Dresden, Sächsische Landesbibliothek, Dc 183
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Astronomical collection

Aratea text: De ordine ac positione; Excerptum de astrologia; Hyginus, De astronomia; Cicero, Aratea

Parchment — 101 fols. — 250 × 182 mm — North-west France — s. IX2

Support: On f. 97v – quire mark XIII; The manuscript suffered grate damage during World War II. This description is based therefore on Warburg Insitute photographs for ff. 8v, 13r, 14r-26r, 27v, 28v, 29v and 31r and on microfilm in IRHT for ff. 1r-2v, 7r-28r, and 94r-101v. For the rest of the content draws on the description of Maass.

Layout: Written in 30-33 long lines. Exception ff. 94r-97v ruled and written in two columns; Written space: 195 × 125 mm

History: North-west France (Bischoff), North France (Dell'Era). As far as I can judge by the reproductions the manuscript seems to be a composite one with three different sets of astronomical material combined together at a later stage moment.

Selected Bibliography:Schnorr von Carolsfeld, Franz. Katalog der Handschriften der Sächsischen Landesbibliothek zu Dresden. vol. 1. Dresden, 1979, pp. 334-335. — Maass, pp. XXI-XXII. — Bischoff, Katalog I, p. 225. — Sternbilder des Mittelalters, pp. 234-39. — Reeve, Michael D. “Some Astronomical Manuscripts.”Classical Quarterly, New Series 30, 2 (1980): 508–22 (esp. 508-10). — Marcus Tullius Cicero.Aratea. Fragments Poétiques. Edited by Jean Soubiran. Paris: Les belles lettres, 1972 (esp. 116-117). — Cicéron, Les Aratea. Edited by Victor Buescu. Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 1941. — Buescu, Victor. “La tradition manuscrite des Aratea de Cicéron; Nouvelles découvertes.” InProblèmes de critique et d’histoire textuelle, 133–209. Bucharest and Paris, 1942 (esp. pp. 164-69).

1r-(?) Revised Aratus Latinus

31v De sideribus

31v Anonymous verse on the zodiacal signs (12 hexameters). Bis sex signiferae numerantur sidera spaerae

32r-v Excerptum de astrologia Duo sunt extremi uertices mundi … — … ipsum usque decurrit accipiens.

33r-86v Hyginus: De astronomia

87v-93v blank.

94r-97v Cicero: Aratea(vv. 1-471) According to Soubiran the text of Cicero begins on f. 94r with title: ›Incipiunt versus Ciceronis des signis. Primitus de ariete‹ […]quam gelidum ualido de corpora frigus … — … et cernis uolucris exsistis clara sagita. Text is written in two columns 34 lines per page, in a much more regular Carolingian hand (letters with equal height, no open a; initials detached from the beginning of verses).

98r-99r Excerptum de astrologia ›Excerptio de astrologia‹ Duo sunt extremi uertices mundi … — … ipsum usque decurrit acipiens.

99r-101r De ordine ac positione stellarum in signis ›De ordine ac positione stellarum in signisin signis [!] incipit‹ Est quidem hic ordo … — … [A] nticanis habet stellas IIII.

Abreviated Literature:

Bischoff, Katalog IKatalog der festländischen Handschriften des neunten Jahrhunderts: (mit Ausnahme der wisigotischen)Bernhard Bischoff1. Aachen-Lambach Wiesbaden Harrassowitz 1998
MaassCommentariorum in Aratum reliquiaeErnst MaassBerlin Weidmann 1898 online in archive.org.
Sternbilder des MittelaltersBlume, Dieter, Mechthild Haffner, and Wolfgang Metzger. Sternbilder des Mittelalters: der gemalte Himmel zwischen Wissenschaft und Phantasie. Vol. I, 1: Text und Katalog der Handschriften. Berlin: Akademie Verlag, 2012.
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Catalogued by: Ivana Dobcheva

(last change: 2018-06-01)
How to quote: Ivana Dobcheva, 'Dresden, Sächsische Landesbibliothek, Dc 183 - Aratea Digital ' (https://github.com/ivanadob/aratea-data/blob/master/data/descriptions/desc__dresden_slub_dc_183.xml last update: 2018-06-01).