Introduction

The star-catalogue "De signis caeli" is a short résumé of the Aratus Latinus . In the manuscripts it is often ascribed to Bede the Venerable. The work is also referred to as 'Scholia Bernensia' after the manuscript in Bern (Burgerbibliothek, Cod. 88), where it accompany as scholia as it is also found on the margins of some copies of Cicero’s Aratea. This text was used by Hrabanus Maurus (780 – 856) in his De computo.

Inc. Helix, quae et Arcturus maior. Habet autem in capite ... . Expl. (cap. XL) eo quod contrarius sit Cani (cap. XLI) signiferum cursum suum complens.

Editions

• Dell'Era, Antonio. "Una rielaborazione dell'Arato latino." In Studi Medievali ser. 3, 20:1 (1979): 269-302.
• Hervagius, Opera Bedae Venerabilis, I, Basileae 1563 (reprint 1612), pp. 375-376
• Germanicus. Germanici Caesaris Aratea cum scholiis. Edited by Alfred Breysig. Berlin 1867 (reprint Hildesheim: Olms, 1967), pp. 233-238 under the title "Scholia bernensia" after Bern, Burgerbibliothek, Cod. 88.
• Maass, Ernst. Commentariorum in Aratum reliquiae. Berlin: Weidmann, 1898, pp. 582-594 (using Monte Cassino and the previous two editions).

Literature

Manuscripts

• Amiens, Bibliothèque municipale, Ms 222
• Bern, Burgerbibliothek, Cod. 88 (as scholia 1v-7v)
• Bern, Burgerbibliothek, Cod. F 219 II
• Dijon, Bibliothèque municipale, Ms 488
• Durham, The Dean and Chapter Library Hunter Ms. 100
• Freiburg-im-Breisgau, Archiv des erzbischöflichen-Ordinariats, Ms 35
• Laon, Bibliothèque municipale, Ms. 422
• London, British library, Harley 2506 (as scholia ff. 36ra-44v)
• Montecassino, Archivo della Badia 3
• Oxford, Bodleian Library Laud. Misc. 644
• Padova, Biblioteca Antoniana 27
• Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS lat. 5239
• Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS lat. 5543
• Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS lat. 7299A
• Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS lat. 14754
• Rouen, Bibliothèque municipale, Ms 26
• Schaffhausen, Stadtbibliothek, Ministerialis 61
• Vatican, Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana, Reg. lat. 598
• Venice, Biblioteca Marciana Lat. VIII 22
• Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek, Gud. lat. 132

Lost manuscripts

• Vatican, Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana, Pal. lat. 1417 online (s. XImid). Today the manuscript contains only the Liber Nimrod (ff.1r-19v), but the 15th c. table of content on the bottom of f. 1r lists: Libellus pulcer Besde de situ et dispositione stellarum et signorum coeli; libellus seu tractatus Ptolemei regis ad sciendum horas diei et noctis; tractatus de distinctione climatum mundi et de terminis VII climatum. According to Livesey Rouse (‘Nimrod the Astronomer’, Traditio 37 (1981): 203–66) this MS belongs to the German family of Liber Nimrod and was copied in the first half of the eleventh century.
• The editio princeps (
• Hervagius, Opera Bedae Venerabilis, I, Basileae 1563 (reprint 1612), pp. 375-376
) was based on a now lost manuscript, and is hence an important witness (marked with the siglum 'h' in Dell'Era's edition).

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(draft version: 2019-05-06)

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