Medieval Manuscripts in Cambridge Libraries

A catalogue of Western manuscripts and papyri at Cambridge University Library, the Fitzwilliam Museum and selected Cambridge colleges

Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College, MS 200/106

Collection of theological, alchemical and medical texts

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: All medieval leaves are parchment
Extent: Codex: 1 | 83 | 23 | 2 leaves.
Foliation:

19th-century pagination

1-2, [2a]-[2b] | 3-168, [168a]-[168b] | 169-214 | 215-218

Numbering in black ink in the upper right-hand corner of the rectos.

Pages 1-2, 215-218 are fragmentary leaves from another manuscript that have been reused as flyleaves for this mansucript.

Pages [2a]-[2b] are a parchment stub after p. 2 and pp. [168a]-[168b] are a parchment stub after p. 186

Collation

Since this collation refers to the first bifolium as quire 1 instead of 'a2' the quire numbers differ from those that have been added to the manuscript in pencil and those used by M.R. James. The collation also differs from James's in that it considers quire 7 [James's quire 6] a quaternion with an added leaf rather than a quinterion with a cancelled leaf.

  • Quire 12 (pp. 3-6)
  • Quire 28-2 (pp. 7-18: 1st and 2nd leaves cancelled)
  • Quire 38 (pp. 19-34)
  • Quire 412 (pp. 35-58)
  • Quire 510 (pp. 59-78)
  • Quire 68+1 (pp. 79-96: 5th leaf inserted)
  • Quire 78+1 (pp. 97-114: 5th leaf inserted)
  • Quire 812-2 (pp. 115-134: 5th and 7th leaves cancelled)
  • Quire 910 (pp. 135-154)
  • Quire 108-1 (pp. 155-[168b]: 8th leaf cancelled) |
  • Quires 11-128 (pp. 169-200)
  • Quire 134 (pp. 201-208)
  • Quire 144-1 (pp. 209-214: 1st leaf cancelled)

12 28-2 (1st and 2nd leaves cancelled) 38 412 510 68+1 (5th leaf inserted) 78+1 (5th leaf inserted) 812-2 (5th and 7th leaves cancelled) 910 108-1 (8th leaf cancelled) | 11-128 134 144-1 (1st leaf cancelled)

Additions

Quire signatures ('1-13') in the bottom right-hand corner of the recto side of the first leaf of each quire, written in pencil by a hand of the 19th/20th century (no longer indicative; see Collation).

Binding

14th- or 15th-century binding of alum-tawed leather with the remnants of a clasp. Rebacked.

Binding height: 200 mm width: 145 depth: 40 mm.

History

Provenance and Acquisition

In Gonville and Caius College by 1600, when it was recorded as no. 74 in the Ecloga Oxonio-Cantabrigiensis by Thomas James (1600). It is recorded as no. 1006 in Bernard's Catalogi Manuscriptorum Angliae et Hiberniae (1697). The College's classmarks '200' and '106' printed on labels in red and black ink on the spine and written in red and black ink on labels pasted on the inside of the upper cover, together with the College's armorial bookplate.

Part 1 [Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College, MS 200/106, pp. 1-2, 215-216]

Contents

Language(s): Latin

1. 2
Lections on 2 Corinthians
Language(s): Latin
Incipit: || 2 [Ti]motheum non fuit in illo est et non set est in illo fuit
Explicit: 2 Quoniam deus qui dixit de tenebris lumen splendescere illuxit in cordibus nostris ad illuminacionem sciencie claritatis dei in facie Christi ihesu||

Some writing is visible on p. [2a]: ‘qui manifeste iudens est neque [....] [m]anife[sto] [...]’.

2. 215-218
Lections on 1 Corinthians
Language(s): Latin
Incipit: || 215 [G]racias ago deo meo quod neminem uestrum baptizaui nisi Crispum et Gaium ne quis dicat quod in nomine meo baptizati sitis
Explicit: 218 Nondum enim poteratis; sed nec nunc quidem potestis. Adhuc estis carnales. Cum enim sit inter uos zelus et contencio nonne carna[les]||
3. 215
A motto or saying
Language(s): Latin
Incipit: 215 homo vanitates

Full transcription; added by a 15th-century hand.

4. 215
A motto or saying
Language(s): Latin
Incipit: 215 O omnibus omnia non mea somp[nia] dicere

Full transcription; added by a 15th-century hand [the same hand that added the following pen trials].

5. 215
Pen trials
Language(s): Latin
Incipit: 215 doe / Norwc / Mater / doro / Wynch / Dicit Dominus domino / Si quis

Full transcription; added by a 15th-century hand [the same hand that added the previous saying].

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: Parchment
Extent: Fragments, now comprising three endleaves. 3 leaves. 140 × 140 mm. The flyleaves are made from leaves from another manuscript. These have been folded in half and bound into the manuscript at their fold. Two such leaves were folded to create four endleaves at the front of the manuscript; all but the first have been cut out. One leaf was folded to create two endleaves at the back of the manuscript; both remain. The measurements of the dimensions of the leaves given here are those of the leaves as they currently occur in the manuscript and not those of the original unfolded leaves. Since these leaves have probably been cropped it is not possible to reconstruct their original measurements.

Layout

185 × 140 mm. The dimensions of the text space that are here given are based on measurements of the height and width of the double columns on the original unfolded leaves. Since pp. 215-218 form a complete original leaf and the text on it has not been affected by cropping it is possible to give the dimensions of the original text space. Ruled in leadpoint, frame and line ruling. Double columns. 38 lines to the page, written below top line.

Hand(s)

Copied by a single scribe in a Northern Textualis script.

Decoration

This part of the manuscript does not contain any significant form of decoration.

History

Origin: Second half of the 13th century. ; England.

Part 2 [Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College, MS 200/106, pp. 3-168]

Contents

Language(s): Latin

1. 3-5
Table of chapters for Peter of Limoges' De oculi morali
Language(s): Latin
Rubric: Incipit tabula super tractatum de oculo morali
Incipit: 3 Capitulum primum de septem partibus oculi
Explicit: 5 Septimus ad gloriam perductio
2. 7-140
De oculi morali Peter of Limoges
Language(s): Latin
Incipit: 7 Misericordia: Certum est quod tucius est cordis remitti
Explicit: 140 Septimo est oculus dei ad regnum glorie perductiuus Job.36. deus non auferet auisto oculos suos et reges in solio suo collocat in perpetuum. Ad quod non perducat ihesus Christ filius dei amen.
Bloomfield (1979), no. 5532
4. 140-159
De plantatione arborum [Palladius abbreviatus] Gottfried von Franken
Language(s): Latin
Incipit: 7 Tractatus iste Magistri Galfridi continens in se breuiter omnem modum inserendi arbores aromaticas
Explicit: 159 Explicit tractatus magistri G. de plantacione arborum et conseruacione fructuum.
Singer, I (1928) no. 84; II (1930), nos 531, 554A and 998
Braekman (1989), pp. 8, 12
Giese(2003), p. 215 no. 9
5. 160-163
Correctionis oculi moralis
Language(s): Latin
Rubric: 160 Correctiones octaui capituli de ira
Incipit: 160 nisi tibi natus fuissem
Explicit: 163 cum igitur sobrietas
6. 164-166
Paragraphs on figures from Greek mythology
Language(s): Latin
Incipit: 164 Saturnus primus deorum et hominum uenit et ortus est ab creteis oris
Explicit: 166 posteriores ade summa ba

The text discusses Saturn, Jupiter, Cecrops, Lycaon, Deucalion, Ganymede, and the giants.

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: 5 De vanitate quorundam
Form: codex
Support: Parchment (FHHF)
Extent: Codex: 83 leaves. 185 × 130 mm.

Collation

  • Quire 12 (pp. 3-6)
  • Quire 28-2 (pp. 7-18: 1st and 2nd leaves cancelled)
  • Quire 38 (pp. 19-34)
  • Quire 412 (pp. 35-58)
  • Quire 510 (pp. 59-78)
  • Quire 68+1 (pp. 79-96: 5th leaf inserted)
  • Quire 78+1 (pp. 97-114: 5th leaf inserted)
  • Quire 812-2 (pp. 115-134: 5th and 7th leaves cancelled)
  • Quire 910 (pp. 135-154)
  • Quire 108-1 (pp. 155-[168b]: 8th leaf cancelled)

Leaf signatures consisting of Roman numerals in red ink occasionally visible in the right lower corners of the rectos of the first halves of quires.

 Catchwords in brown ink in the right lower corners of the last versos of quires.

Layout

135 × 95 mm. Ruled in leadpoint, frame and line ruling. Single columns. 24 lines to the page, written below top line.

Hand(s)

Copied by a single scribe in an Anglicana formata script.

Decoration

Three in-text drawings in red ink illustrating how to cut vines on p. 153.

Two-line initials in blue or red, some with pen-work decoration inside the letter and pen-flourishing in the opposite colour (including one with a human face drawn inside the letter on p. 96.

A line filler in red and blue on p. 153.

Headings in red ink.

Small (1 line) capitals highlighted in red ink.

Paraphs in blue or red ink.

Paraphs in blue or red ink.

History

Origin: 14th century. ; England.

Provenance

A member of the Pympe family in the first half of the 16th century owned or accessed this part of the manuscript: their family name inscribed in the lower margin of p. 35 ‘hyldy[r]sam Pympe’, ‘Pympe est arma’, and ‘Pympe’ the lower margin of p. 46: ‘Pympe’. The inscription ‘hyld[r]sam’ may refer to the village of Hildersham in Cambridgeshire.

Part 3 [Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College, MS 200/106, pp. 169-214]

Contents

Language(s): Latin, with some Middle English and Middle French

1. 169
Verses on herbs
Language(s): Latin
Incipit: 169 Raphanus est humidus [...] et omnibus horis
Explicit: 169 Et ventrem purgat id quoque degerit estam humores siccat prauum depellit odorem
eTK 1314B (t0252010000)
2. 170-184
Speculum secretorum Pseudo-Roger Bacon
Language(s): Latin
Rubric: 184 Liber secretorum
Incipit: || 170 -minera similiter ferrum est argentum sed est corrptum in sua minera per dominium sui sulphuris immundi
Explicit: 184[ending illegible]
Final rubric: 184 Explicit

Begins imperfectly. The text contains the following section headings: ‘Liber de preparacione salium’ (f. 173); ‘de sublimacionibus’ (p. 175); ‘de fixacionibus’ (p. 177); ‘de aquis’ (p. 183); ‘de oleis’ (p. 183).

3. 184-190
Liber triginta verborum Pseudo-Geber
Language(s): Latin
Rubric: 184 Liber 30 verborum
Incipit: 184 [illegible]
Explicit: 190 et hoc facias donec tuus compleatur numerus et hoc est uerbum tricesimum
Final rubric: 190 Explicit
4. 190-195
Clavis sapientiae minoris
Language(s): Latin
Rubric: 190 Clauis sapiencie minoris
Incipit: 190 Incipit libellus intitulatur clauis scientie minoris [...] In nomine dei patris omnipotentis incipiam cum adiutorio scribere experta opera uera et probata de arte alkymie
Explicit: 195 siccam ad solem etcaetera
Final rubric: 195 Explicit

Another alchemical work with the tile ‘Clauis minoris sapiencie’ features in Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College, MS 181/214, pp. 261-63 .

eTK 0722D (t0139270000)
5. 196-214
Alphabetical vocabulary of Latin plant names with English and French synonyms [Alphita]
Language(s): Latin, Middle English, and Middle French
Incipit: 196 Abscintium amarum deu maneris de aloine anglice wermod
Explicit: 214 Zucara habet virtutem humectandi infrigidandi et relaxandi per .v. annos seruari potest. valet acutis febribus. valet et remediantibus et multum tussientibus
eTK 0011G (t0001940000)
For other texts, see Rand Schmidt (2001), p. 130.
Mäkinen (2006), p. 59 fn. 52
6. 213
Poem on the seven classical planets and metals
Language(s): Latin
Incipit: 213 Luna dat argentum Mar[curius] cuprum vi venus es sed sol dabit aurum / Mars ferrum Jupiter hunc stagnum [sic: 'stannum'] plumbum saturnus habebit

Full transcription.

7. 214
Recipe for a medical syrup of violets
Language(s): Latin
Incipit: 214 Sirupus violaceus sic fit: viole dimittatur stare in aquaper j noctem
Explicit: 214 et aliis morbis qui ex sui natura sunt calidi et calefaciunt pacientem
8. 214
Symbols of weights
Language(s): Latin
Incipit: 214 Vncia [symbol] Dragma [symbol] Scrupulus [symbol] Equaliter an. semis. dimidis

Full transcription: this note on the symbols of weights.

9. 214
Alphabetical vocabulary of medicinal herbs
Language(s): Latin
Incipit: 214 Acus muscata folia habet minuta et spissa crescit ut malum terre
Explicit: 214 Scareola [silis] est lattuce sed [...] folia subalbida
eTK 0028Q (t0005680000)

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: 171 calx corporis est puluis
Form: codex
Support: Parchment (HFFH)
Extent: Codex: 23 leaves. 135 × 185-190 mm.

Collation

  • Quires 11-128 (pp. 169-200)
  • Quire 134 (pp. 201-208)
  • Quire 144-1 (pp. 209-214: 1st leaf cancelled)

Catchwords in brown ink in the right lower corners of the last versos of quires

Condition

The texts on pp. 170-195 have been partially damaged or erased and are now largely illegible (with the exception of pp. 189, 191, and 193, which have not been affected).

Layout

130 × 90 mm. Ruled in hardpoint, frame and line ruling. Mainly single columns (except pp. 196-212 which have two columns. 30-31 lines to the page, written below top line.

Hand(s)

p. 169 has been copied by a single hand in a cursive script with Secretary and Anglicana features.

pp. 170-213 has been largely copied by a single scribe in an Anglicana script.

p. 214 has been copied by a single scribe in an Anglicana script; this is the same scribe who is responsible for making marginal additions to the text.

Decoration

One two-line initial in blue and red ink on p. 169.

Two-line initials in blue or red ink.

Small, one-line initials highlighted in red ink.

Paraphs in blue or red ink.

History

Origin: Late 14th or early 15th century. ; England.

Additional Information

Record Sources

This catalogue entry draws on the description provided by M. R. James, A descriptive catalogue of the manuscripts in the library of Gonville and Caius College (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1907).

Availability

Visitors to Gonville and Caius College who wish to consult Lower Library material are required to apply to the Library in advance of their visit. For information on eligibility and admission procedures see: Gonville and Caius College: Library Information.

Bibliography

    A descriptive catalogue of the manuscripts in the library of Gonville and Caius College, James, M.R. (Cambridge, 1, University Press, 1907) Catalogue of Latin and vernacular alchemical manuscripts in Great Britain and Ireland dating from before the XVI century, Singer, Dorothea WaleyAnderson, Annie (Brussels, Maurice Lamertin, 1928) Incipits of Latin works on the virtues and vices, 1100-1500 A.D. Mediaeval Academy of America publication, Bloomfield, Morton W., (Cambridge, Mass., Mediaeval Academy of America, 1979) Geoffrey of Franconia's Book of Trees and Wine Scripta, Gottfried, von Franken (Brussels, Omirel UFSAL, 1989) Manuscripts in the Library of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Index of Middle English prose, Rand Schmidt, Kari Anne (Woodbridge, D.S. Brewer, 2001) Zur lateinischen Überlieferung von Burgundios Wein- und Gottfrieds Pelzbuch Sudhoffs Archiv, Giese, Martina (87, 2, 195-234, 2003, 2023-05-22T16:27:12Z, https://www.jstor.org/stable/20777908) Between Herbals et alia: Intertextuality in Medieval English Herbals, Mäkinen, Martti (Helsinki, 2006)

Funding of Cataloguing

Wellcome

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Cambridge Digital Library

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