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Collection with computistical, astronomical and astrological textstitle
Aratea text: Excerptum de astrologia; De signis caeli; Hyginus, De astronomia
Parchment — 96 fols. — 270 × 185 mm — Limoges area / Saint-Martial de Limoges — s. XI-XII
Support: The manuscript consists of two contemporary codicological units. According to Munk Olsen (, p. 267.) one can further distinguish seven homogene units of the same origin: ff. 1-4, 5-20, 21-28, 29-38, 39-46, 47-55 and 56-95. He observed that the manuscript consists predominantly of quaterniones with the exception of ff. 1-4 (bifolium), 29-38 (quinio), 47-55 (quinio missing one after 9). D. Juste confirms that the second codicological part consists of quaterniones: ff. 56-63, 64-71, 72-79, 80-87 and 88-95. Missing one quire between ff. 63 and 64.
Layout: Written in 31 long lines.Script: Written in Carolinginan minuscule. The second part is written by a single hand.
History: There are several suggestions about the place and date of production: Southwest of France (Munk Olsen 1985), Limoges area (Folkerts) more specifically Abbey of Solignac (Borst) or Saint-Martial de Limoges (Juste) in s. XI (Gautier-Dalché, Munk Olsen), before 1050 (Borst), s. XII1 (Munk Olsen 1985) or s. XII (Van de Vyver, Burnett).
Selected Bibliography: Juste, David. Les Alchandreana primitifs: Étude sur les plus anciens traités astrologiques latin d’origin arabe (Xe siècle). Leiden: Brill, 2007, pp. 352-355. — Borst, Arno. Das Buch der Naturgeschichte: Plinius und seine Leser im Zeitalter des Pergaments. Heidelberg: Winter, 1994, p. 118, n. 95. — , I, pp. 272-73. — Burnett, Charles. ‘Adelard, Ergaphalau and the Science of the Stars’. In Magic and Divination in the Middle Ages, 133–45, 1996, esp. p. 141. — Burnett, Charles. ‘L’astronomie à Chartres au temps de l’évêque Fulbert’. In Le temps de Fulbert. Enseigner le Moyen Âge à partir d’un monument, 91–103, 1996, esp. p. 101. — Folkerts, Menso. ‘De Artithmetics Propositionibus. A Mathematical Treatise Ascribed to the Venerable Bede’. In Essays on Early Medieval Mathematics: The Latin Tradition, (III) 1-30. Aldershot: Variorum, esp. pp. 5-6. — Gautier-Dalché, Patrick. ‘Mappae mundi antérieures au XIIIe s. dans les manuscrits latins de la bibliothèque nationale de France’. Scriptorium 52 (1998): 102–62. — Munk Olsen, Birger. ‘Chronique des manuscrits classiques latins (IXe-XIIe siècles), IV’. Revue d’histoire des textes 30 (2000): 123–88, p. 166. — , p. 267. — 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. pp. 666, 679 (cited as latin 7292 A).
Part I (ff. 1-55)
Borst (, I, pp. 272-73.) recorded sections from "Lectiones seu regula conputi" (760) on ff. 21v-22v, 23v, 29r, 30r-31v, 34r; sections from "Lib. comp." (specifically the excerpts from Pliny); sections from "Ann. lib." on ff. 19v-20r, 30r, 79r-v, 84r-92v, 94v. Pliny Excerpta on f. 24v, 68v-69r.Part II (ff. 56-96)
Parchment — 40 fols.
56r-63v Alchandreana (Proportiones 11-35) Paupertate unius cuiusque XI. Quicumque uero desiderat nosse aut paupertatem aut copiam cuiusque inspiciat planetam … — … IIII inutilis et natus in ea decorus erit, V inutilis. The manuscript lost probably one quire, since the text ends abbruptly and the next one is acephalous.
64r-v Hyginus: De astronomia (excerpts from Book 2, 3 and 4 on the zodiacal signs) omnino XVI. Corona autem centauri est stellarum VII. De decimo signo capricorni. Capricornus huius effigies similis est egippam … — … in comissura III, omnino XII. The excerpts start only with the end of the ninth to the twelfth sign - Sagittarius, Capricornus, Aquarius and Pisces. For each of the twelve zodiacal signs there are the respective excerpts from Book 2 on their mythological origin (often shortened), from Book 3 on their position within the celestial circles, and (for some) from Book 4 the paranatellonta and the number of stars in each constellation.
64v-65r De sideribus Ad boreae partem arctae uertuntur anguis … — … Hinc sequitur pistrix simul erida inique fluenta.
65r-66r Excerptum de astrologia Duo sunt extremi uerticem mundi quos appellant polon … — … ad ipsum usque decurrit accipiens.
66r Isidore: De natura rerum (excerpt from cap. 26 De nominibus stellarum) Legitur in libro iob dicentem domino numquid coniungere uales … — … hic autem in celi axe constitutu semper uersatur ut numquam mergitur. Arcton igitur.
66v-70r Bede: De natura rerum (cap. 1-24) interest only in the astronomical chapters, left out cap. 25-51 on terrestrial natural phenomena Naturas rerum uarias labentis et aeui … (capitula)… … Commete sunt stelle flames crinite.
70r Short text of 4 lines on astrology: "repente nascentes regni commutationem aut pestilenciam aut bella uel uentose sti usuae portendentes quarum alie mouentur errancium modo alie immobiles erent omnes sub ipsos septemtrionem aut aliqua eius parte non terra."
70v-76v Isidore: Etymologiae (cap. 24-71) De magnitudine lune ( (Capitula 48-71) ) … Astronomia est astrorum lex … — … et in superna contemplacione collocaret.
76v-79v De signis coeli Helix arcturus maior habet autem in capite stellas obscuras VII … — … CCCXL octo diebus signiferum cursum suum complens. The text has all chapters. It shares most of the smaller omissions and readings found only in Amiens, BM MS 222 (e.g. cap. XXII, 5 "Gorgonis autem", cap. XXXIX, 1 "in cuius medio urna esse dicitur et super cuius caudam coruum sedentem" in Amiens 222; "in cuius medio urnam esse dicunt" here). Amiens 222 is missing cap. I-XVI and XLI. Amiens 222 includes further smaller omissions (e.g. cap. XX, 2 "angulos"; cap. XXX, 4 "genu I", present in Paris 7299A), so that it is not possible that it served as the exemplar of the Paris MS, but they could have been copied from one exemplar. Our MS has the last chapter XLI transmitted, according to Dell'Era only in three other MSS: Durham, The Dean and Chapter Library Hunter Ms. 100, Montecassino, Archivo della Badia 3 and Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek, Gud. lat. 132. Shares the omission in cap. IV, 3 like the Wolfenbüttel MS, Paris lat. 5239, and BAV Reg. lat. 598.
79v-80v Sisebut: Carmen de eclipsibus Tu forte in lucu lentus uaga carmina gignis … — … Luna meat fratrem rectis obiectibus argens.
80v-81r Unidentified ›De imagine et similitudine‹ Imago dei est secundum augustinum genelaliter [!] in omnibus quae a deo facte sunt … — … simile sit et nullo modo diuersum alter in diuersitatibus appareat.
81v-84r Alchandreana (Proportiones 1-10) ›Incipiunt proportiones competentes in astrorum industris‹ De exordio omnes creaturae herus humanicus … — … pauperioris in reditu. De copia aut. Interlinear notes from a 14th- or 15th-c hand.
84r-95v (with additions on ff. -95v (with additions on ff. 92v-95v) Annalis libellus (with omissions) Quod modis solet annus nominari. Primus modus est de luna … — … sed ante aures retro respicientes.
- (92r) Cicero: Excerpt Primus adest aries
95v Alchandreana (Quicumque 9,2-5) Draco semper abire dicitur retrorsum incipiens a leone decurrit in cancrum … — … in quo predicti draconis fuerit caput. Copied as part of the computistical collection.
Abreviated Literature:
Description based on digital facsimile and secondary literature by: Ivana Dobcheva