Liber manualis of Ademar of Chabannes

Aratea text: Hyginus, De astronomia; Aratus Latinus; Revised Aratus Latinus

Limoges — s. XI^1/3

Selected literature: Els, A. M. J. van. ‘Een leeuw van een handschrift : Ademar van Chabannes en MS Leiden, Universiteitsbibliotheek, Vossianus Latinus Octavo 15’. Dissertation, 2015. http://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/306223. — Els, Ad van. ‘A Flexible Unity: Ademar of Chabannes and the Production and Usage of MS Leiden, Universiteitsbibliotheek, Vossianus Latinus Octavo 15’. Scriptorium 65 (2011): 21–66. doi.org/10.3406/scrip.2011.4109. — Hygini De Astronomia. Edited by Ghislaine Viré. Bibliotheca Scriptorum Graecorum et Romanorum Teubneriana. Stuttgart: Teubner, 1992. — Gaborit-Chopin, Danielle. ‘Les dessins d’Adémar de Chabannes’. Bulletin archéologique du Comité des Travaux Historiques et Scientifiques 3 (1967): 163–225. — McGurk, Patrick. Catalogue of Astrological and Mythological Illuminated Manuscripts of the Latin Middle Ages: 4. Astrological Manuscripts in Italian Libraries (Other than Rome). Vol. 4. Fritz Saxl. Verzeichnis Astrologischer Und Mythologischer Illustrierter Handschriften Des Lateinischen Mittelalters. London, 1966. — Peter McGurk. ‘Germanici Aratea Cum Scholiis: A New Illustrated Witness from Wales’. The National Library of Wales Journal 18, no. 2 (1973): 197–216. — Viré, Ghislaine. ‘La transmission du De astronomia d’Hygin jusqu’au XIIIe siècle’. Revue d’histoire des textes 11 (1981): 159–276. — ‘VLO 15 - Liber Manualis’. Koninklijke Brill NV. Accessed 17 March 2019. doi.org/10.1163/9789004264243_O_015. — Entry in Innovative Knowledge DB.

Fascicle XIII (M)

Support: The fascicle is made out of five quires: I⁴ (ff.155-162), I⁴ (ff.163-170), I⁴ (ff.171-178), I⁴ (ff.179-186), I⁴ (ff.187-194, f. 189 and 192 are singleton), with quiremarks I-V.

History: The manuscript was written by Ademar of Chabannes (c. 989–c. 1034) for personal use and for his teaching activities in the monastery schools of St.-Cybard (Angoulême) and of St.-Martial (Limoges). The manuscript, which is now bound in 14 fascicle, had originally probably the form of a stack of quires provisionally bound with tackets. McGurk (1966) and Els suggested that Ademar used a non-illustrated exemplar for Hyginus' text. The iconographical cycle he added is close to the one in Paris, BNF, MS lat. 5543, MS lat. 5239 and Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales, MS 735 C, whereby it was most probably rather the latter MS that Ademar had used. The close relation between this manuscript and the one in Aberystwyth was also noted by McGurk (1973). Els recognised the text on ff. 188v-190r as excerpts from the Aratus Latinus and the Revised Aratus Latinus. The earlier copy of the same excerpts in Reg. lat. 1260 proves that Ademar was using an exemplar and was not himself responsible for the composition.

155r-188r Hyginus: De astronomia

188r-v Bede: De natura rerum (ch. 14-17) Sunt autem cuique sui planetarum circuli quos greci absides in stellis uocant … — … Signa XII uel a causis annalibus uel a gentilium fabulis nomina sumpserunt.

188v-190r Excerpts from the Aratus Latinus and the Revised Aratus Latinus as addition to Bede's DNR on the zodiacal signs their mythological origin and number of stars. Quas ideo strictim ac breuiter subter notare curauimus … — … sub mammis […], in sinistro lumbo I. Pisces.

190r Excerptum de astrologia Duo sunt extremi uertices mundi quos appellant polos. rest of the page left originally blank and filled with later additions.

Catalogued by: Ivana Dobcheva