The James Catalogue of Western Manuscripts

Shelfmark O.2.14
Manuscript Title

Aristotle, Secreta Secretorum; Maurice de Sully, Sermons; Bestiary

Alternative Title

Secreta Secretorum, sermones Mauritii etc. Gallice.

James Number 1118
Century 13th15th
Physical Description

Two volumes: (1) 39 lines to a page, (2) double columns of 33 lines, in a clear good hand.

Provenance

Part of the Gale collection, given to T.C.C. by Roger Gale in 1738. B. 60. No. 126.

 

At the top of the page is a mark (xvi) which I think shews that the volume once belonged to Dr John Dee; I cannot however trace it in the Catalogue of the MSS. (ed. Halliwell Camd. Soc. 1842) unless it be no. 39, Liber Physiologi de natura animalium et bestiarum pergameno. 8vo.The mark is in the form of two -rum abbreviations consisting of a 2-shaped R with cross-bar through leg.

Donor Gale, Roger (1672-1744), Antiquary
Size (cm) 23.5 x 16.5
Folio 107 ff.
Material Parchment
Language LatinMiddle French
Collation

I. 112: II. 18-38 46 58-128 13? (one left).

Notes

UV images of f. 1 are at the end of the digitised manuscript.

A digital version of this manuscript which provides a navigable table of contents is available at https://mss-cat.trin.cam.ac.uk/manuscripts/uv/view.php?n=O.2.14. This item was first photographed and placed online in 2013. The images that are currently displayed in the Universal Viewer as well as via the link above were recaptured at a higher resolution in 2023.

IIIF Manifest URL https://mss-cat.trin.cam.ac.uk/Manuscript/O.2.14/manifest.json
Online Since 31/10/2023

Contents

I. In a 15th-century, current hand: the tops of the letters in the upper line are carried up into the border:
           The Secreta Secretorum Aristotelis.
           The first page much discoloured and hardly legible.
f. 1 - 2: Four prologues.
f. 3: Table of Contents
f.4: Text

Incipit: 'Fili gloriose'

Excipit: 'naturalius genera cognoscenda'
    Ends imperfectly in the chapter 'De conseruacione sanitatis' etc.

II. 1. f.13 Sermones Mauritii Parisiensis episcopi
        In French verse.

     Incipit: 'Or escutez mult ducement / Gardez quil nait parlement / La passion deu entendez / Coment il fu pur nus penez.                                                                     

     f.24v Expicit: 'Issi nus puisset il saluer / E nosz almes de peines deliurer, / Cum il pur nus suffri la mort / E fist a nus grant confort. Amen.'

2. f.24v Roman des Romans (see Bull. Soc. Anc. Text. Franc. 1880, p.68)                  

       Incipit: 'Ici comence li romanz des romanz / Mult deit boens estre kar li nons est granz.
       f. 32r The first hand ends with 'Deus est si plains de grant piete / Queil lui eust sun pecchie pardone' Then a rather later hand adds twenty lines: 'Ore le priuns dune ententinement / Qui descendi pur nostre saluement...'

        Explicit: 'Cheualer est et aime sainte eglise / Deus li otreit finir en son seruise'
Then: ' Si plus ia ioe nen puis mes / A ceste parole ioe metes'

3. f.32v: 'Hic incipit prologus super bestiarium Willelmi normanni qui fecit hunc librum translatum a latino in romanum tempore regis Iohannis quando anglia erat interdicta' (see Hist. Litt. xvi.220)

          Incipit: 'Qe n totes oueraignes en deit / estre loez qui que il seit / Liure de bone comentaille / Ki aura bone definaille'.

           f. 67v (column 1) : Explicit: 'Guillame qui cest liure fist / En la definaille tant dist / De sire Raol sun seignor / Explicit Bestiarius.

           f. 67v (coumn 2): continues 'Pur qui il fu en cest labor etc. [...] Poisse monter a eel ior / que li iuste e li peccheor / Deuant le iuge trembleront / E lor iugement atendront'

The Bestiary is illustrated with miniatures of fair execution:
f. 33v. Mailed man, with shield, pierces a lion in the neck. Green ground.
f. 34v. Man in tunic pierces neck of a two-horned aptalops. Blue ground.
f. 35r. A man and woman standing up to their middles in water, their upper parts surrounded by flames, holding each other's hands. 'de dous peres que sunt cumme mathle et femele'.
f. 35v. A four-winged fish (serre de la mer) standing vertically in water.
f. 36v. Two kaladres, one flying, one standing on the bed of a sick person. The one flying has its beak to the eye of the patient. Blue ground.
f. 37r. A Pelican vulning herself: two nestlings; red ground.
f. 37v. The Fresei. A bird standing on a red slope: green ground.
f. 39r. The Fenis. A horned and hoofed bird bending over a fire on R. Red ground.
f. 39v. The Hupe. Two young hoopoes pecking an old one.
f. 40r. Treis manere de formiz. - Corn (or other plants) growing: no ants visible.
f. 41v. The Sereine, with bird's feet and fish's tail, holds a serpent. Ship, with three men; one jumping out is held back by others.
f. 42r. The Hericun. One above, one below, the latter on its back. Green ground with foliage.
f. 42v. Ybix. A hoofed bird devouring something in the water.
f. 43r. Renard lo cvpil on his back pretending to be dead: three birds over him. Red ground.
f. 44v. Unicorn with head laid on a maid's lap, pierced by a hunter.
f. 45r. Bievre: large, biting off his glands. Two hunters with horn and hound.
f. 46r. Hiaine devours a corpse in a coffin.
f. 46v. Cocodrille, like a cow, with a band round its middle: a green snake's head (that of the ichneumon) emerges at its tail: the tail is seen in the crocodile's mouth.
f. 47v. Goats on each side of a tree.
f. 48r. Asne sauvage. Three of them attacking another.
f. 49r. Singe: a white monkey carrying two green ones.
f. 49v. Un oisel with webbed feet: two nestlings in a red nest.
f. 50r. Pantere as a winged dragon on a mound: all kinds of beasts round it, attracted  by its perfume: this picture extends across both columns. Blue ground.
f. 52r. Balaine: a huge head and mouth: ship with two men above.
f. 52v. Perdiz: six partridges about a tree.
f. 53v. Belette. Like a dragon in form.
f. 55r. Ostrice. Looks up at the sun: two nestlings on L.
f. 55v. Turtle-doves: six, in a tree.
f. 56r. Cerf: opposite to it, a snake, upright.
f. 57r. Salemandre, with snake in mouth.
f. 57v. Colums. Doves fall from tree into mouth of dragon.
f. 60r. Across the page. Elephant, with castle on back and large eye, pursues a green winged dragon.
f. 61r. Mandragore: represented as a man and woman standing in earth or water, a tree between them.
f. 61v. Diamant. Christ with book in the midst of six Apostles.

4. f. 68r: Sermons
1.  Incipit (part 1): 'Donauit illi nomen quod est super omne nomen. Seint pol li apostles parole de nostre saluur e dit.'  
     Incipit (part 2): 'Venit inquit amalech'  
      f. 85v Explicit: 'Serruns en sa merci salue. ceo duinst il ki vit e regne od pere od filz od seint espirit un memes deus en trinite Dites tuz. Amen

2. f. 85v Incipit: 'Dixit dominus ad ihesum filium naue -defunctus est.
Deu dist a ihesu filz naue etc'.
    f. 90r Explicit: 'Od piere, od filz, e od seint espirit. un deu sanz fin dites. Amen.'   

3. f. 90r Incipit: 'Misit deus exploratores in inabscondito [...] Ceo fet a entendre en romanz ke ihesu naue enuoiat ses espies'.
    f. 97r Explicit: 'Od pere, od filz, e od seinte espirit sanz fin dites. Amen.'

4. f. 97r Incipit: 'Cum autem esset ihesus in agro urbis iericho etc. [...] Ceo nus cunte lestorie de la lei'.
    f. 101v Explicit: 'En sa glorie ceo donist nostre sire ihesu crist. Amen.'             

5. f. 101v Incipit: 'Tulit autem unus ex filiis israel aliquit de anathemate etc. Ceo dit lestorie que uns home de la maigne Israel.'
    f. 109r (107r) Explicit: Ends with the Ave Maria and Benedicta a filio then 'Kar par tei del fruit de uie sumes a communie.'

f.109r (107r) Then follows a passage of verse written as prose. Incipit: 'ki uolt oir e uolt aprendre / E de curage ben attendre / Le sacrament de seint eglise / (Cum) lescripture le diuise' which prefaces an account of the dedication of a church in prose. Incipt: 'Eglise sune tant cum conuocatio lasemble de cels qui sunt el regne deu.' Ending imperfectly, explicit: 'E puis frat un ewe beneit. E si metra enz siel.'


Bibliography

Roberts, J., and A. G. Watson, ed., John Dee's Library Catalogue (London, 1990) DM3, cf M39.

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