The James Catalogue of Western Manuscripts

O.7.40

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Shelfmark O.7.40
Manuscript Title

Aristotle, Metaphysica; Bernard Silvestris, De mundi universitate libri duo sive megacosmus et microcosmus ; Seneca, Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium etc
Alternative Title

Metaphysica Aristotelis etc
James Number 1367
Century 12th13th
Physical Description

Varying numbers of lines to a page. In several good hands.
Provenance

Part of the Gale collection, given to T.C.C. by Roger Gale in 1738. Marked D. 10. No. 228. At f.1 at top is 'No. 552' in the xvith cent. hand which not unfrequently occurs. The book evidently was once in a house of canons, probably Augustinian or Praemonstratensian. Deer Abbey (Cistercian) is tentatively suggested by James in his index for Class O. In the Catalogue of St Augustine's, Canterbury, p. 109, there is mention of a volume which contained the Megacosmus of Bernard and also tracts de actionibus in iure civili, which may be this book but Ker (1964) rejects Canterbury, St Augustines.

The fly leaves at the beginning are a bit of an account roll (xiii-xiv). On the outer side are payments made for fish etc., and no names occur.
On the inner side are three entries which may throw light on the source of the volume.
Je Johe hoze IIId. De Rogero Godert(?) VIIId.....
De Johe Wyte VId (a hole in the parchment) De Willo Suel...
De Canonicis IIIs.
Ad festum omnium sanctorum. Rec(tor?) de luck pollard vjd. Idem de Sarre iijd.
Sarre is near Sandwich in Kent.
Donor Gale, Roger (1672-1744), Antiquary
Size (cm) 16.5 x 12
Folio 256 + 2 ff.
Material Parchment
Language Latin
Collation

2 flyleaves. 18-48 510 612 712 84 | 98-138 1410 | 158-188 194 208 2110 2210 | 238 248 254 268-288 | 298 3012 318.
IIIF Manifest URL https://mss-cat.trin.cam.ac.uk/Manuscript/O.7.40/manifest.json
Online Since 07/10/2014

Contents

I. Cent. xiii, in double columns of 37 lines: with a good initial of a dragon, on gold ground. There are many marginal notes (xiii) at first.
f.1 Aristotelis metaphysicorum Liber II-XI
Consideracio quidem(?) de ueritate difficilis est uno modo et facilis alio modo.
Liber XI ends f.67 b: eciam non ponere contrarium boni et intellectus XIus finitus est.
On f.60a is only Rogerus Gale A.D. 1707.
On ff.68c, 69a, 70b are old pencil notes: ff.69b, 70a are blank.

II. Cent. xii late, 23 lines to a page.
At the top: In hoc libello continentur xxv pecie.
The pecia is the unit by which copyists charged. This tract contains 50 leaves.
Bernardi Silvestris Megacosmus et Microcosmus.
In huius operis primo libro qui megacosmus uocatur.
Ends f.119a: Excutias capitis oculos · modulaminis aures
Ductoresque pedes · omnificasque manus.
f.119b is blank.
See above under O.7.7.

III. Cent. xii, xiii, in a beautiful small hand: 34 lines to a page.
f.120 1. Epistolae Senecae ad Lucilium
Seneca lucilio suo salutem · De triplici iactura temporis. (Ep. 1)
Ita fac mi lucili et uendicare tibi.
Initials and Titles in red and green.
Ends in Lib. v. 16 (quid est hoc mi lucili quod nos alio tendentes).
-si modo non institorem sed antistitem nactus est Vale. (Ep. 52)
Note (xiii): In fine desunt epistole XXX. VII.
f.154a; is blank: on the verso some notes of an ethical nature in a good hand of cent. xiii. f.155 is blank.
f.156 2. A tract on Civil Law without title
Inter summas philosophic species ars boni et equi tum propter dignitatem sui tum propter omnium communem utilitatem eleganter dicitur connumerari.
It consists largely of an explanation of Roman Law terms: at f.17b is a slight break after a chapter on actiones. The text continues on f.176b.
Quod autem prescriptione.
Another division ends with f.182b
Si qui sunt accusatores ubi dicit aperte discuti iuramento.
f.183a has notes in the same hand as before: definition of studium, and tempestas, letter of Pope John to Justinus Augustus etc.: f.183b is blank.
Another division begins on f.184
Pactorum quedam in contractu bone fidei.
There is no break till f.202, after a section which begins
Cum filius soluit pro patre aut est in potestate.
There are notes in two hands on f.202: ff.202b, 203 blank.
f.204 Inc. prologus Legum Romanamm
Cum de partibus diuersisque causarum generibus per tot uariosque legum scrupulos legumque doctoribus ad diffinitam sententiam sine labore peruenire fas non sit utriusque iuris naturalis scilicet et ciuilis ratione perfecta et iudiciorum et controuersiarum exitus planis et apertis capitulis enodamus etc. -- omni corruptione remota totum refulgeat.
De Datione Tutele · III
Si pater uel auus non dedit.
This ends unfinished or imperfect with f.227.
Inuasio est aliene possessionis rerum immobilium uiolenta occupatio. Sit rapina.

IV. Cent. xiii, 30 lines to a page.
Moralium dogma philosophorum per multa dispersum uolumina uir optime et liberalis contrahere meditabar.
(By Hildebert P.L. CLXXI.1007.)
There are marginal notes in several hands, on religious matters.
Text ends on f.241
Ante oculos uersemini iudicis cuncta cernentis.
On ff.241b-246b the miscellaneous notes are continued.

V. Cent. xiii early, the first leaf in single lines 28 to a page, the rest. with a narrow central column of about 28 lines, surrounded by comment in the same hand.
f.247 De multiplici iurisdictione nunc quasi tocius in partes nunc tanquam generis in species. Videtur enim quasi in totum diuidi ubi dicitur omne ius ex legibus constare et moribus
The text on f.248 begins
Karissimo amico suo et domino A. deo gratia romane ecclesie cancellario Bulg' in christo salutem · et eorum que iuris sunt archana percipere etc.
De arbitris et iudicibus.
Arbitrum itaque eum dicimus cui proprio consensu.
Ends on f.254 with a chapter on Appellationes.
religioni iudicantis de ea re.
In the margin is the note
Anno domini Mo. CCo. LXo. tunc incipiente accepi habitum religionis et sunt postea mortui de concanonicis nostris Dns Joh. de Begfeld (Hegfield?). Dns Robertus de Berierd (Herierd?). D. Robertus de Conton'. D. Ph. de Leya. D. Elyas de Bokam. D. Eustachius prior. D. Nicholaus Saunztere. D. Henr. de London · D. Earth, de Kaignes.
The rest of the page and the verso are covered with lines and dots which are geomantic figures. On the verso are two of the questions which they were used for determining.
Questio de carcerato utrum debeat liberari.
Questio an fil. pariat.

Bibliography

Ker, N. R., Medieval Libraries of Great Britain, Royal Historical Society Guides and Handbooks 3, 2nd edn (London, 1964)

James, M. R., The Ancient Libraries of Canterbury and Dover (Cambridge, 1903), p. 521

Kantorowicz, H., and W. W. Buckland, Studies in the Glossators of the Roman Law (Aalen, 1969)

Carley, J. P., The Libraries of King Henry VIII, Corpus of British Medieval Library Catalogues 7 (London, 2000), H2.780

Brasington, B. C., Crimina que Episcopis Inpingere Dicis : the Contribution of the Collectio Polycarpus to an Early Ordo Iudiciorum, Readers, texts and Compilers in the Earlier Middle Ages: Studies in Medieval Canon Law in Honour of Linda Fowler-Magerl, ed., M. Brett and K. G. Cushing(Farnham, Surrey, 2009) ch. 9, p. 123-135

Kauntze, Mark, Authority and Imitation, A Study of the Cosmographia of Bernard Silvestris (Brill, Leiden-Boston, 2014) pp. 135n8, 179

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