Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS lat. 5239

Astronomical-computistical collection

Aratea text: Germanicus, Aratea; Scholia Basileensia; De signis caelis

Parchment — ii (parchment) + 239 fols. + ii (parchment) + ii (modern paper) — 335 × 250 mm — Limoges — s. X²

Support: Quire marks: on f. 3v – I; f. 11v – Q II; f. 19v – Q III; f. 23v – Q IIII; f. 31v – V; 39v – VI; f. 47v – VII; f. 55v – VIII; f. 63v – VIIII; f. 71v – X; f. 79 – XI; f. 87 – XII; f. 95v – XIII; f. 103v – XIIII; f. 111 – XV; f. 119v – XVI; (128r – begins a new quire?)135v – XVIII; f. 144v- XVIIII; f. 148 – XVIIII; f. 152v – XX; ___; f. 184v – XXIIII; f. 192v - XXV f. 199v- XXVI; f. 207v – XXVII; f. 214v – XXVIII; f. 222v – XXVIIII; f. 230v – XXX; f. 235v - XXXI

History: The manuscript includes an obituary of monks and abbots of the monastery of St. Martial (Limoges) on f. 3r, as well as 2 capitulars for donations made to the same monastery, siggesting that it is a product of this monastic centre. Borst dated it to the s.X^1/3. Most of the material was copied from Paris, BnF, lat. 5543. — On f.2r note in the upper margin "cod. Colb. 1020 Regius 3823".

Selected Bibliography:Borst, Schriften, pp. 269-270. — Sternbilder des Mittelalters, pp. 415-421. — Dell'Era, Baseleensia, p. 304. — Juste, Observation, p. 192. — Buescu, Victor. “Deux Nouveaux Francici de Germanicus César.” In Problèmes de critique et d’histoire textuelle, 229–37. Bucharest and Paris, 1942. — Lippincott, K. Saxl Project. — Entry in Innovative Knowledge DB.

1r-2r Isidore: Etymologiae Excerpts: XIII, 10-11 (De arcu et nubium effectibus; De ventis) dicta a greco uocabulo quod terram inhebrient ad germinandum … — … quam flumina (sic) alata figunt (sic) poetae ut alitis austris. f. 1r – hard to read, warn out parchment used probably for a long time as fly-leaf; 30 lines per page, one column, Carolingian minuscule; begins in the middle of a phrase; Greek words written in Latin characters.

2r Note in Greek and Latin on the celestial circles; different hand, added later to use the blank space; perhaps taken from Isidore, Etym. XIII, 6 (although it has terms not used in Isidore).

Dies aegyptiaci (Favourable and unfavourable days) Mense ianuario intrante die primo secundo exiente die ... si quis in his diebus in lecto inciderit non cito euadet et nec nullum genus pecculium dimittetur … — … Istis dies per omniam observandi sunt.

2v Prognostics Mense ian die ii et vi et xvi sanguine noli minuare. Mense feb die ii et xxiii uenam non incidas … — … Mense decembris die vii et xxii ab illo studium declinare memento.

3r Obituaries List with monks their day of death and profession ii nona jan obit Isembertus hic fecit scrinium sancti valerici et duas cruces; vii idus jan Galtetius hi fecit signum quod uocatur uox domini et unum pallium leoninem … — … et fecit ii-a candelabra magna ante altare. Addition at the end by a slightly later unsteady hand.

3v 2 capitulars, donations made to the monastery of St Martial

Hec sunt ornamenta quae A. de brucia subprior dedit deo et beato marciali casulam de purpura … — … et sedilia tam ligne quam lapidea ibidem fecit fieri.

Notum sit omnibus tam praesentibus quam futuris quod ego fulco de riora et Wmus (?) frater meus dedimus monisterio sancti marciali et fratribus … — … testes fuerunt Ai capellanus de molio Ai de monte et Johanus Guitbertus.

4r-6r Dionisius Exiguus. ›Incipit Liber Dionisii Exigui‹ Domino beatissimo et nimium desiderantissimo Patri petronio episcopo Dionisius exiguus … — … Orantem pro nobis beatitudinem uram diuina gratia custodire dignetur. ›Explicit praefatio.‹

6r-20r 19-year cycles (28 cycles: years 532-1063) Incipit cyclus decennovenalis quem greci enneacaidecaderica vocant. Constitutus a sanctis patribus in quo xiiii d paschales omni tempore sine ulla repperies falsitate

20v-21r Chronicle Anno dominicę incarnationis DCCCXXX Herio innsula a generali monachorum habitatione destituitur mense iunio … — … anno DCCCCXXX Ademarius comes emenonis filius iiii nonas aprilis obit apud scm hylarium pictauis sepultus.

21v Blank.

22r Excerpt from Servius Comm. in Vergil’s Aeneid 10.272 ›De Differentia Cometarum‹ Hanc stellam electram dicunt cum qua iuppiter concubuit … — … orbi terarum cędes rapinas bella et cetera mala significat. Catalogue of comets. Sane auienorum cometarum has differentias dicit. Stella quae oblicam facem post se trahens quasi crinem facit yppius uocatur. Ita si ab occasu in ortum ueniat mala perfide et syriae ostendit. Si ad meridiem adtenderit africam et egyptum amalis releuat solis peccoribus pestem denuntians. Si septemntrionem respexerit aegyptum bellis et miserus premit. Another kind : alter cometes est cui ex gladio nomen est Nam grece siphas appellatur cuius tractus est longior et pallidus color neque comas habere dr et hebetior eius flamma est. Again different significations if comes from S N E W Alter cometes est qui lampas appellatur et quasi fax lucet Est et cometes qui uere cometes appellatur… Est alter cometes intympani modum qui nec ualde lucet et electri colorem habet quem disceum uocant

22v-23v Blank, ruled for a table. End of quire IV.

215r-224v Ps-Bede: De signis coelis Fenix arcturus maio habet autem stellas obscuras VII starts on a new quire; images drawn before text was written (see f. 217 with Bootes). Illustrations of the constellations see description in Sternbilder des Mittelalters and in Lippincott, Saxl Project.

225r Diagram of the twelve winds

225v-226r Excerptum de astrologia Duo sunt extremi uertices mundi quos appellant polos … — … urnae aquarii qui ad ipsum usque decurrit accipiens. Remarks: written by the same scribe of the De signis coelis; exactly filled the two folios of 30 lines leaving no space even for a single word, but also without squeezing the text. Initials for the beginning of sentences.

226v-231v Germanicus: Aratea Ab ioue principium magno deduxit aratus … — … qui exoritur summam pestilentiam mortalibus portat uirgo figuratur stellis XVIIII.

Scholia Basileensia Quaeritur quare ab oiue coepit et non a musis

the verses of Germanicus written on separate lines (visibly distinguished as verses), the scholia follow visually marked up with initials; text taking the whole lines one column.

Abreviated Literature:

Borst, Schriften	Borst, Arno. Schriften zur Komputistik im Frankenreich von 721 bis 818. 3 Vols. (MGH: Quellen zur Geistesgeschichte des Mittelalters, 21, 1-3) Hannover: Hahn, 2006.
Dell'Era, Baseleensia	Dell’Era, Antonio. “Gli Scholia Basileensia a Germanico,” Memorie della Classe di Scienze morali, storiche e filologiche. Ser. 8, 23 (1979): 301–79.
Juste, Observation	Juste, David. “Neither Observation nor Astronomical Tables. An Alternative Way of Computing the Planetary Longitudes in the Early Western Middle Ages.” In Studies in the History of the Exact Sciences in Honour of David Pingree, edited by Charles Burnett, 181–222. Leiden: Brill, 2004.
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: 2018-06-01)

How to quote: Ivana Dobcheva, 'Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS lat. 5239 - Aratea Digital' (https://github.com/ivanadob/aratea-data/blob/master/data/descriptions/desc__paris_bnf_lat_5239.xml last update: 2018-06-01).