Durham University Library Cosin MS V.iii.10Medical, Astronomical, Grammatical works
Held by: Durham University Library: Cosin Manuscripts

Manuscript codex made up of 6 parts, the first four (A)-(D) containing medical texts (urinoscopy, medical recipes and bleeding), short theological and philosopical texts. The final part (F), three quarters of the surviving volume, is evidently a grammar master's collection, both practical and theoretical, similar to the short and slightly more recent preceding section (E). Marginal nota signs and bracketing distinguish many of the shorter pieces. Some pages are palimpsest, over similar matter, probably in the same hand; others are partly re-inked. Extensive annotations throughout include names of possible early owners: the manuscript was owned by George Davenport, by whom it was presented to Bishop Cosin's Library around 1670.


Physical description of manuscript
Support

f.1-2 parchment (misbound here, from Cosin MS V.iii.14); f.3-56 (A)-(E) paper (quarto); f.57-115 (F) parchment. Watermarks: (A) f.6/13, 8/11 two variants of Balance in circle, cf. Briquet nos 2445-49, 2466-67 (datings 1441-73), Piccard V.v.258-317 (1441-93), but between, not on, the chainlines; (B) none discernible; (C) f.25, 29 front, and f. 27 back, of Chien, cf. Briquet no. 3626 (dating 1487-95); f.31, 33 upper, and f.34, 36 lower, half of Boeuf, cf. Briquet no. 2782 (dating 1446-48 but not here with “vergeures cannellées”), Piccard XV.vi.1040-72 (1447-77); (D) f.42 lower, and f.50, 52 upper, half of Deux Clefs, cf. Briquet no. 3886 (Italy 1468); f.44, 45 upper, and f.48, 49 lower, half of Ciseaux, cf. Briquet nos 3655-89 (datings 1352-1496); (E) f.55 unidentified. Parchment of varying quality. Sizes vary; paper trimmed: (A) approx. 212 x 145 mm; (B) 195 x 138 mm; (C)-(D) very irregular, up to 210 x 155 mm; (E) 220 x 140 mm (f.56 guarded to 146 mm); (F) varying within 220 x 165 mm (irregular edges), f.60* 170 x 115 mm, f.115 lacking lower third (natural edge); original tears repaired by thread f.79 and 89; original holes, f.76, 103 and 112.

Extent: iii+118+i f
Size: 220 mm x 155 mm

Foliation

foliated i-ii, 1-115 repeating 53, 57 and 60.


Secundo folio: in the body
Collation

Difficult through lack of signatures and catchwords, and because of losses, guarding, stabbed re sewing and tight binding: f.3 possibly once bound with (D), according to evidence of pricking and common scribe
(A): f.4-15, twelve, with f.6/11 probably conjoint, according to watermarks and sewing, so possibly all a regular quire of twelve
(B): f.16-23, quire of eight ?
(C): f.24-40, seventeen, with f.31/36 probably conjoint, according to watermarks
(D): f.41-53, thirteen, with f.44/49 probably conjoint, according to watermarks
(E): f.53*-56, four
(F): f.57-115, sixty one leaves, apparently, from parchment matching and sewing: 14, 26 (1 and 6, f.60 and 64, singletons), 36 + 1 leaf (f.70) after 5, 45 (f.72-76), 5-64, 76 wants 5 [blank ?] after f.88, 8-94, 106, 112, 126 (the central bifolium, f.108/109, is intruded), 138 wants 5-8 after f.115.


Condition of manuscript(A)-(E) staining, corners cut off, f.3 guarded and repaired, lower half of f.8 (blank ?) cut off, upper half of f.53* torn off; (F) staining and other signs of heavy use; more than half of f.57* torn away; repair (19th century?) to slit in f.80.
Layout

Pricking on f. 3 at head and foot as f.44-49 (D)
(A): No evidence of pricking. Written space 163-178 x 125 mm; framed in ink, with sub divisions for diagrams, f.9r-13v; outer vertical in pencil, f.14r. 26-32 long lines.
(B) No evidence of pricking. Written space 162 x 112 mm; framed by drypoint. Two columns; 57-59 lines.
(C): No evidence of pricking. Written space 155-170 x 115-130 mm; no frame or ruling. 27-31 long lines.
(D): Prickings in lower outer margins, f.44-46 (for lines of item (27)); a line of prickings horizontally across the head and foot of f.44-49, and also f.3, with no apparent function, unless for an intended but not implemented use in folio format; it is possible but not demonstrable that f.3 was once bound with f.44-49. Written space 176-183 x 130 mm, or, f.45v-46v, 135 x 108 mm; f.45v-46v ruled in ink, otherwise no frame or ruling, except inner vertical in ink on f.43r and line ruling in ink for lower half of f.44r. 28-35 long lines, or, f.45v-46v, 25 and 30 long lines.
(E): No evidence of pricking. Written space approx. 175 x 105 mm; framed in ink. 41-43 or, f.55v-56v, 32-34 long lines.
(F): No evidence of pricking. Written space 182-192 x 130-145 mm; no frame or ruling. 25-42 long lines or with space to the right of verse passages used for a second column.

Script

f.3r-v written, apart from later additions, in textura in red for Latin zodiacal names, otherwise by the first hand of (D) below
(A): f.4r-v first word of last line, a mixture of anglicana and secretary,with single compartment a, competently, by one hand; f.4v last line 15, anglicana, proficiently, by one hand
(B): Italianate hybrida, proficiently, by one hand, two columns
(C): Current anglicana, with simple v and w, competently, by one hand
(D): f.41r-44r/11, 47r-53v and 3r-v, a current mixture of anglicana and secretary, with secretary g, competently, by one hand; f.44r/12-39 and 45v-46v/19, textura, unsteadily, by three hands
(E): A mixture of anglicana and secretary, with single compartment a, proficiently, by two hands, changing for item (33)
(F): Anglicana, in places with single compartment a, competently, possibly by one hand over a considerable period of time, with many changes of ink and size.

Decoration

Some text capitals lined with red, f.3v, section (B), and, in (F), f.57r-69r, 72r-76r, 81r-84r/10, 85r-86v, 92r-93r/22, 94r-95v/21, 98v-99v/9, 100v, 101v-102r, 103v, 106v. Paraphs, in red, in (B). Brackets in red in (F): f.59r-60r, 62r-63r, 66v, 67v. Initials, 2 line, red, in (B), and, in (F), f.81r-83r, 85r-89r, 94r-95r (with human faces), 98r-104r.

Drawings in ink: f.3v (naked man); f.9r-13v (diagrams of urinals); f.16r-17r and 19v-20r (astronomical diagrams); f.40v (naked man); f.71r (plough); f.91v, crude sketch of quadruped on a leash (added 16th century?); f.107v, animal head terminal to ornamental band, drawn in folded quire (see ends of snout on f.106v).

Corrections and annotation

Jottings in English, 15th/16th century, on f.9r, 15r, 15v, 24r, 31r, 36v (incomplete recipes), 40r, 41r, 45r-v, 46v, 47r-v (English names of herbs). A number of these are by one 15th century hand. Others on f.65v, 67r, 71r, 83r, 91v (drawing of quadraped), 96v, 97v, 108v, 110v, 111v: many merely 16th century scribbling. Pen trials: cursive t, b, f.54r; textura a, b, f.67r; “Fuit homo missus adeo cui nomen erat iohannes bbbb”, f.66r.

Binding

Standard Tuckett binding, mid 19th century full brown calf over thick wooden boards (Charles Tuckett, binder to the British Museum, rebound many Durham manuscripts in the 19th century)


Manuscript history
Creation

Written in England (apart from (B) written in Italy), late 14th - 15th century.

Provenance

Written in England save (B) in Italy, to judge by script; spellings in English verses (f.72v) in item (37), section (F), have north west Midland features. The alliterative phrase, “Wyll a wod of sell besyd senoke (?)”, f.8v, partly repeated, “wyll a wood of sello”, f.46r, in the same hand, perhaps giving names, one possibly Sevenoaks (Kent). Inscriptions of 15th/16th century, most by one hand, which also added recipes and names of herbs: “Johan dayn”, f.3r; “Wylliam”, f.8v; “sent lenard yn setford”, f.13v, upside down, cf. Seighford (Staffordshire) with a medieval form Seteford, or possibly Thetford (Norfolk); “Scansla” in a rhomboid, f.15r; “Thomas dyby Day”, f.23v; “Thys byl be delyueryd to holman”, f.32v (cf. “holmon”, f.45r); “? Sore da v. dbe M Morice Jonys”, f.37v; “the lade of kyllbore saue þe land (?)”, f.42v, sideways, cf. Kilbourne (Derbyshire); “margret hanne for the hendys”, f.44v; “mastere persosen at the seyn of the bere”, f.46r. Inscriptions in section (F), 16th/17th century, by one or two hands, italic and secretary; several contain the name Wigley, which appears to have been most common in Derbyshire, “Henry Wigley”, f.91v, and, upside down, f.82r, 97v (twice); “Thomas Wigleye oth (?) this Booke”, upside down, f.87v. Also other marginal jottings include “Jhon Popan and purchoice (?)”, “from Mistris Frauncis White ...”, f.57r; “tomas wigley”, f.65v (upside down) and 109r; “Henry Stafford”, “Cosen Henry stafforde of blabberbeycke Gent doth accknowledge”, f.71r, no Blabberbeck or Blubberwick identified; “George dany” (or dauy), upside down, f.97v.
Inscription “Geo. Davenport. 1663.”, f.iv; his note of contents, f.iiv. Ex-libris and shelfmark by Thomas Rud on f.iv.


SECTION: (preliminary)
Manuscript contents
(0)     f.1-2
Modern title: Flyleaves
Date: late 16th century
Language: Latin
Language: English

These two leaves were misbound here in the 19th century and belong after the 2 remaining end flyleaves in DUL Cosin MS V.iii.14. The various notes found there are continued by: references to 7 days in item (1) of Cosin MS V.iii.14, italic; two references in English, Secretary, both partly cut away with most of the leaf; three references in Latin, italic, the beginning of each cut away; two references, Secretary, both partly cut away; six references in English to sermons, the last “Master Latt[imer ?] experiens 102”; “Quicquid agas prudenter agas respice finem”; “the lord hath destroyed ...”.

(1)     f.3r
Modern title: Recipes
Incipit: To make pouder of holonde for the colyke... For þe backe ... For bleryd yeyn & blodschott
Language: English, Middle (1100-1500)

Three medical recipes, with names of herbs added by other hands

(2)     f.3v
Modern title: Medical drawing
Language: English, Middle (1100-1500)

Drawing in ink of the front of a naked man, with zodiacal names in red on parts of his body and red lines to places of bleeding for ills specified in English (For frensy sawsefleme & malicolie & emeraudis & eny spice of þe falyng euyll ...) Probably displaced from item (22), section D


SECTION: (A)
Manuscript contents
(3)     f.4r-8r
Modern title: Urinoscopy
Incipit: Vryn in an hote accesse black lytell in quantyte. fatte & styngyng sygn[ifieth] deth
Explicit: Not wyth stondyng who so euer wyll labour dylygently thys tretyse he schall hawe suffycyently practyke to do hym self nede and hys frend also wyth grace and excecice. Quia omne artificium e<st?> Explicit nouus tractatus de Iudicio Vrinarum quod Bele
Language: English, Middle (1100-1500)

Beginning as Oxford, Bodleian Library MSS Digby 95 f.103r, and Hatton 29 f.61r, which also contains item (4); Cambridge, Magdalene Coll. MS Pepys 1307 f.61r, and London, Wellcome Institute MS 564 f.193v, which also contains items (4)-(5). In Digby, where it has the sub heading “Vrine mortis tam hominum quam mulierum”, it is part of a larger treatise (The Dome of Urines); in Hatton it is designated as cap. ii. There are ten signs in Digby but eight here, the first in both cases being the second of ten in Cosin MS V.v.13 f.32v-33r. This version goes on to three regions and fifteen contents, the latter but not the former also in Cosin MS V.v.13, f.33v-40v (where there follows a lacuna; V.v.13 f.41r does not correspond with the rest in V.iii.10). The compiler writes of drawing the treatise into English from Latin, f.7v-8r. Most of f.4v line 2 is cancelled as duplicated and there is other evidence of miscopying, incomprehension or corruption, e.g. “Traynes” for “Graynes” (V.v.13).

Cited: Dome, section I
(4)     f.9r-13v
Modern title: Urinals
Incipit: Karapos The dropsy a wynd vndere the syde
Explicit: wyth a lyttel hony and vse yt.
Language: English, Middle (1100-1500)
Language: Latin

20 sections. Two ink diagrams side by side occupying the upper half of each page, with colour names in Latin, symptoms and remedies in English. Other copies include Oxford, Bodleian Library MSS Ashmole 1447 (p.166-85), Digby 75 (f.108r-v, without the medicines), and Hatton 29 (f.68v-72r, 16 urinals), which also contains item (3); Cambridge, Gonville & Caius College MSS 336/725 (f.137v-139r) and 451 (f.58v-67r, also two to the page); BL MS Sloane 635 (f.88r-92v); London, Wellcome Medical Library MS 564 f.128v-130v, which also contains items (3) and (5). The same set is also in Cosin MS V.iv.7 f.50r-59v, but with legends in a different order.

Cited: Voigts 2000, 3287-3300
(5)     f.14r-15r
Modern title: Urinoscopy
Incipit: Galian sayth in foure maneres thow schalt know the body
Explicit: rysyng to the hert and gendyrys a postom
Language: English, Middle (1100-1500)

In the form of 15 discretions. Incipit as London, Wellcome Institute MS 564 f.195v, which also contains items (3)-(4).

(6)     f.15v
Modern title: Couplet
Date: added end 15th century
Incipit: Iste equus non est ecus sed ex vtraque parte cecus non est honor neque decus equitare tale pecus.
Language: Latin

Recipe “For the gowte Take and gethyr þe xij handfvll of þe bodds of eldar” added 15th/16th century.

(7)     f.15v
Modern title: Medical recipe
Date: added beginning 16th century
Incipit: For swellynge in the legis suddenly come Take ye vrren or pysse of man a Quarte and sethe yt
Explicit: Probatum est.
Language: English, Middle (1100-1500)

“wenday fore senyt antere bartamday” added below, upside down, 15th/16th century.


SECTION: (B)
Manuscript contents
(8)     f.16r-20r
Original title: Tractatus de Sphera
Author: Sacro Bosco, Joannes de, active 1230
Incipit: Spera est transitus circumferentie dimidij circuli
Explicit: aut tota mundi machina dissoluitur.
Language: Latin

Without the four final Latin verses, and with eleven diagrams, f.16r-17r, 19v-20r, in ink.

(9)     f.20v-21r
Original title: Breve Compendium Potentiarum Anime
Incipit: Potentia est immediatum principium operationis: circa formale obiectum. Obiectum est id quod primo & principaliter se representat
Explicit: Quarto vocatur liberum arbitrium. quia vult aliquid in ordine <aliqui>d (?) oppo<sito ?> <consimilia crossed out> vel electionem.
Language: Latin

A differently arranged version of this text, with table, in Rome, Bibl. Angelica MS 835 (Q.B.10) f.35r-38r (Italy, 15th century), has the definitions of Retentiva and Expulsiva reversed, and goes on to the humours before the senses. Closely written in the margins, like a formal commentary, in the hand of (a) “Tractatus hic. In quo Actor sanctus [?] agit de anime potencijs. Per sui diuisione diuiditur in partes duas. In quarum prima obiecit quid sit potentia”. Refers to “doctore sancto” (Albertus Magnus ?), Isidore, Avicenna, Algazelus, and Aquinas. Letters lost at the edges. Although their terminology is largely the same, neither text nor commentary agree closely with the text of Albertus Magnus, De anima.

(10)     f.21v-23r
Modern title: Philosophical text
Incipit: Ad euidentiam et expositionem huius veritatis istius opinionis premittimus aliqua. Primum omne quod est preter Intellectum est vnum numero siue singularitate
Explicit: quia tamen falsum est et nihil plus addo.
Language: Latin

On philosophical and logical matters, citing Boethius and Porph[yr]i more than once. The copyist left a space for a word or two on f.22v/b, presumably illegible or lacking in the exemplar.

(11)     f.23r
Modern title: Two notes
Date: added, later 15th century
Incipit: Mouere intellectum est cum intellectu noticiam sui producere terminare autem est posse intelligi.
Incipit: Nota quod pro formacione secunde intencionis quod ad ipsum 6 condiciones requiruntur ... quod prius hebebat pro termino et e converso
Language: Latin

Written in a small English (?) secretary hand. A space of 25 mm left between the two is now filled with names, English, 15th/16th century


SECTION: (C)
Manuscript contents
(12)     f.24r-28v
Modern title: Medical recipes
Incipit: For a styche vnder the syde Take thyne awne vryne a potell sethe it with Comyn
Explicit: & vse þat bothe even & morow.
Language: English, Middle (1100-1500)

52 medical recipes, unnumbered. Not with the same starting order as the group in Cosin MS V.iv.1, f.23r. Parts of the headings at the top of f.24-25 torn away.

(13)     f.29r
Modern title: On unfavourable days
Incipit: There ben xxxij dayes of perell in the yere Ferst in Januare ther ben <v deleted> vij dayes. of perell
Explicit: Decembre hath iij þe vth. vjte. &. xvth
Language: English, Middle (1100-1500)
(14)     f.29r
Modern title: How to catch rabbits
Incipit: For to take Conyes Take & make afyre in the felde
Explicit: in the bely & ther as
Language: English, Middle (1100-1500)

Incomplete?

(15)     f.29r-30v; 37r-40r
Modern title: Medical recipes and charms
Incipit: To make alectuarij For the breste Take horehounde Isoppe Rote of Enelacampana
Explicit: bothe even & morow & be hole
Language: English, Middle (1100-1500)

48 items, including an alternative to the first added immediately below it by the main hand, and the third repeated f.34v margin and 38r. The first on f.38v, For the pockes, is of three decasyllabic rhyming couplets, beginning “Saynte nycasye had a pocke small”. Items (16)-(21) occupy a quire of six, largely in the main hand of section C, but in darker ink and apparently inserted between f.30 and 37.

Cited: NIMEV, 3030.55
(16)     f.31r-33v
Modern title: Medical recipes
Incipit: To make nervale þat is a precious oynement Take wylde savge. Camamyll. betony. Mynte
Explicit: & j parte of this on 20 of lime
Language: English, Middle (1100-1500)

17 items, the last heading cancelled, so what follows may be for another purpose, perhaps alchemical.

(17)     f.34r
Modern title: Recipes
Date: added 15th/16th century
Incipit: For þe agoo a provyde medicen Item take vj sponfulle of good Reade vineger and a vj hasyle leves
Language: English, Middle (1100-1500)

3 items

(18)     f.34v-35r
Modern title: Recipes
Incipit: for to make whyte led & ceruse Take anew erthen potte & put there to agood quantyte of good stronge veneger
Language: English, Middle (1100-1500)

6 items, in the main hand of section (C). The third item is repeated by another later 15th century hand, up the outer margin of f.34v.

(19)     f.35r-36v
Modern title: Recipes for horses
Incipit: Here be gynyth the medsyns for horse
Explicit: with the sayde broth of the molle
Language: English, Middle (1100-1500)

19 items. Two incomplete recipes added on f.36v, in the hand (?) of item (17b-c).

(20)     f.40v
Date: added early 16th century

Crude drawing in ink of the front of a naked man, and of the zodiacal signs, named in Latin, against parts of his body. Childish sketches of two heads and a woman in domestic dress full length, the latter previous to a superimposed recipe.

(21)     f.40v
Modern title: Medical recipe
Date: added 15th/16th century
Incipit: for ache take nettefote oyle & the gal of a oke
Explicit: Probatum
Language: English, Middle (1100-1500)

SECTION: (D)
Manuscript contents
(22)     f.41r-41v
Modern title: Instructions for bleeding
Incipit: ... arme be not droyn out. Also lest þat þe wyckyd blo<d> in þo ryt arme passe not in to þe left arme
Explicit: Also kepe þe fro alle hote spicis in hote wedere.
Language: English, Middle (1100-1500)

Instructions for bleeding and other remedies against the plague, in English; probably the end of an abbreviated version of the treatise by John of Bordeaux.

(23)     f.41v-43r
Modern title: On blood letting
Incipit: The mastris þat vsyn blod letyng and þer with getyn here leuyng
Explicit: So mot be sey now we Amen amen Fo cheryte
Language: English, Middle (1100-1500)

90 lines of bracketed rhyming couplets, with sidenotes Capud and Corpus; here with the six line introduction.

Cited: NIMEV, 3848 no. 23
(24)     f.43r-44r
Modern title: Medical recipes
Incipit: For the wyldefere Take leke heddis & stamp hem well
Explicit: ix deyys first & last
Language: English, Middle (1100-1500)

11 items; text is evidently missing between f.43v, with catchwords “a woman”, and 44r.

(25)     f.
Modern title: Medical recipes
Incipit: For þe scabe Take helena campana and de rote of fole fote
Explicit: & anowynte hit well. amen.
Language: English, Middle (1100-1500)

7 items, added in space, in textura.

(26)     f.44v-46r
Language: English, Middle (1100-1500)

Names and quantities of herbs, added on blank pages by hands responsible for some of the additions on f.34r, 36v and the margins of f.45v-47v.

(27)     f.45v-46v
Modern title: Medical recipes
Incipit: For to wete yf aman schall be stanchid of þe menisune Take him to ete apeni wight of kerse sede
Explicit: as hoot as þou may suffer &c
Language: English, Middle (1100-1500)

17 items, the first fifteen written in textura, by more than one hand.

(28)     f.47r-49v
Modern title: Medical recipes
Incipit: For a vayne or senew cutt Take white wyne or whyte wyne drestys
Explicit: The water of betayn ys good for ache & for eyyn & hely[th] hem well
Language: English, Middle (1100-1500)

35 items

(29)     f.50r-53v
Modern title: Medical recipes
Incipit: þe seke man þat ys costyff Anoder Take vyolet in þe sted of rose
Explicit: & sede hyt tyll
Language: English, Middle (1100-1500)

44 items (beginning and end missing)


SECTION: (E)
Manuscript contents
(30)     f.53*r-55r
Modern title: Grammatica
Incipit: ... vana Quero qui pronomina
Explicit: Euge cuius significacionis. Dolentis Quare quia significat dolorem vnde versus Euge bis dictum vult significare dolorem si semel esse datur tunc plausus significatur.
Language: Latin

A grammatical summary, corresponding to Priscian, Institutiones, lib. viii onwards. It deals with verb, adverb, participle, conjunction, preposition and interjection, quoting Alexander de Villa Dei, Doctrinale, 434-5, 1366-8. Beginning defective; upper half of f.53* torn away.

(31)     f.55r
Incipit: Illumina oculos meos [Ps. 12:4] Illumina cuius persone secunde Contra probo quod est prima persona quia est persona quarum nulla est prior
Explicit: non tamen est prima persona quantum ad intellectum quia non significat rem de se loquentem
Language: Latin

Short scholastic argument

(32)     f.55r-56r
Incipit: Respondendum est quod omne uerbum substantiuum & omne uerbum uocatiuum regunt nominatiuum
Explicit: Respondendum est quod omnis comparatiuus terminans in or ...
Language: Latin

Short statements on grammatical points, with confirmatory Latin verses.

(33)     f.56r
Incipit: Velox homo currit queritur que pars velox
Explicit: non alie inherentem conuocando rei qualitatem.
Language: Latin

Short scholastic argument

(34a)     f.56r-56v
Modern title: Sets of Latin verses
Incipit: Abscondo dat itum geminans di non geminans sum; Moyses ebreas kadmy prudensia grecas
Explicit: Sepes trina canes & equos homines super addas Suos & cornos aquilas & cete marina.
Language: Latin

The last pair with roman numbers above most of the words

Cited: Walther 1963, 9750
Cited: Walther 1963, 5066
Cited: Walther 1963, 3428
Cited: Walther 1963, 13883
Cited: Walther 1963, 33617a
(34b)     f.55v-56v
Incipit: hec urla a purfel hoc cluuiculum a spayre
Explicit: hic seroticarius glufar hic sutor a sutare hic sissor atalʒure
Language: Latin
Language: English, Middle (1100-1500)

Written in spaces to the right of Latin verses (34a), but with no obvious relation to them. Latin words and English equivalents, the last added in different ink and another hand.


SECTION: (F)
Manuscript contents
(35)     f.57r-80v
Modern title: Latin verses
Incipit: Parentes sinculam mei mactauerunt
Explicit: Pulmones & appota cati detulerunt
Language: Latin
Language: English, Middle (1100-1500)

The first group consists of four hexameters with one rhyme bracketed; following verses include f.57r/5-10 Alexander de Villa Dei, Doctrinale 830, f.57r/11 Walther 1959, no. 19401; f.57v/6, no. 719; f.58r/1-10, no. 15542; 11-12 Doctrinale 980-1; f.61r/24 “Istec Hugo canit Priscianus talia stranit”; f.62r “Prelia gallorum venient iam belligerorum ... ... Victor finalis sit benedictus Amen” (32 lines in rhyming couplets, bracketed as quatrains, not the same as the verses on the same subject in Cambridge, St John's Coll. MS F.26 f.28v-29r, or those in Oxford, Bodleian Libary MS Rawl.D.328 f.72r); f.65v/29 “Hic vult Papias, Hugucio Petrus [Helias] hos”; f.68r/3, Doctrinale 1030-1; f.69v/1-2 Walther 1959, no. 17853; f.71r/2-25 (to the right of drawing) a farced version of the hymn for St John the Baptist, “Salue festa dies. oritur Quem lux atque quies. sequitur ... ... Aufer ab emeritis. Maculas”, 24 lines in rhyming couplets. f.61v/7- 24 prose passage beginning “Hugucio habet ...”, damaged by slits in this leaf, on various spelling variants. Most of the left hand side of f.71r is occupied by a 15th century drawing running up the page, apparently in the same ink as the accompanying labels and texts, of a plough (Aratrum) with parts named in Latin (buris, stiua, trabis, aura duplex, dentale, intercemium, culter, vomer, pes, rote, iugum, malliolus; stimulus, stimula, scorpio (held by the servant); pobea (? a separable tool like a hoe or spade)), with a ploughman (Rusticus) and servants (famula and famulus); subsequently scribbled over in the 16th century. The line “Ad caudam stiue semper tu rustice viue” is written down the inner margin. Other pictures of English medieval ploughs with part names are in Bodleian MS.Top.Lincs.d.1, f.53r, late 13th century, Cambridge, Gonville & Caius Coll. MS 136/76 p.12-13, late 13th century, and BL MSS Royal 8 C.IV f.41r 13th/14th century, and Sloane 1210 f.136r, 14th/15th century, according to Dr Kathleen Scott. Spaces to the right of the verses on most pages contain Latin prose questions, rules, exercises and explanations; also, f.72v/1-14, “Os I went to yo kyrk wepond I met a nowld wyfe crepond ... mak ʒow me thys laten o reyt”, 14 rough lines rhyming aaabaabbbccddd, written as prose, the spelling suggestive of the north west Midlands, NIMEV 378.5, followed, lines 15-29, by a Latin version,“Sicut iui ad ecclesiam egilans ... componite mihi istam latinitatem recte & cetera”. Many Latin words with English equivalents occur on f.57v-58r, 60r-v, 61v, 62v, 64r-65r, 66r, 67v-69v, 70v-71v, 72v-73r, 74r-75v, 76v-77r, 78r, 79r-v and 81r, mostly in the right hand texts, but also as inter linear glosses to the left hand texts; “Diruuo is to dreyue secundum Wyllelmum”, at the head of f.75r in contemporary hand and ink, with the initial stroked in red like the texts below it.

(36)     f.81r-83r
Modern title: Part of a grammatical treatise
Incipit: Nota quod si propria nomina locorum & quatuor nomina apellatiua naturam eorum habentia
Explicit: Que sunt etheroclita defectu in quibus aliquid vt precis ci cem aprece & pluraliter hec(?) preces versus Nomina sunt septem que casibus in tribus extant
Language: Latin

One paragraph, f.82v, has the same incipit “Quot sunt forme casuales Sex que Monaptata. Diptota. Triptota ...” recorded by Bursill-Hall, 149.112.8: BL MS Harley 1002 f.82v, but there it goes on, after four lines, with a set of verses not found here.

(37)     f.83v-84v
Incipit: Quot modis fit comparacio tribus quibus literatura & sensu Literatura & non sensu sensu & non literatura
Explicit: Album natura facit est res candida cura Estque dealbatus paries albidine tinctus.
Language: Latin

Incipit as for "Regulae utiles secundum usum Magistri Johannis Harford", BL MS Add. 17724 f.20r-22r, but that has only four lines (not here) before “Quot modis deficit comparacio”, where there are several paragraphs beginning “Quot modis ...” on different topics, accompanied and followed by sets of verses. Here, as in item (35), prose is written to the right of verses.

(38)     f.85r-86v
Modern title: On cases
Incipit: Assit principio sancta maria meo Quot casus reguntur a nomine. quatuor qui Genotiuus Datiuus Acusatiuus & Ablatiuus
Explicit: vt quantum vini habes tu & cetera
Language: Latin

Similar in form to item (42). It differs from the "Regule bone et utiles secundum modernos" in Cambridge, Gonville & Caius College MS 203/109 f.168r-175r, a volume of similar grammatical contents, handwriting and date.

(39)     f.87r-87v
Incipit: [G]ratis voluntarie sponte vltro. wyth gode wyll. hic her
Explicit: at yo last. affatim abunde. aboundonly
Language: Latin
Language: English, Middle (1100-1500)

A sequence of Latin words and English equivalents.

(40)     f.87v
Modern title: On cases after participles and conjunctions
Incipit: Quero quot casus reguntur a participiis Dico quod quatuor
Explicit: retinet quandoque falarnum
Language: Latin
(41)     f.88r
Incipit: In singulari numero hic & hec & hoc mille in plurali numero neutro generi adinugitur Non flectes mille sed milia neutrificabis
Explicit: Millia mancipia dominos fallemus ditantur
Language: Latin

One introductory prose line and five lines of verse.

(42)     f.88r-91v
Incipit: Diabolus est mendax et pater eius [John 8:44] sic exponitur
Explicit: eciam ne id est numquid vtrumque id est multociens
Language: Latin
Language: English, Middle (1100-1500)

Grammatical explanations of phrases from the Vulgate Latin Bible, in alphabetical order D-Z of head words, and so presumably lacking A-C before f.88; English equivalents of some words included. The text begins to the right of the verses in item (43).

(43)     f.91v
Modern title: Hymn or sequence of St Nicholas
Incipit: Sospitati dedit egros olei perfusio
Explicit: reditur cum filio
Language: Latin

Written one word per line, with the first 12, out of 32, provided with explanations or derivations.

Cited: Chevalier,19244
(44)     f.92r-92v
Incipit: Quot modis ponitur caro Dico quod caro proprie dicitur humana Vnde apud gallum maximianum Carnis ad officium carnea membra placent
Explicit: est singularis si plura est pluralis.
Language: Latin

Various grammatical questions and answers, illustrated with verses.

Edited: Maximianus, i, line 86
(45)     f.93r
Modern title: On the evils of the times
Incipit: Quant homme parlere videat que verba loquatur Ceo couont auere ne stulcior Inueniatur
Explicit: Thoge cannst alle rytton fac ne proiamus in igne
Language: Latin
Language: English, Middle (1100-1500)
Language: French, Middle (ca. 1300-1600)

Macaronic poem, 22 lines rhyming internally and finally in couplets: prose is written in a column to the right of the verses.

Cited: NIMEV, 2787 no. 7
Edited: Aspin, 157-168
(46)     f.93r-93v
Modern title: Grammatical questions and answers
Incipit: (a) Quot modis ponitur pasca quatuor ... (b) Hoc stadium est spacium continens in se centum viginti & quinque passus ... (c) Quero quare nomina literarum sunt indeclinabilia ...
Explicit: gracia cuius subiecto potest loqui de se
Language: Latin

(a-b) added in spaces to the right of item (45) and the three lines of verse at the start of (45).

(47)     f.94r-95v
Incipit: Literarum alie sunt vocales alie sunt consonantes. Vocales sunt quinque
Explicit: Et stetit & dedit & sedit & fidit & tulit hec sex.
Language: Latin

Corresponds to BL MS Add. 17724 f.36v-38v "Regule versificandi", and Cambridge, Gonville & Caius Coll. MS 377/597 p.91-95, both 14th century; the latter lacks the final paragraph here f.95r-v “Tres sunt pedes versificandi ...”.

(48)     f.95v-97v
Original title: Expositiones verborum difficilium in hymnis secundum usum Sarum
Incipit: De natiuitate domini alleuiare. fort alege. zabulon id est demon
Explicit: Inter promissum sic differt pollicitumque &c c c.
Language: Latin

In the order of the church year: Christmas*, Stephen*, John evangelist, Thomas of Canterbury*, Circumcision, Epiphany, Vincent*, Conversion of Paul, Purification*, Mathias*, Gregory, Annunciation*, Mark, Philip & James, Finding of the Holy Cross, Augustine,, Barnabas, John the Baptist*, Peter*, Margaret, Mary Magdalene*, James, James, Peter's Chains, Laurence, Assumption*, Bartholomew, Beheading of John the Baptist, Nativity of B.V.M., Exaltation of Holy Cross, Martin. Those marked * are also in Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Douce 103. The opening of the first expositio differs from that in BL MSS Add. 14023 f.7r and Burney 331 f.12r. English equivalents of some words included.

(49)     f.97v
Incipit: Quem librum audis. librum Magni doctrinalis Que est materia huius libri sunt regule date (a Presciano) sub compendio sumpte
Explicit: Titulus talis est Scribere clericulis paro doctrinale nouellis Pluraque doctorum sociare scripta meorum.
Language: Latin

6 lines; the last two are the first of Alexander de Villa Dei's Doctrinale.

(50)     f.98r-104r
Modern title: Commentary on Priscian
Incipit: Quia regule de regiminibus casuum traduntur (vel trahuntur) ab autoribus propter construcciones tenendas. ut dicit Petrus Helias
Explicit: quia eius accionem vel passionem terminat secundum mediante prepositionis adminiculo ut dicit Petrus Helias in minori. Explicit tractatus de regiminibus casuum secundum Petrum.
Language: Latin

Not apparently based on the genuine commentary by Peter Helias on Priscian Minor, of which no manuscripts are known in English libraries; the answer to the first question, see above, probably refers therefore to the commentary beginning Absoluta, often ascribed to Helias, but now attributed to Petrus Hispanus.

(51)     f.104r-107v
Incipit: Quero utrum verba impersonalia passiue vocis possunt regere acusatiuos casos Dico secundum Petrum Heliam in fine libri qui sic incipit absoluta Nullum inpersonale
Explicit: patet per Petrum in Maiori Futura infinitorum habent supina per circumlocucionem cum hoc verbo ire. ut amatum ire locutum ire & sic de similibus.
Language: Latin

On six constructions, citing Petrus Helias again.

(52)     f.107v; 110r-110v
Incipit: [Q]vero utrum gerundia sunt nomina vel verba. Dico quod nomina propter triplicem rationem
Explicit: ita & gerundium potest ut prius resoluitur.
Language: Latin

Cites P[etrus] H[elias]. Cf. Bursill Hall 282.9.2: Udine, Bib. Comunale Cod. C.237.

(53)     f.108r-108v
Modern title: On prosody
Incipit: Prosodie normas pueris pro dogmate promam ... In isto tractatu prosodie talis erit processus. Primo pona accentus difinicionum
Explicit: hic certus ei sicut dictum erat
Language: Latin

Begins with 5 lines, Walther 1959, no. 14844 ("Tractatus de prosodia"); analysed in 7 divisions. Defective, in the fourth division, through loss of one or more leaves. The copy in Cambridge UL MS Oo.VII.110 f.82r-7r has another verse between lines 4 and 5 here, and is left unfinished in the fifth division. At the start the prose commentary here is written in the column to the right of the verses and in long lines between them, as in items (35) and (37) above.

(54)     f.109r-109v
Original title: Peniteas cito peccator
Author: William, de Montibus, approximately 1140-1213
Incipit: [P]enitias cito peccator cum sit miserator
Explicit: Et cure grauitas & consuetudo ruine Explicit liber penitenciarij qui ...
Language: Latin

Incomplete colophon, by loss of following leaf. Variant version, 109 lines, as against 106 in Patrologia Latina 207, 1153-6, lacking PL lines 16 and 24, reversing 18/19, 33/34, 85/86, and with 5 additional lines: after line 71 one (Quisquis amans), 74 two (In prauos casus) and then a change of pen, 94 one (Arguo consulo), and 96 one (Quo defunctus egit). Latin inter linear glosses, up to line 48 only, by the same or a similar hand.

Edited: Goering 1992, 107-138
Cited: Bloomfield, 3812 (supplemented in Newhauser & Bejczy)
(55)     f.111r
Modern title: Grammatical note
Incipit: Ego diligo me est transitiua
Explicit: sed illud quod significat diuersa per modum diuersorum.
Language: Latin
(56)     f.111r
Modern title: On the name Pontius Pilatus
Incipit: Pontius a ponte iuxta pontem datur esse
Language: Latin

3 verse lines with prose notes

(57)     f.111r
Date: added in space, early 15th century
Incipit: Mulieribus sepius que adultere uel accusate fuerunt
Language: Latin

Short grammatical exercise.

(58)     f.111v
Incipit: Vnus duo tres
Explicit: millesimo & quingentesimo
Language: Latin

Cardinal numbers spelled out to 1000 and ordinal to 1500, with the corresponding roman numerals above each.

(59)     f.111v
Incipit: (a) Decem sunt precepta dei. Vnum deum collaudare ... (b) Septem sunt opera misericordie ... (c) Septem sunt peccata mortalia ... (d) Quinque sunt sensus hominum ... (e) Septem sunt etates hominis ... (f) Quinque sunt digiti diaboli ...
Language: Latin

(a) comprises 10 monorhyming lines.

(60)     f.112r-115v
Incipit: [S]alus eterna. Hec salus tis est integritas corporis siue sanitas & caret plurali numero
Explicit: & proprie in verbis vnde iocari & iocundari ...
Language: Latin
Language: English, Middle (1100-1500)

Expositions, including a few English words, of difficult words in sequences, apparently of Sarum use, including Advent, Christmas, Stephen, John evangelist, Innocents, Thomas of Canterbury, sixth day of Christmas, Circumcision, Epiphany (with mention of “gens anglicana” f.113v/6), Purification, Easter day, Wednesday after Easter, Tuesday after Easter, Jubilantes, Regi regum, Gaude mater. Cambridge, UL MS Dd.III.87(4) differs somewhat in the opening words; Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Douce 103 differs in the first and last (Gaude mater) here. Top of f.115 cut away, with loss of text.


Microfilm
Microfilmed in 1985/86 by the Hill Monastic Manuscript Library, St John's Abbey and University, Collegeville, Minnesota. Copies held by them and Durham University Library.

Bibliography

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Index terms