Cambridge, University Library, MS Ff.6.13
Compilation of invective poems and texts on astronomy, mathematics, philosophy, physics, grammar and falconry
Contents
Language(s): Latin, French and Hebrew
Written by two hands of the 16th century. See Additions.
Continues under running header 'De spera'. These and the items that follow to 26r, as well as another text on ff. 37v-43v were previously ascribed to Grosseteste by Thomson, under the title 'De universalis machina': '[This MS] contains two copies of the treatise, the first, somewhat longer and with substantial variants from the second [see ff. 37v-43v], which alone is ascribed. On cursory examination it would appear that we have an earlier or perhaps original draft of De Sphera, but the text needs further examination. Of the genuineness of the second copy in the codex the early ascription (XIIIm) does not allow us to doubt. The unascribed copy may be Grosseteste's reworking, or indeed that of a pupil. [...] Certain similarities of text suggest comparison with portions of Sacro Bosco's De Sphera [...]' (Thomson). However, the first has since been identified by Thorndike as a seuqence of extracts from Sacrobosco, as well as other unidentified texts, as follows:
- Folio 17v: three successive paragraphs, notably omitted from Boston, Medical Library, MS 20, f. 88r-88v; a variant version is repeated on f. 37v.
- Folio 18r-18v, beneath the diagram and verse (see below): passage corresponding, with variations, to a later portion of Sacrobosco's first chapter.
- Folios 18v-19r: another extract from the first chapter, continuing without a mark into the next paragraph ('Totius a terre'), as in the first chapter, and likewise continuing with the rule for circumference and diameter which is marked by a paraph ('Quod autem circa circuli et dyametre regulam').
- Folio 19r: a further extract ('Quod aqua'), which precedes the others in the first chapter.
- Folio 19r-19v: another extract occurring in two other manuscripts in connection with the fourth chapter.
- Folios 19v-20r: a further extract from the fourth chapter.
Continues under running header 'De spera'. '[F]our lines of verse which repeat the sense of the preceding passage but are not usually found in the Sphere of Sacrobosco' (Thorndike).
Continues under running header 'De spera'.
Continues under running header 'De spera'. '[A] peculiar feature is that in most cases just those paragraphs and passages which have occurred as fragments earlier are now omitted in whole or in part. In their place is introduced foreign matter which does not seem to belong to the original text of the Sphere, although some of it occurs in late manuscripts [...]' (Thorndike, p. 66). Closing rubric added to the margin by a later hand. A paraph mark demarcates the end of this text from the beginning of the next, however there is no indication that what follows in not part of Sacrobosco's text.
Continues under running header 'De spera'. '[V]arious definitions and etymologies of things celestial and various citations of Albumasar and others [...]' (Thorndike).
Continues under running header 'De spera'. '[A]bout half the page is occupied by a variant version of the same three paragraphs from the Sphere as we found filling all of fol. 17v' (Thorndike).
Continues under running header 'De spera'. Not mentioned by Thorndike (1949).
Continues under running header 'De spera'. This item and the two preceding it on f. 37v, as well as those on ff. 17v-26r, were previously ascribed to Grosseteste by Thomson, under the title 'De universalis machina': '[This MS] contains two copies of the treatise, the first, somewhat longer and with substantial variants from the second [see ff. 37v-43v], which alone is ascribed. On cursory examination it would appear that we have an earlier or perhaps original draft of De Sphera, but the text needs further examination. Of the genuineness of the second copy in the codex the early ascription (XIIIm) does not allow us to doubt. The unascribed copy may be Grosseteste's reworking, or indeed that of a pupil. [...] Certain similarities of text suggest comparison with portions of Sacro Bosco's De Sphera [...]' (Thomson). However, the first item on ff. 17v-26r has since been identified by Thorndike as a seuqence of extracts from Sacrobosco, as well as other unidentified texts.
Not edited. '[It] has occasionally been ascribed to Grosseteste in printed catalogues of MSS. The only reason for the ascription would seem to be that it may appear in the same codex with one or more mathematical works by him, such as the De Sphera or the Compotus. But the fact that this work always remains unascribed when the genuine works are ascribed is actually strong evidence against Grosseteste's authorship' (Thomson).
Ends imperfectly. Not noted in Catalogue of 1857. Also in Cambridge, University Library, MS Ii.1.17, ff. 72r-75v, entitled 'Tractatus quadrantis', without a named author. eTK 0396D (t0078580000) attributes that copy to Johannes SacroboscoSacro Bosco, Joannes de, active 1230, however Thorndike noted that this text 'is more often ascribed to Campanus' (The 'Sphere' of Sacrobosco (1949), p. 3).
Text missing between ff. 50v and 51r (see Collation), corresponding to PL 172:56A-61A / PL 90:1138A-1143B / Maurach pp. 38-47. For list of manuscripts, and editions and studies of the text, see Arlima (cf. main bibliography).
Text begins imperfectly.
According to Hirsch (1902), 'The Hebrew words are inserted in a few cases only and that very unsatisfactorily. The Hebrew alphabet at the end is out of order and hardly legible. The Latin text has suffered from the evident ignorance of Hebrew on the part of the copyist' (p. lxxi). He notes further, 'Until further discoveries disclose the existence of a Hebrew grammar of his [i.e. Roger Bacon], it will be best to consider the latter as one of his drafts of the grammatical observations which he finally embodied in the third part of his Opus maius' (p. 201).
According to Nolan (1902), 'The Greek is nearly all written in Latin characters. It gives the Greek alphabet in tabulated form, the declension of the article and of nouns, notes on abbreviations, the ten prosodiae, computations by letters and, as reading lessons, the Pater Noster and Ave Maria' (p. lxxi).
Derives from the Latin treatise on avian medicine (Dean and Boulton). '[E]xhibits a changed order of chapters and lacks six contained in D [Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Digby 86, ff. 49r-62r - the base text] (1, 2, part of 3, 13, 60, 61)' (Hunt).
With introduction and conclusion in octosyllabic couplets (though presented as prose). Derives from the Latin treatise on avian medicine (Dean and Boulton). Entitled 'Tretiz' in the epilogue.
Physical Description
Mid-20th-century foliation:
[a-b] + i + ii-iii + 1-8 + 9-10 + 11-81 + [c-d]
Numbering in pencil in the upper right-hand corner of the rectos, by an unidentified hand, and from '59' onwards (or thereabouts) by H.L. Pink.
Collation
The collation formula presented here differs from that of Henry Bradshaw and H.L. Pink (see Additions). Folios 7-8 are a bifolium sewn independently of Quire 1, and are thus counted as a separate quire. Consequently, the modern quire signatures written into the manuscript for Quires 3-5 differ by one from those here. Two leaves of apparently later date, and without preparatory ruling, appear after Quire 2 (ff. 9-10), but their status is unclear. Pink counted them as further additions to his Quire 1. They may connect with other leaves of parchment that precede Quire 1: i.e. f. iii and/or the stub that follows before f. 1 - or (less probably) f. i and its adjacent stub. However, these earlier leaves vary in their colouring, compared to the almost uniform whiteness of ff. 9-10, and the tightness of the binding makes it impossible to verify how they might be conjoined (if at all).
Bradshaw and Pink furthermore considered that an entire quire was missing between ff. 45 and 46 (however, departing from his usual methodology, Bradshaw did not assign folio numbers to these missing leaves). Certainly, the text of De quadrante of pseudo-Robert Grosseteste ends imperfectly at the end of f. 45v. However, it is unclear how many leaves might be missing at this juncture, since the text has not been edited and does not appear to be available in digitised copies. Bradshaw/Pink did assign them a quire number, however, and from Quire 6 onwards, those numbers tally with the quire numbers given here.
Both Bradshaw and Pink overlooked further losses to what appears at first glance to be a regular quire of ten leaves: Quire 6. On the contrary, a gap in the text of William of Conches's De philosophia mundi confirms that the middle bifolium of this quire is also missing. The irregularity of the hair/flesh arrangement in Quire 7 seems at first to point to missing leaves - the first and second bifolia are arranged FHFH rather than the usual FHHF - however there is no interruption to the text except after the end of De philosophia mundi, where the beginning of the following text is missing (f. 64r).
Notwithstanding the switch from two columns in Quires 1-2 to a single column thereafter, and slight variations in the appearance and module of the handwriting, the manuscript appears to be the product of a single campaign (rather than two or more codicological units). The layout switches back to two columns part-way through Quire 8 (f. 72r), and although the number of lines varies the ruling pattern overall is consistent: notably, groups of three lines at the top, middle and bottom extend beyond the vertical bounding lines to the edge of the leaf. Two narrow bounding lines frame the ruled space as well: where the text occupies a larger proportion of the page (Quires 1-2) these have mostly been trimmed away, however they persist when the layout returns from one to two columns. Variations in writing below and above top line, apparent throughout the manuscript, further suggests a single campaign, as well as the fact that this habit was not yet fully formed in the scribe's work, which informs our assessment of the likely date of production (see Origin).
- Quire 16 (ff. 1-6)
- Quire 22 (ff. 7-8)
- Two leaves (ff. 9-10)
- Quire 312 (ff. 11-22)
- Quire 412-1 (ff. 23-33: 4th leaf missing)
- Quire 512 (ff. 34-45)
- Quire 612-2 (ff. 46-55: 6th-7th leaves missing)
- Quire 714-1 (ff. 56-68: 9th leaf missing)
- Quire 812+1 (ff. 69-81: 13th leaf inserted)
No leaf signatures.
No quire signatures.
Catchwords.Layout
160-170 × 110 mm. Folios 1-8: ruled in leadpoint, frame and line. Two columns, 40-42 lines to the page, written above (ff. 1r, 7v-8v) and below top line.
160-165 × 85-95 mm. Folios 11-81: ruled in leadpoint, frame and line. Single column (except ff. 72r-81v, in two), 35-42 lines to the page, written above (ff. 31r-33r, 48v-81r) and below top line.
Hand(s)
Written by a single hand in an early Anglicana formata hand.
Decoration
Twenty-seven diagrams in colours (red, green, yellow wash, blue) or outline only (ff. 18r-26v), illustrating the text of De sphaera. Two gaps have been left unfilled (ff. 42v-43r) and a further diagram in the bottom margin has been almost wholly lost to trimming (f. 54v). 27, gaps ff. 42v-43r, trimme f. 54v.
One- to eight-line plain initials, alternating in red and blue.
Additions
Notes on the poetic contents of the manuscript, written in humanistic and semi-gothic scripts by two hands of the 16th century (f. iii verso). The second provides a transcription of the rubric on f. 1r.
Scribbles and pen-trials, written in ink, by various hands of the 17th and 18th centuries (ff. 17r (upside down), 33v, 41v, 42r, 49v (in Italian), 54r (upside down), 55v, 56r, 66r, 67v, 76v, 77r, 81r).
Notes on missing leaves written in pencil in the bottom margin by Henry Bradshaw (1831-1886), University Librarian 1867-1886 (ff. 45v, 64r) .
Quire signatures ('1-8') in the bottom right-hand corner of the recto side of the first leaf of each quire, and '+' in the same position on the first leaf after the centre of the quire, written in pencil by two hands of the 19th/20th century ('6-8' by H.L. Pink - see below).
Collation formula by the hand of H.L. Pink (rear pastedown), and a note regarding missing leaves (f. 46r).
Binding
Quarter bound in brown morocco, with marbled paper covers and vellum tips, and title and classmark tooled in gold on the spine, by J.P. Gray and Son, 1955 (binder's stamp and handwritten date on front pastedown).
History
The scribe alternates between writing above top line and below top line, in the middle of quires, which suggests that the new method of presentation had not become fully embedded in his professional practice (see Layout).
Provenance and Acquisition
'Dono Roberti Hare 1594': donation inscription on f. ii verso, recording the gift of the manuscript by Robert Hare (d. 1611). However, the manuscript is not noted among the University Library's books in the Ecloga Oxonio-Cantabrigiensis by Thomas James (1600) and is first recorded as no. 371 in a catalogue compiled c. 1672 (now Cambridge, University Library, MS Oo.7.59).
Additional Information
Availability
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Bibliography
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Funding of Cataloguing
National Library of Israel (digitisation)
Digital Images
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
