qui canones... Yet another MS. is Brussels 930, I15th century, fols. 125ra-

i5Ivb. J. A. Fabricius, Bibliotheca latina mediae et infimae aetatis, 1735, III, 677, wrote: Henricus Selder non notus mihi nisi ex praeclari Cangii monitione, qui testatur eius lucubrationes se evolvisse in Codice Regio Paris. 190. This number, corrected in Chevalier to o090, was, as we have seen, a former number of what is now BN 7277. Henry Selder is not mentioned in Sarton's Introduction to the History of Science.


1I6 LYNN THORNDIKE

It seems evident that Henry Selder's list of stars of 1340, and the Tables of Tournai of 1367, were copied from earlier and perhaps even distinct manuscripts, and that the data for the years 14oo00, I4o07, 14o and 1420, were added for the most part after the first writing of our manuscript.

BN 728x

(6) Of BN 7281, a large paper volume of the fifteenth century, much use was made by Pierre Duhem in Le systhme du monde and in the third volume of my History of Magic and Experimental Science. But a few less familiar items may be noted.

Fol. 42r-v, De latitudinibus planetarum aliter quam prius dictum sit (Canons on the Tables of Toledo had just closed), opening and closing: *Cum volueris scire latitudinem planetarum et eius partem . . /... Explicit Canon in latitudinibus 5 planetarum secundum Ptholomeum et Albategny.

Fols. 43r-45r, De eclipsibus luminarium aliter quam prius dictum sit, opening and closing: *In regionibus quibus accidit diversitas secundum aspectum(?) . . . /. . . Non plus erat de hoc in libro et repertum erat post antiquos canones etc. The rest of fol. 45r-v is blank.

At fols. 2o8v-2 IOv, the tract on the solar eclipse of 1337 by John of Genoa, for which Duhem quoted only the titulus and colophon,1 has the following incipit and desinit:

*Ad investigandum eclipsim solis oportet primo querere tempus prime medie coniunctionis . . . / . . . et id tempus duplavi et provetur duratio eclipsis 2' 53' 16".13

Fol. 235r, top margin, Credo quod compositor huius libri fuit magister lo. de Troyes14 (the name has been crossed out) quia hoc tempore 1420 fuit Parisius valentissimus. The text below opens, *Centrum est cuius ab initio circumductio . . . Fols. 238v-24or are occupied by Tables; on 240v the text resumes, Postquam invenimus . . . and ends on 241r,

S . . prout prius patuit. Anno Christi domini nostri Ihesu 1420. There follows, Tabula stellarum fixarum omnium in septentrione meridie et orbe signorum ymaginem habentium, que sunt 1022. Of these 360 are northern, 316 southern, and 346 located in the belt of the zodiac.

After blank pages, at fol. 247r, *Ut vero faciamus exemplum(?) per speram corporalem secundum quod iam firmavimus in spera stellarum fixarum . . . The lower half of fol. 248r is left blank for a figura instrumenti, and the text ceases in the middle of fol. 252v.

Blank leaves again ensue; then, after the well-known work of Oresme at fols. 259r-273r on the commensurability of the movements of the heavens, at fol. 273r-v a text opens, *Cum hoc scriberem ad memoriam rediit id quod dicit Abraham auctor(?) in libro de seculo15 loquens de firdariis . .

At fol. 274r, Modus componendi almanac, opening, *In almanac componendo sic procede... occupies only half a page; blank pages follow until at fols. 277r-279vgy the Table of Syrups of Jacobus de Partibus in triple columns, opening, *Sequuntur sirupi ad omnes humores... concludes the manuscript.

12 Le systhme du monde, IV, 74. Duhem did not note Pansier's treatment of John of Genoa in Janus, XIV, 1909, 422-23.

x13 This suffices to identify it with Cambridge, Uni- versity Library, Ee.III.6x, fol. 75r, rubric, Distincta calculatio eclipsis solis pro anno Christi 1337 in mense Martii secundum tabulas Alfonsi ad meridiem Parisius; incipit, *Ad investigandum eclipsim solis proximam venturam oportet procedere secundum hunc modum; fol. 76v, last line, rubric, Ffinitur calculatio coniunctionis et sequitur eclipsis; fol. 77r, rubric, Calculata coniunctione sequitur calculatio eclipsis; fol. 8xr, Ex- plicit; then

Nota et indubitanter scias quod ego Lodowycus Caerlyon in medicinis doctor singula prescripta calculo proprio probavi, et hoc feci quia in (?) eius errore in divisione sua quando divisit excessum 3e

diversitatis aspectus lune in latitudine super se- cundam, quia credidi ex illo modico errore plures maiores errores secutoros. Sed tamen quasi minima est discrepantia scilicet in paucis secundis et tertiis et numquam devenit ad unicum minutum. Quicum- que idem vult probare sciat quod ego posui primo operationem suam et subsequenter meam.

On the writer of this note see Pearl Kibre, Lewis of Caerleon, Doctor of Medicine, Astronomer, and Mathematician (d. 1494?), in Isis 43, 1952, ioo-io8.

14 For connection ofJohn of Troyes with astrological charts of 1426 and a controversy in astrological medicine of 1437, both in BN 7443, see A History of Magic and Experimental Science, IV, 99, 140.

15 The De mundo vel seculo of Abraham Avenezra, translated by Henri Bate: Isis 35, 1944, 294-95 for MSS.


NOTES ON MANUSCRIPTS OF THE BIBLIOTHIQUE NATIONALE I I7

BN 7322

(7) Other MSS. than those listed by Duhem (BN 7281 and 7322) for John of Genoa's Canons of Eclipses are given in A Catalogue of Incipits, col. 26, and the incipit, which he did not give, and closing passage, which he translated into French, may be reproduced in extended form from BN 7322, I4th century, fols. 39va.-4Iva, which is the older of his two MSS.

Ad sciendum eclipsim solis. Primo quere coniunctionem mediam ad illud tempus ad quod possibilitate(m) eclypsis invenisti secundum quod docetur in canone (de) coniunctionibus in quo tempore equa solem et lunam precississime secundum tabulas maiores secundum quod docetur in canone (de) coniunctionibus et si verus locus solis et lune concordant usque ad minuta habes tempus vere coniunctionis .. . . . Quarto notandum quod non est precise tantum tempus a principio eclipsis solis ad medium sicut a medio ad finem propter diversos aspectus qui non augmentantur vel diminuntur uniformiter vel non manet eadem semper in istis temporibus. Modum autem rectificandi vide in Albategni et in canonibus magistri lo. de Lineriis quia magis est prolixum quam difficile et ideo de hoc ad presens supersedeo. Laus deo et beate Marie, Amen.

In both BN 728I and 7322 the colophon to John of Genoa's Canon of Eclipses (for which Duhem gives the Latin, including the date January 22, 1332) is immediately followed by the statement

Verum motum solis et lune in una hora et semidyametros solis et lune et umbre tempore coniunctionis vel oppositionis per hanc tabulam invenire.16

But no table is given, and thereafter the contents of the two MSS. diverge. Fols. 42r-49V of BN 7322 are in a different hand and astrological, beginning in the midst of a treatment of the planet Mercury, Mercurius in tertio...

BN 7282

(8) In the old printed catalogue of I744 the contents of BN 7282 are briefly indicated as follows (I have supplied the foliation):

I Theorica planetarum: authore Gerardo Cremonensi (Ira-4vb) 2 Ptolemaei centiloquium: interprete anonymo (5ra- 13vb) 3 Alcabicii introductio ad astrologiam judicialem: interprete Joanne Hispalensi

(I4ra.-27vb) 4 Thebith ben Corath liber imaginum: interprete Joanne Hispalensi (29ra.-3Iva)

(4 bis from margin, Ptolemaei liber de imaginibus) 3Iva-33rb 5 Messahallach praecepta ad astrologiam judicialem spectantia (33va-34va) 6 Anon. astrologia (34vb-35va) 7 Anon. de virtutibus septem planetarum (35va-36va) 8 Anon. de ascendente (36va-38va) 9 Albumasaris experimenta (38va-39va)

i o Messahallach de cogitatione interrogantis percipienda (39va.-4ova) i i Messahallach liber conjunctionis et receptionis (4ova-42ra) 12 Liber de occultis secundum regulam Hyles (42ra-b) 13 Liber de occultis secundum Dorotheum (42va) 14 Liber de occultis secundum Ptolemaeum (42vb) 15 Exemplum de universali interrogatione (43rb)

I6 Anon. de cognitione temporum (43vb-45rb) I7 Anon. de vitiis lune (45rb-46ra)

16 Probably by a misprint, the date for John of Genoa's Canones eclypsium is given as 1322 in Ministero della pubblica Istruzione, Indici e cata- loghi, VIII, I codici Ashburnhamiani, 1887, p. 2 x6, but in the MS. itself, Ashburnham 206, fol. 76rb, the

date is January 22, 1332, as in other MSS. Since John of Genoa refers to a canon by John de Lineriis, whose Canons date in 1320 and 1322, the date 1332 is also more likely for his reference, and closer in time to his tract on the solar eclipse of 1337.


x 8 LYNN THORNDIKE

18 Canones tabularum Magistri lo. de Lineriis (46va-52vb) 19 Anon. de astrolabii conficiendi ratione et eiusdem utilitate (53ra-.62ra) 20 Tabulae unius regni differentiarum ad aliud et nomina regum et cuiuslibet aerae

cognitae (73r. ) 21 Canones duo tabulae praecedentis quam composuit Magister Jo. deJanua (129v- ) 22 Tabulis stellarum fixarum verificatarum per regem Alphonsum (I3or-13 1va)

Of these items, 5 and 10-I4 inclusive are discussed in a separate article on Messahala in Osiris, XII, I956, 49-72.

(9) BN 7282 is a manuscript of the I5th century,17 and many of its component texts are found in earlier codices, including some at Paris of which we are to treat. However, some comment may be offered. Monsignore Auguste Pelzer has stated that the incipit of the Centiloquium, Mundanorum ad hoc vel ad illud mutatio . . . is that of a different Latin version than that by John of Seville.18 The incipit of the anonymous commentary which accompanies the Centiloquium is, *Astrologus non debet dicere rem specialiter . . . The above table of contents fails to list a tabular Aspectus lune at fol. 28r and planetary notes on 28v.

The Liber ymaginum of Thebit ben Corat at fols. 29ra-31va is preceded by a prologue, perhaps by the Latin translator, which I printed from another manuscript in Melanges Auguste Pelzer, Louvain, 1947, pp. 231-2, where, however, the opening words were, Cum cernens planetarum cursus libris perlectis . . . , whereas here, as in Erfurt, Amplon. F. 380, 14th century, fol. 139v, the incipit is, Cum ceteris astronomie libris perlectis veluti cursum (or, cursuum) planetarum . . .

At fol. 29rb, titulus, Liber ymaginum incipit Thebith ben Cora a lohanne Hispaliensi atque Lunensi in Lunia ex arabico in latinum translatus; incipit, Dixit Thebith benchorath, Dixit Aristoteles quod philosophiam et geometriam et omnem scientiam quis legerit et ab astronomia vacuus fuerit erit occupatus et vacuus . . .; 31va, desinit, S. . intellige quod exposui tibi, si deus voluerit. Perfectus est liber. Quicquid autem de ymaginibus fuerit malignissimus ligacio scorpionis et ceterarum animalium non cures qua hora incipies formam eorum intelligere. Explicit liber y. a Thebith benchorath, sit laus deo maximo ut doceat nos et vos.

The work on images ascribed to Ptolemy then begins:

31va, De y. Pthol. Item opus ymaginis Ptholomei quod est omnibus modis proprior et brevior in probacione, quoniam eius effectus constitutus est super facies signorum. Dixit Albunbeth ben selim quia omnes orientales operabantur per has ymagines et non curant de aliis sed observant attente ut sit luna in ascendente, id est, horoscopo... ; 33ra, Dixit Ptholomeus, Edidi hunc librum . . . , Dixit siquidem Hermes huius editor libri. Per- scrutatus sum . . .; 33rb, Dixit Balemmuth hora quarta ad apes et ad ayes . . . /... et omnes ibi convenient. Explicit. The lower half of the column is left blank.

We next note two anonymous astrological texts or extracts with unfamiliar incipits: at fol. 34vb, *Luna cum separata fuerit a malo et non fuerit iuncta fortune, dies erit laudabilis...; at fols. 35va-36va, rubric, Tractatus de virtutibus 7 planetarum, incipit, *Capitulum significationum trium superiorum singulariter...

x1 At fol. 96rb we read, Expliciunt tabule Alfoncii regis Hyspanie et Castelle atque Romanorum, deo laus, amen. Boullier. 1466 23 Iulii; and at 62ra, after the treatise on the astrolabe, P. Boulier. 1468 14a lunii.

18 Archivum Franciscanum Historicum, XII, 1919, 6o. For other MSS. see A Catalogue of Incipits, col. 419, which does not include British Museum, Harleian MS. I3, I3th century, fols. I42ra-I65vb, where at fol. 142ra the text opens, Scientia stellarum ex te ex illis est ... , while the accompanying commentary (by Haly?) begins on fol. 142rb, Mundanorum mutatio ad hoc et ad illud . . . , and we read at the close: Et perfecta huius libri translatio 17 de mensis martii 15 die mensis in medio s. annorum(?) arabum 530.

Explicit centhilogium. Mundanorum . . . is given as the opening word of the Centiloquium of Ptolemy by Albertus Magnus, Speculum astronomie, cap x.

Francis J. Carmody, Arabic Astronomical and Astrological Sciences in Latin Translation, 1956, p. 16, distinguishes three translations: i, by Hugh of Santalla; 2, by John of Seville; 3, Undetermined translation and commentary, Prol. incipit, Mundanorum mutatio ad hoc et ad illud . . ., Proposition I, Scientia astrorum ex te et ex illis... In BN 7282 this last similarly follows the paragraph opening, Mundanorum etc. and is immediately followed by Astrologus non debet . . . , which Carmody does not note.


NOTES ON MANUSCRIPTS OF THE BIBLIOTHLQUE NATIONALE ii9 (xo) At fols. 36va-38va, what is there called Tractatulus de ascendente, is recognizable from its incipit, Oportet te scire primum dominum anni... as the Flores of Albumasar.

At fols. 38va-39va, rubric, Incipit liber experimentaris(?) Albumasar incipit, *Patefaciam tibi, sublimet te deus, revolutionem annorum mundi . . .19 desinit, . . . quia non errabis, si deus voluerit. Explicit.

But the usual incipit of Albumasar's Experimenta is Scito horam introitus . . .2o

At fol. 43rb, rubric, Exemplum de universali interrogatione incipit, *Ut mos est philosophorum in nativitate et universali interrogatione ...

At fol. 43va, without heading or rubric, incipit, *Si aspexeris virum qui te interrogaverit de vita sua...

At fol. 43vb, without heading or rubric, incipit, *Si quis causa recuperationis perdite rei ad te venerit . . .

At fols. 43vb.-45rb, rubric, De cognitione temporum incipit, *Scito quod signa planetarum levium et signa ponderosorum...

At fols. 45rb-46ra, rubric, De vitiis lune incipit, Vitia lune esse eius malum et cognitio quibus detrimentum facit . . .s

(ix i) The remaining contents of BN 7282 are astronomical, rather than astrological or occult, and comprise the Canons of 1322 of John de Lineriis for Tables of the Primum Mobile, a treatise or treatises on the construction and use of the astrolabe, and the Alfonsine and other astronomical Tables.

At fols. 46va-52vb, rubric, Incipit prima pars canonum tabularum magistri lohannis de Lineriis. incipit, Cuiuslibet arcus propositi sinum rectum invenire . . . desinit, Et sic est finis Canonum Primi Mobilis extractorum ab Albategni per magistrum

lohannem de Lineriis.22

At fols. 53ra.-55rb, rubric, Compositio astrolabii brevis incipit, Pro confectione astrolabii recipe tabulam planam aptam ad quantitatem sicut

placet . . .23 desinit, . . . et tantum de compositione astrolabii, leaving the lower half of the column

blank.

At fols. 55va-62ra, titiulus, De utilitate astrolabii canones

x9 Both Flores and Experimenta of Albumasar are somewhat similarly associated with revolutions of years of the world in a MS. at the Bodleian, Oxford, Laud. Misc. 594, I4th-I5th century. At fol. Io6 his Flores is preceded by the caption, Albumasar de revolutione annorum collectus a floribus antiquorum philosophorum. At fol. 123 the words, In nomine dei misericordis et pii tractatus inde (II de?) revolutione annorum mundi, precede the incipit, Scito horam introitus, of the Experimenta, which close, ... in regno, si deus voluerit. Perfectus est liber experimentorum Albumasar sub laude dei et eius auxilio. Deo gratias. Amen.

20 So in Speculum astronomiae, cap. vii and numerous MSS., some of which are listed in A History of Magic and Experimental Science, I, 650.

2x In A Catalogue of Incipits, col. 778, the incipit was incorrectly quoted from another MS., BN nouv. acq. 693, fol. 15r, as Vitia lune et sunt esse malum quibus . . . It should be, Vitia lune et suum esse malum quibus detrimenta facit...

** These Canons were published by Maximilian Curtze in Bibliotheca Mathematica, I, 1900, 390-413, from MS. Basle F. II. 7, 15th century, fol. 38 et seq.

22 For the incipit of the Compositio astrolabii only one or two MSS. are cited in A Catalogue of Incipits from Zinner's Verzeichnis: Mainz 530a, 15th century, fols. 28-34; perhaps also Vienna 5258, I5th century, fols. 82-84, with the similar incipit, Pro compositione astrolabii accipe . . . In both MSS., as in BN 7282, it is anonymous.


120 LYNN THORNDIKE

incipit, Quia plurimi ob nimiam quandoque accurtationem . . . desinit, . . . Explicit compositio et utilitas astrolabii, followed by blank pages through

fol. 72v.24

(I2) At fols. 73r-96rb, the Alfonsine Tables, 73r Tabula unius regni differentiarum ad aliud et nomina regum atque cuiuslibet ere

cognite. Et sunt radices dierum cuiuslibet ere in sequentibus posite. 73v Tabula communis ad extrahendum omnes eras bissextiles et ad extrahendum unam

incognitam ex altera cognita. Four cols. for Anni collecti communes, Anni expansi communes, Anni expansi communes ad annos Alexandri et Diocletiani, Anni expansi ad eram Cesaris.

74r Seven tables of months as follows: Menses latinorum ad annos Alfoncii Menses communes ad annos incarnationis Menses ad eram Arabum

Menses grecorum ad annos Alexandri incipientes ab Octobri Menses egiptorum ad annos Diocletiani a Septembri incipientes Menses Persarum ad eram Persarum

Tabula mensium Egiptiorum quibus utimur in annis diluvii et Nabug'sor et Philipi 74v Tabula communis ad extrahendum omnes eras non bisextiles et quamlibet in-

cognitam ex altera cognita Tabula ad inveniendum eram Arabum et ad extrahendum quamlibet eram in-

cognitam per aliam notam Anni collecti ad eram Arabum per I oooos aucti per go900

75r Tabula ad sciendum minuta et fractiones dierum per horas et fractiones horarum Tabula ad sciendum horas et fractiones horarum per minuta et fractiones dierum Tabula ad sciendum notam sive feriam anni mensis vel diei cuiuslibet ere incognite

75v Tabula continens radices mediorum motuum ad eras inferius positas ad meridianum Toletanum dilatantem a meridiano Parisius versus occidentem per 12 secundas que valent in tempore 2 minuta diei. (Tables of roots are given for the movement of the eighth sphere; mean motion of moon, head of dragon, eccentric of the moon; mean motion of the sun, of the aux of the sun sine motu octave

76r spere; medii argumenti lune; mean motion of Saturn, Jupiter and Mars; medii argumenti Veneris; argumenti Mercurii sine motu octave spere;

76v augium Iovis sine motu octave spere; likewise for Mars and Saturn, and for Mercury; notarum sive feriarum anni.

Tabula mensium revolutionis Tabula revolutionis ascendentium annorum Tabula revolutionis annorum in suis fractionibus.

77r Tabula equationis motus accessus et recessus octave spere 77v Tabula continens motum augium et stellarum fixarum 78r Tabula continens motum accessus et recessus octave spere25 78v Tabula continens medium motum solis Veneris et Mercurii 79r Tabula continens medium motum lune 79v Tabula continens motum argumenti medii lune 8or Tabula continens motum argumenti latitudinis lune 8ov Tabula medii motus lune in elongatione sui a sole 8 ir Tabula continens medium motum capitis draconis 8 1V Tabula continens medium motum Saturni (82r, Iovis; 82v, Martis) 83r Tabula continens motum argumenti medii Veneris (83v, Mercurii) 84r Tabula continens centrum medium lune 84V Tabula continens motum argumenti medii Saturni (85r, lovis; 85" Martis) 86r Tabula elongationis argumenti medii lune a centro eiusdem 86" Tabula equationum solis prima (87r, secunda)

24 For De utilitate astrolabii MSS. are numerous:

see A Catalogue of Incipits, col. 153, Cum plurimi . . . , 571, Quia plurima. . . , also 553, 669. It is usually

ascribed to Robert of Chester of the a2th century. 25 At the bottom of every page, fols. 78r-86r, is

written, Radix Christi ad Parisius.


NOTES ON MANUSCRIPTS OF THE BIBLIOTHtQUE NATIONALE 121 87v Tabula equationum lune prima (88r, secunda; 88v, tertia) 89r-96r Ditto for Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, Mercury. 96rb Expliciunt tabule Alfoncii regis Hyspanie et Castelle atque Romanorum, deo laus

amen. Boullier. 1466 23 lulii.

(13) At fol. 97r et seq., Tabule proportionis pro habendis motibus planetarum

At fol. I I13r, rubric, Incipiunt tabule magistri lohannis de Lyneriis et primo tabula sinus

At fol. 1I29r, Tabula ad sciendum motum solis in una hora et semidyametros luminarium

At fol. 129v, rubric, Canon tabule precedentis quam composuit magister lohannes de Ianua incipit, Utrum26 (sic) motum solis et lune in una hora invenire

At fols. 13or-131 va, Tabula stellarum fixarum verificatarum per regem Alfoncium.

BN 7292

(14) Before proceeding to our own account of BN 7292 we may note three earlier summaries of its contents: one on the inside of the cover of the manuscript itself in a hand of perhaps the I6th century, another that by Mabillon and his associates in their longhand catalogue (BN 9359) which was not printed, and third that of the printed catalogue of 1744. The first runs:

Astrorum liber Canones directionum

Haly de iudiciis Novem lib. Euclidis cum parte (principio?) I o Quedam ad astrologiam et medicinam coniunctim pertinentia Tractatus de sphera innominato auctore Tractatus de sphera de Saco. bosc. Arnaldus de Villanova de astrologia ad medicinas necessaria Practica astrolabii

Algorismus de minutiis vulgariis et physicis Liber qui dicitur Anagliforra astronomie continens quedam ad theoricam eclipses

magnitudines et distantias corporum celestium Quedam ex Almagesto Trilogium astrologiae theologizatae per Gerson

The second, drawn up when the number of the manuscript was 5874, notes more items and gives incipits and folios:

Anonymi tractatus de stellarum longitudine et de latitudine lune. Cuiuslibet arcus propositi...

Stellatio formarum septentrionalium, id est, enumeratio et longitudines stellarum ex quibus constant constellationes singulae septentrionales. Et primo Ursa minori. *Illa quae est super extremitatem... 30

De proprietatibus stellarum fixarum. *Fortissimus... 43 B. Thomae determinatio ad quemdam militem de impressione coelestium cor-

porum. Quoniam in quibusdam . . . 44 26 The first word obviously should be Verum. See

Vatican, Ottobon. 1826, 15th century, fol. 148ra, rubric, Canon tabule sequentis que intitulatur Tabula motus diversi solis et lune in una hora et semidyametro- rum secundum tabulas Alfonsi; incipit, Verum motum lune et solis in una hora...; at fol. 148rb, M.I.C.

(Magister Iohannes Chilingworth?) composuit istum canonem et etiam tabulam, et hec est tabula quam ipse nominat in principio suorum canonum de eclipsibus. Duhem, Le systbme du monde, IV, 75, noted only this portion of BN 7282 and did not quote the incipit.


122 LYNN THORNDIKE

Quaestio secundum B. Thomam determinata utrum liceat uti iudiciis astrorum. Quia a me petisti . . . 45v

Petrus de Monte Altino de cometis. Utrum cometa... 46 Expositio nominum quorundam astrologicorum. *Incipiamus expositionem . . . 49 P. de Saxonia 53 Matth. de Guarumbertis (sic) archidiaconi Parmensis tractatus de directione et

proiectione radiorum et aspectuum. Per radios et aspectus. .. 68 Aly filii Abenragel libri octo de judiciis stellarum. Dixit Aly... 75 Euclidis Elementorum libri decem. Punctus est... I 88 Tractatus de lunae et aliorum astrorum influentiis. Cum secundum varietates... 268

May... de Maynariis de Mediolano professoris anno 1360 tractatus contra epi- demiam. Simile est opus stellarum ... 273

Joannis de Sacrobosco tractatus de sphara (sic). Tractatum de sphara . . . 281 Arnaldi de Villanova astrologia pro virtute medicinae. Sapientissimus Hyppo- cras... 288

Joannis Hispalensis astrolabium. Astrologicae speculationis... 292V Fr. Nicolai de Dasia ord. predicatorum tractatus anaglypharum astronomiae.

Primum capitulum est... 306 Joannis Gerson Cancellarii Parisiensis Trilogium astrologiae theologizatae.

Sapientiam quae a Domino Deo est... 346 Eiusdem tractatus contra superstitiosam dierum observantiam praesertim Inno-

centium. Culpat apostolus... 354 Eiusdem tractatus adversus doctrinam medici Montispessulani sculpentis in

numismate figuram leonis. Cuius est... 356 Card. Cameracensis Petri de Alliaco epistola ad Joan. Gersonem. *Postquam scripseram. . . 357

(15) Briefer again and without incipits or folios was the summary of the manuscript's contents in the printed catalogue of 1744.

i Problemata astronomica 2 Nomina stellarum fixarum Tornaci verificatarum per Henricum Selder anno 134027 3 Stellatio formarum tam septentrionalium quam meridionalium 4 Determinatio B. Thomae de impressione coelestium corporum; ad quemdam militem 5 Scholium de cometis secundum Magistrum Petrum de Monte Altino 6 Scholium de geometricis theorematibus necessariis ad motus coeli cognoscendos 7 Tractatus de directione et projectione radiorum et aspectuum: per Matthaeum de

Gravumbertis (sic) Archidiaconum Parmensem 8 Liber completus de judiciis stellarum quem composuit Aly, filius Abenragel 9 Euclidis elementorum libri decem priores: nonnulla desiderantur

io Libellus de varietatibus naturae humanae, ex cursu planetarum et signorum effectibus cognoscendis

i i Libellus de praeservatione de epidemia; compilatus per Magistrum Maynum de Maynariis, Mediolanensem Physicum

12 Joannis de Sacrobosco tractatus de sphaera 13 Astrologia Magistri Arnaldi de Villanova I4 Astrolabium Joannis Hispalensis 15 Practica astrolabii: auctore anonyno 16 Algorismis de minutiis 17 Liber anaglypharum astronomiae: authore Nicolao de Dacia, Hungaro, ordinis

Praedicatorum

18 Fragmentum commentarii in Almagestum Ptolemaei 19 Trilogium astrologiae theologizatae cum commentariolo, epilogo et doctrinis; A

Joanne de Gersono, Cancellario Parisiensi, Lugduni compilatum 20 Eiusdem libellus contra superstitiosam dierum observationem, Lugduni compilatus 21 Petri de Alliaco, Episcopi Cameracensis, epistola ad Joannem Gerson, de eodem

argumento. 27 This entry has been corrected above under BN 7277, in note Ii.


NOTES ON MANUSCRIPTS OF THE BIBLIOTHLQUE NATIONALE 123 Corresponding to the first entry in the first list are eight items in the second list, and six

in the third. But for the first 29 leaves of the manuscript the third list gives two entries, while the second list has only one.

(16) At fol. Ira, as the incipit reveals, opens the Canon on the Primum Mobile of John de Lineriis. With fol. Iv the writing changes to a single column. The last indicated paragraph of the Canon occurs at fol. 24v, opening, Revolutionem annorum mundi seu aliarum rerum, and at 25r the Canon seems to end, . . . adhuc meum latet intellectum et deus scit quantum sit hoc tempus, cuius nomen sit benedictum in seculorum secula, Amen. Fol. 25Y is occupied by the following Tables:

Tabula revolutionum annorum

Tabula perfectionis dierum Tabula revolutionis dierum composita per Henricum eundem.

The Henry referred to had already been mentioned at fol. 13r-v, where in a neater, firmer hand than what precedes and follows is written, Nomina stellarum fixarum verificatarum ad annum domini M.CCCC.3o (corrected to 1340) completum per Henricum Seldei (Selder?). After the list of stars is written:

Presens tabula debet scribi post sequens capitulum intitulatum, Latitudinem lune per tabulas etc. etc. ad consimile signum cuius +

This sign appears on the middle of the opposite page, now numbered 14r. But a leaf between has been cut out, so that the quire, which should have 24 leaves, ends at that now numbered 23v with the catch-word, tempus. After the three Tables which were mentioned above is another text, at fol. 26r-v, in a neater and firmer writing than that of the Canon. It is made up of several paragraphs, of which the first opens, *Revolutionem mensium per tabulam ad hoc factam invenire . . . , and the last closes:

finem imponere huic tractatui, regratians omnibus magistris meis et de erratis petens veniam estimo fore dignum. Explicit.

Notes in a scrawling hand ensue at fols. 26v-27v; then at fol. 28r-v, in a neater hand, a text opening and closing, *Notandum quod duplex est coniunctio lune cum sole scilicet vera et media... /... Et sic habebis puncta; then, on fol. 29v, 26 numbered scrawls concerning the significations of the planets.

At fols. 30r.-42r the work is on both northern and southern constellations. Stellatio formarum septentrionalium et primo Urse minoris, is to be regarded as a sub-title, and *Illa que est super extremitatem caude. .. as the incipit.*s In the course of this work at fol. 41'v is another reference to verification of the positions of the fixed stars made in the year 1340.

Et si quis voluerit verifficare ad annos Christi I340, addat supra ista loca I8 gradus cuiuslibet ymaginis et habebit rectum propositum.

Nota quod anno 1340 verificatae fuerunt stelle fixe per quosdam famosos secundum(?) magnas experientias et addebant supra eorum loca a Ptholomeo I8 gradus quod credo fere verum.

(17) At fol. 43r-v, Nota rem occultam et secretam de proprietatibus stellarum fixarum et respiciendum est ad eas in extensione figurarum et sunt eiusmodi, opens, Fortissimus occultus iuvans... It is the third item in the second list given above but is not noted in the printed catalogue, while a Nota infortunium planetarum, which follows on 43v is not noted in either.

For the first opusculum of Aquinas at fol. 44, De occultis operibus is a more usual form of title than De impressione celestium corporum, although yet other forms of title are found for it.29

28 H. Silvestre in Scriptorium, 1951, i5oa, Constel- latio Urse minoris. Illa que est super extremitate caude . . . , Brux. 1466, s. 15, 98-10o6; aucun titre dans le ms.; 152b, Illa que est super extremitate caude...

Voir mon inc. Constellatio... 29 It was edited separately by J. B. McAllister in

1939.


124 LYNN THORNDIKE

The work of Petrus de Monte Alcino on comets at fols. 46r-48r has been summarized by me on the basis of another manuscript of it, Milan Ambros. S.58 sup., fols. 147v-I 5or.3o

Fol. 48v is blank, and leaves have been cut out between it and the faint scrawls at 49r-5Ir, variously described in the seventh entry of the above second list and in the sixth item of the 1744 printed catalogue. The rest of 5 Ir.52v is blank.

The text at fols. 53r-68r is not Canones directionum secundum P. de Saxonia, as stated in the top margin of 53r, but, as correctly stated at its close, Matheus de Guarimbertis De directione et proiectione radiorum et aspectuum, a work which I have discussed elsewhere on the basis of other manuscripts of it.31

Haly Abenragel, Libri octo de iudiciis astrorum, at fols. 75r-I179v, is preceded by blank leaves at 68r-74v, except for two lines at the top of 74r and a page of scrawls on 74v. It is followed by scribbled notes on 18or-i8 iv, while fols. 182r-i87r are blank. On 187V are two figures of horoscopes and notes.

Euclid occupies fols. 188r-267v. The next work, of divination, at fols. 268ra-272vb, is ascribed to Albandinus in a manuscript at Munich, CLM 527, fols. 36r-4, r.32 It and several succeeding treatises are written in double columns.

Between the plague tract of Maino de' Maineri, at fols. 273ra-276rb, and the Sphere of Sacrobosco at 281ra-287rb, intervenes the Sphere of Robert Grosseteste, unnoticed in two of the foregoing tables of contents and likewise in S. H. Thomson's The Writings of Robert Grosseteste, 1940.

(18) At fols. 287va-292va, the text opening, Sapientissimus Hyppocras... is the astrological medicine of the pseudo-Hippocrates in the translation by William of Moerbeke,33 and not a work by Arnald of Villanova as stated in our manuscript and all three of its tables of contents.

At fols. 292va-296vb,34John of Seville on the astrolabe, opening, Astrologice (Astrologie, in most MSS.) speculationis exercitium habere volentibus . . . The work was ascribed to John of Seville in Speculum astronomiae, cap. 2, and by Thadeus of Parma in 1318, as well as in 14th-century manuscripts of it, but Millas Vallicrosa inclines to regard it as a translation by John of Messahala, and to assign to John another work on the astrolabe,35 to which we shall come in our next manuscript.

The following text in BN 7292, where it is anonymous, on the astrolabe, opening at fol. 296vb, Nomina instrumentorum . . . , is by Messahala. At fols. 3oova-304vb is the well- known Algorismus de minutiis of John de Lineriis. Fol. 305r-v is blank.

At fols. 3o6r-328v, BN 7292 reverts to a single-column text. This is the manuscript, at that time numbered 5874, 36from which Quetif and Echard printed the prologue to the first book and a partial table of contents of the Liber anaglypharum of the Dominican, Nicolaus de Dacia.37 The table of contents, which runs on to fol. 307r, after stating that the second book consists of seven Summae, stops with the Differentiae and chapters of its third Summa. At fol. 3o7v we read:

Incipit prologus in primum librum Anaglipharum editus per magistrum Nicolaum de Dacia, in theologia magistrum. Et factum fuit in villa Marialogii in conventu Predica- torum, cuius erat frater de natione Ungarie, anno domini Ihesu Christi 1456, quod opus est magne resolutionis in astronomia.

This indicates that Nicolaus was a Hungarian, but Dacia may indicate either Denmark or Hungary, and Ellen Jorgensen has gathered evidence that Nicolaus came from Lund.38 The prologue then opens, Florentis quondam vetustatis traditio . . . , while at fol. 3o8r the first

s0 In Isis, 40, 1949, 350. 31a A History of Magic and Experimental Science,

III, 1934, 598-99, 768-70. 32 Ibid., I, 716. Columbia University has a photostat

of it. It predicts as to those born in each month, on each day of the week, and each day of the moon-also as to those who fall ill on each day of the moon.

" For other MSS. of it see Bulletin of the History of Medicine, XV (1944), 218.

84 1 own a photostat of these fols. 31 Las traducciones orientales, I942, pp. I58, 171,

322. 36 A History of Magic and Experimental Science,

IV, 247-50, 679-80, should be corrected accordingly. " Scriptores ordinis Praedicatorum, I, I719, 826-27. 88 Nordisk Tidskrift f6r Bok- och Biblioteksviisen,

XX, 1933, 197, citing Berlin cod. lat. fol. 182, Collecta ex libro anagliffarum fratris Nicolai ordinis Predicato- rum Lundensis; and British Museum, Sloane I68o, fol. 92, margin, In Gothica lingua sonat terra amoena, cuius metropolis est Lundis, de qua oriundus extitit qui hunc librum anaglipharum composuit.


NOTES ON MANUSCRIPTS OF THE BIBLIOTHLQUE NATIONALE 125 chapter begins, Rerum opifex universi . . . At fol. 328V the text breaks off unfinished,... et hoc est quod de magnitudinibus stellarum atque sperarum proposuimus enarrare etc.

Fol. 329r is occupied by a Table; 3297 is blank; on 330r is a text opening, *Omnis doctrine notitia scientie tunc contexitur . . . It may be a portion of Liber anaglypharum, since, after fols. 33o0v-333r have been left blank, fol. 333v has only the heading, in huge letters, Liber anagliffarum astronomie.39

(i9) At fols. 334r-345v, the text which opens, *Quod prius de hac scientia sciendum est... appears to be a fragment from some commentary upon the Almagest rather than an extract from Ptolemy's work, or a continuation of Liber anagliffarum. It has headings for chapters 8, 9, 1o, I9, Ii I2, 1213.

There follow three treatises by Jean Gerson: first, at fols. 346r-353v, his Trilogium astrologie theologizate; next, at fols. 354r-356r, Ab eodem cancellario Parisiensi contra superstitiosam dierum observationem presertim Innocentium similiter Lugduni compilatus, opening, Culpat apostolus eos qui dies observabant et annos. .. , and closing, . . . et non respicit in vanitates et in famas falses; last, at fols. 356r-357r, De figura leonis a medico Montepes- sulanensi sculpta, opening, Cuius est ymago hec superscriptio . . . Of these three treatises, only the first is listed in the fly-leaf table of contents; and only the first and second in the printed catalogue.

At fol. 357r-v, BN 7292 terminates with an interesting letter of Pierre d'Ailly to Gerson, which is much shorter than and supplementary to the Apologia defensiva astronomie which he also addressed to Gerson; see BN 2692, fols. 145r-147v. It opens, after the address and salutation, *Postquam scripseram apologiam astronomie defensivam . . . It is also found in the 17o6 edition of Gerson's Opera by Ellies du Pin at I, 226, edited from this very manuscript, but it does not appear in the four-volume edition of 1494.

BN 7293A

(20) BN 7293A, of the 13th-14th century, is not included in the printed catalogue of 1744. Its first twenty-five leaves are occupied by a treatise on the astrolabe which is profusely illustrated with figures, in some of which the parts revolve, while some occupy smaller inset leaves, which, however, are numbered along with the full leaves containing text in the regular order from I to 25. The opening words, Dicit lohannes, Cum volueris facere astrolabium, accipe auricalcum optimum... , differ from those of De compositione astrolabii assigned to Danko or John of Saxony in a manuscript at Erfurt,40 and from those of the first chapter of Messahala on the composition of the Astrolabe, Cum volueris facere astrolabium ad cuius- cunque latitudinem regionis . . . , and coincide with those of manuscript 98-27, I5th century, of the cathedral library of Toledo, of which MillAs Vallicrosa has published portions and which he assigns to John of Seville.41 I list the chief headings and occurrence of figures in BN 7293A, with indication of the corresponding passages in the text as published by MillAs.

Ir One figure iv Set ut prudens lector intelligat (Mill's 323, line 4)

Si autem extrahere hos circulos volvissemus adinvicem (323, line 22) a figure

2r Cur autem accepimus hanc divisionem (323, 11. 38-39) Peractis circulis predictis faciamus limbum (324, 20) no figure on this page

39 CLM io66i. x5th century, fols. 64ra-7ovb, a MS. at Munich not included among those of Liber anaglypharum listed in A History of Magic and Experi- mental Science and represented in A Catalogue of Incipits as an anonymous Theorica planetarum, offers a variant version of the first book of Liber anaglypharum. The prologue opens, Floridis olim legere doctrinas... instead of Florentis quondam vetustatis traditio . . . , and the first chapter begins, Rerum opifex et siderum universorum conditor... instead of, Rerum opifex universi... After chapter 15 on fixed stars of the first magnitude the text ends, Et sic anaglipharum liber primus explicit. The word was spelled

anagliffarum congeriem in the prologue. I saw no name of the author. The prologue is shorter than that printed by Quetif and Echard, although to much the same effect.

40 Amplon. Q.366, mid-z4th century, fols. 82r-84v: Cum volueris facere astrolabium, fac tabulam planam .../... erit recte perfectum.

41 Las traducciones orientales, Madrid, I942, pp. 322-27. The MS. is without figures, for which blank spaces have been left. At p. 326 MillAs says, Desde aqui solo transcribimos los pasajes m.ts seguros e intere- santes.


126 LYNN THORNDIKE

2v a figure Posito limbo auxiliante deo tractemus de almucantarach (325, 9)

3r Si perfectum componere vis astrolabium, divide (325, 28?) no figure 3v Nunc autem ad inceptum opus reddamus (325, 36) no figure 4r a smaller leaf inserted is occupied by a figure 4V blank 5r Invento autem emisperi circulo no figure 5v a figure 6r Expleto auxiliante deo almucantarach opere tractemus de azemuch 6v Hiis omnibus diligenter assignatis

Peractis azimuch (326, 34) 7r a smaller insert with a figure 7v blank 8r a figure

Constitutis horis si voluerimus facere (327, 1) Quo peracto faciamus rethe (327, 9)

8v A space left for a figure has not been filled in Post rethis tractatum

9r and Ior are inserts occupied by figures I r space left for a figure

Divisis signis describamus stellas fixas I Iv Two spaces left for figures

Et erit caput Capricorni almuri (327, 34)42 I2r A somewhat larger insert figure 13r Cumque divisis(?) circulus signorum

space left for a figure Peracto rethis sermone sequitur opus dorsi astrolabii

13v Figure of astrolabe with revolving pointer 14r Expletis istis cum volueris facere quadrantem umbre

Space left for figure Peracto hoc incipiamus operari regulam Et scito quod armille At bottom of page a figure of regula

x4'v Gum volueris constituere horas in regula Item aliud opus quod extractum

15r one figure revolving over another Accipe de circulo Arietis

I5v Maximum trium circulorum in I2 partire Hoc modo zodiaco perfecto

I6r The lower half of the page is occupied by a list of stars with the longitude and latitude of each, and the sign of the zodiac to which it belongs

i6v Postquam suspenditur astrolabium ad capiendam altitudinem 17r Cum volueris scire in quo signo sit sol

Etiam huius est ut equas solem Gum volueris scire altitudinem solis Cum volueris hoc scire

Such paragraphs become short and numerous, and figures cease, during the remainder of the treatise. At fol. 25v it has a cryptic ending, which, however, suggests a date too early for John of Seville:

Et scito quod Ianuario qui erit in anno 414 est ipse introitus wo23 anni ex annis Christi et intrabitur I023 annis ex annis Christi quarta die io mensis Xavel per notam que est mensis decimus ex mensibus Arabum intrabit annis i036 io die undecimi mensis.

(21) The next work in BN 7293A, at fols. 26r-46V, is the Theorica planetarum of Campanus of Novara: Primus philosophie magister . . . / . . . de mercurio super docuimus. Explicit

42 Three lines later the text as published by MillAs breaks off.


NOTES ON MANUSCRIPTS OF THE BIBLIOTHtQUE NATIONALE I27 liber Campani de equacionibus planetarum etc. It is followed by a figure on 47r, while 47v is blank.

Last, at fols. 48r-69r, is the Summa astrologie ascribed to brother John of the Order of Minorites or Franciscans, where it opens and closes:

In nomine domini amen. In hoc tractatu brevi et utili dicetur primo de concordia et adequacione annorum videlicet et ebreorum et arabum et aliorum. Secundum de disposicione et motibus orbium celestium. Tercio de inventione et adequacione planetarum et locorum suorum et in eodem de effectu et influentia eorum. Capitulum primum de annis Christi vel latinorum. De annis igitur Christi vel latinorum quia maxime sunt noti primo dicamus . . . / . . . Quare autem aliqui astrologi distinguere docent 28 domos lune et capiti drachonis et caude assignant influencias que non sunt nisi puncta ymaginabilia nichil habencia probabilitatis. Explicit summa astrologie edita per fratrem lohannem de ordine Minorum.43

From the foregoing prospectus of the three parts of the work and from the following table of their chapters it is seen that it is primarily astronomical and only towards its close deals with the influence of the stars, nativities, astrological medicine, and weather prediction.

I, i De annis Christi vel latinorum 2 De pascha (pascate in Vienna 5309) 3 De annis ludeorum 4 De lunatione 5 De tabulis lunationum 6 De annis arabum et aliorum

7 De tabulis annorum II, 2 De spera et circulis

3 De motibus orbium 4 De propriis motibus 5 De quantitate terre et omnium orbium 6 De ortu et occasu signorum 7 De climatibus 8 De aspectibus et eclipsibus

III, I De aliquibus nominibus 2 De equationibus planetarum 3 De documentis necessariis 4 De notitia stellarum 5 De influentia 6 De propria natura et influentia stellarum 7 De naturis signorum et eorum diversitatibus 8 De fatis et nativitatibus

9 De temporibus et infirmitatibus Io De pronosticatione infirmi I IDe prescientia aeris"

A somewhat similar work by a Dominican was the Summa de astris of Gerard da Feltre or de Silteo, also in three books.

BN 7307

(22) BN 7307 perhaps dates from the early I3th century. On the inside of the fly-leaf is written:

43 In another MS., Vienna 5309, I5th century, fols. 127ra-x55v, where it is followed by Albertus Magnus, De natura locorum, Summa Alberti is written as a running head in the top margins of the rectos of the leaves as far as 135r, while in the top margin of 14or is written, Albertus de quantitate terre et orbium celestium.

** I have used Vienna 5309 for the chapter headings

of Books II and III, which are sometimes more loosely expressed in BN 7293A, for example: 66v, Nunc vero agendus de constellationibus nativitatum et fatorum; 67r, Postquam ergo orbes celestes n disponunt humana fata, videamus quomodo corpora; 67v, Et nunc etiam agemus secundum hoc de pronosticatione in infirmitatibus; 68v, Ultimo addemus unum capitulum de aeris pronosticatione.

9


128 LYNN THORNDIKE

Vide hic ut sint diversi

autores genethliatici Almansor Messehalach Albumasar

In the long-hand catalogue drawn up by Mabillon and his associates, when the number of the manuscript was 5466, its contents are given as:

fol. I- Centiloquium, Dixerunt Ptolemaeus et Hermes... 18- Capitula ad Almansorem Signorum dispositio est... 22- Messahala ex versione Joan. Hispalensis. Omnes concordati sunt... 36- Albumasar de revolutione annorum

In the printed Catalogue of 1744 five treatises are listed:

i Expositio in centiloquium Ptolemaei authore Haly 2 Capitula stellarum, sive de nativitatibus, ad Almanzorem: modo ipsi Almanzori

tanquam authori tribuuntur, modo cuidam astrologo filio Abenezrae 3 Messahallach liber de electionibus: interprete Joanne Hispalensi 4 Eiusdem Messahallach epistola in rebus eclipsis lunae et in conjunnctionibus plane-

tarum ac revolutionibus annorum, breviter elucidata a Joanne Hispalensi 5 Albumasar liber de annorum revolutione.

Actually the commentary of Haly on the Centiloquium begins only at the bottom of fol. Ivb, where we find the incipit, Dixit Ptholomeus, lam scripsi tibi lesure libros . . . The incipit, *Dixerunt Ptolemeus et Hermes... at Ira is similar to that of a brief tract, De infusione spermatis, which has been ascribed to Andal6 di Negro,45 and is followed at Irb-vb by the tract on nine varieties of comets which is incorrectly ascribed to Ptolemy, and which here opens: Tolomeus dixit quod stelle cum cauda sunt novem. Prima veru, secunda tenaculla . . .

The former tract is here, and likewise in BN 7443, fols. I38V- I39r, without title. But in BN 7316, fol. I45r, it is called, De hora conceptionis et nativitatis; and in Madrid Ioo15, fol. 19v, is entitled, De infusioni (sic) spermatis et nativitatis.*4 This last-named manuscript, like BN 7307, is of the thirteenth century, and therefore our text can hardly be by Andal6, most of whose life lay in the fourteenth century. Anyway, it is not the same text as that to which Boncompagni called attention, although it treats of the same subject in a similar vein. Even in the incipits there is a notable difference. In the four manuscripts of our tract which

have just been mentioned, it opens, *Dixerunt Ptholomeus et Hermes quod locus lune. ..7 In Boncompagni's three manuscripts the incipit was Ester (or, Hester) Ptholomeus et Hermes dixerunt... or, Dixerunt Hester Ptholomeus et Hermes . . .48 Of this Ester or Hester there is no mention in our four manuscripts, whereas in Boncompagni's three manuscripts the views of Ester Catayus or Hester Catynius, varying from those of Ptolemy and Hermes, were expounded at some length. Even before this was done, the wording and order of the two texts were divergent, although both dealt with the problem of the duration of the period of gestation. Our briefer text also broaches the subject of the so-called Trutina of Hermes, although it does not apply that term to it, according to which the place of the moon at the moment of conception becomes the ascendent at the time of birth. On this the tract ascribed to Andal6 is silent. While our text says nothing of the divergent opinion of Ester or Hester as to the period of gestation, it does state that a master Abraham (Bendeur, in BN 7307;

" Boncompagni's Bullettino di Bibliografia e di Storia delle Scienze Matematiche e Fisiche, VII (1874), 360-62.

4I MillAs Vallicrosa, Las traducciones orientales en los manuscritos de la Biblioteca Catedral de Toledo, Madrid, 1942, p. 154. It is there similarly followed by Ptolomeus dixit quod stelle cum caudis sunt . . .

47 In three other MSS. the incipit is, Dixit Ptolomeus et Hermes quod locus lune (or, lune locus) . . .: Erfurt, Amplon. F. 379, 14th century, fol. 99; Venice, S. Marco, fondo antico 344 (Valentinelli XI, 104),

fol. I55; Princeton, Robert Garrett 95, early I5th century, fol. 137r. In the first two of these MSS. it occurs, as in BN 7307, in juxtaposition with the commentary of Haly on the Centiloquium-apparently in the Erfurt MS. at its close rather than before it-and has not been distinguished from it by Schum and Valentinelli in their catalogues.

48 This other text I am publishing in Isis in an article on Astronomical, Astrological and Mathematical Manuscripts at the Vatican: 47, 1956, 395-97.


NOTES ON MANUSCRIPTS OF THE BIBLIOTHIQUE NATIONALE 129 isbendeuth, in BN 7316; et Ibendeut, in Madrid Iooi5) did not fully accept the aforesaid Trutina of Hermes. A transcription of the text follows.

(23) Dixerunt Ptholomeus et Hermes quod locus lune in hora qua infunditur sperma est gradus ascendentis nativitatis. Et in loco qui erat gradus ascendentis in hora infusionis spermatis erit luna in nativitate.49 Hoc querendum est de quo loco intendat, utrum de loco signorum zodiaci an de loco domorum immobilium.50 Et quando orbes perfecti fuerunt, debet esse in gradu ascendentis in nativitate. Ac si diceret quod ascendens infusionis spermatis est ascendens nativitatis circuli, cum perfecti fuerint. Et cum sic fuerit, erit mora nati in ventre matris media, que constat ex 273 diebus. Et si luna in gradu occidentis fuerit, sciemus quod circuli perfecti non fuerint, et erit mora minor que constat ex 258. Et si fuerit inter occidentem et orientem, sciemus quod plus erit quam mora minor et nondum(?) sciemus si fuerit maior media vel minor ea quod sic sciemus. Si viderimus lunam euntem ab occidente in orientem, sciemus quod tendit ad mediam moram; quod si econtra, sciemus quod media mora maior est. Et si fuerit minus per unum gradum ante gradum occidentis, erit mora maior quia (que?) constat ex 288 diebus. Ubi erit maior dubitatio, si invenerim lunam in uno gradu ante gradum occidentis. Si enim in uno gradu erraverim, erit error 30 dierum. Et docebimus qualiter emendandum hoc totum.

Aspice lunam in hora nativitatis, si fuerit super terram in loco qui est ab occidente morientem (movens?). Aspice gradus quos ibi inveneris ab occidente usque ad gradum lune et duplica cos et divide per 24, que sunt hore dei, et quot exierint erunt dies, et quot reman- serint erunt hore. Adde istos dies et istas horas more minori, et quod collectum fuerit erit mora. Minue hanc horam ex hora nativitatis et cave te ab errato(?), et cum eo quod ex ea remanxerit equa lunam, et ubi tunc eam inveneris erit ascensus nati. Et si luna sub terra fuerit iens ab oriente ad occidentem, accipe quantum fuerit a gradu ascendentis usque ad lunam ex gradibus et minutis, et operare sicut superius diximus, et adde medie more et totum minue ex ea, et cum eo quod remanserit equa lunam et ubi inveneris erit ascendens nativitatis.

Dixit magister Abraamis Bendeur, Gradus infusionis51 spermatis non erit ex toto lune locus in nativitate vel ipse erit oppositus. Et similiter erit de ascendente nati, id est, non erit locus lune in spermatis infusione, vel ipse erit aut ei oppositus, ex (et?) hoc expertus fuit multotiens.

Another Italian writer than Andalb di Negro in the first half of the fourteenth century to treat of the same matter was Jacopo de' Dondi, whose brief exposition of it occurs in a manuscript of the fifteenth century at the Bodleian Library, Oxford, Canon. misc. 436, fol. 48a-b, and, in a variant text, in Vienna 5208, fol. 43r.

4 In BN 7280, fols. 6Ir-73v, as was briefly noted in A History of Magic and Experimental Science, IV, ioo, a writer in the year 1409 rejected the second of these two assertions, while accepting the former. He states that he will show that the moon at the hour of birth

... non semper immo raro esse in ascendente conceptionis et per hoc reprobare operationes illorum qui per ipsam regulam operantur dando videlicet gradum lune in nativitate per ascendentem conceptionis et circa talem operationem ostendere multas inconvenientias et dissimilitudines quas ipsi sepius incurrunt.

He will set forth the natural way according to Ptolemy and Haly.

Dico igitur locum lune in conceptione semper ascendentem esse nativitatis.

He cites Guido Bonatti:

in suo libro de nativitatibus capitulo quinto de causatione morarum (in the edition of 15o6, fol. BB 3 r, Capitulum 6 de causatione natorum in uteris maternis, where a similar doctrine of 288, 273 and 258 days to that of our text is set forth).

Later (at fol. 68r) he says:

Profunditatem certe tante rei non solo tramite at- tingimus nec sola via inquiri potest. Non sufficiunt regule que secundum viam naturalem reperte sunt, cum creaturarum exitus, ut experientia docet et ipsi sapientes fatentur, a via sepius deviant naturali.

He lays stress upon the similitude and conformity of the horoscopes or figurae coeli for conception and nativity, and gives a particular example (at fol. 72r):

.. conceptionem ergo fuisse supponemus in punc- tuali meridie prima Martis presentis anni 1409 et lune in 220 Piscis

with birth occurring about noon on November 28. 50 BN 73V6 omits this sentence. 51 BN 7443, fol. 139r: Dixit magister Abraham,

Ascendens g. infusionis... 5 Zinner, Verzeichnis der astronomischen Hand-

schriften des deutschen Kulturgebietes, Munich, 1925, nos. 9542-955 , under the topic, Schwangerschafts- dauer, lists ten MSS. but without names of authors or incipits. I have photostats of the two texts of Jacopo de' Dondi.


130 LYNN THORNDIKE

(24) To illustrate the variations between manuscript and printed texts of Haly's commentary on the Centiloquium, I give below in parallel columns from BN 7307 and the edition of 1484, a passage towards the close of the work upon the effects produced in Egypt in times past by meteors and comets.53 In the edition of 1493 the text differs slightly from that of 1484.

BN 7307, fol. 17v Reminiscor quoniam in nocte 29o anni Arabum difuse sunt assahab

totum aera (sic) occupantes et extinti sunt homines duravit-

que plus 4 horis. Transato tempore modico venit siccitas magna et decrevit Nilus ad 14

crevitque precium et turbati sunt populi et terminatum est regnum Athalam regnum Egiptii.

Similiter in 400 anno Arabum diffusa in omni parte aeris et minutus est iterum Nilus

et venerunt ab oriente impug- nantibus eam Ex habentibus comam ascendit una cum multis crinibus

Et fuit

in angulo cum angulis profectionis et iunctionis in qua incepit regnum filiorum Albete Obiit ergo filius Habe9 an netur

In anno 92 ascendit habens comam et deambulaverit

duabus noctibus movebaturque in omni nocte motu sensibili.54 Intravit filius Alcholig post brevi (sic) tempus et prefuit Egypto et eius partibus. Accidit

tunc in Egylto quicquid dixerat Ptholomeus. Hoc est quod ego malui exponere in hoc libro et credo quod ydoneum est suis rationibus et perfecta eius expositio.

Edition of 1484

Reminiscor enim quoniam in nocte 290 anni Arabum diffuse sunt asub multe occupaveruntque aerem totum et extincti sunt homines duravitque plus 4 horis. Transacto non modico tempore eisudem anni immodicam sitim passi homines et pervenit Nilus Egyp- tii ad I3 cubitos. Et minuta est ad incommodum hominum quantitas 4 cubi- torum: crevitque precium annone et conturbati sunt populi turbatione vehementi et terminatum est regnum Ptholomei regis Egypti.

Similiter in anno 3oo00 Arabum diffuse sunt in omni parte aeris et minutus est iterum Nilus

et via aperta est super Egyptum ab occidente, id est, a terra Arabum per Heubaga et post hunc per claraamen. Accidit- que impedimentum magnum repugnantibus insurgentibus cum illis s. Egyptiis. Ex habentibus vero comam ascendit una habens crines scilicet Duauebai.

Egyptii passi sunt multum. Et fuit in angulo ex angulis coniunctionis in qua inceptum est regnum filiorum Abeq Obiit ergo Abe9 a Neqir

In anno vero 92 quedam ascendit habens comam et duravit xi noctibus

movebaturque omni nocte motu sensibili.

Intravit igitur filius Alchalig post hoc brevi tempore et prefuit Egypto et eius partibus. Acciditque tunc in Egyptum quicquid dixit Ptholomeus. Hoc est quod malui exponere ex libro. Et credo quod idoneus sit suis rationibus

et quod perfecta est eius expositio.

(25) In BN 7307 itself as well as in the catalogues of it, the Capitula are spoken of as addressed to Almansor rather than written by him: fols. I8r-2 iv, Signorum dispositio est ut dicam ab ariete sit initium . . . / . . . Expliciunt capitula ad Almansorem. Finito libro referamus

3 Steinschneider printed most of this passage in Zeitschrift f. Math. u. Physik, XII, I867, 38, from the printed edition, with variants suggested by the Hebrew translation in two Bodleian MSS. and a Leyden MS.

" See my Latin Treatises on Comets Between 1238

and I368 A.D., I950, p. 59, Cometa capillorum ap- paruit in anno 92... Cometa apparuerit in terris Egipti in anno 292 Arabum (p. 6o) et duravit per 3 noctes ambulando qualibet nocte ambulatione sensibili.


NOTES ON MANUSCRIPTS OF THE BIBLIOTHLQUE NATIONALE 131 gratiam Christo. But in the Speculum astronomiae, cap. x, it is referred to as liber centum verborum Almansoris, and many manuscripts represent Almansor as the author.55 This favourite set of astrological Dicta had been translated by Plato of Tivoli at Barcelona in I 136, exists in many manuscripts, and ran through at least nine printed editions. In some manuscripts the Capitula are called Aphorismi or Iudicia.

At folio 22r a later hand has written in the margin, liber Muschallach astronomi ex arabico versus per loannem Yspalensem, but the incipit, Omnes concordati sunt... is that of Zael (Sahl ben Bischr) De electionibus, and Messahalla is often cited in the course of the text, which ends at fol. 33v, . . . et non errabis in depositione regis, si deus voluerit. Fol. 33 bis recto is blank; on its verso opens the Epistola of Messahala.

The text by Albumasar at fols. 36r-52v is that which is usually called Experimenta, opening and closing:

Dixit Albumasar, Scito horam introitus solis . .. / . . . significat fortitudinem Arabum et petitionem in regno, si deus voluerit. Explicit liber de revolutionibus annorum mundi Albumaser (sic). Deo gratias.

Another text then begins, *Motus octave spere currit annuatim 30 secunda et 50 tertia.. On fol. 53r a second paragraph starts, *Cum motus accessionis et recessionis 8 circuli exami- nare volueris . . . and ends, as does the whole manuscript, . . . adde vel minue a locis planetarum et stellarum fixarum sicut prenotatum est.

BN 73x6

(26) BN 7316 is a paper manuscript of quarto size of the fifteenth century. The Intro- ductorium maius of Albumasar in the translation by John of Seville at fols. Ir-76r, and Messahalla on revolutions of years of the world at fols. 76v-8ov, are followed at fols. 8ov-82r by De significationibus planetarum secundum quod fuerunt in duodecim domibus, here anonymous, but in other manuscripts and by the Speculum astronomiae assigned to Gergis or Iergis.56

(27) At fol. 84r-v occurs a brief discussion of comets, for which four other manuscripts are listed in A Catalogue of Incipits. The first part of this text runs as follows:

Cometa est vapor terreus habens partes grossas fortiter coniacentes ascendens ad superiorem partem aeris, effectus regnorum et aliarum magnarum rerum alterationes significans in hoc mundo. Quos alii dicunt fieri ex complectione duorum planetarum. Alii ex adherentia vaporis cum lumine planete vel stelle. Iohannes Damascenus dicit cometas a deo fieri ad significandum mortes regum et dissolvi per deum.

Comete sunt 9. Primus est Saturni et est niger vel ceruleus et cum apparet significat mortalitatem et famem. Duo sequentes sunt lovis, Argentum et Rosa. Argentum habet radium pulcerimum ad modum argenti purissimi quod non potest aspici, et cum apparet, significat annos fertiles, et magis si lupiter tunc fuerit in signo aquatico. Rosa est magna et munda et habet faciem ad modum hominis et color eius est ut argenti in auro com- mixti, et apparens significat mortem regum et divitum, et mutabuntur res mundi et nove erunt meliores. Martis sunt quatuor, Veru Pertica Tenacula Mata rubea . . .

After associating Miles with Venus and Dominus Ascone with Mercury, the treatise goes on to consider what will happen, if a comet appears in the ascendent of the nativity, if in equi- distantiam Arietis, and so on for each of the remaining eleven signs.

Albumasar on conjunctions at fols. 85r-132v, is followed at fols. 133r-I40r by what is called his revolutions or Flores. It has the usual incipit of the latter and the colophon, Finit liber Florum Albumazar sub laude dei et eius adiutorio. The Experiments of Albumasar are said to follow it (quem succedit liber experimentorum eiusdem Albumazar) but blank

55 For example, Digby 5I at the Bodleian, Oxford, i 3th century, fols. I131r.- I33v, Capitula stellarum oblata regi magno Sarracenorum a Mansor astrologo filio Abrae Judei, a Tiburtino Platone translata.

5" The incipit, Sol cum fuerit in ascendente... is

given correctly in MSS. of Speculum astronomiae, incorrectly as Sol consurgit in ascendente. .. by Borgnet, B. Alberti Magni Opera omnia, X, 1891, 639. For a copy of it in the old catalogue of the Coll6ge de Sor- bonne: Delisle, Le Cabinet des manuscrits, III, 89a.


132 LYNN THORNDIKE

leaves extend through fol. I44v, after which at fol. 145r is the passage ascribed to Ptolemy on nine types of comets. Also at I45r is De hora conceptionis et nativitatis of which we have treated in connection with BN 7307. On 145v Incipiunt aggregationes abreviate super libros iudiciorum astrologie, opening, Scientia astrorum dividitur in duo.. ..57

(28) Astrological treatises are often listed in catalogues of manuscripts without more definite indication of their authorship than the single name, Haly. Similar citations are encountered in the manuscripts themselves, leaving the student and reader to determine for himself as best he may whether the allusion be to Haly Abenragel (alias, Albohazen or Albohali) or to Haly ibn Ridwan (also, Haly Heben Rodan), or perchance to 'Ali ibn Ahmad al-'Imrani, not to mention Haly Abbas, who was more of a medical writer. Very likely they all wrote on astrological elections, but the treatment which occurs most frequently in extant Latin manuscripts is that of 'Ali ibn Ahmad al-'Imrani in the translation by Plato of Tivoli and Savasorda (alias Abraham bar Hiyya or ben Chija).58 But there seems to be another translation by John of Seville.59 In BN 7316, at fol. 148r, Flores Hali in libro de electionibus horarum have yet a third incipit, Si conceptus hominum noverimus...

At fols. 150v-I 52v, instead of Capitula are Verba iudiciorum Mansores astrologi. . . At the close, however, we read as usual:

Perfectus est liber capitulorum Mansoris... translatus de arabico in latinum a Platone Tiburtino quem deus exaltet in civitate Barcinonia anno Arabum 530, 28 die mensis Dulkida, sole in Virgine, luna in Ariete 151 I6'. Explicit liber Mansoris capitulorum iudiciorum astrologie.

They are numbered up to 155. At fols. I52v- I54r is Stephen of Messina's translation for Manfred of the Centiloquium

attributed to Hermes.

We pass over the Centiloquium ascribed to Ptolemy, the commentary thereon of Haly (ibn Ridwan), and other Arabic astrology, including an extract from the translation by Hugo Sanctallensis of Albumasar, Liber imbrium, at fol. 167.60

(29) At fols. I82r-I84r come the Precepts of Zael, or, as entitled here and in the edition of Venice, 1493, Incipiunt precipua iudicia extracta de libro Zaelis Israelite et sunt 50, opening, Scito quod significatrix id est luna . . . A Catalogue of Incipits suggests Quadraginta aphorismi as an alternative title, but in most manuscripts, in Speculum astronomiae, and in the edition of 1493, fol. i26ra, the number is stated as fifty.6e

At fol. 184r-v: Expliciunt 50 iudicia. Sequitur secundum capitulum Zaelis de inventione significatoris cuiuslibet rerum. Incipit, *Scito quod invenimus unicuique interrogationi seu rey quesite significatorem...

At fols. I84v-I86v, Incipit recapitulatio totius libri Abluali (Albohali?) Alcaytet de locis planetarum. Astronomical Tables follow through fol. I89gv.

At fols. 190r-I 99r, Liber abbreviatus per Fratrem Hugolinum de Faventia ordinis sancti Augustini qui ea tantum excerpsit quae ad astrologiam judiciariam pertinebant, opening, Omissis multis que spectant ad philosophiam naturalem que in libro Guidonis Bonafors ponuntur... Sample headings are:

fol. 19ov De dominio signorum super corpora humana et super regiones et figuris hominum et karacteribus

5 BN 7316 is not listed in A Catalogue of Incipits, which cites four other MSS.

18 The Latin text has been printed by MillAs Valli- crosa, Traducciones orientales, 1942, pp. 328-39, from Madrid Iooo9, fols. 23va-27v, MSS. are listed by Steinschneider, Zeitschrift f. Math. u. Physik, XII, 1867, 22-25; A Catalogue of Incipits, col. 631, under the incipit, Rogasti me carissime. . . and 471, Opera ludiciorum... Some others are Vatic. Palat. lat.

1369, fols. Ioor-I11v, and Florence, Nazionale, Cony. soppr. J. X. 20, c. 1400, fols. 19r.-36v.

1 Vienna 3124, x5th century, fols. 13r-15r, Haly,

Regule in electionibus, translated by John of Seville, A.D. 1142 (date of Plato's translation, 1134, see Haskins, Studies in Medieval Science, 1924, p. I I, n. 30), opening, *Volens horam sanguinis minuendi eligere... is probably only an extract.

60 Noted by Haskins, Studies in Medieval Science, 1924, p. 77, note 41.

61 To MSS. listed in A Catalogue of Incipits may be added: Madrid Ioo63, 13th century, fol. 33vb; Vatic. Palat. lat. I445, I15th century, fols. 161iv-i64v, where the number of Precepts is given as "70 or 5o"; Erfurt, Amplon. Duodecimo I8, 14th century, fols. 53r-58v.


NOTES ON MANUSCRIPTS OF THE BIBLIOTHLQUE NATIONALE 133 19Ir De planetis quam partem corporis habeant i9Iv De signis per aspectum ad planetas omnes I92r De capite et cauda draconis

It seems unlikely that Guido Bonafors may be identified with Guido Bonatti, albeit Faenza and Forli are not far apart.

BN 73x6A

(30) BN 7316A is a large double-columned folio volume, each column measuring about ten by three inches, with 36 lines to the column written in large letters so that there are only four or five words to a line. The printed catalogue of I744, which gives only nine items of the contents, dates it of the fourteenth century, and it includes a translation by Peter of Abano which he made in 1293, and which is in the same hand as most of the other treatises composing the manuscript.

After the Flores of Albumasar at fols. Ira-18rb, and the rudiments of astronomy by Alfraganus at fols. 19ra-45ra, a text at fols. 45ra-47rb is introduced by the rubric, Tractatus pluviarum et aeris mutationis secundum magistrum lohannem Yspalensem, and opens, *Volens aeris scire naturam in annis singulis . . . It presently treats of the twenty-eight mansions of the moon and cites the Indi concerning these.62 It may be an extract from John of Seville's Epitome of the Art of Astrology, of which the full text occurs in BN 7321, fols. 122ra-154vb, and in BN 7338, fols. Ira-42va.

At fols. 47rb-5ora is a treatise, here anonymous, whose rubric, In nomine dei eterni patris et Ihesu Christi filii eius et utriusque spiritus almi incipit Centiloquium Bereni, and incipit, Nunc inchoabo librum de consuetudinibus in iudiciis stellarum; scias quod quando planete sunt retrogradi sunt ut vir sollicitus stupefactus . .. show it to be Peter of Abano's translation of De consuetudinibus by Abraham Avenezra.63

On fol. 50ra an anonymous tract opens, *Cum prima facie Arietis ascendit forma hominis nigri involuti in rase albo... and continues in like fashion for all 36 facies of the twelve signs, ending with Pisces on 50rb.

In the top margin of 50r is written, Tholomeus de diebus creticis, and in the middle of 5orb the corresponding text opens, *De creticis diebus in continuis febribus et acutis iuxta Ptolomeum secundum quod lune status invenerit certificemus. Ptolemy is again cited at

50va, Iuxta ergo Ptolomeum vera critica dies est prima, 7, 14, 20, 21. At 5Ira the text seems to end, ... Quia si eundo obviat malignis vel fixis que dicuntur puthei, scentiet eger passionis detrimentum.

At fols. 5Ira-52vb, what at first glance seems to be an unfamiliar translation into Latin by John of Seville of a tract on weather prediction by Messahala opens, Si vis scire quid accidat mundo de ventis et pluviis et cetera. Dixit Messehalla, Constitue ascendens hora introitus solis in ipsum initium Arietis... However, the chapter headings which follow at fols. 5Irb, 51va, 5Ivb, 52ra, 52rb, and 52va, are identical with those of the sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh and twelfth of the Epistola of Messahala, and the work has a similar ending.

Then comes the rubric, De his stellis hoc modo continetur in tractatu magistri lohannis Yspalensis; incipit, *In Ariete est unum de syderibus primi honoris. Est ibi hodierno tempore I146 annorum Christi complectorum 150 36' latitudo syderis eius 190 20' in latere dextro. Hoc quoque vocatur extremitas annis (sic) est temperamentum a love et Venere... : and so on, one star for each sign of the zodiac, ending at the top of fol. 53rb. This may be another extract from John of Seville's Epitome of the Art of Astrology.

(31) The Capitula stellarum of or to Almansor, at fols. 53rb-57vb, number I5064 and are accompanied by the following marginal note:

62 Each mansion includes twelve degrees and six- sevenths of a degree. It also tells how the Indi divide each sign of the zodiac into twelve parts of two and a half degrees each.

63 This MS. should be added to those listed in Isis 35, 1944, 299. Also Vatican Ottobon. lat. 1552, fols. 87V- 92r; Florence, Bibl. Naz. Centrale, MS. Cony. soppr.

J. III. 28, late 14th century, fols. 77r-78r; Library of Congress, MS. 123, paper, a. 1456, fols. 68r-7 Ijr.

64 In the top margin of 53rb, Centum quinquaginta propositiones Almansoris. The problem of their authorship was discussed at length by Steinschneider, Zeitschrift f. Math. u. Physik, XII, 1867, 26-37.


134 LYNN THORNDIKE

Nota quod iste Almansor fuit ille solertissimus medicus quem nos habemus in lingua latina. Fuit Arabs de Arabia Felice et vixit annis I2o. Studuit usque ad annum 4o0m, postmodum practicavit in medicinis annis 8o, qui fuerunt finis vite sue, et fuit optimus astrologus.

The writer of this note has confused the ruler to whom Rasis addressed his medical work, Ad Almansorem or Nonus ad Almansorem, with the ruler to whom the Capitula were addressed or the astrologer by whom they were composed. In this manuscript the rubric for the work is, Incipit capitulum Almansoris. The title is: Capitula stellarum oblata regi magno Saracenorum Almansor astrologo filio Abre Iudei a Tiburtine Platone translata. The incipit is as usual, Signorum dispositio ut dicam ab Ariete sit initium . . . The colophon reads: Perfectus est liber capitulorum Almansori cum dei auxilio translatus de arabico in latinum a Platone Tiburtino quem deus exaltet in civitate Varchinonies anno Arabum 530 octava decima die mensis Dulchida sole in Virgine 150 et luna in Ariete 15 6'. It may be noted in this connection that while there is general agreement as to the Arabic date of Plato of Tivoli's translation, this is not the case when we come to the position of sun and moon. Some manuscripts do not give it; BN 7307, as we saw, gave no degree for Virgo. The Venetian editions of 1493 (really 1484) and 1519 have sole in Virgine i.5, luna in Ariete .15.16. Schum, in cataloguing Erfurt, Amplon. F. 394, early fourteenth century, fols. 85v-87r, has sol. in Virgine in 5' gradu, luna in Ariete 15 gr. I6 min. In 5' and i.5 would seem to be mis- readings of 150, since there is no corresponding in after Ariete.

At fol. 58rb the incipit, Rogatus fui ut manifestarem conscilia philosophorum. . . is that of a work by Alkindi on weather prediction. The writer often speaks in the first person, but we also encounter such passages as

64rb Quapropter dixit Alkindus 65ra De crinitis autem dixit Alkindi quod significant siccitatem. Dico autem quod

nigredo et tenebra significant siccitatem fortem et ventos 65rb Dixit Alkindi quod mansiones lune 65rb Et dixit Alkindi quod planete generantes pluvia sunt Venus Mercurius Lunae65

The eighth and last chapter begins at fol. 67ra. At 68ra, Modus alius Mesehalla de aeribus. Inspice in revolutione anni ad a. (ascendens?) et ad angulos et loca planetarum et transitus suos...66 At 68rb opens, with an illuminated initial letter, *Cum substantia Veneris sit pluvialis, Lune vero aquatica... At 69va this text ends, ... erit pluvia durans et aer tene- brosus nec erit in eo motus nec vox. Similiter fac quando erit questio de pluvia et hoc sufficiat in hoc quod interrogasti.67 The translator from the Arabic is not mentioned here, but in BN 7440, fourteenth century, fol. 8v, is called Azogont or Azogone, usually identified with Drogo.

(32) After texts by Messahala at fols. 69va-7 Ivb.-88rb, Tables fill most of the remaining leaves of BN 7316A.

89r-I I Ir Tables of sines 11 1v- I 14r Tables of multiplication and division I14v- Table of the declination of the sun I I6v Tabula ad sciendum altitudinem cuiusvis gradus in qualibet villa seu regione

Tabula ad sciendum arcum diei cuiuslibet gradus in civitate Yspalensi 1 17- I 18r Tabula ascensionum circuli recti 118v-I 9r Tabula ascensionum signorum supra urbem Toleti

(Similar Tables for Valladolid, Seville, Cordova and Murcia follow at 1i19v, I20, I12Iv, I22r)

65 Similar citations of Alkindi are found in the edition of 1507, Venice, by Petrus Liechtenstein on the verso of the leaf with the signature b, one in its first, the other in its second column, where we also find, in mansionibus quas nominavi.. . pre paucitate me- morie Alkindi.

66 This passage is found in the 1507 edition at fol. b

3vb, while on (b 4)v& we read, Dixit lacob filius Al- kindi, Quando luna intrat Aquarium aut Scorpionem aut Capricornum in hora Saturni...

67 The text in the edition of 1507 ends similarly at fol. (b 4)vb, followed by the words, Explicit Alkindus de Pluuiis etc.


NOTES ON MANUSCRIPTS OF THE BIBLIOTHLQUE NATIONALE 135 122v-i125r Tables of equal hours for the same five cities 125v Tables for lunar eclipses

On fols. I 17v- I28r the Tables are surrounded on three sides by text which opens and closes: *Tempus coniunctionis lovis et Saturni vel quorumlibet aliorum planetarum invenire... /... secundum doctrinam canonis magistri mei magistri lohannis de Lineriis. Expliciunt canones tabularum (de primo mobili is inserted in a later hand) illustrissimi principis Alfonsi olim regis Castelle. Intervening paragraphs open as follows:

I I8r Iste est modus operandi cum ambo planete quorum coniunctionem querimus sunt directi...

I I8'v Loca stellarum fixarum ad quodque tempus volueris invenire... I 19v Coniunctionem cuiuslibet planete cum quocumque volueris stellarum fixarum in-

venire . . .

I2or Eclipsim solis quantitatem et durationem per tabulas invenire... I21v His visis ad opus diversitas aspectus accedamus... I25r His visis ad quantitatem et durationem eclipsis accedamus... I25'v Eclypsim lune quantitatem et etiam durationem per tabulas invenire...

The mention in the foregoing explicit of John de Lineriis as my master suggests that John of Saxony may be the author of the Canons in the margins, but the incipit is unfamiliar. The Canons may be extracts from his, or may be by a Hermann whose name is associated with John de Lineriis and who seems identifiable with Hermannus Stilus de Norchem who composed a Practica motuum planetarum at Paris in 1355,68 and completed astronomical Tables there in 1359 and 1361.69

(33) At fols. 128v-I3or, Tables without enclosing text are given for 370, 380, 390 and 410 of latitude; at fols. 130'-131r for the latitude Morlani, stated as 420 59' (Morlas in Bas-Pyrn&ses is 430 21'),70 at fols. 131V-132r for the latitude of Cremona, given as 450 (actually 450 8'); at fols. I32'v-I35r, Tabula equalitatis domorum 12 supra urbem Toleti, etc.; fols. I35v-I38r, the same for Valladolid; at the bottom of fol. 138r, Expliciunt tabule Alfonsine de primo mobili. At fols. 138v-i39v are Tables in a more crowded arrangement with smaller digits, and an accompanying text opening, *Si equaccionis domorum celi per has tabulas... In the side margin of 139v is a Canon, Pro declaratione huius tabule, which opens, *Ad quantitatem diei ubivis agnoscendi... Fol. 140r-v is blank.

In the top margin of 14Ir is written, Incipiunt tabbule regis Alphonsi conplete et cor- rectissime; below the page is occupied by a table of eras. On the verso a marginal text begins, Numerum annorum mensium et dierum incipientium a principio alicuius ere note ad 4 3 2 et prima sine tabulis reducere . . .71 Near the bottom of the page we read, Numerum annorum mensium et dierum propositorum ad 4 3 2 et I per tabulas ad hoc factas reducere. Both passages are in the text by Hermannus Stilus mentioned in note 68. Some of the points which are subsequently considered are:

144v Notam anni vel mensis vel cuiusvis diei per tabulam ad hoc factam invenire 15 Ir Utrum eclypsis solis in aliqua coniunctione vel eclipsis lune in aliqua oppositione

sit possibilis invenire Modum corrigendi tabulas motuum equalium et ipsas faciendi de novo

68 Erfurt, Amplon. F. 386, 14th century, fols. 38rb- 47vb: incipit, Numerum annorum mensium et dierum a principio alicuius ere nobis note incipiendum ad 4a 3a 2a et ia reducere...; desinit,... et istius eclipsis figura in sequenti pagina est depicta etc. Ex- plicit practica motuum planetarum ordinata per Hermannum Stilum de Norchem Parisius anno Christi 1355 incompleto.

This item is not clearly distinguished in Schum's catalogue.

69 Humanisme et Renaissance, III, I936, I66-68. 70 In this connection may be quoted a passage from

the work of Armando Cortesao on the Nautical Chart

of 1424, Coimbra, 1954, p. 10 o: Though Cape Roca and Cape San Martin lie on the same parallel, the latter is placed much further north on the chart, as is the whole of the northeast coast of Spain; for instance, barzaluna (Barcelona) appears on the chart displaced 1? 50' to the north, which usually occurred in medieval charts of the Mediterranean, the northeastern distortion being due to the magnetic declination.

71 To the references in A Catalogue of Incipits add MS. Vatican Palat. lat. 1354, fol. 97ra.


136 LYNN THORNDIKE

At I63v the text accompanying the Tables ends, ... adde sicut dixi et proveniet tempus equatum pro gradu ascendente inveniendo. Expliciunt tabule Alfonsi de equationibus planetarum.

At I64ra, in a different hand from the preceding text and one more like that of the Tables, rubric, Canones qui secuntur ad operis profectionem sunt de latitudinibus planetarum; incipit, *Intra cum centro equato cuiusvis trium superiorum.. .;72 but the text ends at I64rb, unless two bits at the bottom of 17 iv and top of I72r belong with it. There are also marginal notes at I78v and I 79r. Otherwise fols. I64v-I 79r are occupied by Tables.

(34) Fol. I79v is divided into three columns; a Table of equation of solar years occupies the first column, while in the other two are instructions as to its use, opening, Celi enarrant gloriam dei et opera manuum eius ennunciat firmamentum73 sitque nomen domini benedictum qui mihi servo suo per suum angelum lucis secreta siderum revelavit . . . These instructions seem to end at the bottom of the third column: ... Benedictus deus qui de hoc nos voluit advertere cum sui laude.

The same handwriting is found on fol. 18or but is now in two columns again and in the midst of a discussion of the relation between the time of conception (casus spermatis) and of birth. It appears to end before the bottom of the first column with the word, Explicit. But then follow a few more lines of text, and a much longer Explicit, running into the second column and informing us that this opuscule was translated March I I-I5, I334, in Seville by Master Alfonsus Dionysii, a cleric and physician of Alfonso IV of Portugal and his daughter Maria, queen of Castile and Leon. This Alfonsus appears at Paris in I330 as a bachelor of medicine on whom the chancellor conferred the licentiate against the advice of the faculty. He is found again at Paris as a master of arts and medicine and student of theology in 1342, and in I345 lectured on the Sentences and became master of theology.74 As the mention of him in BN 7316A seems not to have been noticed, I reproduce in toto the text on fol. I80ra-b.

... per I5 et exiens erunt hore et si fuerit luna tempore casus inter ascendens et septimam scilicet sub terra addas has horas super menses et dies horas et minuta tempore ad quod equastis solem et lunam et ad tempus proveniens equa iterum solem et lunam et quod provenit de vero loco lune est verus locus gradus ascendentis hora nativitatis. Et iste est verus locus sine dubio aliquo. Et si luna fuerit inter septimam et ascendens super terram, minue has horas predictas a tempore ad quod equastis solem et lunam et ad residuum equa iterum lunam et proveniens erit ascendens ad punctum nativitatis sine dubio. Et si volueris verificare plus horas nativitatis, respice differentiam inter ascendens nativitatis custodi et ascendens casus spermatis cum gradibus ascensionum equinoctialis et divide eam per gradus hore noctis illius vel diei illius nativitatis et quod provenerit erunt hore et respice si fuerit ascendens custodie aut ascendens verum. Addas has horas super horas nativitatis et, si fuerit post ascendens custodie, minue et quod provenerit de horis post additionem vel diminutionem erunt hore vere nativitatis sine aliquo dubio. Explicit.

Scias quod tabule more sunt edite ad ascensionem solis id est ad principium. Et si tabule nostre sunt ad meridiem succe (Lucce?) addas super horas remanentes post diminutionem

7 This incipit, not listed in A Catalogue of Incipits, occurs also in MS. Laud. Misc. 594 of the Bodleian, Oxford, z4th century, fols. 82-84, Tabula latitudinum trium superiorum planetarum cum canone.

7 This verse from the Bible, The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth forth his handiwork, was utilized in the incipits of other works, such as a commentary on the Sphere of Sacrobosco in MS. Arundel ziz, z5th century, fols. 183-(198) of the British Museum, and at Oxford, Hertford College 4, 15th century, fols. I 7-38; and a longer astrological text than this in BN 7316A, which follows the Amicus medicorum o'f Jean Ganivet in the editions of 1550, pp. 458-519, and x614, pp. 485-549. See A History of Magic and Experimental Science, IV, 139. It has the title, Opusculum Coeli enarrant, and opens, Coeli enarrant gloriam Dei. Triplici via et modo mirabili coeli enarrant gloriam Dei ..., BN 7338, fols. 43ra- 45ra, has the first four of its eleven chapters and defi-

nitely attributes it to Ganivet: Incipit tractatus astrologie venerabilis magistri Iohannis Caniveti. At fol. 45rb-va follow passages De caristiis et fertilitate according to Albumazar and Messahala.

See further the Introduction to Tables for Paris of 1232 in BN x5171, fol. 77rb, *Ad honorem omnipotentis dei cuius gloriam celi enarrant... followed by the Tables at fols. 78r-87v. Also the prediction of Bonetus de Latis for the year 1499-1500, printed at Rome, 1499, GW 4845.

Among the books of the astrologer, Symon de Phares, which were examined by the Faculty of Theology of the University of Paris in 1494, was one which opened, Coeli enarrant gloriam Dei... : Charles du Plessis d'Argentr6, Collectio judiciorum de novis erroribus, 1755, I, ii, 326b.

74 Chartularium Universitatis Parisiensis, II, 349-99, 558, 669; Wickersheimer, Dictionnaire biographique des M6decins en France au moyen age, Paris, z1936, p.2o.


NOTES ON MANUSCRIPTS OF THE BIBLIOTHLQUE NATIONALE 137 horarum de tempore nativitatis mediam diem de tempore casus spermatis et super hoc equa et extrahe ascendens ad tempus casus spermatis. Explicit hoc opusculum translatum et perfectum et correctum i15a die Marcii licet fuisset incoatum (18orb) I ia die anno domini 13340 apud civitatem Hyspalensem per Magistrum Alfonsum Dyonisii clericum et medicum illustrissimi principis domini Alfonsi regis Portugalie et filie sue domine Marie Castelle et Legionis regine. Et nota quod non curavit translator de ornatu verborum sed de proprietate verborum interpretis malens iuxta doctrinam et exemplum Boetii in De scholastica disciplina fide translatione deservire quam temeritatis arrogancia reprehendi. Explicit.

(35) Fols. I8ov-I85v are occupied exclusively by Tables. A few lines of text at the top of i86r open:

Per istam tabulam poteris scire locum augis cuiuslibet planete secundum intentionem Alfuntii ab annis I320 usque ad annos I530 completos...

On I86va the rubric, Canones, is followed by the incipit, *Sciendum primo quod horam vere coniunctionis possimus invenire precise... At fol. 187ra-va, comes a text which opens, *Cum volueris invenire tempus medie coniunctionis solis et lune... and closes, .. . tunc est coniunctio solis et lune sicut fuit in tempore predicto. The rest of that column is blank; then I87vb is occupied by the following Tabula regionum, giving the difference in time from the meridian of Naples in hours and minutes, and the gradus poli in degrees:

Hibernia I 52 59 Scotia I 12 59 Oxonium I 28 53 Conpostellum 2 16 55 Lysibona 2 16 41 Tolletum 2 o 41 Corduba 2 3 38 Cesaraugusta (Zaragoza) I 42 41 Rhothomagus (Rouen) I 19 50 Parisius I 6 48 Lumdinium (London) i 7 45 Burdigalia I 28 45 Avinio I 8 44 Tholosa I 19 43 Vienna Provincie (Vienne) i 6 44 Massilia I 4 43 Prugis (Bruges) I 12 52 Gandavium I o 52 Traniectum (Utrecht) o 48 53 Colonia Agrippina o 49 5I Machilinia 1 o 5I Maguncia o 51 50 Herbipolis (Wfirzburg) o 4o 50 Argentina (Strasburg) o 48 47 Costancia o 46 46 Augusta Vindelicorum o 26 46 Dacia o o 58 Suecia o 8 62 Lubeca o 20 56 Dantiscum o 2o 56 Prunsinga o 36 53 Magdeburgum o 20 54 Lips o 26 51 Ingelstadium o 32 49 Nuremberga o 36 49 Ratisbona o 3o 49


138 LYNN THORNDIKE

Ulma o 36 47 Praga o 12 50 Vratissania o 4 5' Cracovia o0 20o 51 Cascovia o0 20o 50 Buda o0 14 47 Segnia o 4 45 Vienna Pannonie o 21 48 Patavia o 26 48 Salzeburgum o 24 48 Indeburgum o 22 47 Villacum o 23 46 Drissina o 28 45 Venecie o 26 45 Ancon o 12 44 Roma o 16 42 Tarentum o 8 40 Brundisium o 4 39 Neapolis o o 41 Florencia o 36 43 Taurinum o 38 43 Genua o 40 43 Sardinia o 34 38 Sicilia o 6 37

If we compare this table with one in a Milan manuscript, Ambros. C. Inf. 2782, fol. 12v, giving longitude and latitude of 63 insignia loca, we find that it includes all sixty places of our table (assuming that Drissina and Brixina, Indeburgum andJudenburgum, are identical), although in a different order, and that the latitudes are the same in both, except that Com- postella is 450 and Buda 490

BN 7321

(36) From BN 7321, fols. 122ra-154vb, we may note some of the divisions and headings of the Isagoge or Epitome of Astrology by John of Seville, to which we had occasion to refer in noting the contents of BN 7316A.

John first takes up the twelve signs, seven planets, situation of the twelve houses, aspects, conjunctions, velocity and tardiness of planets.

Fol. 127rb De directione graduum vel planetarum secundum diversas ascensiones 127vb De duplici modo aspectuum i28rb De partibus planetarum (i28va, of the houses) I28vb On the four parts of judicial astrology I29ra On great conjunctions (Here the first book begins) 129va De ianuis lune 130ra On eclipse of the sun 130rb De significationibus planetarum in annis et mensibus 130vb Sequitur de ymbribus, de pluviis S32ra De consideratione lune in revolutione anni mundi 132rb De mansionibus lune 132vb Explicit Prima pars de revolutione annorum mundi. Incipit 2 de nativitatibus 133ra is on finding the degree of the ascendent. John then takes up the astrological

houses, reaching the twelfth at I42ra i42rb Sequitur de revolutionibus annorum nativitatum 143va De directione graduum 146ra The third book or part on Interrogations begins 152va The fourth, on Elections 154vb The text ends.


NOTES ON MANUSCRIPTS OF THE BIBLIOTHEQUE NATIONALE I39

BN 733x (37) BN 7331 was written in the first instance for master Jehan Roussel.75 He presented it to King Charles VIII of France, who in turn gave it to a cleric on June 23, 1492.76 To the Latin texts which follow in the manuscript is prefixed a poem in French addressed to the king by Regnauld le Queux. Of its 25 quatrains one sample may be quoted:

Haymon kaliphus et Ptholome Almageste Hares et Hysmenin son disciple modeste Voire et Halim Syrus et Arath que proteste Sien grace et Hygumon Ceux la lart siens conteste.

The main work in this manuscript is further described on the inside of the front cover in a different hand, first as Albumazaris liber, Imaginum multarum liber, then as

Liber astrologie Georgii Zothori Zaparifenduli G. sacerdotis atque philosophi translatus de persica lingua in latinam.

Both of these legends are repeated in the titulus of the work itself at fol. 3ra:

In nomine domini pii et misericordissimi Incipit prologus viri cognomine Georgii Zothori Zapari Fenduli G. sacerdos (sic) atque philosophi translatus de persica lingua in latinam. liber Albumazaris.

and in the prologue which opens, *Cum Techni (Techin) venissem et more solito sidereos aspicerem motus... and concludes:

Tantum igitur hoc opus ex multis voluminibus collectum maxime ex libris Albumazar et Alyinsiro ac Maymonis kalisse confirmavi. Unde volo ut sit maxima pars ex Albu- masar Floribus. Hoc nostrum opus sciatis translatum a Persica lingua in latinam ac iudica industria emendatum.77

Thus the professed author admits that his text is largely taken from the Flores of Albumasar. Earlier in the prologue, which is in the usual style of pseudo-literature and supposititious

works, the writer tells us that, when he came to Cechin or Techin or Cethin or Cethim, as the name of the place is variously spelled in different manuscripts,78 he found the clear atmo- sphere favourable for star-gazing, but the codices of the Greeks and the volumes of our Latin predecessors unusable because of the many slips of copyists which had not been corrected.

"7 On the inside of the front board cover, Albu- mazaris liber, Imaginum multarum liber, Pour Maytre Jehan Roussel; fol. 2v, at the end of the poem to the king by Regnauld le Queux, Por M. I. Roussel; fol. 61vb (the last written leaf), hec de ventorum collateratione pro magistro Io. Roussel. His name also appears on the last leaf of BN 732I.

7 On the inside of the back cover:

Rex Karolus VIII dedit michi Parisius

23 lunii Anno domini 1492 cum aliis libris.

7" Fol. 3va. 78 At the British Museum, Sloane 3983, membrane,

14th century, fols. 1-49: In nomine domini pii et misericordissimi Incipit prologus viri cognomine Georgii Zothori Zapari Fenduli G. sacerdotis et philosophi translatus de Persica lingua in latinum, liber Albumazaris; incipit, Cum Cechin venissem et more solito sidereos adspicerem motus... Text incipit, Inter omnes antique auctoritatis viros...

At the Morgan Library, New York, MS. 785, A.D. 1393-1403, 52 fols., was written for Lubertus Hauts- child, abbot of the Augustinians of Saint Bartholomew of the Eeckout at Bruges, who was responsible for the pictures with which it, like other copies, is illustrated (52v, Libertus (sic) abbas Brugensis predictas ymagines atque signas ordinavit) and who in 1403 presented the

volume to the Duc de Berri. By 1790o it was in the possession of Le baron de Joursanvault, who concocted a new title-page for it:

Astrologiae liber Georgii Zothori Zapari Fenduli Gci sacerdotis atque phisici ex Albumazari codicibus Maymonis Regis Calistae tabulis de Chaldaeo in latinum versis multisque aliis voluminibus antea in- correctis decerptus, de persica lingua in latinam a supradicto Georgio translatus, tandemque ab Auberto Brugensi abbate figuris ac imaginibus adornatus.

H. Silvestre, in Scriptorium, V, 1951, 153b, has corrected the description of No. 1465 in Catalogue des manuscrits de la bibliothbque royale des dues de Bour- gogne, I, 1842, 30, to read:

Inter omnes antiquos auctoritates... Brux. 1465, s. 15, 86v, 86-94v; Prol. inc.: Cum Cethin venissem et more solito sydereos aspicerem... (86r).

BN 7344, fol. 23ra has the spelling, cethim. More than a century later, a Georgius Fondulus,

doctor of arts and medicine, exchanged letters, written in Italian from Pavia and Cremona in i5o6-1507, with Paulus Frisius as to the Arithmetic of Leonard of Cremona.


140 LYNN THORNDIKE

Finally he decided to go to Babylon to correct them. By divine providence after two years he came to Carobolyni and there translated the book of king Maymon and Calista of Babylon from Persian into Latin. Then he came to Damascus, where he found many persons skilled in the art and translated the Tables of Maymon from Chaldean into Latin and emended the book of degrees and also Albumazar, whose text he had in a very corrupt state, and located 1,029 stars which he afterwards depicted, as the present volume bears witness.

Whether this prologue be truth or fiction, the question as to the authorship and proven- ance of the text is of slight import, for the ensuing work is primarily a picture book. A page of text on each sign and planet is followed by four pages of pictures, first of the sign and then of the stars in it, while there are usually four pictures for each planet, but only two for luna. The first picture of Mercury is of a bearded scholar wearing spectacles. In each case the last picture shows the planet in decline, usually tumbling head first but less so in the cases of Venus and Mercury. The accompanying text opened, Inter omnes antique autoritatis viros qui Ptholomeo principe... and closed on fol. 55v, after the two pictures for Luna at fols. 54v-55r.

The work of Georgius Zothorus Zapari was among the eleven volumes condemned to be burned by the Faculty of Theology of the University of Paris on February 19, 1494, out of all those in the library of the astrologer, Symon de Phares.79 Their condemnation of it was expressed in these terms:

Damnavimus igitur in primis volumen quotatum XX. in quo hi libri seu tractatus continentur. Primus incipit, Cum tecum (sic) venissem et more solito sidereos aspicerem motus etc. Alter, cuius titulus est: In nomine Domini pii et misericordissimi: incipit prologus: Viri cognomen Georgii Zothori Zapari... Sacerdotis atque Philosophi, translatus de Persica lingua in Latinam. Liber, Albumaza. Secundus Tractatus incipit: Cum in diversis Regionibus constiterit filios in finem, etc.80

Fols. 56r-59v are blank except for a full-page representation of a tower of winds on fol. 58V. Then at fol. 6or is a Figura celi pro tempore nativitatis domini nostri Ihesu Christi, with a text beneath, opening, *Albumasar in suo maiori Introductorio, tractatu sexto, differentia prima, in capitulo de ascensionibus ymaginum que ascendunt cum Virgine... and closing on fol. 6ov, ... Hec Albertus Magnus in libro suo qui dicitur Speculum.s1 This version of the passage from Albumasar, much cited as lending astrological support to the Virgin birth, is from the translation by John of Seville, but earlier, in the course of the work of Georgius Zothorus, at fols. 19va-2ov, the same passage had been quoted in the translation by Hermann of Carinthia. At fol. 6 Ira-vb, a quotation from the Etymologiae of Isidore of Seville on winds, with which the picture of the tower of winds at fol. 58v should presumably be associated, ends the manuscript.82

BN 7344

(38) BN 7344 is a double-columned folio of 36 leaves of the fifteenth century. Its contents were listed as follows, when it was numbered 4775, in the long-hand catalogue of manuscripts contained in BN 9359 and drawn up by Mabillon and his associates:

fol. i Liber astronomiae cum variis figuris, opening, Aquarius aquosus... (more fully, *Aquarius aquosus oritur in primo eius decano... )

23 Liber astrologiae Georgii Zothorii Zapri fenduli, opening, Inter omnes antiquae . . . 27 Fragmentum libri astron. per constellationes dispositi, opening, *Per modum

circuitus ..." The volume is primarily a picture book. The first page is only partly filled with text concerning Aquarius; fols. I-2' are occupied by figures, chiefly human. The text on fol. 3ra-b does

7 Concerning whom see A History of Magic and Experimental Science, IV (1934), 544-61.

80 Charles Du Plessis d'Argentr6, Collectio judiciorum de novis erroribus, I755, I, ii, 325b-326a. Whether Secundus Tractatus is meant to indicate Liber Albumazar or some other text in the MS. is not clear. I have not seen the incipit, Cum in diversis

regionibus... anywhere else. 81 Speculum astronomiae, cap. xii; B. Alberti Magni

Opera Omnia, ed. A. Borgnet, X, 644. 82 It closes: Hec de ventorum collateratione. Pro

magistro Io. Roussel. Fol. 62 and another unnumbered leaf which follows are blank.


NOTES ON MANUSCRIPTS OF THE BIBLIOTHLQUE NATIONALE 141 not continue that on Aquarius, being of a more general character concerning the risings and settings of the signs. I believe that it continues the text on present fol. 29vb, which opened on 29ra, with the caption, Incipit liber de ymaginibus celi signisque planetis, and the incipit, Philosophi quondam multis experimentis noverunt celum esse stellatum ordinabiliter . . .3 More text concerning Ursa, with a figure of the two Bears standing on the Serpent (Draco), occupies fol. 3vb. This column is continued by 4ra concerning Hercules with a picture of him and a lion. In 4rb are Corona and Serpentarius, with text as to those born under each. Boetes, Agitator, Zepheus (Cepheus) and Cassiopia are similarly treated in 4va, with their figures shown opposite in column 4vb.

On fol. 5a-b the text concerning Pisces parallels that about Aquarius on Ira-b, with the last paragraph under both as to the Natus under that sign, and is followed, like Aquarius, by three pages of pictures. This also holds true for Sagittarius, 7ra-8v; Virgo, 9ra-Iov; Taurus, x Ira-I2v; Leo, I3ra-I4v; Cancer, 15ra- (the next fol. is unnumbered); Scorpius, I6ra- (again the second leaf is unnumbered); Gemini, I7ra- I8V; Capricornus, 19ra-2ov. Aries and Libra are omitted or missing.

Turning from signs to planets, we find Jupiter at 2Ira-b, Mars at 2Iva-b, Sol at 22ra-b; and Venus on the verso. This series seems continued ten leaves later when in similar style is Mercury at 33ra-b, Luna on 33va-b, and Saturn at 34rb-va

Meanwhile the work of Georgius Zothorus Zaparus has begun on fol. 23 but broken off at fol. 24, and the pictures of this manuscript are not identical with his.84 The lower two- thirds of 24vb is blank, and 25ra does not continue the text of Georgius but opens in the midst of a paragraph, .. . litterarum in sculptura vel sculptione et edificatione, cum sit de natura Leonis et Sagittarii. Presently a new paragraph opens, Natus sub Vexillo erit multi cordis et erit capitaneus castellanus . . . , while a picture of the constellation Vexillum occupies 25rb. Text concerning Saturn begins towards the bottom of 25va, a picture of Saturn occupies 25vb, and the text seems to continue on 26ra-b, below which we read, Explicit liber de ymaginibus. Fol. 26v is blank, but on 27ra-b are text and pictures of Eridianus, Delphinus and Orion, followed by those of other constellations through 28vb.

Passing over fol. 29, of which we have already disposed, we find, on 30r, Equus ves- pertinus, Andromeda, Perseus, and Triangulus, on 3o0v, Closse, i.e. Pleiades (Elocia in Saxl) and Lyra, while 31 ra continues the text about Jupiter, Mars and other planets which broke off at 22'v Fol. 32ra continues the text on 3Ivb, the word aliquan-do being divided between them.

In the three Vienna manuscripts85 described by Saxl of the work with the same incipit as ours, the twelve signs of the zodiac preceded the other constellations, but in our manuscript the latter seem immediately to follow the introductory text. Assuming that they should follow the same order as in his manuscripts, which they do on any particular leaf, the sequence of the folios in BN 7344 should be altered as follows: 29, 3-4, 30, then a leaf containing Cygnus, Vultur volans, Vultur cadens, and Cetus seems missing, 27-28, 25-26. The treatment of the signs in BN 7344 seems fuller than in Saxl's manuscripts and probably does not belong with the foregoing treatise; it occupies fols. Ir-2v, 5r-20v, but two signs are missing, and the present order is not that of the zodiac. On the planets are fols. 21-22, 31-34, and perhaps the treatment of Saturn at 25va-26rb. Here again the arrangement seems disordered, as Saturn usually comes first.

88 This incipit is found in a MS. of the 14th century, Cues 207, fols. io8-II4V, while the variant form, Philosophi quidam . . . was noted in three Vienna MSS. by Fritz Saxl, Verzeichnis astrologischer und mythologischer illustrierter Handschriften des latein- ischen Mittelalters, II, 1927, 86-87, 99-1oo, 128. Other MSS., from Omnes imagines.., on, are Vienna 2359 (Saxl, p. 91) and Prag 433 (11. c. 2), fols. i55ra-i66vb.

84 However, it was found in the same manuscript with Georgius Zothorus by the Faculty of Theology at Paris, who thus described it, continuing the condemnation quoted above:

Tertius intitulatur in rubro: Incipit liber de imaginibus coeli signisque planetarum, etc. Incipit in

nigro: Philosophi quondam multis experimentis noverunt. Hos Tractatus damnandos judicavimus. 85 Vienna 2352, a. 1393, fols. Ir-26r; 2378, c. 1400,

fols. Ir-I Ir; 3162, a. 1442, fols. I145r-I87r. In all three MSS. and also in Cues 207, 14th century, fol. II5r-v, and Prague 433 (III. c. 2), at fol. 167ra, there follows what is called in the Vienna MSS., De notitia planetarum prout pinguntur, with the incipit in all the MSS., Luminaria firmamenti sunt multa . . . This is also the incipit of Erfurt, Amplon. F. 394, early i4th century, fols. 87-9o, but there it is preceded by Capitula Almanzoris and ends differently than the Vienna MSS. I did not notice this incipit in BN 7344.


142 LYNN THORNDIKE

BN 7440

(39) BN 7440, a vellum manuscript of the fourteenth century, appears at some time to have been rebound so that its component treatises are in jumbled order and incorrectly numbered. 86 At present it opens with the closing part of the treatise of Hermes on fifteen stars, stones, and herbs. The text on fol. Ira and the top of Irb is almost abraded, then come the names of the fifteen stars, stones and herbs in I8 legible lines of text and Explicit liber Hermetis, followed by 13 legible lines of text that open the Speculum astronomie, which was here without rubric or titulus, Incipit Speculum Alberti prohemium having been written in later. Similarly, at fol. 8vb, the epistle of Alkindi on rains or weather change opens as usual, Rogatus fui quod manifestarem.. ., but it seems to break off at the bottom of that page (there are no catch- words for a next quire), while on fol. 9ra we find ourselves in the midst of a different astrological treatise, not concerned with the weather. It ends at fol. I3va, and a work by Hermes begins which ends on fol. I6vb, after which the lower half of that column is abraded, like the first column of present fol. Ira. Again, the fragment of the Metaphysics of Roger Bacon, which opens at fol. 38vb, Quoniam intentio principalis est innuere vobis vicia studii theo- logici... breaks off at fol. 4ov, but the rest of it is found at fols. 25r-32v. Finally, the treatise of Haly on elections, which starts at fol. 17ra and breaks off at 24vb with the end of its second book lacking, is continued at fols. 9ra-1 3va, where a II appears in red and blue in the top margins.

The proper arrangement of the first forty leaves of the manuscript may therefore be reconstructed as follows:

Haly de electionibus, fols. 17ra-24vb, 9ra. 13va Hermes, Liber lune (?), fols. I3ra-I6vb Hermes de 15 stellis etc., fols. I6Vb, Ira-b Speculum astronomie, fols. Irb.-6vb William of England, De urina non visa, fols. 7-8 Alkindi de pluviis, fols. 8vb, 33ra Centiloquium of Hermes, fols. 33va-34 Epistola of Messahalla on eclipses, conjunctions and revolutions of years, fols. 35rb-36va Aphorisms of Rasis, De iudiciis astrorum, fols. 36V-38vb Roger Bacon, Metaphysics, fols. 38vb-4ovb, 25ra-32vb

At fols. 44ra-47vb is the Liber imbrium of Albumasar. The rest of the manuscript seems for the most part to be occupied by the Liber novem

iudicum in an even worse disarray. The rubric, Liber novem iudicum magistri Guillelmi de Iaffe(?), and incipit, Celestis circuli forma sperica . . . , do not occur until fol. 137r. Then the text through fol. 144vb is still that of the Introduction, Pars I, while fols. 145r-150v are occupied by the table of contents. But back at fols. 41ra-43vb, under the running head, De interrogationibus, in the top margins, are chapters which are found under the twelfth house in the printed edition of 1509,87 and which belong at the end of the work. It appears that the present order of the text in BN 7440 should be altered to fols. 137ra-144rb, 125ra. 136vb, I I5ra-I124vb, 107ra.-I 14vb, 79ra-IO6vb, 66ra-78vb, 58ra-65vb, 48ra-57vb, 41ra-43vb.

In the case of the Speculum astronomiae, a division of the text into three books with three, ten and eleven chapters respectively has been indicated in the margins. Comparing this with the division into a Prooemium and seventeen chapters in the printed text of Borgnet, one finds that its liber secundus prologus corresponds to his fourth chapter and chapters 1-6 of this second book to his chapters 5-Io. Then its chapters 7-9 taken together correspond to his eleventh, while his twelfth chapter takes in its II, Io and III, I-4. III, 5 opens like his thirteenth chapter, and III, 6 like its second paragraph. III, 7 is on interrogations like his

x4th. I did not see any 8 in the margin of the manuscript or any break for a new paragraph until III, 9 on elections, which, with III, Io on images, and III, II on necromantic books,

86 It was already in its present arrangement, although then numbered 5464, when Mabillon and his associates catalogued it in BN 9359.

87 Liber novem iudicum a clarissimis astrorum cultoribus editus... Anno MDVIIII Die iiii Ianuarii

Venetiis ex officina Petri Liechtenstein Coloniensis Germani . . . This edition omits the first part and opens, Rerum omnium que sub lunari circulo esse habent...


NOTES ON MANUSCRIPTS OF THE BIBLIOTHLQUE NATIONALE 143 correspond to his 15th, 16th and 17th chapters. Both manuscript and printed text end, ... Non quia sit unum (unus in MS.) causa alterius sed quia ambo inveniuntur ab eodem causata. 8

BN 7443

(40) Portions of BN 7443 have been described by Duhem and in my third and fourth volumes, and it has been further utilized above for a text which it shares with BN 7307 and other manuscripts. But a few additional points may be noted concerning this fifteenth- century manuscript of 253 numbered paper leaves.

On the verso of the fly-leaf facing fol. Ir is written:

Pour Maistre Jehan Roussel lequel estoit de Vitry en parfois Tractatus Guidonis Bonati

De dispositione aeris et fertilitate anni Et plura alia.

Similarly on the last page of the manuscript we read, Pour Maistre I. Roussel. Other manuscripts written for him were BN 7321 and 7331, as we have seen, and BN 7335, which was written at Paris in 1487.89

What the statement on the fly-leaf listed as De dispositione aeris et fertilitate anni, appears in the manuscript itself as two distinct treatises, separated by a leaf written in a different hand from what precedes and what follows, and evidently belonging in the midst of some other work.90 Of the other two texts, the first, at fol. 7r-v, is entitled De dispositione aeris secundum Linconiensem, and opens and closes as follows:

Cum dispositionem aeris ad aliquem certum terminum pronosticare volueris, oportet te primo ad eundem certum terminum uniuscuiusque planete certum locum per tabulas invenire... /... maxime si 3' aspectu aspexerit se in signis aquosis. Explicit forma practice iudiciorum de dispositione aeris secundum Linconiensem.

The same text is listed as Modus iudicandi de anni tempestate e quodam libro de anno I249 disserente in a Bodleian manuscript.91 Duhem accepted it as a distinct treatise,92 but it actually is taken from Grosseteste's De impressionibus aeris, towards its close.93 Yet other manuscripts where it appears separately are: at the British Museum, Sloane 332, fifteenth century, fol. I6r-v, where it is ascribed to Campanus of Novara, and opens, Cum ergo dispositionem aeris ad certum... ; at the Vatican, Palatine Latin MS. I416, fifteenth century, fol. 72r, where it is anonymous and opens, Cum ergo dispositionem temporis ad quemlibet certum terminum prenosticare volueris... The text preceding it, which opens at fol. 7oV, Quedam sunt debilitates et fortitudines planetarum quas accipiunt... may also be a portion of Grosseteste's De impressionibus aeris.4 This closing portion of that treatise begins after Grosseteste has set forth the various testimonia planetarum essentialia et accidentalia, and is devoted to specific examples of astrological weather prediction for April 15, I249,95

88 I take this opportunity to amend the statement in Traditional Medieval Tracts concerning Engraved Astrological Images, Ml61anges Auguste Pelzer, Louvain, 1947, p. 221, note 7, that in MS. Digby 228, at the Bodleian, Oxford, the text of the Speculum astronomiae at fols. 76rb-79vb, divides into unnumbered paragraphs. In the text they are unnumbered, but in the margins against some of them are very faint indications of chapter numbers. Of these i corresponds to that in Borgnet, 2 to his 3, 3 to his 5, 5-I to his 7-13, 12 (Ad nativitates me transfero) to the second paragraph in his 13, then 13-16 correspond to his 14-17.

89 See A History of Magic and Experimental Science, IV, 264.

90 At fol. 8r-v, opening, -verint significabunt... and ending, Si vero aliqua(?) ... It contains four paragraphs which are entitled: De yride quomodo apparuerit et in quibus temporibus et quid significet. De investigatione anni cum debuerit esse pluviosus vel non. De applicatione lune cum Saturno et cum ceteris

planetis. De quibusdam partibus extraordinariis. 91 Ashmole 191, I, 15th century, fol. 55v, with the

slightly variant incipit, Cum dispositionem aeris ad aliquem terminum certum...

92 Le systeme du monde, III, 278. He knew it only from BN 7443.

93 Ludwig Baur, Die Philosophischen Werke des Robert Grosseteste, Beitrige zur Geschichte der Philo- sophie des Mittelalters, IX, I912, 49-51, beginning, Cum ergo dispositionem aeris ad aliquem certum

terminum . . . and closing, .... maxime si in primo aspectu aspexerint se planetae humidi in signis aquosis. 94 Baur, op. cit., p. 45, line i6, Sunt et aliae forti-

tudines et debilitates quas planetae accipiunt... 95 The text further states that this prediction was

fulfilled, quod et factum est, which would indicate that the treatise was completed after rather than before that date, while the prediction for July is in the future. The year I 255, on the other hand, is selected as an example when cold weather can be predicted, because then

1o


144 LYNN THORNDIKE

July I249, and A.D. 1255. These specific examples were also repeated by the author of Exafrenon pronosticorum temporis in the early fourteenth century.9"

The second text, which also may be an extract from some longer work, since its incipit is unfamiliar, opens and closes:

*Secundum Haly quia Iupiter habet dominium in loco coniunctionis... /... in quarto aspectu Iovis et Saturni quod est signum ventorum etc.97

Symon de Phares, in his Recueil des plus celebres astrologues,98 written in the last decade of the fifteenth century, among those of the first half of the twelfth century mentions a Menopoldus:

Menopoldus fut en ce temps, homme insigne en la science de theologie et de astrologie et, en considerant astrologie, en fist ung beau traict6 qui se commence: Signa quoque humida... Cestui fut homme moult singulier et de moult grande consideracion et qui moult fist de choses dignes de memoire, contenues en ses euvres; pour ce, qui en vouldra plus avant sgaver, y recoure.

Where to find the works of Menopoldus has hitherto been a problem. But in BN 7443, at fol. 16or, is a brief text (fols. 16ov-i63v are blank) opening, Signa quoque humida sunt cancer leo scorpio et aquarius . . . , which would seem to be that to which Symon refers. Perhaps Symon had used this very manuscript.

At fol. 243'v begins an Equatorium of the planets which is said to be easy to construct, inexpensive, and of no less utility than the seven instruments of Campanus of Novara:

Equatorium planetarum facilis compositionis parvarum expensarum non minoris utilitatis septem instrumentis Campani, per quod ad omne tempus datum certa loca planetarum infalibiliter reperiuntur et sicut in celo s. in auge vel in opposito augis, elevatione vel depressione, statione directione vel retrogradatione stant in suis excentricis et epiciclis, visibiliter intuetur inmaginationem omnium theoricarum sensibiliter demonstrantur, in cuius pulcritudine occulus depascitur et in eius utilitate intellectus reficitur per hec pauca scripta brevissime fabricare.

Recipe tabulam planam et rotundam competentis magnitudinis...

But at fol. 247v the text breaks off unfinished. There seems to be another manuscript of it in the Stadtbibliothek at St. Gall.99

At fols. 248r-253v, an anonymous astrological text or extract, with the unfamiliar incipit, *Qui accesserit ad regem et luna in Aquario non recipietur nec aliquo modo curabit rex de eo... completes our manuscript.

BN zo262 (41) Elsewhere I have alluded briefly to anonymous astronomical Tables of 1340, and to others by Melchion de Friquento of Naples of 1437 and 1445.100 They may now be described more fully.

BN 10262 is a very neatly written paper manuscript of the fifteenth century. A Table headed, Numerus differenciarum proporcionum, occupies fols. 2r-7v. Then, after a blank leaf, come the following:

9r Tabula porcionis solis ad annos radicum et perpetuationis et ad menses dies horas et fracciones. Radices ad 32 annos post annum 1340

Saturn will be in its own house, namely Capricorn, for five straight years lingering there and in Aquarius, and so will rule for five continuous winters. Grosseteste, who died in 1253, might well have made this prognostication beforehand.

9 A History of Magic and Experimental Science, III, 121x.

7 BN 7443, fols. 9r-x1 r, where it ends near the top and the rest of the page is left blank.

98 Edited by Dr. Ernest Wickersheimer, Paris, x929, p. I84.

9 Listed by Zinner, Verzeichnis der astronomischen Handschriften des deutschen Kulturgebietes, Muin- chen, 1925, No. 3045: St. Gall 412, I5th century, fols. 62-65, opening, Aequatorium planetarum facile componis (sic) . . . The actual incipit is: Equatorium planetarum facilis compositionis parvarum expensarum non minoris utilitatis omnibus septem instrumentis Campani...

100 Pre-Copernican Astronomical Activity, Proceed- ings of the American Philosophical Society, 94, 1950, 321-36, at pp. 324 and 325.


NOTES ON MANUSCRIPTS OF THE BIBLIOTHLQUE NATIONALE 145 9v-ior Tabula equacionum solis cum auge eius equata per motum octave spere ad

annum 1340 perfecto (sic) in principio Martis Iov-I I'v Tabula arcus sive quantitatis diei in horis et minutiis equalibus et quantitatis

unius hore inequalis et equationis dierum que omnia recipiuntur cum notato loco (Four signs of the zodiac are covered on each page).

12r Tabula lune per centrum porcionem et medium locum eius. Radices. Ad menses. Tabule ad annos perpetuationis (to 1852).

I2'v Ad horas et minutas et alias fractiones I3r Ad dies. Tabula latitudinis lune 13v-I4r Tabula equationis centri lune et minutorum proportionalium et recipitur totum

cum centro simplici 14v Tabula dyversitatis dyametri centralis 14V-15v Tabula equationis argumenti lune et dyversitatis dyametri porcionalis et

recipitur cum porcione equato I6r Tabula capitis draconis (Radix capitis draconis anno Christi 134o perfecto)

Ad annos. Ad menses. Ad dies. Ad fractiones horarum. An annos per- petuaciones

i6v Tabula motus augium et stellarum fixarum atque 8e spere 17r Tabula equacionis 8e spere.

Next come tables for the planets: Saturn, I7v-; Jupiter, 22rb-; Mars, 27r-; Venus, 3Irb-; and Mercury, 35vb-; all calculated from the root year, T 34o, which, it will be remembered, was that in which Henry Selder verified the positions of the fixed stars. At 40rb begins a Tabula latitudinis 3 planetarum superiorum, followed by similar Tables for Venus and Mercury at fols. 4,r- and 44r- respectively, closing on 46v, Expliciunt tabule de septem planetis et de veris locis eius (sic).

At the bottom of the same page is the Titulus for the Frequentian Tables:

Incipiunt tabule Frequentine pro coniunctionibus et oppositionibus solis et lune et eorum eclipsim (sic) quas ego Melchion de Friquento de Neapoli composui ad honorem et laudem sanctissime trinitatis et mei preclarissimi doctoris domini Antonelli de Laurencis de Auersis in anno domini 1437 completi.

Then on fol. 47r is the first Table of conjunctions of sun and moon at 19 year intervals from 1437. Melchion apparently did not share the belief, which has often been imputed to the men of his time, that the end of the world was imminent, for he carried this table to the year 2007, which fits better into the eschatology of our atomic age. His Tables continue:

47v Tabula prima ad oppositiones 48r Tabula prima tam pro coniunctionibus quam pro oppositionibus 48v-6or Tabula secunda. Signa argumenti lune et gradus eorum de 6 in 6 6ov-6 iv Tabula tercia elevationis signorum cum gradibus et minutis et secundis eorum

et horis minutis et secundis correspondentibus in circulo meridiano ad civitatem Neapolis cuius latitudo est 400 20' et dies longior 15 horarum equalium

62r Tabula quarta equacionis dierum 62v-63r Tabula quinta non ita perfecta ad quantitatem eclipsis lune; signa argumenti

lune equata sive reparati pro eclipsi lune; Si vis tabulam magis perfectam, require post tabulam eclipsis solis in tali signo

63v-69r Tabula sexta, Verus locus solis (a page for each sign of the zodiac) 69v Tabula septima non ita perfecta ad quantitatem eclipsis solis 7or Tabula septima magis perfecta ad quantitatem eclipsis solis 7o'-7 Ir Tabula quinta magis perfecta ad quantitatem eclipsis lune 7Ir Expliciunt tabule Frequentine. Sit laus glorie Christi.xo0

101 Fol. 71vI is blank: 72r-73v are ruled for Tables but not filled in. The following are only partly filled in:

74r-v Tabula eclipsis lune ad suam longitudinem longiorem

75r Tabula eclipsis lune ad suam longitudinem propriorem.

75v Tabula eclipsis lune ad suam longitudinem longiorem.

The MS. then ends.


146 LYNN THORNDIKE

BN zo263

(42) In BN 10263 are Canons on the Frequentine Tables composed by Melchion in I445, at fols. 46r-5or:

Canones super tabulas Frequentinas de coniunctionibus solis et lune et corum eclipsim (sic) noviter compilate sive composita (sic) per Melchionem de Friquento de Neapoli tempore incarnationis Ihesu Christi 1445 ad meridianum civitatis Neapolis cuius latitudo est gradus 40, longitudo vero gradus 36, minuta 15.

The Canons open: *Si tempus medie coniunctionis vel oppositionis solis et lune per tabulas ad hoc factas cupis invenire . . . The chapter headings are as follows:

Capitulum primum de modo inveniendi tempus medie coniunctionis vel oppositionis solis et lune, argumentum solis, argumentum lune, locum solis et lune, et argumentum latitudinis lune.

Capitulum secundum de modo sciendi et cognoscendi tempus et horam vere coniunctionis et oppositionis

Capitulum tertium ad sciendum si coniunctio vel oppositio sit de die vel de nocte Capitulum quartum de quantitate et duratione eclipsis lune Capitulum quintum de eclipsi solis Capitulum sextum de quantitate et duratione eclipsis solis

At fol. 50r the Canons end, ... habebis totam durationem eclipsis. Expliciunt canones tabularum Frequentinarum.

Other astronomical treatises in BN 10263 have already been discussed by me in separate articles.102 At fols. 166ra-1i68vb, in a different hand from those of preceding texts, is the rubric, Ad habendum practicam in novellis theoricis. De veris motibus omnium planetarum; incipit, Sciendum est primo quod quelibet theorion(?) duas habet speras... ; desinit, . . . cetera vero fac ut supra. This corresponds only roughly to rubric, Sequuntur canones; incipit, Ad habendum practicam in theoricis novellis de veris motibus omnium planetarum consi- derandum est primo quod circulus volubilis... ; desinit, . . . et habebis verum eius motum signorum successionem. Amen, etc. Et est finis huius, of a manuscript at Columbia Univer- sity, Plimpton 175, fol. 96r-v. Moreover, in the Plimpton manuscript our text appears to be the closing section of a Compositio novarum theoricarum cum rectilineiis which began at fol. 94r, Notandum pro instrumento quodam quod theorica nova cum rectilineiis intitulatur...

BN 14o68 (43) For BN 14068, a paper manuscript of the fifteenth century which is difficult to read, the very brief indication of its contents given by Delisle103 may be expanded as follows:

At fols. 2r-5r, Ars turketi opens, De nominibus partium instrumenti quod turketus dicitur . . . , and is by Franco de Polonia.104

At fols. 5r-8v, Tractatus de Euclidis (sic), opening, Punctus est cui non est pars, linea est longitudo sine latitudine cuius extremitates duo puncta sunt . . .105 In the margins of fols. 6r-7r are numbers from 3 to 7 and I to 31. Our manuscript would thus seem to contain only a part of the first six books.

Between fols. 8 and 9 three blank leaves are left unnumbered; then at fols. 9r-2ov are two calendars, each with a month to a page. They are followed at fol. 21 r by another opening, Ad honorem dei et virginis Marie in hoc opusculo kalendarii... This is the incipit of the

o102 The Tables of Barcelona of the XIVth Century, Isis 41, 1950, 283-85; Sexagenarium, Isis 42, 1951, 130-33.

103 Inventaire des MSS. de St.-Germain-des-Pr6s, Paris, 1868, covering MSS. now numbered BN I 1504- 14231.

104 See my note in Isis 36, I945, 6-7, Franco de Polonia and the Turquet.

105 Antonio Favaro, Intorno alla vita ed alle opere

di Prosdocimo de' Beldomandi, matematico Padovano del secolo XV, Bullettino di Bibliografia e di storia delle scienze matematiche e fisiche, XII, 1879, 1-251, showed (see pp. 55, 167-70) that what Coxe had catalogued in Oxford, Bodleian, Canon. Misc. 554, fols. x-73r, with the same incipit, as a treatise of geometry by Prosdocimo was really the first six books of the Elements of Euclid with the commentary of Campanus of Novara.


NOTES ON MANUSCRIPTS OF THE BIBLIOTHtQUE NATIONALE 147

Calendar which John Somer or Somour, a Franciscan, composed for the mother of Richard II of England and which dated originally from I380. But in BN 14068 it is incorrectly dated in 1251, the opening passage continuing, ... a fratre lohanne ord. minoris ac provincie Anglie anno domini MCCli composito...

Fol. 24r is blank; at fol. 33v is the figure of a divining sphere; on fol. 34V, the rubric, Canon supra kalendarium novum magistri Petri de Dacia, whose Calendar dates from the last decade of the thirteenth century.106 It ends on fol. 38r; on 38v is another Spera Pictagore. At fol. 39r, what are perhaps instructions intended to go with it, open, Disce prius etatem lune diei in qua quis decubuit . . . On fol. 40r the last line reads, Sequuntur interpretationes somniorum, which Dream-Book runs to fol. 45v.

Other texts open at fol. 46r, Qui cursum lune scire desiderat... ,10 and at fol. 5ov, Iste liber dicitur Rota fortune in qua sunt sexdecim questiones determinare in pronosticis Socratis Basilei que in subsequenti folio scribuntur... On the following leaf are eight compartments with four questions in each. At fol. 58v, Explicit liber fortune.108s

At fols. 59r.-79r, is the Sphere of Sacrobosco; at fols. 79r-9Iv, the Theorica planetarum ascribed to Gerard of Cremona. Both are illustrated with good coloured figures. Then at fols. 91v-, 97'-, oI02v-, and Io5v-Io7v, come the usual four tracts by Thebit ben Corath: De motu octave spere, De hiis que indigent expositione antequam legitur Almagesti, De quantitatibus planetarum, and De recta imaginatione spere, followed by planetary figures at fols. io8r-I o09r, with io09v left blank.

At fols. I Ior-120v, is the treatise of Arnald of Villanova on astrological medicine, here called Nova astronomia, and opening, Circa signa universalia distributiva... Fol. 12 xr is left blank; an Easter Table occupies fol. i2 Iv.

At fol. I22r, the astronomy of Raymond Lull opens: Deus in virtute tua ad honorem tuum incipit novus tractatus de astronomia; incipit, Cum plures sint homines qui scire desiderant veritatem . . . It is less easy to tell where it ends. At fol. I71 r, the words, In hac nostra habitacula sunt montes in quorum summitatibus sunt mures... perhaps begin a new text, but at fols. 176-177 the signs and planets are being discussed; at i81, summer and autumn; 183r, de luna; 184v-i85r, eclipses; 186r, wind and rain; 1 88v, thunder; i 90ov, well water; I9Ir, de forma terre; 192v, a figure of concentric spheres. At I95r is the figure of a sign-man; at I95v, Quatuor complexiones in hac forma sunt depicti. Fol. I96r is blank, but there are astronomical notes on i 96v; on i99v, prediction from the calends ofJanuary; while at fol. 200oor the manuscript ends with the fates of those born on each day of the week.

As a whole this manuscript is an apt illustration of the combining then not only of astrology but other forms of divination with standard works of astronomy and geometry.

BN 15362

(44) BN 15362 was one of 120 manuscripts which Peter of Limoges, who died in 1306, left to the Collkge de Sorbonne. It is a large folio whose contents are mainly medical and logical, including such thirteenth-century authors as James of Viterbo, whose Quotlibeta open the volume and who died after Peter in 1308; Dudo, who had been physician to Louis IX of France; John of St. Amand, and Arnald of Villanova, whose translation of Avicenna, De viribus cordis, is included.109 But BN 15362 also contains two treatises upon the practical application of geometry. One is the text opening, Practicam geometrie nostris tradere conatus sum.., which Curtze edited in i897 from a Munich manuscript, CLM 13021, fols. 202rb.- 21Ira, written by a brother Sigiboto of the monastery of Priifening in Regensburg under Abbot

10e This MS. is not among 56 listed by Ernst Zinner, Petrus de Dacia, ein mittelalterlicher dainischer As- tronom, Archeion XVIII, 1936, 318-329.

107 For other MSS. of it see A Catalogue of Incipits, col. 561, item 3.

10s Concerning Prenostica Socratis Basilei see A History of Magic and Experimental Science, II, I I6- 117.

109 On the verso of the last leaf of the manuscript, 234Y (234r is blank), is the following table of contents: Iste liber est pauperum magistrorum de Sorbona ex leg. magistri Petri de Lemovicis quondam socii domus

huius in quo continentur .2. Quolibet magistri Jacobi de Viterbio. Item Tacuinum cum quibusdam sup- positionibus et additionibus magistri Dudonis super Tacuinum. Item Tacuinus (in the text at fol. 128 it is entitled, Tacuinum sanitatis de sex rebus que sunt necessaria). Item liber Serapionis. Item liber Avi- cenne de viribus et medicinis cordis. Item glose super Antidotarium a lohanne de Sancto Amando. Item practica geometrie. Item Joachim super apoc. (this item has been deleted, and no work by Joachim of Flora occurs in the present MS.). Item tabula super totam logicam. Ex leg. M. Petri de Lemovicis.


148 LYNN THORNDIKE

Eberhard (i 163-1168), in which it is anonymous.110 In another twelfth-century manuscript at Cambridge it is ascribed to a Hugo who has not been otherwise identified, and has the same incipit but different closing words from CLM 13021.111 In BN 15362, where our text occupies fols. 20ora-209ra,112 it is again anonymous and corresponds closely to that printed by Curtze, except that, after Curtze's text ends with the discussion of the size of the sun and its diameter, the text in BN 15362 continues a little further, its closing words being, Sed si qua alia de orizonte dicenda videbuntur, sequenti libro cum paralellis et coluris aliisque celestibus circulis reservamus. But no such book follows in the present manuscript.

That Sacrobosco in his Sphere made use of this Practica geometrie of the twelfth century or earlier may be inferred from the following parallel passages:

Practica geometrie ed. Curtze, p. 215

BN 15362, fol. 2o6vb

sub stellate noctis tempore sumpto astrolapsu, quod secundum ambitum terre et

firmamenti in ccclx graduse per circuitum dividitur, et per utrum mediclinii foramen polo inspecto gradum in quo mediclinium stetit diligenti annotationed signavit.

a Curtze, substellatae. b BN 15362 omits terre et.

The Sphere of Sacrobosco, ed. Lynn Thorndike, 1949,

p. 85, cap. i, near close

Sumpto enim astrolabio sub stellate noctis claritate

per utrumque mediclinii foramen polo perspecto notetur graduum in qua steterit mediclinium multi- tudo.

e BN 15362, gradibus. d BN 15362, adnotatione.

A note which has been written in the margin at the bottom of the first column of Practica geometrie tells where other copies of it may be found, namely, at the end of the geometry of Campanus, and in the little book of astronomy before the treatise on the astrolabe.113

The other treatise on practical geometry which opens, Artis cuiuslibet consummatio in duobus consistit, in theorice et practice ipsius integra perceptione... should not be confused with Quadrans vetus, which has the somewhat similar incipit, Geometrie due sunt partes scilicet theorica et practica... and has sometimes been catalogued as a geometry.114

BN x6x98 (45) BN 16198 is a large manuscript of the fourteenth century with some 55 lines to the page. Besides the practical geometry of which we have been speaking, it contains several better-known works:

fols. 2r-73v Explicit geometria Euclidis cum commento Campani 74r-I22V De astronomia, with diagrams in the margins, is recognizable from its

incipit, Scientia species habet quarum melior post scientiam fidei est cuius scita fixa sunt . . . , as Geber's Flores from the Almagest

11xx0 Maximilian Curtze, Practica Geometriae, Monatshefte fir Mathematik und Physik, VIII, Vienna, 1897, 193-224.

111 Gonville and Caius College 413 (630), fols. 2r-8v: Incipit hic Practica Hugonis. Practicam geometrie nostris conatus sum tradere non quasi nova cudens sed vetera colligens dissipata. .. /... major duplo et sit figura talis (no figure is given) Explicit hic Practica Hugonis. I have not seen the MS. and quote James' description.

These closing words would seem to correspond to maior duplo hoc modo at p. 219, line 31, of Curtze's text, which ends in the middle of p. 220,... ad eandem basim hypotenusae non concurrent.

The work has been assigned to Hugh of St. Victor

and edited by R. Baron, in Osiris XII, 1956, 176-186- 224.

112 Each of the double columns has 48 lines. 11s By a rather striking coincidence we shall see that

the other practical geometry may be by Campanus, but it is not followed by this one; also in BN 16198 it precedes Demonstrations of the Astrolabe, but BN I6x98 is a large MS. with 55 lines to the page.

11xx4 See Who wrote Quadrans Vetus? Isis 37, 1947, 150-153. Other MSS. of the geometry than that mentioned in A Catalogue of Incipits are: Erfurt, Amplon. O. 82, late I3th century, fols. 157-169; BN 742oA, I4th century, last item at fol. 147- (concerning this MS. see Paul Meyer in Romania 26, 1897, 225-75); and BN 16198, of which we are about to speak.


NOTES ON MANUSCRIPTS OF THE BIBLIOTHLQUE NATIONALE 149 I23r-I50r Jordanus de Nemore, Elementarium arismetice, books VI-X, with com-

mentary115 15Ira-155vb De quantitatibus, which the incipit, Quantitatum alia continua que magni-

tudo dicitur..., identifies as the Arithmetic of Simon Bredon 156ra-I62v Practica geometrie i62v-I63 Tres circulos in astrolapsu descriptos... /... Expliciunt demonstrationes

astrolabii, is Campanus on the astrolabe I63'V-I65v Omnis ponderosi motum esse ad medium... /... et hic erit numerus

minoris ponderis quod oportebat ostendere. Explicit liber de ponderibus.116

I66r-I77v Dividitur orbis signorum.. ./... Explicit quod abreviatum est de libro Introductorii Ptholomei ad librum suum nominatum Almagesti117

I78ra-i86Vb Primus philosophie magister.. ... qui motus est parvus valde et pene sensibilis. Explicit theorica motuum planetarum (Campanus, Theo- rica planetarum, without the dedication to the pope)

187ra-198vb Postulata a domino prolixitate vite... /... interpretatus a lohanne Hys- palensi, deo gratias. Explicit liber Alkabici introductorius de iudiciis astrorum.118

The opening paragraph of the practical geometry, which I now reproduce from this manuscript, appears to be addressed to the pope. This and the presence of three other works by Campanus of Novara in this same manuscript raise the question whether this treatise, too, is not by him.

Artis cuiuslibet consumatio in duobus consitit, in theorice et practice ipsius integra perceptione. Qui autem altero istorum membrorum mutilatur, semiartifex nuncupatur. Verum moderni Latini rerum subtilium fugas emulantes in quadrivuali scientia virtutum sapore condita sapientes faciente eius theorice invigilant practicam postponentes fructus uberrimos ubi seminaverunt non metentes quasi florem vacuum sine fructu legentes. Pape, quid dulcius quam numerorum cognitis virtutibus per arismeticam eorum infinitos noscere effectus calculatione subtili scilicet radicem et originem omni scientie suppedi- tantem necessario? Quid iocundius quam eorum nota proportione per musicam sonorum consonantias auditu discernere? Quid magnificentius quam superficiebus corporum lateribus et angulis probatis per geometriam eorum quantitates scire et ex amussiva investigare? Quid gloriosius excellentiusve stellarum motu cognito per astronomiam quam eclipses et cetera artis secreta rimari? Nos igitur super geometrie practicam tractatum iocundum et fructu nemorosum(?) instituimus ut quod de magistri nostri fonte dulcius hausimus sitientibus opponemus. Opus autem nostrum in quatuor distinguemus particulas. In prima planismetriam instruimus superficierum quantitates investigando. In secunda altemetrium (sic) mensurare alta docebimus. In tertia capacitates corporum et transnes invenire docemus. In quarta geometricas et astronomicas minutias ad predictam necessarias docere promittimus ita ut principaliter geometrie secundario astronomie hoc opus deserviat. Theoreumatice igitur exordiamur.119

11xx Closing with a passage not found in the edition of 1496: Explicit 1o liber et per consequens totum elementarium arismetice lordani de Nemore continens secundum maiorem numerum 453 conclusiones, secundum vero minorem numerum 428, si recte addidi. The 1496 edition has only 428 propositions: 31, 29, 3', 29, I7, 58, 60, 36, 75, and 62 for the ten books respectively.

x116 The incipit is that of Elementa Jordani super demonstrationem ponderum, edited in Ernest A. Moody and Marshall Clagett, The Medieval Science of Weights, I952, pp. I19-42, but the desinit is different, and BN 16198 is not among the eleven MSS. listed by them.

x 17A Catalogue of Incipits lists another MS. of this anonymous work: Cues 208, anno 1312, fols. 42v-53v.

11s A note in the bottom margin reads: Iste liber est pauperum magistrorum de Sorbona ex legato Egidii Gossinini de Harmies pretii xvi flor. Writing from the midst of some text follows on fols. Igg99r-20oov, but perhaps they were used for purposes of binding.

119 The theorems or problems are numbered in the margins up to 35, 36, 23 and 27 respectively, giving 121 in all as against 120 in MS. Erfurt, Amplon. O. 82. In BN 16198, at least, the explanations are not very clear or convincing: see, for instance, fol. I6ov, Problem 20 of Particula 3, Vasis irregularis summo medio et ymo crassitudinem et capacitatem colligere.

Professor Francis S. Benjamin, Jr., of Emory Univer- sity, who has prepared a critical edition of the Theorica planetarum of Campanus, feels that the style and vocabulary of this paragraph are not his.


150 LYNN THORNDIKE

BN z6204

(46) BN I6204 (once Sorbonne 979) is a manuscript of the thirteenth century, of 584 double- columned pages, devoted to the works of Albumasar and other Arabic astrology. Columbia University has a microfilm of the entire manuscript whose contents may be briefly indicated as follows:

pp. Author Brief Title Incipit I-I82a Albumasar Introd. maius Laus deo qui creavit... 183b-3o2 ,, Great conjunctions Scientia significationum... 302-33 ,, Experimenta Dixit Albumasar, Scito... 333-53 ,, Flores ,, ,, Oportet 353-69 ,, De revolutionibus annorum Omne tempus breve...

nativitatum

371 a-386a Alkindi De mutatione temporum Rogatus fui quod... 386a-387b Albumasar(?) De pluviis Sapientes Indi... 387b-39Ib Messahala Epistola Dixit Messahala, Quia domi-

nus altissimus...

39ib-404a ,, De revolutionibus annorum Custodiat te deus . . . mundi

404a-422b ,, Liber receptionum Invenit quidam vir... 422b-424a ,, De interpretatione cogita- Precepit Messahala ut con-

tionis stituas...

424a-426a ,, Libellus interpretationum Scito quod aspiciens 426a- Dorotheus In occultis Dixit Dorotheus, Cum inter-

rogatus fueris... 427a-428a Ptolemy De occultis Dixit Ptolomeus, Si aspexerit

significator... 428a Capitulum in scientia

locorum

428b-432b lergis Significationes planetarum Sol cum fuerit... in domibus

433a- Zehel Liber introductorius Scito quod signa... 445a-482a ,, De interrogationibus Cum interrogatus fueris 482a-488a ,, De significatore temporis Et scito quod tempora... 488a-500ooa ,, Liber electionum Omnes concordati sunt... 500-507 Theel (or Thetel) Sigilla Ego Theel unus ex filiis 507-534b Haly De electionibus Rogasti me, karissime. . . 534b.-539a Thebit De imaginibus Dixit Aristoteles, Qui... 539b-543a Ptolemy De imaginibus Opus imaginum Ptolomei... 543 -5481 ,, Centiloquium with commen- Mundanorum ad hoc...

tary of Haly (extracts) 548a-552b Almansor(?) Capitula stellarum Signorum dispositio... 553a-584b Ptolemy Centiloquium with commen-

tary of Haly in full

Reference has already been made to a number of these items in connection with their occurrence in other manuscripts. Of the two Haly's listed, the author of De electionibus is 'Ali ibn Ahmad al-Imrani, but in this manuscript the commentator on the Centiloquium is in both cases called Haly the physician.120

We next turn to examine a strikingly close resemblance between portions of BN 16204 and a manuscript at Oxford.

Latin MS. 248 of Corpus Christi College at Oxford consists chiefly of a thirteenth- century copy, at fols. 3ra-8Ira, of the Introductorium maius of Albumasar. This is followed,

1"0 BN I6204, p. 543a, et est expositio ex commentario Hali medici magni; p. 584b, Explicit expositio

ex commentario Haly medici.


NOTES ON MANUSCRIPTS OF THE BIBLIOTHLQUE NATIONALE 151 at fol. 82ra-b, by a note in the same hand describing various other works of Arabic astrology in Latin translation with the names of their authors, titles and incipits, and the number of leaves covered by each.

Albumasar de coniunctionibus. Titulus hic est libri in summa11 de significationibus

individuorum superiorum super accidentia que efficiuntur in mundo generationis de presentia eorum respectu ascendentium inceptionum coniunctionalium et aliorum et cor- ruptionis, et sunt 8 tractatus et 63 differentie editus a lafar astrologo qui dictus est Albumasar. Tractatus primus qualiter aspicitur122 ex parte coniunctionum apparitio prophetarum et eorum qui principantur, et continet 6o folia. Hunc sequitur de revolutionibus annorum (id est, de experimentis, is written between the lines) et continet I5 folia. Sequuntur Flores Albumasaris qui continent Io folia. Hunc habeo et precedentem. Sequitur quod non habeo de sifie(?) revolutione annorum ex libro Albumasar in revolutione nativitatis extracte, Omne tempus breve est operandi;is23 continet 8 folia sed videtur quod Albumasar non fecit ipsum. Sequitur liber Aomar de natibus (?) filii Alfra- gani de nativitatibus, Dixit Aomar ben Alfragani Tyberiadis, Scito quod diffinitiones nativitatum124 in intentitionibus(?) s25 sunt quatuor. Continet 14 folia. Sequitur Alboali de nativitatibus et earum significatoribus: Dixit Albohali, Iste est liber126 in quo exposui omnes significatores super nativitates de scientia iudiciorum stellarum. Hic continet 14 folia. Sequitur Alkindi de mutatione temporum: Rogatus fui quod manifestarem1'27 consilia philosophorum in quibus concordaverunt de impressionibus superioribus, et continet 8 folia. Sequitur alius liber de mutatione temporum continens folium i : Sapi(82rb)entes Indi de pluviis iudicant secundum lunam.128s Sequitur Messahalla in radicibus revolutionum; primum capitulum est de ratione circuli et stellarum et qualiter operant in hoc mundo: Dixit Messahalla quod dominus altissimus fecit tria ad similitudinem spere.129 Continet duo folia. Sequitur Messahala de revolutionibus annorum: Custodit te deus,130 et continet 7 folia. Sequitur idem de receptionibus. Habet 9 folia. Liber introductorius Alcabici singulis planetarum figuratur omni hora tali figura.

It is a remarkable fact that, while the text of the Introductorium maius in the Corpus manuscript covers 79 leaves and that in BN x16204, 92 leaves, the other four works ascribed to Albumasar in the Paris manuscript correspond exactly to the description in the appended note of the other manuscript. Its Aomar and Albohali are not now contained in the Paris codex, but its next five items correspond precisely, even, as before, to the number of leaves covered. Then its Alcabitius is missing from BN 16204. Either therefore portions of BN I6204 are the identical manuscript or manuscripts to which the Corpus note refers, and the fact that its leaves are unnumbered-the page numbering being modern-while the note too gives only the total number of leaves for each treatise, supports this assumption, or at least they both represent copies made from the same exemplar of a collection of Arabic astrology in Latin translation.

BN x62o8

(47) BN 16208 (Sorbonne 980) is written in different hands and accompanied by marginal notes and inserted captions in yet another hand or hands. Such jottings occupy the first leaf, as now numbered, before the first treatise proper opens on fol. 2r, and such notes also occupy the last numbered leaf, fol. I136r-v. Even these leaves are now enclosed by others containing writing in French on the outside, while the blank inside of that which faces Ir has been utilized for a table of contents. Those texts in the manuscript which go back to the time of Gerbert have been noted by Bubnov.131 Others take us back into the twelfth century, yet others apply to early years of the thirteenth. The codex was catalogued by Delisle as of the

121 Scientia is more usual than Summa or In summa. See Thorndike and Kibre, A Catalogue of Incipits, col. 648.

122 See A Catalogue of Incipits, col. 726. 123a See A Catalogue of Incipits, col. 460, Omne

tempus breve est operandi... ; Delisle, Cabinet des MSS., III, 88b. 124 A Catalogue of Incipits, cols. 209og, 652. 125 Millds Vallicrosa, Traducciones orientales en

MSS. Biblioteca Catedral Toledo, 1942, p. 200, reads nutritione from Madrid 00oo53, fol. I36v, but in our MS. it is some word ending -tionibus or -cionibus.

126 A Catalogue of Incipits, col. 208. 12' Ibid., col. 632. 128 Ibid., col. 638. 2s2 Ibid., cols. 213, 214. 130 Ibid., col. x68. 131 Gerberti Opera Mathematica, 1899, pp. lxv-lxvi.


152 LYNN THORNDIKE

close of the twelfth century, but is more accurately described in the manuscript itself as en Partie du 12e et en Partie du I3e si&cle. Delisle distinguished 19 items in BN 16208, while the table of contents in the manuscript itself gives 22. Of these i6 and 20 are astronomical or astrological or mathematical. Delisle omits four items given in the table of contents, and it omits three which he notes. Actually over 30 items may be distinguished, and a number of their ascriptions corrected or amplified. I first reproduce their lists, then give a fuller table of contents of the astronomical, astrological and mathematical texts. Most of them have already been noted in BN 16204 and other manuscripts.

Delisle

Regule et tabule astronomice et astrologice Liber Archachelis introductorius ad librum iudiciorum Arabum, 26v Liber electionum, 44v lergis Significationes planetarum, 5ov Liber interpretationum, 52 Ptolomei ludicia, 59 De quadrante, 65 Calendarium, 66v Magister A. Ysagoge alchorismi in artem astronomicam, 67 Haly de electionibus, 71 Aristoteles Milesius, Principia iudiciorum in interrogationibus, 76 Hermannus de astrolabio, 84 Girbertus de astrolabio, 85v Liber orologii, 88v Messealat, 88V Liber lapharis Alphargani de arte astronomica, 93 Carmen: Dives eram et dilectus, 135v Heribertus de pseudo-prophetis Petragor, 135'v Prophetie, 136

Fly-leaf Table of Contents

Des regles astronomiques In. Cum volueris Tables astronomiques Livre d'Astronomie In. Philosophis astronomiam Livre introduc. d'Arzachel au Jugements des astres In. Omnibus planetis Livre des jugements des arabes Cum interrogatus fuissem (sic) Le livre du choix par Zehel Omnes concordati sunt quod electiones Livre des signes des Planetes par Jergis Incipiunt significationes planetarum Livre des interpretations par Meses allach Livre des fleurs par Albumasar Traite de la latitude de Saturne Jupiter Mars, de la teste et de la queue de la comete (sic) Livre des jugements par Ptolomee a son fils Ariston Signorum alia sunt Des Isagogues de lalchorisme sur l'art astronomique Quoniam de quarta Aristote de Milei sur les astres Signorum alia sunt De l'astrolabe compose par Herman Cum a pluribus sepe amicis De l'astrolabe par Geber Quicumque astronomiae De l'horloge Componitur quidem (sic) De Messe allach Secretorum iudiciorum

De l'art astronomique Jaffar-Alfargani Quoniam cuiusque Tables astronomiques Vers singuliers Dives eram et dilectus Narration par Heribert de quelques heretiques de Perigord...xas On lit au dernier feuille R? anno I 179 fuit nativitas mea au V0 des Vers...

1 .. . elle dite imprimbe dans la Bibliotheque de filiaux par I. Defour dans les Miscellanea de D. Mabillon & Martinnez.


NOTES ON MANUSCRIPTS OF THE BIBLIOTHEQUE NATIONALE 153

Fuller Table of Contents

ir Ad inveniendum terre magnitudinem, Erastotones philosophus adque geometer... (other MSS. in A Catalogue of Incipits)

Ir:v Horoscopes of 12th century 2ra-3vb De loco solis 4r-I2v Tables I3ra- John of Seville, Philosophis astronomiam... 26va- Arzachel, Liber introductorius, Omnibus planetis . . . 33vb-4rb Zehel, De iudiciis (interrogationibus), Cum interrogatus fueris... 4Irb- Anon. *Cum videris dominum ascendentis... 44vb- ,, De electionibus, Omnes concordati sunt... 49va- Messahalla, Epistola, Quia dominus altissimus... 50rb Figura celi for eclipse of 1215 50va- lergis, Significationes planetarum 5Ivb- Messahala, De cogitatione, Precepit Messahalla... 52rb-va Messahala, Libellus interpretationum, Scito quod aspiciens... 52va-b Capitulum de occultatione. . secundum Dorotheum, Cum aliquis... 52vb-53ra Dorotheus in occultis, Gum interrogatus fueris de thesauro... 53ra- Ptolemy, De occultis, Dixit Ptolomeus, Si aspexerit... 53vb- Albumasar, Flores, Hic est liber quem collegit... 57rb- Tractatus in partibus latitudinis planetarum, Debes considerare... 59rb- Ptolemy, ludicia, Signorum alia sunt masculini... 65ra- Hermannus Contractus, Horologium viatorum, Componitur quoddam... 66va- Calendarium 67ra- Magister A., Liber isagogarum Alchorismi, Quoniam de quarta...xa133 71ra- Liber secundus ex libro Haly de electionibus (margin) (it ends at 75vb)

76ra-83vb Aristoteles Milesius, Interrogationes, Signorum alia sunt masculini generis... (as at 59rb)

83vb-85va Hermannus Contractus on the astrolabe 85va-88va Gerbert on the astrolabe 88va Hermannus Contractus, Horologium viatorum again in part 88va-9iva Messahala, De receptione, Invenit quidam vir... It breaks off, ... cum-

que pervenisset un n6n ad vene... 9Ivb-92r, blank. Notes on lower 92v. 93ra.-Ioora Arzachel, Canons to Tables of Toledo, Quoniam cuiusque actionis quanti-

tatem...

I oorb- 135r Tables

(48) A few further remarks may be made concerning some of these texts, chiefly in connection with dates which they contain. On fol. Ir, a figura coeli for Monday, August 23, S1142, at the fourth hour, is apparently the horoscope of a king, Natus R. There follows a Questio pro rege facta XXa Ha die lun, hora v incipiente anno domini 1. C. lxxxvi ( 1186) die dominica. On fol. Iv is the horoscope of a boy born Tuesday, October 29, 1136, at the third hour, 34with a judgment of it by an Abraham Iudeus at Bdziers.x35

133 This work is divided into five books as follows: 68ra, Incipit secundus liber de minutiarum doctrina, opening, Et quia de integrorum multiplicatione; 68vb, Incipit liber III de inventione radicis, opening, Quoniam quidem multotiens necessarium est...; 69ra, Incipit quartus liber de musicis ac geometricis rationibus, opening, Integrorum ac minutiarum habita notitia... ; 70rb, Incipit V liber de temporibus et motibus, opening, Heactenus de arismeticis musicis ac geometricis rationibus introducendis dixisse sufficiat... This fifth book ends at 71ra in mid-column with the motion of the firmament.

Haskins, Studies in Medieval Science, 1924, p. 24, who lists our MS. and others, tentatively assigns the

work to Adelard of Bath. M. Curtze published Bks. I-III in Abhandlungen z. Gesch. d. Mathematik, VIII, 1-27.

x134 Of these three dates, only in the case of that for I186 does the day of the week agree with that of the month. October 29, 1136, was a Thursday, not a Tuesday, and August 23, 1142, fell on Sunday, not Monday. In the last case the discrepancy might be accounted for by reckoning the day from noon or some other hour of the preceding day, but the same pro- cedure would invalidate the ii86 date.

135 Printed by Steinschneider, Zeitschrift f. Math. u. Physik, XII, 1867, 41.


154 LYNN THORNDIKE

On fol. 2ra, the rubric, Regula de loco solis, is followed by the incipit, *Cum volueris invenire locum solis, extrahe numerum quem invenisti in linea anni collecti... The text runs on to fol. 3vb, and Tables extend to fol. I2v. Meanwhile in the bottom margin of 2ra is a note, Incipiunt reguli iii die Septembris hora x sole existente in xviii gradu Virginis ascendente xiiii gradu Aquarii, but the year is not stated. But in the margin of fol. 3rb a partial solar eclipse of I1 9I is recorded as follows:

Anno domini M' C' XC0 Io xxiiia die Iunii hora iiiia fuit eclipsis solis particularis sole existente in vii' gradu Cancri et luna in vi? gradu et cauda draconis in xii0 gradu eiusdem signi sic

3 7 27 II locus solis 3 6 39 4 locus lune 9 12 6 14 locus ca (leaf has been cut down)

et duravit per iiii0 horas.136

On fol. 67r, written in the bottom margin in clear black ink in a small hand different from the text above, is the statement that A.D. I I85 was the Arabic year 581, and that the first month of that year, Almuharan, began on April 3, feria iiiia (i.e., Wednesday). After explaining that the Arabic months are of alternately 3o and 29 days, it is stated that in A.D. I I87 the Arabic year began iiii? idus Marcii (i.e., March 12). To tell when the Arabic year following will begin, one subtracts eleven days from March 12.

Beside this passage is a briefer note in another hand in the right-hand margin to the effect that in A.D. 1201 the Arabic year began ii kl. Septembris (i.e. on August 22).

Below it, in faded reddish ink and a different hand, is the statement that 693 Arabic years were completed in the course of A.D. 1295, and that the first month of the ensuing Arabic year began on Saturday, May 7 (nonas Maii in Sabbato). This is quite incorrect, since the year 694 of the Hejira began on November 21, I294.

The upper half of fol. 92v is blank, and in the lower half, in the same hand as the marginal notes at fols. 2ra and 3rb mentioned above, and as the Canons for the Tables of Toledo which begin at fol. 93ra, a line written across both columns of the page reads: Initium anni arabici 582 scias esse 23 diem Marcii anno domini 1186 nondum perfecto. Above this line in col. a is a table headed Inventio annorum arabum per annos Christi, and, in column b, a table called Motus stellarum fixarum. Below the line in column b is the following table:

Rubric: Locus altus planetarum hic ponitur anni domini M.C.xl.ix.

Nomina planetarum signa gradus puncta secunde Sol Venus ii xxvii x ,' (?) Saturnus viii xi iii vi

lupiter v xxi xvi xxx Mars iiii xx xiii Mercurius vi xxv x

More dates occur in notes on the last leaf of the manuscript, after a Biblical chronology from Adam to Seth, etc. It is said that there will be an eclipse of the sun on July 3, I209, which is the last day of the month Zu-l-Hijja in the Arabic year 604, at 6.56 p.m. in Toledo for mid-eclipse, 17 and the positions of the planets are given as follows:

Sat. directus in Cancro I11o 20' lup. in Leone directus 290 26' Mars in Scorp. directus 60 io' Sol in Cancro 170 36' Venus in Leone directus 270 Merc. in eodem directus 130 6' Luna in Cancro I60 5'

136 For this eclipse of June 23, 119g, see J. F. Schroeter, Sonnenfinsternisse, 1923, Karte 72b.

x37 Fol. 136r, Anno domini M* CC* nono tercia die Iulii erit eclipsis solis eadem die anni arabum 604 ultima die dulhig post meridiem Tolet. s. medium

eclipsis hora vi minuta 56. Here again there is discrepancy between the Arabic and Christian dates. But July 3, 1209, would come close to the end of the Arabic year 605 on July fifth.


NOTES ON MANUSCRIPTS OF THE BIBLIOTHLQUE NATIONALE 155

The writer then states that he was born on May 6, I I79 or in the Arabic year 573 on the 29th day of the month Shawwal.'38 He furthermore gives the positions of the planets on May I, I207,139 as follows:

Sol in Tauro 17 Luna in crMf (Capricorn?) 17 Sat. in cem (Gemini?) 2 I lup. in ceffi ,, I I Mars in Leone 25 Merc. in Canc. 20

Caput in Pisc. 5

(49) At fols. 7Ira-75vb, the work of Haly al-'Imrani on elections is represented as in two

books, unlike the text printed by Millts, but we have only the second book: Liber I elect. Explicit. Incipit liber secundus de electionibus particularibus sicut introitus et exitus ville. At the end of the second book is the colophon:

Perfectus est liber in electionibus horarum laudabilium editione Hali filii Hamet ebrani

translatus de arabico in latinum in civitate Barchinona Abraam iudeo yspano qui dicitur Savacorda existente interprete et/ perfecta est eius translatio die lune octavo kal. Octobris xxiiii die meisis lunaris qui dictus est dulchida hora xii ascendente Aquario anno domini M C XXX.iiii0. Explicit.

Here only Savasorda is mentioned and nothing said of Plato of Tivoli.140 In Vatic. Palat. lat. I369 it is also called Liber de electionibus sub duplici tractatu.

The rubrics for Arzachel's Canons on the Tables of Toledo differ considerably from those printed by Millas Vallicrosax4x numbering some sixty-five, while his are about one hundred, and being divided into three books.1x42 Only about half of them are identical with those printed by Millas.

BN x6659

(50) BN I6659 falls into two parts. At fols. 3-67, in a hand of the fifteenth century, is the Breviloquium... de fructu totius astronomie of Bartholomew of Parma, here called of Bologna, where he taught, written in I286 at the request of Theodosius de Flisco. bishop- elect of Reggio in Emilia. At fols. 72r-o10 1r, in a hand of the late twelfth or thirteenth century, is a Theorica planetarum, here anonymous, which MillAs Vallicrosa has claimed as the work of Abraham Avenezra, composed by him in Latin at Angers in I 154. Fols. 68-7I are blank,

138 Anno domini M'C079* sexta die Maii (Aprilis was at first written but then elided) fuit nativitas mea aureo numero existente 2, littera dominicali 6 (sic), que fuit in die nativitatis mee anni Arabum 573 290 die Sauel.

Again the dates do not exactly correspond. May 6, 1179, would fall in the Arabic year 574. But April would appear to be correct rather than May, since Hejira 574 began on June I9, II78.

Giry, Manuel de diplomatique, I894, p. I96, gives the nombre d'or for 179 as 2 and the dominical letter as G.

s139 Anno domini MoCC? septemo in vigilia Magd, prima die Maii.

140 This is also the case in the fuller colophon quoted by Bj6rnbo, in Bibliotheca Mathematica, 3 Folge, Bd. 12, 1911-1912, 103-4,fromMS.convent.soppr.J.X. 20 of Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Florence. It also is true of MS. Sloane 312 at the British Museum, London, where the Elections of Haly at fols. 252-255, 215-251, ends at fol. 251v, . . . ex antiquis reperi qui hoc testa- rent non feci inventionem. Perfectus est liber electionum laudabilium horarum ab hali filio hamet hembra translatus de Arabico in latinum in civitate

Barchinona ab Abraam Iudeo existente interprete qui

dicitur salva corda perfecta est translatio. According to G. Lami, Catalogus codicum manuscriptorum qui in bibliotheca Riccardiana Florentiae adservantur, Leghorn, 1756, p. 20, it was true of MS. Riccard. L. II. membr. in-8, No. 24, All filius Achavit Ebrani, Liber in electionibus horarum, from which Lami quoted, Perfectus est liber in electionibus horarum laudabilium Ali filii Achavit Ebrani, translatus de Arabico in Latinum in civitate Barcinonia ab Abram Iudeo.

14x Estudios sobre Azarquiel, Madrid-Granada, 1943-1950, pp. 37-42.

142 At fol. 94vb, Incipit liber secundus de motibus planetarum. This, by my count the 23rd rubric, corresponds to his 6oth (my numbering) at p. 40, De inquisitione motuum 7 corporum celestium contra mundi firmamentum nitentium.

At fol. 96va, Incipit tercius liber de defectu solis et lune, 4oth by my count, corresponds to his 73rd at the top of p. 41. Its 38, De inveniendo tempore ortus et occasus planetarum, and 39, De occultatione et visione planetarum, are not paralleled in his, while its 41, De motu solis et lune equali in una hora, corresponds to his 76, De inventione motus solis et lune equalis in una hora.


156 LYNN THORNDIKE

except that on 71v is written, Iste liber est pauperum magistrorum in theologica facultate studentium ex legato magistri Geraudi de Abbatis Villa. Since Gerard of Abbeville died in I271, our manuscript is of earlier date.

The present manuscript has not hitherto been noted in connection with either work. Enrico Narducci in I884, in an article, Intorno al Tractatus sphaerae di Bartolomeo da Parma, astronomo del secolo XIII, e ad altri scritti del medesimo Autore,143 listed three other manuscripts of the Breviloquium:144 Metz 287, anno 1428, fols. 279r.-316v; Oxford, Hertford College 2, fifteenth century, fols. 63-92;145 and Cambridge, Emmanuel College 39.39.146 Narducci also printed the prologue of the Breviloquium from the Hertford College manuscript.14 7

In BN 16659 fols. 1-2 have been torn out, perhaps for the sake of illuminations which they contained, and fol. 3r opens in the middle of the eighth line of the prologue as printed by Narducci: (et de fruc-) -tu astrologie hic ad presens tractandum est. A few divergences may be noted:

Narducci (Hertford 4) BN 16659 p. 32, line 12 fol. 3r

rem planetarum esse planetarum

p. 35, line 12 fol. 9r cero, lardi(?), incausti, traiecturas cere lardi albastri etc. karacteres

p. 35, line 15 fol. 9r Ymaginatiua scientia Ymaginaria sciencia

p. 35, lines 16- sicut elemento- sicut aqua et terra et

rum 4 ignis elementorum quatuor ut ignis aeris que sunt plus confusa et aer que sunt plus confusa quam aqua et terra; licet quam (9v) aqua et terra, licet per eam sciatur quantitas aque, per earn sciatur quantitas aque et possit homo comprehendere et possit homo elementa aeris atque profunditatem terre et abissus laten- cium. Hec etiam doctrina scitur cum hac etiam doctrina scire

absque dno(?) quot miliaria absque dubio quot miliaria continet terra et quodlibet continet terra et quodlibet elementum de reliquis; quot elementum de reliquis, quot etiam miliaria sint a terra etiam sunt miliaria a terra

usque ad lunam et a luna usque usque ad lunam et a luna usque ad solem et sic de ceteris ad solem et sic de ceteris

planetis; quot partes celi planetis, quot partes firmamenti sint ab ortu solis sunt ab ortu solis

usque ad occasum sicut deus(?) usque ad occasum sicut domus et signa, quot gradus continet et signa, quod gradus continet firmamentum in circuitu suo firmamentum in circuitu sui

quot quelibet quadratura quot quelibet quadratura quot 5litas, quot signa quot sextilitas quot signa quot 3t"4 et versus quam triplicitas et versus quam partem mundi volvitur firma- partem mundi volvitur firmamentum, erga quam partem celi mentum, erga quam partem celi sydera morantur, spiritus siderei morantur spiritus .... qui quandoque inuocan- aerei qui quandoque invocan-

143s Boncompagni's Bullettino di Bibliografia e di storia della scienze matematiche e fisiche, XVII, I-I20, I65-218.

144 Ibid., pp. 17-19. 145 Now Hertford 4, fols. 72r-.lor.

146 Now Emmanuel 70, i15th century, fols. 8o-i18v. This MS. was erroneously listed with those of Bar- tholomew's 1288 Summa of geomancy in A History of Magic and Experimental Science, II, 836, note i.

147 Op. cit., pp. 32-36.


NOTES ON MANUSCRIPTS OF THE BIBLIOTHLQUE NATIONALE 157 tur arte et coniuracionibus tur arte et coniurationibus fortibusconuincuntur ad opera fortibus commituntur ad opera et necessitates que ab homini- necessitates qui a homini- bus inquiruntur et inquiri bus inquiruntur (ior) et inquiri possunt. Moventur etiam possunt. Moventur etiam permissione divina quandoque permissione divina quandoque de suis habitaculis et de suis habitaculo (sic) et veniunt nocere terre et mari veniunt nocere terre et mari atque aeri, ut cum se trans- atque aere, ut cum se trans- formant in notabilem figuram formant in notabilem figuram inter nubes in aqua et in inter nubes in aqua et in ventum spirabilem etc.; ventum spirabilem etc. quot etiam gradus sol elevatur Quod etiam gradibus sol elevatur in diebus maioribus, et quot in diebus maioribus et quot in minoribus declinatur et in minoribus declinatur et movetur, ut ceteri planete movetur ut cetere (sic) planete quolibet die, que sunt stelle quolibet die, que sunt stelle celi per cognicionem virtu- celi per coniuracionem virtu- osam, quarum sumitur consilium, osam, quarum sumitur consilium principium et providencia presencium et providentia futurorum boni et mali, et futurorum boni et mali, ac versus quam partem reperian- versus quam partem reperiuntur in nocte. tur in nocte

p. 36, line 5- fol. I ov- I Ir Sub hac quidem arce (sic) stel- Sub hac quidem arte stellarum larum multe articule palliantur, multe particule palliantur sicut est aerimancia, piromancia sicut est aeremantia piromancia ydromancia, geomancia, spato- ydromancia geomancia spato- mancia mancia ydromancia auguroman-

cia sternutomancia obviomancia

nigromancia, incantacio, sorti- nigromancia incantatio sorti- legium etc. legium etc.

(51) Since Narducci printed only the prologue, I reproduce below the rubrics of the text to show the character of its contents. The pages are small and the writing large. The scribe is a poor speller and careless as to syntax. Someone has corrected him a little.

I2v De forma celi et eius motu in revolutione 14r Ubi est celum firmamentum et quid tenet ipsum desuper cum videatur esse ap-

pensum et non sustineri de subtus ab aliquo 14v De capitibus et lateribus firmamenti qui dicuntur puncta celi i6r Quid est firmamentum celi et si quid est, quid est naturaliter14s I9r De ordine planetarum in suis speris que sunt loca celi in quinta essencia 2ov De nominibus sygnorum ymaginum planetarum et spirituum sive rectorum

ipsorum149 23v De motu firmamenti et versus quam partem orbis duodecim signa habent capita

et quod ex eis sunt recte ascendencia et que tortuose 26r Quid sit celum, unde dicatur, et si illud videatur a nobis vel non, et cui celum sic

dispositum signis et ymaginibus vere assimilatur 29v De ventis et nominibus eorum ac de natura+li) proprietate eorum 31v De spera et eius divisione cum stellis et suo ortu

148s The ensuing text treats first of the ninth sphere, crystalline heaven, and waters above the firmament; then asks why the spheres of Saturn, Jupiter and Mars alternate as they do.

149 The text names 36 constellations besides the 12

signs and 7 planets, for which last it gives the Hebrew names but not the names of the spirits moving them. It asserts the influence of signs, planets and constellations at the time of conception; also the doctrine of astrological elections.


158 LYNN THORNDIKE

33r De karacteribus planetarum160 33v Planetarium celi ut signa suas habunt (sic) karacteres qui tantum valent quantum

nomina1l1 et hec sunt ut hic patet 34v De exposicione quorundam nominum partium spere celestis 35r De diffinitionibus eorum que necessaria sunt ad cognoscenda...152 breviter in hac

arte

38v De mensura miliariorum corporis terre et quot sunt miliaria a terra usque ad partes firmamenti seu superiores celorum

42'v De causis omnium signorum, id est, quare sic signa celi vocantur 47r De varietate dierum et noctium secundum quod variantur menses et signa mutantur

a sole in mensibus

49r De causis nominum duodecim mencium anni scilicet quare sic denominantur 51v De signis duodecim mencium id est quod signorum est uniuscuiusque mensis in

revolucione solis

52'v De diversitate nominum duodecim mencium anni secundum diversitatem sex linguarum

55r De inquisicione divisiorum temporis per minucias compoti 57v De ordine stellarum celi sunt (sive?) ymaginum que dicuntur stelle fixe.

A passage at fols. 36r-37v as to divisions of time and other measures may be worth reproducing in full. I correct some obvious misspelling.

Athomus est minimum spatium temporis notabilis ut ictus palpebre oculi, vel athomus est trecentesima octagesima sexta pars ostenti, vel athomus est quadragesima septima pars unius puncte temporis que est duodecima pars unius momenti. Ostensum est sextagesima pars unius hore continens in se trecentos septuaginta septem athomos.

Momentum est quadragesima pars unius hore (fol. 36v) continens in se unum ostentum et dimidium, vel, momentum est apprehensio quindecim minutorum que faciunt quartam partem hore, vel momentum est duodecima pars huius hore. Uncia est duodecima pars unius libre, vel uncia est pars cuiuslibet rei divise in duodecim partes equales. Pars est quinta decima pars unius hore habens in se quadraginta momenta, vel pars est unus gradus firmamenti ad motum solis continens quatuor puncta. Minutum est decima pars unius hore continens in se unam partem et dimidiam. Secundum est sextagesima pars unius minuti. Tercium est sextagesima pars unius secundi. Punctus est mensura decem momentorum sive quarta pars unius hore sive quantitas sexaginta quatuor minutorum. Igitur minutum est ut punctum et punctum ut minutum. (37r) Semis est dimidia pars cuiuslibet rei divise in duas partes equales. Bissa est due partes cuiuslibet rei divise per se tercia remota. As assis est pondus unius libre vel ipsa libra quod proprie dicitur quantitas duodecim terciarum.

Demis est undecima uncie.

Decuns(?) est decima uncie. Dodzans est nona uncie.

Bes est octava uncie.

Demix vel semisse est sexta uncie.

Quincunx est quinta uncie. Triens est quarta uncie.

150 Those of the 2 signs are given first. 151 That is, they have no magic power.

152 I could not read this word.


NOTES ON MANUSCRIPTS OF THE BIBLIOTHLQUE NATIONALE 159 Quadrans est tercie uncie. Dantans est secunda uncie.

Sextum est une uncie. (37v.) Hora est mensura quindecim graduum solis motu, vel hora est duodecima pars unius diei artificialis, vel hora est spacium temporis moti quantitate quindecim graduum firmamenti, que in se recipit quatuor puncta grossa quatuor minuta novaginta quatuor ostenta viginti duo milia quingenta et sexaginta athomos, vel hora est sexta pars unius quadrantis. Gradus est mensura quatuor punctorum equalium. Quadrans est quarta pars unius rei divise in quatuor partes equales sibi. Septima est fere quarta pars mensis1s3 est mensura quatuor septimanarum. Annus est mensura duodecim mencium sive trecentorum sexaginta quinque dierum et sex horarum, que sex hore in quatuor annis constituunt unum diem qui dicitur bis- sextilis.

Etas est una pars rei mensurati in tempore.154

Finally may be quoted a passage at fols. 64r-65r on spirits in the constellations, which in this case is reproduced here with the spelling unaltered:

Et est sciendum quod in faciebus ymaginum celi quidam spiritus dicuntur morari et operantur propria officia quibus dedici sunt et quilibet spiritus habens nomen prin- cipiatus sub se habet multorum legiones ad eiusdem officia deputati. Quorum quidam sunt ad temptandum homines seu anima (sic) hominum vivorum, quidem (sic) ad por- tandum eas de corporibus exuntibus (sic) ad penas et velud sunt et alii angeli qui portant eas ad gaudeas paradisi. Quo usque autem presens mundus perseveraverit, isti spiritus officialiter permanebunt ad actus multos, sed quam cito confirmabitur, ipsi cessabunt euntes ad locum proprie sedis secundum meritum et sentenciam universorum gubernatore (sic). Non autem predicti spiritus transeunt rotam firmamenti sed infra morantur, quorum tres sunt ordines. Alii sunt sapientes, alii sapienciores, alii sapientissimi. Sic eciam illud idem est de bonitate et malicia, fortitudine et debilitate, Liset (sic) autem sint officiales et rectores rerum multarum officiis diversis, tamen probantur esse promptiores une (sic) tempore quam altero dierum mencium et horarum ad multa. Cum vocantur autem quandoque arte nigromancie et tunc virtute ipsorum que fiunt et dicuntur accipiunt corpora ab elementis in aliqua similitudine et per illud dicuntur ap- parire (sic) et agere natura vel arte coniuratorum. In qua vero parte morantur et in quibus mencibus maiorem habeant libertatem curandi et agendi, quo nomine nominatur (sic) et que sunt eorum officia, liber qui dicitur angelica satis magnifeste declarat. Hinc autem librum sapiens Salomom composuit.

(52) BN 16659 is not among the manuscripts used or listed by Jose M. Millas Vallicrosa in his critical edition of El libro de los fundamentos de las tabulas astron6micas, as he calls it,15s of Abraham ibn Ezra.'56 The text in BN 16659 breaks off in the midst of the discussion of the instrument, kardaja, at a point corresponding to page 135 of Millis Vallicrosa's printed text.

15a This word should presumably be repeated. 154 Day, night, etc., follow. At fol. 55v, annus,

cyclus, tempus, etas, seculum are arranged in an ascending scale. At fols. 55v-56r:

564 athomi momentum 4 momenta i minutum

Io momenta

(or, 2j minuta) i punctumr 1io puncta I gradus 15 gradus i hora sive quatuor puncta grossa

155 In Digby 40, I2th century, his oldest and best MS., it is de astronomia liber; in BN 16648, 13th century, liber qui dicitur Abrahismus; in our MS., which is 12th- 13th century, Theorica planetarum; in Erfurt, Amplon. Q. 381, 2nd half 12th century, liber Albumazar de astronomia.

16 El libro de los fundamentos de las tablas astro- n6micas de R. Abraham ibn 'Ezra. Edici6n critica con introducci6n y notas. 171 pp. (Consejo Superior de investigaciones cientificas, Instituto Arias Montano,

serie D, niim. 2), Madrid=-Barcelona, Dec. 27, I947. Text at pp. 73-167. II


i6o LYNN THORNDIKE

Up to that point the two texts would seem to agree closely, as may be illustrated by comparing some openings of paragraphs or sections in the manuscript with the printed text, although there they often occur in the middle of paragraphs.

fol. 74r Facile autem cognitum si annis Indorum ultra quartam partem diei... (page 79, line 15-)

79r Inveniunt ergo quod sol fere per duos dies moratur plus quam deberet... (go, I o-) 86v Item ad sciendum cum quo gradu luna sit in medio celi... (o104, 32-) 88v Omnes sapientes in hoc concordant quod Saturnus habet duos circulos magnos...

(109, 5-) 89r Sciendum est quod brevis circulus Saturni non movetur cum brevis circulus lune

moveatur... (I io, i6-) 9Ir lam ostendimus rationem quare oporteat coequare proportionem per longinquam

vel propinquam remotionem ut cum Saturnus propior fuerit loco alto... (113, 30-)

91(bis)v Sicut motus Saturni in brevi circulo adunatus motui diurno punctui ade- quatur motu solis diurno in circulo excentrico, sic de love secundum magistros probationum in 83 annis lupiter septies secundum longitudinem suum circulum excentricum perfecit, circulum vero brevem tanto tempore septuagies septies (sescies in ed.) perficit... (117, 7-)

93v Sicut superiores planete, sic et Venus duos circulos habet... (120, 32-) 94v Mercurius tot habet circulos quot Venus sed brevis circulus Veneris maior est

brevi circulo Mercurii, nam Venus elongatur a sole cv gradus, Mercurius vero 35... (122, 28-)

95r Capitulum artium (sic) et cordarum... (124, i1, caption, Capitulum arcuum et cordarum continens rationem)

96v Nunc audiat lector verba ipsius Ptol. in Almagestu (sic) de arcu et cordis habita... (127, 6-7, caption)

98r Nunc verba Avennuncenne ponemus de cordis que dixit in expositione rationis tabularum Alcaurezmi secundum Indos (1 30, I-2, caption)

A striking feature of our manuscript text is the style of Arabic numerals employed: r for 3, tf for 4, 8 for 5, ' for 6, '1 for 8, and P for 9. Cappelli notes r for 3 as late twelfth century but does not have the others.x57

BN nouv. acq. 693

(53) BN nouv. acq. 693 is a manuscript on parchment of the thirteenth-fourteenth centuries, obtained at the sale of Lord Ashburnham's library in I899, with 204 fols. largely double- columned and with 48 (later 43) lines to the column. After a Calendar at fols. 2r-8r, a Table at fol. 8r covers the dates 1296-1492. A Table of Rectification of Saturn at fol. 24v covers years from 1312 to 2374, and most dates of subsequent Tables are for the I30oo's. The treatise on the astrolabe by Messahala at fol. 9r is followed at fol. 15r by the Vitia lune, already noted in another manuscript. The unfamiliar incipits, *Eclipsis luminarium in angulis ascendentium.. . and *Cum fiat naturarum corruptio et mutatio . . . introduce a brief tract at fol. 15v and a longer Magisterium astrorum at fols. 16ra-I2ra. The latter is a disconnected astrological miscellany. A brief marginal text on 23r, opening, *Universis Anglicane nationis prophetantibus occidentalis orbis.. . holds that the planets will return to their present positions: Saturn after 59 years, Jupiter after 83, Mars 79, the sun 4, Venus 8, Mercury 46, the Moon 76, and the head and tail of the dragon 93. On the same page the text proper opens,

*Aliqui astrologiam calumpniantur malitiose moderni asserentes tam mala quam bona per eandem facilius posse perpetrari et ideo ab universis et singulis quasi pestem morbicam cautius evitandum...

Fols. 24r-6ov are occupied mainly by Tables, beginning with a Tabula equationis argumenti Saturni. Occasionally there are a few lines of text in the margins of the pages.

157 A. Cappelli, Dizionario di abbreviature latine ed italiane, Quarta edizione, Milan, 1949.


NOTES ON MANUSCRIPTS OF THE BIBLIOTHLQUE NATIONALE 16i At fol. 6I begins the Quadripartitum of Ptolemy; at fol. 89r, Cum proiectionem radi-

orum... has been noted for this and other manuscripts in A Catalogue of Incipits, and by Millais (1942), 159, in Madrid Ioo63, fol. 22rb. Several figurae coeli or astrological diagrams and horoscopes at 92r-93v are followed by brief texts with unfamiliar incipits: 93v, *Dignior et fortior omnibus locis circuli est ascendens . . .; De electionibus at 94r, opening, *Electiones veraciores et validiores sunt...; and De amisso(?), opening, *Diviso loco in 4 partes... and closing on 95r, ... dicitur esse in lumine suo in die quia est diurnum.

Figures of hands, right and left, at 95v and 96r, covered with legends, introduce the well-known chiromancy of which the text opens, at 96v, Linee naturales sunt....xs8 It is ascribed to Aristotle in a manuscript of the British Museum, Sloane 2030, thirteenth century, fols. I25-I26, and is elsewhere said to have been translated by Adelard. In our manuscript it closes on fol. 97r:

Sciendum est tamen quod quedam ars reperta est naturalis a quodam philosopho Gadmindo(?) qui ante fuerat Saracenus et vocabatur Maneanus. Sed transtulit hunc (sic) artem Magister Adillwardus a Greco in latinum.

At fols. 97v-ioov is a tract with the unfamiliar incipit, *Scito quod orbis luminaris(?) solis est 300...

Passing over Zael on Interrogations and Elections, the pseudo-Hippocrates, and Albu- masar, we come at fol. 135va to the rubric, De tribus generalibus iudiciis astronomie de quibus cetera omnia defluunt, followed by the unfamiliar incipit, *Dinoscitur autem rerum consecutio tribus modis... After De cogitatione (of Messahala) at I37ra-I38vb, our manuscript takes a medical turn with the Surgery of Lanfranc, an Antidotarium at 152ra-I53rb with the strange incipit, *Primo tria requiruntur in ipsa dispensatione... A more astrological text at 153va-I55rb opens, *Nota quod Saturnus est frigidus et siccus. . . Much of the rest of the manuscript is in French with one long treatise at 156r-183r, in single column, opening, *Humane cors est... At I83r-i86r is another unfamiliar medical text in Latin, *Cum omnis creatio sit ex spermate, ab ipsa sit locutio... / . . . pulsus vero melus id est tristis omni etate mortem significat. A tract on distempering azure at 189ra-19Irb has a new incipit, *Azorium color est optimus ac pulcherrimus... Other alchemical and magical recipes in French and Latin complete the manuscript.

BN nouv. acq. 3o34 (54) BN nouv. acq. 3034 is a paper manuscript of the fifteenth century of 306 leaves, 285 by 21 0o mm., which are chiefly occupied by the second part of the astrological Summa of John of Eschenden, who, however, is here called John of Oxford.159 At fols. 133ra-135vb is an insert, written more closely and in a different ink, of fourteen chapters, De naturis signorum et planetarum dignitatibus in eisdem, opening, Aries est signum mobile orientale diurnum masculinum . . .1o

To the criticism by Eschenden of the rules of Perscrutator on weather prediction, made earlier in his Summa and already noted elsewhere,16' may be added another which occurs in the twelfth and last Distinctio of this second part:

Non multum soliciteris circa regulas de temperie positas a fratre qui vocat se Per- scrutatorem nec cuiuscumque moderni sic presumtuose scribentis nisi cuius regulas fueris magis expertus. Numquam enim potui videre rationem in regulis predicti fratris quia

1s8 See A Catalogue of Incipits, 392; A History of Magic etc., V, 675.

159 Incipit pars secunda de accidentibus mundi com- pilata a venerabili magistro Iohanne de Oxonia in civitate eadem. Sicut dicit Aristoteles secundo Ethi- corum capitulo octavo, Sermones generales...

1oo Zinner, Verzeichnis d. astron. HSS. des deutschen Kulturgebietes, Munich, 1925, notes nine MSS., all anonymous, with the incipit, Aries est signum mobile... (Nos. 7992-96, 11849-52), and one (No.

7997) with the incipit, Aries est signum orientale mobile... At Munich, in CLM x 7, I4th century, a Table at fol. 20x r of what to do when the moon is in one of the twelve signs, is followed at fols. 20xva-202vb by a text, De notitia lunationum in signis I 2 in quibus scitur quid sit bonum facere et quid dimittitur, opening, Aries est signum orientale mobile calidum et siccum...

1x1 A History of Magic and Experimental Science, III, 109.


162 LYNN THORNDIKE

totaliter quasi operatur per terminos et per gradus lucidos tenebrosos fumosos et vacuos. Nec umquam audivi de aliquo qui se dixit fuisse expertum de regulis predicti fratris.e62

Eschenden goes on to say that he does not much approve of any astrological rules for predict- ing the daily occurrence of rain, and that he has never felt much security in forecasting the weather from the planet in the ascendent, or the planets in the four angles or in the other astrological houses. But since Albumasar, Ptolemy and practically all astrologers employ that method, he will not condemn it.

(55) In A History of Magic and Experimental Science, III, 326-28, 717-1I8, I accepted the attribution to John of Eschenden of Pronosticationes de eclipsi universali lune et de coniunctione trium planetarum superiorum que apparuerunt anno domini 1345 in MS. Digby 176 of the Bodleian Library, Oxford, at fols. 9r-I6r, dated on March 20 (or 24 or 29, the figure -o, 2 or 9)-being indistinct), I345, immediately after the eclipse.163

But in this Paris manuscript of the fifteenth century, Bibl. Nat. nouv. acq. 3034, containing the second book of Eschenden's Summa, he states that he wrote nothing at the time on the significations of the conjunctions and lunar eclipse of 1345, which he now proceeds to discuss in the year of the Black Death on the basis of past astrological authorities.

Et ponamus tibi exemplum de anno Cristi 1345 in quo convenerunt 3 superiorum in 2a facie Aquarii et accidit id(?) temporis eclipsis lune universalis. Et iste conclusiones (sic) cum eclipsi significabant16 magnos effectus et diu durabiles, sicud patet per ea que scripsi de significationibus earum in eodem anno et per ea que experimentis multisle6 postea satis didicimus, sicut dicetur inferius. Nichil enim tunc tempus scripsi de signi- ficacionibus earumdem conclusionum (sic) et eclipsis lune predicta quando illud idem eveniebat post infra paucos annos, nec aliqua scripsi nisi illa que sequebantur ex dictis astronomorum.

Here, in order to avoid contradiction in

sicud patet per ea que scripsi de significationibus earum in eodem anno

we must take in eodem anno as modifying only significationibus and interpret scripsi as having reference to the Summa.166

The same passage, with slightly different wording, is also found in the printed edition of Eschenden's Summa in 1489:

Ponam tibi exempla de anno Christi 1345 in quo convenerunt 3 superiores in secunda facie Aquarii et accidit tunc temporis eclipsis lunae universalis. Et istae coniunctiones cum eclipsi significabant magnos effectus et durabiles, sicut patet per ea quae scripsi de significationibus earum eodem anno et per ea quae experimentis multis didicimus, sicut dicetur inferius. Nihil enim scripsi tunc temporis de significationibus... earundem coniunctionum et eclipsium lunae praedictae quando illud idem eveniebat post infra paucos annos, nec aliqua scripsi tunc nisi ea que sequebantur ex dictis astrologorum.x67

162 BN nouv. acq. 3034, fol. 296ra: edition of 1489, fol. 307(214)rb.

163 Digby 176, 14th century, fol. 9r, ... Et complete fuerunt iste pronosticationes 20o die predicti mensis marcii anni christi supradicti; ... fuit ista eclipsis in marcio anno domini 1345 completis de inicio 19 diebus 9 horis et 4 (?) minutis.

1o4 At this point a rubric is written between the lines of text: Iudicium magne coniunctionis trium planetarum a' 1345 et primo de eclipsi lune concurrente curm ipsa coniunctione magna. This at first glance gave the impression that a distinct treatise was beginning, like that in Digby 176 noted in the previous footnote.

165 Here two leaves have been cut out, but the text seems to continue without break.

16e The passage occurs in BN nouv. acq. 3034 at fols. 297vb-298ra, in the second chapter of the 12th and last Distinctio.

167 Summa astrologiae judicialis, Venice, Santritter, 1489, fol. actually numbered 307 but renumbered 214 in the copy at the New York Academy of Medicine, verso, col. b.

This edition abounds in inconsistencies. In this same

column both past and future tense are used concerning the eclipse of 1345:

ista autem eclipsis fuit in Martio eiusdem anni 1345 completis de Martio i8 (sic) diebus et decem et novem horis et 40 minutis, et eclipsabitur luna in 12 gradu Librae

At fol. 306(215)ra he states that the great conjunction occurred 2 days and 29 hours after the eclipse but at 306(215)vb gives the time more correctly as 2 days and 9 hours. At rb of the same fol. it states that the effects of the eclipse and conjunctions will last 6 years and 6 months, but at vb, octo annos et 6 menses, a time favoured in the I345 prediction in Digby 176.


NOTES ON MANUSCRIPTS OF THE BIBLIOTHtQUE NATIONALE 163 In another manuscript of the Summa, Oriel College, Oxford, Latin MS. 23, later four-

teenth century, fol. 222'v, it is said with reference to the year I345: Whatever I have now said to you concerning effects, that same I predicted then according to the views of the astronomers.'68 But in a manuscript at Munich of I488 and in the edition of I489 this statement is made as to the year I347, not I345.169 However, both the Oriel and the Munich manuscript and the edition assert that the Black Death and other effects of the eclipse and conjunctions were predicted before any one of their effects occurred,170 while the two latter at least mention Eschenden's own prognostication from the eclipse and conjunctions.171 We are thus still left in considerable doubt what to believe as to writing by Eschenden on the phenomena of 1345 before he treated of them in his Summa of 1348.

Neither BN nouv. acq. 3034 nor the edition of I489 date the completion of the second part of Eschenden's Summa more precisely than in the year of the Black Death. But both the Oriel and Munich manuscripts in closing give the exact date as December 18, 1348.172

Reverting to the Pronosticationes in Digby 176, it may be noted that it or they seem

or seems to fall into two parts or two distinct treatises, one on the eclipse at fols. 9r- 1Iv, the other on the conjunctions at fols. I2r-I6r, opening, Pro significatione istius coniunctionis magne... In any case there is close resemblance between these last pages of the Pronosti- cationes and the final pages of the Summa, where are reviewed the battle of Crecy in 1346 and the conjunctions of Saturn and Mars and of Jupiter and Mars in 1345 (BN nouv. acq. 3034, fols. 299vb-304vb; edition of 1489, fols. 215rb-21 7rb). Perhaps John of Eschenden made use of this recent prediction as well as of older astrological authorities, and this led to the belief that he had been its author.

e168 Quicquid enim tibi dixi iam de predictis effectibus illud idem predixi tunc secundum sententiam astronomorum.

109 CLM 221, fol. 219vb. Ed. of 1489, fol. 217va: prout ego scripsi anno christi I347. Quicquid enim iam tibi dixi ex predictis effectibus illud idem predixi tunc secundum sententiam astrologorum.

170 Ed. 1489, fol. 217va, illa mortalitas et alii effectus praedicti pronosticati erant antequam aliquis eorum effectuum contingebat.

171 CLM 221, fol. 220ra, Si bene aspexeris pronosticationem meam quam scripsi de superdicta eclipsi lune et de predictis coniunctionibus magnis; ed. I489, fol. 217vb, Haec omnia praedicta poteris exempla applicare

ad opus, si bene respexisti pronosticationem meam quam scripsi de praedicta eclipsi, id est, de predictis coniunctionibus magnis.

172 Oriel 23, fol. 225v; CLM 221, fol. 222va: Com- pleta est hec compilatio tractatus secundi summe iudicialis de accidentibus mundi 18 die mensis Decem- bris anno Christi 1348. The Munich MS. then gives the date of its own writing: Explicit summa iudicialis optima de accidentibus mundi secundum magistrum Iohannem de Eschenden professorem sacre theologie quondam socium aule de Mertone in Oxon. Scripta autem est et finita anno domini 1488 die vero 9 mensis Augusti.

NOTE :-In the index to this article which follows, the numbering refers to sections and not pages (see p. 112 above).


LYNN THORNDIKE: GENERAL INDEX

A., see Magister A. Abhandlungen z. Gesch. d. Math., 45 Abluali Alcaytet, 29 Abraham bar Hiyya, or, ben Chija, 28 Abraham Bendeur (Ibendeut, Isbendeuth),

22-23 Abraham Avenezra, 6, 30, 48, 50 Abraham ludeus, 46 Adelard of Bath, 45, 52 Adillwardus, 52 Ailly, Pierre d', 14-15, 19 Albandinus, I 7 Albategni, 6, 7, I2 Albertus Magnus, 3, 21, 40; and see Specu-

lum astronomiae

Albohali, 44 Albumasar, 22, 34, 37, 50, 52, 53; Experi-

menta, 8, 10o, 25, 27, 44; Flores, 10, 27, 30o, 37, 44, 45; In Sadan, io; Introd. maius, 26, 44; Liber experimentaris, i o; Liber imbrium, 28, 39, 44; Magnis coniunctionibus, 27, 44; Rev. annorum mundi, 23; Rev. annorum nativitatum, 44; on the Virgin birth, 37

Alcabitius, 8, 43 Alfonsine Tables, 8, 9, 12, 14, 32, 33 Alfonso IV, of Portugal, 34 Alfonsus Dionysii, 34 Alfraganus, 3, 30 Algorismus de minutiis, 14-15, I8 Alhidada, 42 'Ali ibn Ahmad al-Imrani, see Haly, on

elections

Alkindi, 31, 32, 39, 44 Almagest, 14-15, 19, 43 Almansor, 22, 25, 28, 31, 38 American Philosophical Society, Proceedings,

4I Anagliforra astronomie, 14-15; and see

Nicolaus de Dacia

Andal6 di Negro, 22 Angers, 48 Antidotarium, 44, 54 Antonellus de Laurencis, 41 Aomar, 44; and see Omar Aquinas, Thomas, 14-15, 17 Arabic, numerals, 50; year, 21, 48 Archivum Franciscanum Historicum, 9 Argentr6, see Du Plessis d'Argentr6 Aristotle, Chiromantia, 54 Aristoteles Milesius, 47 Arithmetic, 2, 45 Arnald of Villanova, 14-15, 18, 43-44 Arnaud d'Agnel, G., 4 Arzachel, 3, 47, 49

Ashburnham, Lord, 53 Astrolabe, 3, 5, I I, I4-15, I8, 20, 44, 47 Astrolapsus, 44 Avenezra, see Abraham ibn 'Ezra Avicenna, 42, 44 Azogo, Azogone, Azogont, 31 Azure, 54

Babylon, 37 Bacon, Roger, 39 Bandini, A. M., 45 Barcelona, 25, 28, 31, 49 Baron, R., 44 Bartholomew of Parma, 50 Baur, Ludwig, 40 Bede, 2 Berri, duc de, 37 B6ziers, 48 Bibliotheca mathematica, I I, 49 Birth and conception, 23, 34 Bj6rnbo, 49 Black Death, 56 Boethius, I Bologna, 50 Bonatti, Guido, 23, 29, 40 Boncompagni's Bullettino, 22, 43, 50 Bonetus de Latis, 34 Borgnet, A., 26, 39 Boulier or Boullier, P., 9, 12 Bredon, Simon, 45 Bruges, 37 Bubnov, 47 Bulletin of the History of Medicine, I 8

Calendar, 43, 47, 53 Calends, prediction from, 43 Calista, 37 Campanus of Novara, 1, 21, 40, 42, 43, 45 Capitula Almansoris, 23, 25 Carmody, F. J., 9 Carobolyni, 37 Cechin, 37 Centiloquium, Bereni, 30; and see Hermes,

Ptolemy Charles VIII, of France, 37 Chartularium Univ. Paris., 34 Chevalier, U., 5 Chiromancy, 54 Christ, nativity of, 37 Cities, table of, 35 Clagett, M., 45 Clime, 22 Clock, astronomical, 4 Comet, 14-15, 17, 22, 24, 27 Compositio novarum theoricarum, 41

164


NOTES ON MANUSCRIPTS OF THE BIBLIOTH1LQUE NATIONALE 165 Conjunction, of sun and moon, 41 ; planetary,

25, 56 Constellation, 16, 38, 5 Cordova, 32 Cortesa-o, A., 33 Cosmometria, 42 Coxe, H. O., 43 Crecy, 54 Cremona, 33, 37 Critical days, 30 Curtze, M., 1 I, 44, 47

Damascus, 37 Danko, 2o; and see John of Saxony Dates, 5, 6, 21, 40, 41, 48, 53 Delisle, 26, 43, 46-47 Dimensions, three, 42 Divination, 43 Dondi, Jacopo de', 23 Dorotheus, 8, 46-47 Dream book, 43 Drogo, 31 Dudo, 44 Duhem, Pierre, 6, 7, 13, 40 Du Pin, Ellies, 19 Du Plessis d'Argentr', 34, 37

Earth, circumference of, 44, 5 1 Eberhard, abbot, 44 Eclipse, 22, 25, 33, 36, 41, 47-48, 53 Egypt, 24, 42 Elections, astrological, 28, 36, 51, 53; and see

Haly Equatorium, 40 Era, I Ester Catayus, 23 Euclid, I4-15, 17, 43, 45 Exemplar, 46

Fabricius, J. A., 5 Facies, 30 Faenza, 29 Favaro, Ant., 43 Figura instrumenti, 6 Figure, revolving astronomical, 4 Firdarii, 6 Foetus, 3 Fontainebleau, 4 Forli, 29 Franco de Polonia, 43

Gadmindus, 54 Ganivet, Jean, 34 Geber, 43 Geometry, 44 Georgius Fondulus, 37

Georgius Zothorus Zapari Fendulus, 37, 38 Gerard of Abbeville, 50 Gerard of Cremona, 8, 43 Gerard da Feltre, 21 Gerard de Silteo, 21 Gerbert, 47 Gergis, 26; and see lergis Gerson, Jean, I4-15, 19 Gestation, period of, 23 Giry, A., 46 Gnomon, 42 Gossininus de Harmies, Egidius, 45 Grosseteste, Robert, 17, 40 Guido Bonafors, 29 Guillaume de Carpentras, 4

Haly Abbas, 28 Haly Abenragel, I4-I5, 17, 28 Haly (ibn Ahmad al-Imrani) on elections,

28, 39, 46, 47, 49 Haly (ibn Ridwan) on the Centiloquium,

22-23, 24, 28, 46 Haly medicus, 46 Haskins, C. H., 28, 31, 47 Hautschild, Lubert, 37 Hebrew, 5 I Heribert, 47 Hermann of Carinthia, 37 Hermann the Lame (Contractus), 47 Hermann Stilus de Norchem, 32, 33 Hermes, 23; Centiloquium, 28, 39; de 15

stellis, 39; liber lune, 39 Hester Catayus (Catynius), 23 Hippocrates, pseudo-, I8, 52 Horoscope, I8, 47, 48, 53; of Christ, 37;

royal, 48 House, astrological, 36, 40 Hugh of St. Victor, 44 Hugh of Santalla, 9, 28, 31 Hugo, 44 Hugolinus de Faventia, 29 Humanisme et Renaissance, 32

Iafar, 46 Iaphar, 47 lergis, 26, 46-47 Image, engraved astrological, 5; and see

Ptolemy Indi, cited, 30, 32 Interrogations, astrological, 5, 36 Isidore of Seville, 37 Isis, 6, 17, 22, 30, 42, 44

Jacobus de Partibus, 6 Jacopo de' Dondi, 23 James of Viterbo, 44 James, M. R., 44


166 LYNN THORNDIKE

Janus, 6 Joachim, 44 Johannes Anglicus, 2, 3 John Chillingworth, 13 John of Eschenden, 55-56 John the Franciscan, 21 John of Genoa, 6-7-8, 13 John de Lineriis, 7, 8, II, I3, I6, I8, 32 John of Oxford, 55 John of Sacrobosco, see Sacrobosco John of St. Amand, 44 John of Saxony, 20, 32

John of Seville, 8, 9, 14-15, i8, 20, 22, 25, 26, 28, 30, 32, 36, 37, 47

John of Troyes, 6 Jordanus de Nemore, 45 Jorgensen, Ellen, I8

Kardaja, 52 Kibre, P., 6; and see Thorndike and Killingworth, see John Chillingworth Kristianus de Hag, 5

Lami, G., 49 Lanfranc, 54 Latitude, 4, 33 Lecoy de la Marche, 4 Lewis of Caerleon, 6 Liechtenstein, Petrus, 31 Logic, 44 Louis IX, 44 Lull, Raymond, 43 Lund, 18 Lyons, 16

Mabillon, 14, 22, 38, 39 Magister A., 47 Maino de' Maineri, I4-15, 17 Manfred, 28 Mansions of the moon, 30, 36 Maria of Castile and Leon, 34 Matthaeus de Guarimbertis, I4-I5, 17 Maymon, 37 McAllister, J. B., 17 Measures, 51 Medicine, 31, 44, 54; astrological, I4, 17, 22,

43 Mediclinium, 44 M61langes Auguste Pelzer, 9, 39 Melchion de Friquento, 41-42 Menopoldus, 40 Mercury, the planet, 7, 37 Messahala, 8, I8, 22, 25, 26, 30, 31, 32,

39, 46-47, 53 Meteor, 24 Meyer, Paul, 44 Milan, 4, i6

MillAs Vallicrosa, 3, i8, 20, 22, 28, 49-50, 52-53

Monatshefte f. Math. u. Physik, 44 Month, 5 Montpellier, I6 Moody, E. A., 45 Morlani (Morlas), 33 Murcia, 32

Naples, 35, 41 Narducci, Enrico, 5o-5 I Nativities, 22, 38, 47 Nicolaus de Dacia, 14-15, 18 Nordisk Tidskrift, I 8

Omar, 32; and see Aomar Oresme, Nicole, 6 Osiris, 3, 8, 44

P. de Saxonia, 14, 17 Pansier, 6 Paris, 5, 12, 32, 34, 37, 38, 40 Paulus Frisius, 37 Pavia, 37 Pelzer, Aug., 9 Perscrutator, 55 Peter of Abano, 30 Peter of Limoges, 44 Petrus de Alliaco, 14-15, 19 Petrus de Dacia, 43 Petrus de Monte Alcino, 14-15, 17 Pictures, astrological and astronomical, 37,

38 Plague tract, 14-15, 17 Planet, 3, 9, 37, 38, 40, 45, 46, 49, 51 Planets, theory of, 41, 43; significations of,

I6 Planimetria, 42 Plato of Tivoli, 25, 28, 31, 47 Practica geometrie, 44 Prosdocimo de' Beldomandi, 43 Prtifening, 44 Ptolemy, 6, 23, 30, 44, 53; Centiloquium, 8,

9, 22, 28, 44; comets, 22, 27; images, 8, 9, 44; occulta, 8, I I, 44, 45; Quadri- partitum, 5 I; and see Almagest

Pythagoras, 43

Quadrans vetus, 2, 3, 44 Quetif and Echard, 18

Rainbow, 40 Rasis, 31, 39 Recipe, 52 Regensburg, 44 Reggio (Emilia), 48 Regnauld le Queux, 37


NOTES ON MANUSCRIPTS OF THE BIBLIOTHLQUE NATIONALE 167 Regnum and Rex, 8 Ren6 of Provence, 4 Revolutions, astrological, 7 Richard II, 43 Richard of England, 3 Robert de Beaumont, 3 Robert of Chester, 11 Romania, 44 Roussel, Jehan, 37, 40

Sacrobosco, 1, 3, 14-15, 34, 42, 43, 44 Sahl ben Bischr, 25; and see Zael, Zehel Sarton, G., 5 Savasorda, 28, 47 Saxl, Fritz, 38 Schroeter, J. F., 46 Schum, Verzeichniss, 22, 43 Scriptorium, 16, 37 Selder, Henry, 5, 15, 16, 17, 41 Serapion, 44 Seville, 32, 34; and see John of Sigiboto, 44 Sign-man, 43 Signs, risings and settings of, 38 Silvestre, H., 16, 37 Somer, John, 43 Sorbonne, Collkge de, 43, 44, 50 Speculum astronomiae, 9, 1o, 18, 25, 26, 29,

32, 37, 39 Sphere, divining, 43 Spirits, of constellations and planets, 51 Stars, 5, 6, 8, 14-16, 18, 21, 22, 30, 37 Steinschneider, Moritz, 24, 28, 31, 48 Stephen of Messina, 28 Sun, size and distance of, 42 Symon de Phares, 4, 34, 37, 40 Syrups, Table of, 6

Tables, astronomical, 2, 4, 5, II, 12, 16, 17, 32, 33, 41, 47, 53

Tabula regionum, 35 Tabule Frequentine, 41-42 Tacuinum sanitatis, 44 Thadeus of Parma, 18 Thebit ben Corat, 3, 8, 9, 43, 46 Theel, 46 Theodosius de Flisco, 50 Thetel, 46 Thomson, S. H., 17 Thorndike and Kibre, A Catalogue of Incipits,

9, I I, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 44, 53-54 Thorndike, Lynn, History of Magic and

Experimental Science, 6, 9, o10, 17-18, 34, 37, 40, 50, 54-56; other publications, 24, 30o, 39, 41, 43

Time, divisions of, 51; difference in, between places, 35

Toledo, 3, 6, 12, 32, 33 Tournai, 5, I6 Trutina of Hermes, 22 Turquet, 43

Valentinelli, 22 Valladolid, 32, 33

Weather prediction, 22, 40, 46, 55 Wickersheimer, E., 4, 34, 40 William of England, 39 William of Moerbeke, 18 Winds, 37, 51

Zael, 25, 29, 54 Zehel, 46-47 Zeitschrift f. Math. u. Physik, 24, 28, 31, 48 Zinner, E., 3, 5, 11, 24, 40, 55

INDEX OF MANUSCRIPTS

Basle, F.II.7, II Berlin cod. lat. fol. 182, I8 Berne 483, 31 Boston Medical 20, 2 Brussels 930, 5, 22

1465, 37 1466, 16

Cambridge, Emmanuel 70, I I, 50 Gonville and Caius 413, 44 Pembroke 227, 32 University Ee. III. 61, 6

Catin. 85, 3 Cues 207, 38

208, 45 Erfurt, Amplon. F. 37, 5

F. 379, 22 F. 386, 32

Erfurt, Amplon, F. 394, 31, 38 Q. 366, 20 Q. 381, 52 O. 82, 44 D. 18, 29

Florence, Laurentian, Ashburnham 206, 7 Laurentian Plut.29, cod. 19, 43 Nazionale, conv.soppr. J.III.28, 30o

J.X.2o, 28, 49 Riccardian L.II (Lami), 49

London, British Museum, Arundel I I, 34 Harley 13, 9 Royal 12.E.XXV, 3 Sloane 312, 49

332, 40 168o, 18 2030, 54


i68 LYNN THORNDIKE London, British Museum, Sloane 3281, 2

3983, 37 Madrid 100ooo9, 3, 28,32

oo10015, 22 Ioo63, 29, 53

Mainz 53oa, I Metz 287, 50 Milan, Ambros. S. 58 sup., 17 Munich, CLM 221, 56

527, 17 io66i, I8 13021, 44

New York, Pierpont Morgan 785, 37 Plimpton 175, 42

Oxford, Bodleian, Ashmole I9I.1, 40 191.11, 26 346, 26

Canon.Misc. 436, 23 554, 43

Digby 40, 52 51, 25 57, 3 93, 26 176, 55 228,39

Laud.Misc. 594, 10, 33 Corpus 248, 46 Hertford 4, 34, 50 Oriel 23, 56

Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale latin 2692, I9 4775, see 7344 5464, see 7440 5466, see 7307 5874, see 7292 7196, 1, 2 7267, 1, 3 7276B, 4 7277, 5, 15 7280,23 7281, 6, 7 7282, 8-13 7292, 14-19 7293A, 20-2 I 7307, 22-25, 31 7316, 22-23, 26-29 7316A, 30-36

Paris, Bibliothbque Nationale latin 7321, 30o, 36

7322, 7 7331, 37, 40 7335, 40 7338, 30, 34 7344, 37-38 7420A,44 7440, 31, 39 7443, 22-23, 25, 40 9359, 16, 38, 39 10262,41 I0263, 42 14068,43 1407o0, 2 15171, 34 15362, 44 16198, 44-45 16204, 31, 32, 44 16208, 47-49 16648, 52 16659,50-52 nouv. acq. 693, 0o, 53-54

3034, 55-56 Prague, 433, 38 Princeton, Robert Garrett 95, 22 St. Gall, Stadtbibliothek 412, 40 Toledo, Cathedral Library 98-27, 20 Vatican Ottobon. lat. I552, 30

I826, 13 Palatine lat. 1369, 28, 32, 49

1416, 40 1445, 29

Venice, S. Marco, fondo antico 344, 22 S. Marco VIII, 9, 32

Verdun 25, 2 Vienna 2352, 38

2359, 38 2378, 38 3124,28 3162, 38 5208, 23 5258, II 5309, 21

Washington, Library of Congress 123, 30

INDEX OF TITULI AND INCIPITS

A philosophis astronomiam accepimus . . . 3 A philosophis sic diffinitam accipimus. . . 3 Ad habendum practicam in theoricis novel-

lis... 42 Ad honorem dei et virginis Marie... 43

Ad honorem omnipotentis dei cuius gloriam celi enarrant . . . 34

Ad inveniendum terre magnitudinem, 45 Ad investigandum eclipsim... 6 Ad notitiam tabule umbre. .. 2


NOTES ON MANUSCRIPTS OF THE BIBLIOTHLQUE NATIONALE 169 Ad quantitatem diei ubivis agnoscendi. .. 33 Ad sciendum eclipsim solis. Primo quere... 7 Ad sciendum motum solis in una hora... 14 Aequatorium planetarum facile componis (?)

S . . 40 Aggregationes abreviate, 27 Albumasar in suo Maiori Introductorio . . .

37 Algorismus de minutiis, 16, 19 Aliqui astrologiam calumpniantur maliti-

ose... 53 Aquarius aquosus . . . 38 Aries est signum mobile orientale... 55 Artis cuiuslibet consummatio in duobus

consistit . . . 44 Aspectus lune, 9 Astrologia, 8 Astrologice speculationis . . . 14, 18 Astrologus non debet dicere rem speci-

aliter. . . 9 Astrorum liber, I6 Azorium color est optimus... 56

Canones directionum, I6 Capitula stellarum, 16, 17, 21, 23, 33 Capitulum significationum rerum (trium?)

* * * 9 Cautele algorismi, 2 Celestis circuli forma sperica . . . 39 Celi enarrant gloriam dei et opera manuum

S.. 34 Celi enarrant gloriam dei triplici via . . . 34 Centrum est cuius ab initio. . . 6

Circa signa universalia distributiva . . . 43 Circulus eccentricus . . . 3 Cometa est vapor terreus . . . 27 Componitur quoddam... 47 Compositio astrolabii brevis, i i Cuius est imago hec superscriptio . .. 1I4, I9 Cuiuslibet arcus propositi sinum rectum...

II, 14 Culpat apostolus eos qui dies observabant...

I9 Cum a plurimis sepe amicis... 47 Cum aliquis occultaverat tibi anulum... 47 Cum Cechim venissem et more solito... 37 Cum ceteris astronomie libris perlectis . . . 9 Cum dispositionem aeris ad aliquem... 40 Cum ergo dispositionem aeris... 40 Cum fiat naturarum corruptio et mutatio...

53 Cum hoc scriberem... 6

Cum in diversis regionibus... 37 Cum interrogatus fueris... 46-47 Cum motus accesionis et recessionis . . . 25

Cum omnis creatio est ex spermate... 54, Cum prima facie Arietis ascendit forma. . . 30

Cum proiectionem radiorum... 53 Cum secundum varietates . . . 14 Cum substantia Veneris sit pluvialis . . . 31 Cum videris dominum ascendentis... 47 Cum volueris facere astrolabium... 20 Cum volueris invenire locum solis... 48 Cum volueris invenire tempus medie con-

iunctionis... 35 Cum volueris scire latitudinem planetarum

. . . 6

Custodiat te deus. . . 46

De amisso, 53 De ascendente, 8, I o De astrolabii conficiendi ratione, 8 De caristiis et fertilitate, 34 De cognitione temporum, 8 De compositione astrolabii, 2 1 De creticis diebus, 30 De criticis diebus in continuis febribus... 22 De dispositione aeris, 40 De eclipsibus luminarium, 6 De electionibus, 53 De geometricis theorematibus, I6 De hora conceptionis, 23, 27 De impressione celestium, 16, 18 De infusione spermatis, 23 De iudiciis in astrologia, 3 De latitudinibus planetarum, 6 De loco solis, 47 De naturis signorum, 55 De nominibus partium instrumenti quod

turketum... 43 De notitia planetarum prout pinguntur, 38 De occultis, 8 De occultis operibus, I8 De proprietatibus stellarum fixarum... 16 De quantitatibus, 45 De significationibus planetarum, 26 De sphera, 16 De tribus generalibis iudiciis, 54 De universali interrogatione, 8 De utilitate astrolabii canones, I I De varietatibus naturae humanae, 16 De virtutibus planetarum, 8 De vitiis lune, 8, 1o, 53 De ymaginibus celi, 30 Debes considerare. .. 47 Demonstrationes astrolabii, 45 Deus in virtute tua ad honorem tuum. . . 43 Dicit lohannes, Cum volueris facere . . . 20 Dignior et fortior omnibus locis . . . 53 Dinoscitur autem rerum consecutio... 54 Disce prius etatem lune... 43 Dives eram et dilectus . . . 47 Dividitur orbis signorum... 45 Diviso loco in 4 partes... 53


170 LYNN THORNDIKE Dixerunt Hester Ptolomeus et Hermes... 23 Dixerunt Ptolomeus et Hermes . . . 22-23 Dixit Albohali, Iste est liber in quo . . . 46 Dixit Albumasar, Oportet. . .46 Dixit Albumasar, Scito horam introitus . . .

25, 46 Dixit Aly... 14 Dixit Aomar ben Alfragani Tyberiadis,

Scito... 46 Dixit Aristoteles, quia . . . 9, 46 Dixit Aristoteles quod philosophiam... 6 Dixit Dorotheus, Gum interrogatus fueris de

thesauro... 46 Dixit magister Abraham, Ascendens gradus

infusionis. .. 23 Dixit Messahala, Constitue ascendens... 30 Dixit Messahala, Quia (Quod) dominus

altissimus . . . 46 Dixit Ptolomeus, Edidi hunc librum... 9 Dixit Ptolomeus et Hermes . . . 22

Dixit Ptolomeus, lam scripsi tibi . .. 22 Dixit Ptolomeus, Si aspexerit significator...

46-47 Dixit Thebith ben Chorath, Dixit Aristoteles

... 9

Eclipsis luminarium in angulis ascendentis * .. 53

Ego Theel unus ex filiis... 46 Electiones veraciores et validiores sunt.. . 53 Equator diei est circulus . . . 3 Erastotones philosophus adque geometer...

47 Ester Ptolomeus et Hermes dixerunt . . . 22 Et scito quod tempora.. . 46 Exafrenon pronosticorum temporis, 40 Exemplum de universali interrogatione, I o Expositio nominum, I6

Florentis quondam vetustatis traditio... I8 Floridis olim legere doctrinas... I8 Fortissimus . .. 14 Fortissimus occultus iuvans... 17

Geometrie due sunt partes principales . . . 2 Geometrie due sunt partes scilicet... 44

Hester Ptolomeus et Hermes dixerunt . . . 22 Hic cautelarum doctrina detur variarum. .. 2 Hic est liber quam collegit. .. 47 Horologium viatorum, 47 Humane cors est . .. 53

Illa que est super extremitatem... i 4, I6 In almanac compondendo sic procede... 6 In Ariete est unum de sideribus... 3o

In hoc tractatu brevi et utili. . . 2 I In nomine domini pii.. . 37 In quo signo sit luna... 2 In regionibus quibus accidit diversitas... 6 Incipiamus expositionem... 14 Inspice in revolutione anni... 31 Inter omnes antique auctoritatis viros... 37,

38 Intra cum centro equato cuiusvis trium...

33 Invenit quidam vir de sapientibus... 32,46-

47 Iste liber dicitur rota fortune . . . 43 Item opus ymaginis Ptholomei quod est... 9

Laus deo qui creavit... 46 Liber anaglypharum, I5, I9 Liber de ponderibus, 45 Liber desideratus, 4 Liber novem iudicum, 39 Licet multi libri sint conscripti . . . 5 Linee naturales sunt... 54 Luminaria firmamenti sunt multa... 38 Luna cum separata fuerit a malo... 9

Magisterium astrorum, 53 Mercurius in tertio . . . 7 Minutiarum vulgarium scribes superius

numeratorem. .. 3 Modus iudicandi de anni tempestate, 40 Motus octave spere currit annuatim... 25 Mundanorum ad hoc vel ad illud . . . 9, 46 Mundanorum mutatio ad hoc vel... 9

Nomina instrumentorum... 18

Nomina stellarum fixarum... 16, 17 Nota infortunium planetarum, 17 Nota quod Saturnus est frigidus et siccus...

54 Nota rem occultam et secretam, 17 Notandum pro instrumento quodam... 42 Notandum quod duplex est coniunctio... 16 Numerum annorum mensium et dierum a

principio... 32 Numerum annorum mensium et dierum inci-

pientium. .. 33 Numerus differentiarum proportionum, 41 Nunc inchoabo librum de consuetudinibus

... 30

Omissis multis que spectant ad philosophiam . . 29

Omne tempus breve... 46 Omnes concordati sunt... 22, 25, 46-47 Omnes imagines ... 38 Omnibus planetis . . . 47 Omnis doctrine notitia scientie tunc. . . 8


NOTES ON MANUSCRIPTS OF THE BIBLIOTHLQUE NATIONALE I71 Omnis ponderosi motum esse ad medium...

45 Omnis scientia per instrumentum. .. i Opera iudiciorum. . . 28 Oportet te scire primum dominum anni...

Io0

Opus imaginum Ptolomei. . . 46 Opusculum Coeli enarrant, 34

Patefaciam tibi, sublimet te deus . . i o Per modum circuitus . . . 38 Per radios et aspectus . . 14 Philosophi quidem... 38 Philosophi quondam multis experimentis...

38 Philosophis astronomiam sic diffinitam

accepimus . . . 3, 47 Postquam scripseram apologiam astronomie

... I4, I9 Postulata a domino prolixitate vite... 45 Practica astrolabii, 16 Practica geometrie, 2, 44 Practica Hugonis, 44 Practicam geometrie nostris tradere conatus

sum... 44 Precepit Messahala ut constituas... 46 Primo tria requiruntur in ipsa dispensatione

?.. 54 Primum capitulum est... 14 Primus philosophie magister. .. 21, 45 Pro confectione astrolabii recipe tabulam..

II

Pro significatione istius coniunctionis. . . 56 Problemata astronomiae, 16 Pronosticationes de eclipsi, 56 Ptolomeus dixit quod stelle cum cauda sunt

novem... 22

Punctus est. .. 14 Punctus est cui non est pars... 43

Quantitatum alia continua que magnitudo ... 45

Que in gloriosissimis libris antiquorum .. . 3 Quedam sunt debilitates et fortitudines... 40 Qui accesserit ad regem et luna . . . 40 Qui cursum lune scire desiderat. .. 43 Quia a me petisti ... I. 14 Quia dominus altissimus . . . 47 Quia plurimi ob nimiam quandoque . . . i Quicumque astronomiae . . . 47 Quod presens de hac scientia ... ..I9 Quoniam cuiusque actionis quantitatem . . .

47 Quoniam de quarta . . . 47

Quoniam in quibusdam ... .14 Quoniam intentio principalis est innuere... 39

Recipe tabulam planam et rotundam competentis.. . 40

Rerum opifex et siderum... 18 Rerum opifex universi... I8 Revolutionem annorum mundi seu aliarum

rerum... I6 Revolutionem mensium per tabulam ad

hoc... I6 Rogasti me, carissime . . . 28, 46 Rogatus fui quod... 46 Rogatus fui ut manifestarem consilia ... 31,

39

Sapientes Indi... 46 Sapientiam que a domino deo est.... 14 Sapientissimus Hippocrates . .. 14, 18 Sciendum est primo quod quelibet... 42 Sciendum primo quod horam vere con-

iunctionis .. . 35 Scientia astrorum dividitur in duo . . . 27 Scientia astrorum ex te... 9 Scientia significationum... 46 Scientia species habet quarum melior . . . 45 Scientia stellarum ex te . .. 9 Scire debes quod circulus solis . . . I Scito quod aspiciens id est astrologus.. . 26,

46-47 Scito quod diffinitiones nativitatum... 46 Scito quod invenimus unicuique interro-

gationi... 29 Scito quod orbis luminaris (?) est 300... 54 Scito quod signa planetarum levium . . .

10o, 46 Scito quod significatrix id est luna... 29 Secundum Haly quia lupiter habet dominium

. . . 40 Si aspexeris virum qui te interrogavit . .. I o Si conceptus hominum noverimus. . . 28 Si duo homines procedunt iuxta unam viam

Si equationis domorum celi per has tabulas S.. 33

Si quis causa recuperationis perdite rei . . i o Si tempus medie coniunctionis . . . 42 Si vis scire quid accidat mundo. . . 30 Sicut dicit Aristoteles secundo Ethicorum...

55 Signa quoque humida.. . 40 Signorum alia sunt masculini generis . . . 47 Signorum dispositio est, ut dicam, ab Ariete

... 22, 25, 31, 46 Simile est opus stellarum. . . 14 Sint hic milites pedites et puelle . . . 2 Sol consurgit. .. 26 Sol cum fuerit in ascendente... 26, 46 Stellatio formarum, I6, 17


172 LYNN THORNDIKE

Tempus coniunctionis lovis et Saturni . .. 32

Tolomeus... see Ptolomeus

Tractatulus de ascendente, I o Tractatum de sphara [sic] ... I4 Tractatus de influentiis, 16 Tres circulos in astrolapsu descriptos . . . 45 Tres fratres sunt habentes sororem . . . 2

Universis Anglicane nationis prophetantibus

Ut mos est philosophorum in nativitate..5. o U t mos est philosophorum in nativitate ... I o

Ut vero faciamus exemplum per speram... 6 Utrum cometa... 14 Utrum motum solis et lune... 13

Verum motum solis et lune in una hora ...

7, I3 Vitia lune, 53 Vitia lune esse eius malum et cognitio... io Vitia lune et sunt esse malum quibus .. .Io Volens aeris scire naturam in annis . .. 30 Volens horam sanguinis minuendi eligere...

28


thorndike 1957

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