Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS lat. 13955 (olim: N.1094) / olim 644) / 16)
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Aratea text: De ordine ac positione; Excerptum de astrologia; Exceprt from RAL (Arati ea quae videntur)

Parchment — i (labbeled A) + 169 fols. — 219 × 186 mm — Corbie — s. IX

Support: 22 quires: I4 (ff.1-4), II-VII8 (ff.5-12, 13-20, 21-28, 29-36, 37-44, 45-52), VIII10 (ff.53-62), IX-XI8 (ff.63-70, 71-78, 79-86), XII10 (ff.87-96), XIII8 (ff.97-104), XIV6(-1) wants 6 (ff.105-109), XV8 (ff.110-117), XVI10 (ff.118-127), XVII-XVIII8 (ff.128-135, 136-143), XIX4 (ff.144-147), XX-XXI8 (ff.148-155, 156-163), XXII8(-2) wants 2 and 3 (ff.164-169). Quire marks with roman numerals on the lower margins on verso - 4v "I", 12v - "II" and so on. As is visible from marginal annotations (e.g. on f. 105v) the manuscript was cut on the sides during rebinding, so that some marginal notes were lost. A librarian note from 7. May 1884 on the front pastedown states that already at that time ff. 52-55, 59-63, 79-81, 167-169 are mutilated. Folios 49-88 are smudged on the upper outer edge due probably to water damage. More seriously damaged were ff. 52-64, and 76-81 were the upper outer corner is either smudged or missing (on f. 76v and 78v a later hand rewrote the blemished texts in the corners); ff. 168-9 have two large holes, f. 167 have smaller damages, but still misses sections of the text.

Layout: Written in 29 long lines (exception f. 4r).

Hands: Written by one main hand, Hand A (characterised above all by a "g" with an open lower lobe extended to the left and an upright script) and several secondary hands. Hand A copied the astronomical texts (ff. 46v-60r). All hands share similar features: e-caudata, round"r" after o. Ligatures: nt, ct, rt, ri, st. Abbreviations: insular "h" for autem, "H" for enim, and "÷" for est; "²" for -ur, apostroph for -us. Later additions by another hand on f. 3r-v. Later additions of Gerbert's letter and Fulbert's poem by an 11th-century hand (?).

On the first folio labelled "A" a 19th century hand added a table of content. On f. 1r possesion note mentioned below and probatio pennae.

History: The manuscript was copied in several stages in the second half of the ninth century in St. Peter's Abbey in Corbie during the abbacy of Hadoard. According to B. Bischoff most of the manuscript was copied in the third quarter of the century, while ff. 46r-53v with Martianus Capella's text were later insertion to the mauscript presumably at the end of the century. Wesley Stevens ("Marginalia in the Latin Euclid" in Scientia in Margine, ed. D. Jacquart and Ch. Burnett, pp. 117-138, esp. p. 120, n. 6) suggested that ff. 114v-121v were copied by a hand with some Fulda characteristics 825-840. Looking at the quire structure and the hands involved in the production of the manuscript it seems that Hand A played the leading role, as it was involved in the copying or later correction of all texts. The texts start only rarely at the beginning of a quire (the sole exeption being Boethius,In isagogen), and very often start middle of the folio right after the previous text ends. This inclines me to consider the codex not as a composite manuscript of separate booklets, but rather as a collection that grew in time, as Hand A and his colleagues added more and more texts producing an anthology of liberal arts. Ullman (Geometry in the Mediaeval Quadrivium. Verona, 1964, p. 282) suggested that the manuscript was produce for teaching the liberal arts. — The manuscript is mentioned in two abbey catalogues: in Berlin, SB, Ms. Phill. 1865, f. 2ra datable to the end of the twelfth century and in Vat. Reg. Lat. 520 from around the year 1200 as "Boetii commentum in isagogis et musica et geometria" and "commentum in isagogas Porfirii" accordingly. Cf. Catalogue général des manuscrits des bibliothèques publiques de France: Départements, Vol. 19, p. XV, n° 80 and p. XLII, n° 303, Becker, n° 79 and n° 136 pp. 185-192 (here p. 187, item n° 80) and pp. 277-298 (here p. 284, item n° 278, U. Winter,Die mittelalterlichen Bibliothekskataloge aus Corbie, Berlin, Univ., Phil. Diss., 1972, pp. 10-16, 91-137 and 354-74 and Ganz, p. 37.. The manuscript was probably consulted in Chartres in the 10th or 11th century by Fulbert. It is tempting to believe that the two filling text on ff. 105v-106v were copied during that period. Later on the manuscript was the property of the monastery of Saint-Germain-des-Prés (see note on f.1r. — Acquired by the Bibliothèque nationale during the French revolution (see f.1r "N. 1094" and "olim 544".

Selected Bibliography:Munk Olsen, Vol. 2, p. 268. — Beccaria, Augusto. I codici di medicina del periodo presalernitano: (secoli IX, X E XI). Roma: Ed. di storia e letteratura, 1956. p. 176 — Boethius. Geometrie II: Ein Mathematisches Lehrbuch des Mittelalters. Edited by Menso Folkerts. Wiesbaden: Steiner, 1970. — Bischoff, Bernhard. “Hadoard und die Klassikerhandschriften aus Corbie.” In Bischoff, Mittelalterliche Studien I, 49–63. Stuttgart: Hiersemann, 1966. — Corsetti, Pierre-Paul. “Note sur les excerpta médiévaux de Columelle.” Revue d’histoire des textes 7 (1977): 109–32 (esp. 113-4). — Léopold Delisle, Inventaire des manuscrits latins conservés à la Bibliothèque impériale sous les nos 11504-14231 du fonds latin. Paris 1868 (reprint Hildesheim 1974), p. 123. — Eastwood, Bruce Stansfield. “Calcidius’s Commentary on Plato’s ‘Timaeus’ in Latin Astronomy of the Ninth to Eleventh Centuries.” In Eastwood, The Revival of Planetary Astronomy in Carolingian and Post-Carolingian Europe, 171–209, 2002. — Eastwood, Bruce Stansfield. Ordering the Heavens: Roman Astronomy and Cosmology in the Carolingian Renaissance. Leiden, 2007 (esp. pp. 68-72, 242, 253, ). — Ganz, David. Corbie in the Carolingian Renaissance. Sigmaringen: Thorbecke, 1990 (esp. pp. 94, 152-3, 159-60). — Jones, Leslie Webber. “The Scriptorium at Corbie: I. The Library.” Speculum 22 (1947): 191–204. — Jones, Leslie Webber. “The Scriptorium at Corbie: II. The Script and the Problems.” Speculum 22 (1947): 375–94. — Leonardi, Claudio. “I codici di Marziano Capella.” Aevum 34 (1960): 1–99, 411–524. — Toneatto, Lucio. Codices artis mensoriae: I manoscritti degli antichi opuscoli latini d’agrimensura (V - XIX Sec.). Vol. 1. 3 vols. Centro Italiano di Studi sull’Alto Medioevo, 1994. — Thulin, Carl Olof. Zur Überlieferungsgeschichte des Corpus agrimensorum: Exzerptenhandschriften und Kompendien. Göteborg: Zachrisson, 1911 (here p. 17-18). — Smits van Waesberghe, Joseph. Répertoire international des sources musicales. Vol. 3. The theory of Music: From the Carolingian Era up to 1400. Munich: Henle, 1961. — Ullman, Berthold L. Geometry in the Mediaeval Quadrivium. Verona, 1964. — Entry in Innovative Knowledge DB.

1r Collection of words and their meaning. Excerpts fromPriscian: Institutiones, Macrobius: Saturnalia (lib. 2, cap. 8) and others. Somnium tegitur figuris et uelatur ambagibus … — … hec uocabulo dicta que ea liberi bellaria (?).

1v Iulius Victor. Excerpts from Ars rhetorica, cap. 22, 23, 25. ›Iulii uictoris‹ In his autem quae cogitamus, et in his quae scribimus retinendis proderit … — … et in ipsa oratione quasi quendam numerum uersumque conficere.

1v-2v Boethius. Excerpt from Liber de persona et duabus naturis contra Eutychen et Nestorium (cap. 3-4) P[…] nabilis indiuidua sub […] sed nos haec definitione […] … duplicem quoque personam esse confessus est. Some phrases written in greek characters ("πρωσοπον", "γποστασιν" etc.)

2v-3r Macrobius. ›Ambrosii Macrobii‹ Excerpt fromCommentarium in somnium Scipionis (lib. 1, cap. 20, §§ 26-30). Aequinoctiali die ante solis ortumingens uas aequabiliter locatum saxeum … — … quod in cursu solis unam temporis aequinoctialis horam.

3r Later addition from s. X-XI: Hymn with Corbie interlinear neumes Laudes tibi mens et lingua … — … Cunctis monstrant inunda. published online

3v Anonymous poem Curre poema meum metaforice currepoema [camena] … — … Hoc fiat hoc detur tribuatur ab omnipotente. Edited in Ganz, Corbie, pp. 159-160.

3v-4r Hucbaldus. Excerpt from Musica enchiriadis, cap. 3-4, cap. 1-2 terminales siue finales dicuntur quia in unum aliquem ex his IIIIor melos … — … post dicetur. Sunt etiam plura alia plurium[…] A later addition. On f.4r partly in two columns with marginal annotations. PL 132, 957C-960A.

4v Originally left blank. Modern hand added a title "Boetii Commentaria In Porphirium …"

5r-46v Boethius: In Isagogen Porphyrii commentorum ›Boetii commenta in isagogas‹ Secundus hic areptae expositionis labor … — … continenti rerum disputationem et ad praedicamenta seruanti. ›Anicii mallii seuerini boetii uc et ill in isagogas porphyrii editionis secundae liber V explicit.‹ Interlinear notes, marginalNota signes. Boethius.In Isagogen Porphyrii Commenta. Ed. Samuel Brandt. CSEL 48. Vienna-Leipzig, 1906 (reprint 2013). Pp. 135-348.

46v-53v Martianus Capella: De nuptiis lib. VIII De astronomia ›Marciani Minnei Felicis Capelle de astronomia‹ Quae dum geruntur sacer senatur illos numerarum concinentium … — … percutiens aut in sublime tollit aut in profundum deprimit aut in latitudinem declinare aut retrogradare facit. ›Explicit.‹ Many interlinear and marginal glosses by a different hand in a darker ink. Greek terms written in greek characters. Diagrams in the margins of ff. 51v and 52r showing the phases of the moon and the position of the celestial bodies during eclipse.

53v-54r Martianus Capella: De nuptiislib. IX De harmonia Aurea flammigerum cum luna subegerit orbem … — … Fecunda redde pignora. Text begins on the same new line without any rubrication.

54r-54v Excerptum de astrologia Duo sunt extremi uertices mundi quos appelant polos … — … ad ipsum usque decurrit accipiens. No rubrication, a three-line high initial"D".

54v-56r De ordine ac positione Helice arcturus maior habet stellas in capite VII … — … Anticanis habet stellas iii. Text begins on a new line but without any rubrication. Each section is marked by a small initials, but begins on the same line as the preceding section.

56r-60r Compendium of excerpts on astronomy:

Bruce Eastwood, “Calcidius’s Commentary on Plato’s Timeus in Latin Astronomy of the Ninth to Eleventh Centuries,” in Between Demonstration and Imagination: Essays in the History of Science and Philosophy Presented to John D. North, ed. L. Nauta and A. Vanderjagt (Leiden: Brill, 1999), 171–209.

60r-105v Boethius: De institutione musica ›Incipit musicae institutionis liber I anicii M. S. Boetii. Proemium.‹ Musicam naturaliter nobis esse coniunctam et mores uel honestare uel uertere Omnium quidem perceptio sensuum ita sponte ac naturaliter … — … non spissis uero ut in diationicis generibus nusquam una. Diagrams within the texts. Marginal annotations.

105v-106r Gerbert of Aurillac: Letter to Constantinus on making a hemisphere A later addition, written by a diferent scribe using probably left blank space. ›Gerbertus Constantino‹ Sphera mi frater de qua queris ad celestes circulos uel signa ostendenda conponitur … — … nihil caeli sed terra tantum per utrasque fitulas intuenti occurrit. Bubnov 1899, pp. 25-28. Gerbert of Aurillac.The Letters of Gerbert with His Papal Privileges as Sylvester II. Tr. Harriet Pratt Lattin. New York: Columbia Univ. Press, 1961 (here pp. 36-39).

106r-106v Fullbert of Chartres. Three short poems added later in the originally blank folio.

The Letters and Poems of Fulbert of Chartres. Ed. and tr. Frederick Behrends. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1976.

107r-123v Ps-Boethius: Geometria I ›Incipiunt libri anicii manilii seuerini boetii artis geometriae et arithmeticae numeri V ab euclidae traslati [!] de greco in latinum I regula artis geometriae quinque et fons sensuum et origo dictionum‹ Geumetria [!] est disciplina magnitudinis immobilis formarumque … — … In demonstratione summitas, In conclusione extremitas. ›Explicit Anicii Manilii Seuerini Boethii liber V artis geumetriae [!] de greco in latinum translatus ab euclide peritissimo geumetrico [!].‹ Added two lines"Hi namque libri continent numerorum causas et diuisiones circulorum et omnium figurarum rationes extremitatum et summitatum genera angulorum et mensurarum expositiones". Diagrams and geometrical figures within the text body. There is no complete edition of theGeometry I; the partial editions are listed in M. Folkerts. "Die Altercatio in der Geometrie I des Pseudo-Boethius. Ein Beitrag zur Geometrie im mittelalterlichen Quadrivium." In: Fachprosa-Studien. Beiträge zur mittelalterlichen Wissenschafts- und Geistesgeschichte, ed. G.Keil, 84-114 (esp. pp.88-89). Berlin: Erich Schmidt, 1982. Reprinted in Folkerts, Essays on early medieval mathematics, VII. Aldershot: Variorum, 2003. See also Stevens Wesley. "Marginalia in the Latin Euclid." In Scientia in Margine, ed. D. Jacquart and Ch. Burnett, 117-138, Geneva: Librairie Droz, 2005.

123v-130v Excerpta Agrimensorum Romanorum. ›Item de arte geumetriae [!]‹ On the manuscript transmission see M. Folkerts. "Die Altercatio in der Geometrie I des Pseudo-Boethius. Ein Beitrag zur Geometrie im mittelalterlichen Quadrivium." In: Fachprosa-Studien. Beiträge zur mittelalterlichen Wissenschafts- und Geistesgeschichte, ed. G.Keil, 84-114 (esp.pp. 95-102). Berlin: Erich Schmidt, 1982. Reprinted in Folkerts, Essays on early medieval mathematics, VII. Aldershot: Variorum, 2003. Geometrical figures within the text body.

131r-137r Columella. ›Lucii Iunii moderati columellae‹ Excerpt from De re rustica lib. V, cap. 1-3 (ff. 131r-133r; VI, 29-35, 38 (ff. 133r-134v introduced by "Aliud ex eodem"); XII, 6-7, 10, 12, 16, 19-20, 26-27, 30, 37, 21, 23, 5, 28(§3)-29, 32, 35, 39, 45, 57, 59, 25 (ff. 134v-137r between this group and the previous four blank lines). Quoniam familiariter a nobis precepta mensurarum desideras … — … deinde cum refrixerit pro libito tantum portionis in amphoram musti adici. Drawings of geometrical figures within the body text. A direct copy of this manuscript isBern, Burgerbibliothek, Ms 299 (see Corsetti, pp. 114-129, and Thulin pp. 15-17, who considered them sister manuscript).

137r Isidore. Excerpt from Etymologiae, lib. XII, cap. 1, §§ 41 and 48-54. ›De equis‹ Equi ab aquando dicti quia in quadrigis similes forma et pares … — … Qui color est medius inter nigrum et album et ab albo elbum diriuatum. written by a darker ink. Isidorus. Etymologiarum sive originum libri XX. Ed. W. M. Lindsay. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1911 (9th edition 1991), here pp. 38-40.

137v-146r Herbarium Bettonica a grecis dicitur cestros alii adanton … — … ad quartanas autem quattuor. A. Ferraces Rodríguez, "El Herbario del manuscrito de París, Bibliothèque Nationale, lat. 13955, ff. 137v-146r. Editio princeps."Inicio 27 (2012): 197-257.

146r-147v Collection of excerpts from Theodorus Priscianus (begins on the same line with an Initial and a marginal note "Aliud"). Vt pili ENR canis lac[te] si tetigeris non rescrescunt … — … folia imposita continui curant. A. Ferraces Rodríguez, "El recetario Ut pili euulsi non recrescant (Paris, BNF, lat. 13955, ff. 146r-147v): extractos de Teodoro Prisciano y otras fuentes tardoantiguas en un manuscrito del s. IX."Galenos 5 (2011): 71-90.

147v Bede. Excerpt from De natura rerum (cap. 15 'Quare mutent colores' - on the colours of the planets). Suus quidem cuique color est saturno candidus … — … orbitaeactram (?) in obscuritatem. Bede.Opera didascalica. Ed. Charles Jones. CCSL, 123 A. Turnhout: Brepols, 1975 (here p. 207).

147v Section from Arati ea que uidentur on the constellations within the celestial circles (with minor changes). "In arctico circulo sunt signa IIII Arcturi duo cepheus a pectore draco. In aestiuus signa VIII bootes, corona, ingeniculo, lyra, cassiepia, agitator, cignus, perseus. In hiemali solstitio VI Heridanus, nauis, centaurus in quo bestia et sacrarium, piscis maior inuisibilis australis (?). In equinoctiali circulo XV Equus, serpentarius in quo sepens, ylidris in qua urceus et coruus, anticanis, aquila (?) […], Orion, Telum, deltoton, andromeda, lepus, coetus, canis. Unde fieri omnia signa XXXI absque eorum illustrissima alterutrum constituta uti super bootem septentrio, super agitatorem sex hedi, super taurum (?) uergilie, super uirginem spica, super canem sirius […]. Zodiacus autem habet signa XII Cancrum, leonem, uirginem, libram, scorpionem, sagittarium, capricornum, aquarium, pisces, arietem, Taurum, Gemines."Maass, pp. 103,21-107,21.

147v Section from (Ps.)Censorinus Fragmentum Censorini: De stellis fixis et stantibus, §§ 3-6 on the influence of planets. Saturni stella frigida et sterilis terris nascentibus non salutaris … — … Plurimum in originibus ualent quae in ortus languent in occasu. Censorinus pp.65-6.

Grammatical texts, on prosody:

158v-165v Augustine: De musica ›Definitio musicae fortunatiani‹ Musica est scientia bene modulandi. Igitur modulatio a modo est nominata … — … inter istorum aequalitatem in membris imparibus et aliorum omnium intersit. Scriptorum veterum nova collectio e vaticanis codicibus, Vol. 3. Ed. A. Mai. Rome: Typis Vaticanis, 1828 (here pp. 116-134).

Gromatic texts:

Abreviated Literature:

BeckerBecker, Gustavus. Catalogi bibliothecarum antiqui. Bonn: Max Cohen et filius, 1885.
Bubnov 1899Gerberti postea Silvestri II papae Opera mathematica 972-1003. Ed. Nicolai Bubnov. Berlin: Friedländer, 1899.
CensorinusDe die natali liber ad Q. Caerellium: accedit anonymi cuiusdam epitoma disciplinarum (Fragmentum Censorini)CensorinusKlaus Sallmann Leipzig Teubner 1983
Ganz, CorbieCorbie in the Carolingian renaissanceDavid GanzSigmaringen Thorbecke 1990
Lachmann, IDie Schriften der römischen Feldmesser, Vol. 1, ed. by F. Blume, K. Lachmann and A. Rudorff. Berlin: G. Reimer, 1848.
MaassCommentariorum in Aratum reliquiaeErnst MaassBerlin Weidmann 1898 online in archive.org.
PLPatrologia latina ed. J. P. Migne. - Paris 1844ff.
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Catalogued by: Ivana Dobcheva

(draft version: 2018-06-01)
How to quote: Ivana Dobcheva, 'Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS lat. 13955 - Aratea Digital' (https://github.com/ivanadob/aratea-data/blob/master/data/descriptions/desc__paris_bnf_lat_13955.xml last update: 2018-06-01).