Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS lat. 14754

Martianus Capella; Nimrod; De signis caelis; Canones Ptolemei

Parchment — 256 fols. — — N. France / Chartres — s. XII²

Support:

History: Livesey and Rouse suggested the manuscript was copied in Chartres in s. XII^3/4, based on decorative motifs found in other Chartres manuscript from the period. — The exlibris of Saint Victor (f. 255v) in Paris is dated by Livesey and Rouse to the late thirteenth century. The cursive features of the script and the 'a' protruding above x-height suggest even later date (s. XIV). The table of content by the hand of André Hausselet (prior in Saint-Victor 1471-1495) testifies that the codicoloogical units were joined together at the latest in s. XV, when also a foliation encompasing the whole manuscript was added. On f. Av f.1r, 1v, 95r provenance marks of the Abbey Saint Victor in Paris by a 15th-century hand. Van de Vyver supposed that Hugh of Saint Victor (d. 1141) used this manuscript for composing his Didascalicon. This hypothesis was dismissed by Livesey and Rouse.

Selected bibliography:David Juste, ‘MS Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, lat. 14754’ (update: 17.03.2017), Ptolemaeus Arabus et Latinus. Manuscripts, URL = http://ptolemaeus.badw.de/ms/139. (with further literature). — Sternbilder des Mittelalters, Nr. 48, pp. 449-453. — Kunitzsch. "Eine bilingue arabisch-lateinische Lostafel." Revue d'Histoire des Textes 6 (1976): 267-304. — Dell'Era (1979) used in his edition of "De signis coelis" - siglum Q. — Livesey, J., and R. H. Rouse. ‘Nimrod the Astronomer’. Traditio 37 (1981): 203–66, esp. 251. — Van de Vyver, A. ‘Les plus anciennes traductions latines médiévales (Xe-XIe siècles) de traités d’astronomie et d’astrologie’. Osiris 1 (1936): 658–91, esp. 685.

1r-92r Commentary to Martianus Capella, De nuptiis Partes id est circunstantias quae constant in initio … — … Secute nugis nate ignosce l

92rb-94v blank.

95r-202v De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercirii Martianus Capella. Ample marginal and interlinear glosses especially at the beginning and in the astronomical section (ff. 182v-191v).

203r-229r Nimrod Liber De locis signorum. Qua uia circumdant circuitum stellarum Diagrams in blue and red. The 15th-century foliation jumps from f. 202 to f. 207, marking a lacuna of three folia at the beginning of Liber Nimrod.

(226v) A short chapter LXXX ›Eusebius cesariensis‹ "Annus integer habet dies CCCLXV et horas III et si uis scire numerus mensium et unusquisque eorum quot dies habuerint et qui sunt regulares eorus sicut scriptum est in rota ita sunt."Rota diagram of the 12 months, their number of days and regulares.

(226v-229r) Computistical arguments Si uis cognoscere per omnes annos circulum solarem uel quot sunt concurrentes eius … — Accompanying rota diagrams. Livesey and Rouse (p. 230) noted that same computistical chapters and De signis coeli are found in Venice, Biblioteca Marciana, lat. VIII.22, copied from an ancestor of Padua, Biblioteca Antoniana, 27 (in the latter MS some parts different or omitted).

229v-232v De signis coelis Helix arctus maior habet autem in capite … — … eo quod contraria sit cani. Position of the stars marked with red dots. Images drawn first, text added around them in two columns.

233r-244r Preceptum canonis Ptolomei ›Incipiunt canones ptolemei‹ Intellectus climatum possi sepissime requires

(244v) Astrological divination table.

(244v-255r) Tables to the Canones.

Abreviated Literature:

Sternbilder des Mittelalters

Blume, 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.

Catalogued by: Ivana Dobcheva

(draft version: 2019-04-07)

How to quote: Ivana Dobcheva, 'Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS lat. 14754 - Aratea Digital ' (https://github.com/ivanadob/aratea-data/blob/master/data/descriptions/desc__paris_bnf_lat_14754.xml last update: 2019-04-07).