Western Medieval Manuscripts : Constantinus Africanus, al-Khwarizmi, Hermannus Contractus, and other texts

Western Medieval Manuscripts

The manuscript is a composite item and consists of several parts: one two-leaf fragment, and three parts consisting of one or more quires deriving from separate original manuscript sources. There is evidence to suggest that all of the parts have been together since the later Middle Ages. First, a medieval collator added alphanumeric leaf signatures in red ink in a sequence that crosses the composite parts of the manuscript. Secondly, one of the artists who worked on Part 2 added flourished initials to the empty spaces left for initials in Part 4, see e.g., f. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(136);return false;'>63v</a> (in Part 2) and f. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(252);return false;'>122v</a> (in Part 4). There is also evidence that quires have been lost from the volume since the composite parts were united. The current Quire 14 contains the first half of al-Khwarazmi's Arithmetic in Latin, and catchwords on the last verso of that quire f. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(230);return false;'>111v</a> suggest that the text once continued onto a subsequent quire, now lost. Separately, the current Quire 15 ends part of the way through Chapter 10 of Hermannus Contractus' De utilitatibus astrolabii, and the opening of Quire 16 begins part of the way through Chapter 19 of that text, which suggests that there was once an intervening quire with the remainder of Chapter 10, through to the beginning of Chapter 19 of that text. Both quires, however, must have been missing since at least the late middle ages as the leaf signatures and catchwords of the medieval collator treat Quires 14-16 as a single sequence without any gaps. Part 1 of this manuscript is an early 12th century fragment from a bible or biblical lectionary. The leaves (particularly f. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(7);return false;'>i recto</a> are coated in an adhesive residue and were probably used as binding waste in an earlier binding. Part 2 of this manuscript is a substantial extract from a medical manuscript and may have been bound separately in its entirety when it was first made (see the stains and damage caused by metal binding fittings on f. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(213);return false;'>103</a>). Part 2 contains several medical texts including the Uiaticum of Constantinus Africanus and De somno et uigilia by Roger Bacon. Part 3 of this manuscript contains the first half of al-Khwarazmi's Arithmetic in a 13th century copy in Latin; catchwords at the bottom of f. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(230);return false;'>111v</a> suggest that the text was once complete, but the second half of the text has since been lost. The text of the Arithmetic is known only from this copy and one other: New York, Hispanic Society of America, HC 397/726 , the original Arabic version and all other Latin copies have been lost. Part 4 was copied in England in the last part of the eleventh century, or the first half of the twelfth century and contains texts on astronomy and in particular on the use of astrolabes. At the end of Part 4 there is a circular diagram on f. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(261);return false;'>127r</a> with the circle divided into 25 segments and the centre and four cardinal points are marked a-e. The manuscript belonged to Bury St Edmunds in the later middle ages; a list of the contents in a Bury hand is present on f. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(14);return false;'>2v</a> which enumerates the following items: <ul><li>- Liber constantini monachi cassinensis qui dicitur uiatecum</li><li>- Ars algorismi</li><li>- Composicio astrolabii'</li></ul> and a set of sermon texts no longer in the volume under the designation 'S.62' - <ul><li>- 'Sermones antiqui notabiles et devoti</li><li>- Exposicio misse que sic inc In uirtute sancte crucis</li><li>- Item sermones cum aliis notulis</li><li>- Item De inquisicionibus in confessione faciendis secundi magistri Willelmum de monte.'</li></ul> For all of its losses, what remains is a lively cross-section of up-to-date medieval scientific and astronomical texts available in England in the 12th and 13th centuries at a well-connected monastery. Dr Sarah Gilbert Project Cataloguer Cambridge University Library

Page: left cover, outer

Constantinus Africanus, al-Khwarizmi, Hermannus Contractus, and other texts (Cambridge, University Library, MS Ii.6.5)

The manuscript is a composite item and consists of several parts: one two-leaf fragment, and three parts consisting of one or more quires deriving from separate original manuscript sources. There is evidence to suggest that all of the parts have been together since the later Middle Ages. First, a medieval collator added alphanumeric leaf signatures in red ink in a sequence that crosses the composite parts of the manuscript. Secondly, one of the artists who worked on Part 2 added flourished initials to the empty spaces left for initials in Part 4, see e.g., f. 63v (in Part 2) and f. 122v (in Part 4). There is also evidence that quires have been lost from the volume since the composite parts were united. The current Quire 14 contains the first half of al-Khwarazmi's Arithmetic in Latin, and catchwords on the last verso of that quire f. 111v suggest that the text once continued onto a subsequent quire, now lost. Separately, the current Quire 15 ends part of the way through Chapter 10 of Hermannus Contractus' De utilitatibus astrolabii, and the opening of Quire 16 begins part of the way through Chapter 19 of that text, which suggests that there was once an intervening quire with the remainder of Chapter 10, through to the beginning of Chapter 19 of that text. Both quires, however, must have been missing since at least the late middle ages as the leaf signatures and catchwords of the medieval collator treat Quires 14-16 as a single sequence without any gaps.

Part 1 of this manuscript is an early 12th century fragment from a bible or biblical lectionary. The leaves (particularly f. i recto are coated in an adhesive residue and were probably used as binding waste in an earlier binding.

Part 2 of this manuscript is a substantial extract from a medical manuscript and may have been bound separately in its entirety when it was first made (see the stains and damage caused by metal binding fittings on f. 103). Part 2 contains several medical texts including the Uiaticum of Constantinus Africanus and De somno et uigilia by Roger Bacon.

Part 3 of this manuscript contains the first half of al-Khwarazmi's Arithmetic in a 13th century copy in Latin; catchwords at the bottom of f. 111v suggest that the text was once complete, but the second half of the text has since been lost. The text of the Arithmetic is known only from this copy and one other: New York, Hispanic Society of America, HC 397/726 , the original Arabic version and all other Latin copies have been lost.

Part 4 was copied in England in the last part of the eleventh century, or the first half of the twelfth century and contains texts on astronomy and in particular on the use of astrolabes. At the end of Part 4 there is a circular diagram on f. 127r with the circle divided into 25 segments and the centre and four cardinal points are marked a-e.

The manuscript belonged to Bury St Edmunds in the later middle ages; a list of the contents in a Bury hand is present on f. 2v which enumerates the following items:

- Liber constantini monachi cassinensis qui dicitur uiatecum
- Ars algorismi
- Composicio astrolabii'

and a set of sermon texts no longer in the volume under the designation 'S.62' -

- 'Sermones antiqui notabiles et devoti
- Exposicio misse que sic inc In uirtute sancte crucis
- Item sermones cum aliis notulis
- Item De inquisicionibus in confessione faciendis secundi magistri Willelmum de monte.'

For all of its losses, what remains is a lively cross-section of up-to-date medieval scientific and astronomical texts available in England in the 12th and 13th centuries at a well-connected monastery.

Dr Sarah Gilbert
Project Cataloguer
Cambridge University Library

Information about this document

Physical Location: Cambridge University Library
Classmark: Cambridge, University Library, MS Ii.6.5
Subject(s): Science, medieval
Donor(s): George I, King of Great Britain, 1660-1727
Associated Name(s): Pink, H. L.; Moore, John, 1646-1714; Tanner, Thomas, 1674-1735; Pine, John, 1690-1756
Extent: Codex: ii + 2 | 102 | 8 | 16 + ii leaves.
Collation:
The manuscript is a composite item and consists of several parts: one 2-leaf fragment, and three parts consisting of one or more quires. The majority of the extant quires are gatherings of 8 leaves, with variation in quire size typically found at the beginning and the end of the parts. The 9th leaf of Quire 10 is an inserted singleton. The 5th leaf of Quire 13 is absent and may have been blank and later excised: following historic foliation practice at Cambridge University Library, this leaf has been assigned a folio number (f. 102), though it is not certain that text is missing as a consequence of its removal.
There are traces of at least two lost quires within the manuscript. The current Quire 14 contains the first half of al-Khwarazmi's Arithmetic in Latin, and catchwords on the last verso of that quire f. 111v suggest that the text once continued onto a subsequent quire, now lost. The current Quire 15 ends part of the way through Chapter 10 of Hermannus Contractus' De utilitatibus astrolabii, and the opening of Quire 16 begins part of the way through Chapter 19 of that text, which suggests that there was once an intervening quire with the remainder of Chapter 10, through to the beginning of Chapter 19 of that text. Both quires have been missing since at least the late Medieval period as a medieval collator has added leaf signatures and catchwords to the volume that treat Quires 14-16 as a sequence without any gaps.
There are two paper endleaves at each end of the volume, ff. [a]-[b] at the beginning, and ff. [c]-[d] at the end. The rest of the leaves are arranged as follows:
- Fragment: 2 parchment leaves (ff. i-ii) |
- Parchment endleaves: (ff. 1-2) +
- Quires 1-6⁸ (ff. 3-50)
- Quire 7⁴ (ff. 51-54)
- Quires 8-9⁸ (ff. 55-70
- Quire 10¹⁰⁺¹ (ff. 71-81; 9th leaf, f. 81, inserted)
- Quires 11-12⁸ (ff. 82-97)
- Quire 13^6-1 (ff. 98-103; 5th leaf cancelled, but counted in foliation as f. 102) |
- Quire 14⁸ (ff. 104-111) |
- Quires 15-16⁸ (ff. 112-127)
i-ii | ff. 1-2 + Quires 1-6⁸ 7⁴ 8-9⁸ 10¹⁰⁺¹ (9th inserted) 11-12⁸ 13^6-1 (5th missing) | 14⁸ | 15-16⁸
A late-medieval collator has added alphanumeric leaf signatures to several quires across the composite parts of the manuscript; these signatures demonstrate that the manuscript has been in its current composite arrangement since the later middle ages. Where the quires have late-medieval alphanumeric leaf signatures, the signatures are in red ink and appear on the rectos of the first half of each quire in the format 'letter + Roman numeral' where the Roman numeral expresses the position of the leaf within the quire, e.g., 'b iii' indicates the third leaf of quire 'b'. Quires 10 and 11 are designated 'a' and 'b' and Quires 14-16 are designated as 'x', 'y', 'z' respectively. Quires 7, 9, 12, and 13 all have Roman numerals in red ink on the leaves in the first half of each quire, but no letter designations.
Quire signatures in the lower outer corner of the first recto of each quire in pencil in Hindu-Arabic numerals, added in the 19th century. Small + signs added to the lower outer corner of the first recto in the second half of each quire (i.e., on the 5th recto of a typical quire of 8 leaves).
A late-medieval collator has added catchwords to several quires acrss the composite parts of the manuscript; these catchwords demonstrate that the manuscript has been in its current composite arrangement since the late middle ages. At f. 111v there are both the catchwords for a lost quire in the hand of the main scribe of that text 'Sicque constitues .viii.', and catchwords by the later-medieval collator 'est quidem' which reproduces the text on the following recto which belongs to a separate composite part.
Material: Parchment, arranged HFFH.
Binding:
Rebound by John P. Gray and Son in July 1958; stamp on the left pastedown. Quarter bound in dark brown Morocco with marbled-paper sides and parchment-tipped fore-edge corners over millboard. Marbled paper has a wave design and is in shades of muted sunset oranges and pinks with touches of ochre, cream, and light blue. Four raised bands with blind single-fillets along the upper and lower perimeter of each band. Spine is capped at head and tail by the backing leather and no head or tail bands are visible. Title and shelfmark tooled in gold in separate compartments: "CONSTANTINUS AFRICANUS etc." and "Ii.6.5". All quires taken down and remounted on guard strips during the 1958 rebinding.
Paper pastedowns pasted over the turn ins. The left pastedown contains:
- Stamp of (re-)binder J. P. Gray and Son and date of rebinding written in ink below
- Cambridge University Library bookplate
- Shelfmark 'Ii.6.5' and a CUL size designation 'G', both in pencil
The right pastedown contains a collation statement in pencil.
Two paper endleaves added at each end of the volume during the rebinding, ff. [a]-[b] and [c]-[d]; all paper endleaves blank.
The leaves f. i recto and 127v may be former pastedowns as both have adhesive residue on their sides adjacent to the boards.
Foliation:
20th century foliation.
[a-b] + i-ii | 1-101, 103 | 104-111 | 112-127 + [c-d]
Foliated in the upper outer corner of each recto in pencil in Hindu-Arabic numerals, mostly by H.L. Pink.
Folio number f. 102 assigned to leaf no longer present in the volume (as per historic foliation practice at Cambridge University Library).Folio designations enclosed in [square brackets] have been assigned by the CUL cataloguers to leaves that have not been numbered physically in the volume.
Additions:
An ownership inscription and list of the contents of the volume in a ?15th century hand on 2v under the siglum 'U' for 'Uiaticum' - 'Liber Sancti Edmundi Regis in quo continentur
- Liber constantini monachi cassinensis qui dicitur uiatecum
- Ars algorismi
- Composicio astrolabii'
and a set of sermon texts no longer in the volume under the designation 'S.62' -
- 'Sermones antiqui notabiles et devoti
- Exposicio misse que sic inc In uirtute sancte crucis
- Item sermones cum aliis notulis
- Item De inquisicionibus in confessione faciendis secundi magistri Willelmum de monte.'
This list of the contents, and the later-medieval sequences of quire designations, catchwords, and flourished initials that cross the composite parts of the volume indicate that all of the extant parts were together in Bury St Edmunds by the later middle ages. Quires 15 and 16, which contain a note on the calculation of the meridian of Bury St Edmunds, were almost certainly written there, but whether Quires 1-14 were written at Bury St Edmunds, or copied elsewhere and combined in Bury St Edmunds by the later middle ages is not clear.
A later medieval artist has added missing initials in the 'flourished' decorative style across several parts of the manuscript. The first of these additional pen-flourished initials appears on f. 49v and the artist continues to fill in missing initials throughout the volume, taking over the majority of the work on the major initials from f. 63r to the end of the volume, and even added the missing initials to the late-11th or early-12th century Quires 15 and 16.
Collation formula written on the right pastedown by H.L. Pink.
Provenance:
Ownership inscription on 2v showing that the volume (i.e., all composite parts) belonged to the Abbey of Bury St Edmunds in the later middle Ages.
John Moore (1646-1714), bishop of Ely: no. 911 (f. 3r) in the handwritten supplementary list of Moore's manuscripts, now MS Oo.7.50(2), compiled by Thomas Tanner (1674-1735) after the publication of Bernard, Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliæ et Hiberniæ (c. 1697). Also recorded as no. 57 (on p. 390) in the Appendix to Moore's library in Bernard.
Acquisition: Presented to the University Library in 1715 by George I: donation bookplate engraved by John Pine in 1736 on the left pastedown.
Funding: Wellcome
Data Source(s): This catalogue entry draws on CMLUC Vol. III (Cambridge, 1856-67), no. 1884, pp. 500-501 and an unpublished description of the manuscript composed between 1926 and 1930 by M.R. James, now held in the University Archives (Unpublished description by M.R. James of Cambridge, University Library, MS Ii.6.5 (Constantinus Africanus, Viaticum; Albertus Magnus, Commentary on Aristotle's De somno et uigilia, attrib. to Roger Bacon; medical tracts; and other texts)).
Author(s) of the Record: Dr Sarah Gilbert, Project Cataloguer, Curious Cures in Cambridge Libraries, Cambridge University Library
Bibliography:
Haskins, Charles H., "Adelard of Bath", The English Historical Review 26 491-498 (1911) http://ehr.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/doi/10.1093/ehr/XXVI.CIII.491 Accessed: 2015-06-29T14:43:03Z.
Juschkewitsch, A.P., "Über ein Werk des Abū 'Abdallah Muhammad ibn Mūsā al-Huwārizmī al Maīğusī zur Arithmetik der Inder", in Irene Strube and H. Wussing (eds), Beiträge zur Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften, Technik und Medizin / herausgegeben zum 60. Geburtstag Gerhard Harigs (Leipzig: B.G. Teubner, 1964) 21-63.
Pedersen, Fritz S. (ed.), Petri Philomenae de Dacia et Petri de S. Audomaro opera quadrivialia, Corpus philosophorum Danicorum Medii Aevi 10, 2 (Copenhagen: Gad, 1983).
Thomson, Rodney M., "England and the twelfth-century renaissance", Past and Present: A Journal of Historical Studies 101 3-21 (1983).
Burnett, Charles, Adelard of Bath: an English scientist and Arabist of the early twelfth century, Warburg Institute surveys and texts 14 (London: Warburg Institute, University of London, 1987).
Crossley, John N and Alan S Henry, "Thus spake al-Khwārizmī: A translation of the text of Cambridge University Library Ms. Ii.vi.5""Thus spake al-Khwārizmī", Historia Mathematica 17 2 103-131 (1990) http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/031508609090048I Accessed: 2015-06-29T15:02:58Z.
Folkerts, Menso, Die älteste lateinische Schrift über das indische Rechnen nach al-Ḫwārizmī, Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften: Philosophisch-Historische Klasse Abhandlungen n.f. 113 (Munich: 1997).
Thomson, Rodney M., "The library of Bury St Edmunds Abbey in the eleventh and twelfth centuries", in Rodney M. Thomson (ed.), England and the 12th-Century Renaissance, Variorum Collected Studies Series 620 (Aldershot: Variorum, 1998) 617-645.
Burnett, Charles, "King Ptolemy and Alchandreus the Philosopher: The earliest texts on the astrolabe and Arabic astrology at Fleury, Micy and Chartres", Annals of Science 55 4 329-368 (1998) https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00033799800200241 Accessed: 2022-11-09T14:07:12Z.
Gameson, Richard, The manuscripts of early Norman England (c.1066-1130) (Oxford: Published for the British Academy by Oxford University Press, 1999).
Barker-Benfield, B.C., St Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury, Corpus of British medieval library catalogues 13, 3 (London: British Library in association with the British Academy, 2008).
Katz, Victor J., Menso Folkerts, Barnabas Hughes, Roi Wagner and J. L. Berggren (eds), Sourcebook in the mathematics of medieval Europe and North Africa (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2016).

Want to know more?

Under the 'More' menu you can find metadata about the item, and information about sharing this image.

Cambridge University Library, MS Ii.6.5, ff. i-ii: Part 1 (image 7, page i recto) Cambridge University Library, MS Ii.6.5, ff. 1r-103v: Part 2 (image 14, page 2v) List of the contents of the volume and the contents of a missing volume of sermon-texts (image 14, page 2v) Viaticum (image 15, page 3r) De somno et uigilia [Latin] (image 182, page 86v) Medical recipes (image 189, page 90r) Table of the planetary rulers of the days of each month, and texts on prognostics and lunar astronomy (image 204, page 97v) ?Poem on the significance of the age of the moon (image 204, page 97v) Table of the planetary rulers of the days of each month (image 204, page 97v) Text on prognostics and astronomy (image 204, page 97v) Text on prognostics and lunar astronomy (image 204, page 97v) Rogerinus minor (image 205, page 98r) Medical recipes (image 213, page 103r) Cambridge University Library, MS Ii.6.5, ff. 104r-111v: Part 3 (image 215, page 104r) Cambridge University Library, MS Ii.6.5, ff. 112r-127v: Part 4 (image 231, page 112r) De utilitatibus astrolabii, Book 1: Chs 2, 4-6, 8-10, 19 (image 231, page 112r) Compositio Astrolabii, Chs 4 and 5 (image 249, page 121r) De cursu solis per menses et signa: Qualiter bissextilem diem quarto suo compleat anno (image 251, page 122r) Text on the 'Shadow Square' (image 256, page 124v) Text on inscribing the hour lines on an astrolabe (image 257, page 125r)

Information about this document

Physical Location: Cambridge University Library
Classmark: Cambridge, University Library, MS Ii.6.5
Subject(s): Science, medieval
Donor(s): George I, King of Great Britain, 1660-1727
Associated Name(s): Pink, H. L.; Moore, John, 1646-1714; Tanner, Thomas, 1674-1735; Pine, John, 1690-1756
Extent: Codex: ii + 2 | 102 | 8 | 16 + ii leaves.
Collation:
The manuscript is a composite item and consists of several parts: one 2-leaf fragment, and three parts consisting of one or more quires. The majority of the extant quires are gatherings of 8 leaves, with variation in quire size typically found at the beginning and the end of the parts. The 9th leaf of Quire 10 is an inserted singleton. The 5th leaf of Quire 13 is absent and may have been blank and later excised: following historic foliation practice at Cambridge University Library, this leaf has been assigned a folio number (f. 102), though it is not certain that text is missing as a consequence of its removal.
There are traces of at least two lost quires within the manuscript. The current Quire 14 contains the first half of al-Khwarazmi's Arithmetic in Latin, and catchwords on the last verso of that quire f. 111v suggest that the text once continued onto a subsequent quire, now lost. The current Quire 15 ends part of the way through Chapter 10 of Hermannus Contractus' De utilitatibus astrolabii, and the opening of Quire 16 begins part of the way through Chapter 19 of that text, which suggests that there was once an intervening quire with the remainder of Chapter 10, through to the beginning of Chapter 19 of that text. Both quires have been missing since at least the late Medieval period as a medieval collator has added leaf signatures and catchwords to the volume that treat Quires 14-16 as a sequence without any gaps.
There are two paper endleaves at each end of the volume, ff. [a]-[b] at the beginning, and ff. [c]-[d] at the end. The rest of the leaves are arranged as follows:
- Fragment: 2 parchment leaves (ff. i-ii) |
- Parchment endleaves: (ff. 1-2) +
- Quires 1-6⁸ (ff. 3-50)
- Quire 7⁴ (ff. 51-54)
- Quires 8-9⁸ (ff. 55-70
- Quire 10¹⁰⁺¹ (ff. 71-81; 9th leaf, f. 81, inserted)
- Quires 11-12⁸ (ff. 82-97)
- Quire 13^6-1 (ff. 98-103; 5th leaf cancelled, but counted in foliation as f. 102) |
- Quire 14⁸ (ff. 104-111) |
- Quires 15-16⁸ (ff. 112-127)
i-ii | ff. 1-2 + Quires 1-6⁸ 7⁴ 8-9⁸ 10¹⁰⁺¹ (9th inserted) 11-12⁸ 13^6-1 (5th missing) | 14⁸ | 15-16⁸
A late-medieval collator has added alphanumeric leaf signatures to several quires across the composite parts of the manuscript; these signatures demonstrate that the manuscript has been in its current composite arrangement since the later middle ages. Where the quires have late-medieval alphanumeric leaf signatures, the signatures are in red ink and appear on the rectos of the first half of each quire in the format 'letter + Roman numeral' where the Roman numeral expresses the position of the leaf within the quire, e.g., 'b iii' indicates the third leaf of quire 'b'. Quires 10 and 11 are designated 'a' and 'b' and Quires 14-16 are designated as 'x', 'y', 'z' respectively. Quires 7, 9, 12, and 13 all have Roman numerals in red ink on the leaves in the first half of each quire, but no letter designations.
Quire signatures in the lower outer corner of the first recto of each quire in pencil in Hindu-Arabic numerals, added in the 19th century. Small + signs added to the lower outer corner of the first recto in the second half of each quire (i.e., on the 5th recto of a typical quire of 8 leaves).
A late-medieval collator has added catchwords to several quires acrss the composite parts of the manuscript; these catchwords demonstrate that the manuscript has been in its current composite arrangement since the late middle ages. At f. 111v there are both the catchwords for a lost quire in the hand of the main scribe of that text 'Sicque constitues .viii.', and catchwords by the later-medieval collator 'est quidem' which reproduces the text on the following recto which belongs to a separate composite part.
Material: Parchment, arranged HFFH.
Binding:
Rebound by John P. Gray and Son in July 1958; stamp on the left pastedown. Quarter bound in dark brown Morocco with marbled-paper sides and parchment-tipped fore-edge corners over millboard. Marbled paper has a wave design and is in shades of muted sunset oranges and pinks with touches of ochre, cream, and light blue. Four raised bands with blind single-fillets along the upper and lower perimeter of each band. Spine is capped at head and tail by the backing leather and no head or tail bands are visible. Title and shelfmark tooled in gold in separate compartments: "CONSTANTINUS AFRICANUS etc." and "Ii.6.5". All quires taken down and remounted on guard strips during the 1958 rebinding.
Paper pastedowns pasted over the turn ins. The left pastedown contains:
- Stamp of (re-)binder J. P. Gray and Son and date of rebinding written in ink below
- Cambridge University Library bookplate
- Shelfmark 'Ii.6.5' and a CUL size designation 'G', both in pencil
The right pastedown contains a collation statement in pencil.
Two paper endleaves added at each end of the volume during the rebinding, ff. [a]-[b] and [c]-[d]; all paper endleaves blank.
The leaves f. i recto and 127v may be former pastedowns as both have adhesive residue on their sides adjacent to the boards.
Foliation:
20th century foliation.
[a-b] + i-ii | 1-101, 103 | 104-111 | 112-127 + [c-d]
Foliated in the upper outer corner of each recto in pencil in Hindu-Arabic numerals, mostly by H.L. Pink.
Folio number f. 102 assigned to leaf no longer present in the volume (as per historic foliation practice at Cambridge University Library).Folio designations enclosed in [square brackets] have been assigned by the CUL cataloguers to leaves that have not been numbered physically in the volume.
Additions:
An ownership inscription and list of the contents of the volume in a ?15th century hand on 2v under the siglum 'U' for 'Uiaticum' - 'Liber Sancti Edmundi Regis in quo continentur
- Liber constantini monachi cassinensis qui dicitur uiatecum
- Ars algorismi
- Composicio astrolabii'
and a set of sermon texts no longer in the volume under the designation 'S.62' -
- 'Sermones antiqui notabiles et devoti
- Exposicio misse que sic inc In uirtute sancte crucis
- Item sermones cum aliis notulis
- Item De inquisicionibus in confessione faciendis secundi magistri Willelmum de monte.'
This list of the contents, and the later-medieval sequences of quire designations, catchwords, and flourished initials that cross the composite parts of the volume indicate that all of the extant parts were together in Bury St Edmunds by the later middle ages. Quires 15 and 16, which contain a note on the calculation of the meridian of Bury St Edmunds, were almost certainly written there, but whether Quires 1-14 were written at Bury St Edmunds, or copied elsewhere and combined in Bury St Edmunds by the later middle ages is not clear.
A later medieval artist has added missing initials in the 'flourished' decorative style across several parts of the manuscript. The first of these additional pen-flourished initials appears on f. 49v and the artist continues to fill in missing initials throughout the volume, taking over the majority of the work on the major initials from f. 63r to the end of the volume, and even added the missing initials to the late-11th or early-12th century Quires 15 and 16.
Collation formula written on the right pastedown by H.L. Pink.
Provenance:
Ownership inscription on 2v showing that the volume (i.e., all composite parts) belonged to the Abbey of Bury St Edmunds in the later middle Ages.
John Moore (1646-1714), bishop of Ely: no. 911 (f. 3r) in the handwritten supplementary list of Moore's manuscripts, now MS Oo.7.50(2), compiled by Thomas Tanner (1674-1735) after the publication of Bernard, Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliæ et Hiberniæ (c. 1697). Also recorded as no. 57 (on p. 390) in the Appendix to Moore's library in Bernard.
Acquisition: Presented to the University Library in 1715 by George I: donation bookplate engraved by John Pine in 1736 on the left pastedown.
Funding: Wellcome
Data Source(s): This catalogue entry draws on CMLUC Vol. III (Cambridge, 1856-67), no. 1884, pp. 500-501 and an unpublished description of the manuscript composed between 1926 and 1930 by M.R. James, now held in the University Archives (Unpublished description by M.R. James of Cambridge, University Library, MS Ii.6.5 (Constantinus Africanus, Viaticum; Albertus Magnus, Commentary on Aristotle's De somno et uigilia, attrib. to Roger Bacon; medical tracts; and other texts)).
Author(s) of the Record: Dr Sarah Gilbert, Project Cataloguer, Curious Cures in Cambridge Libraries, Cambridge University Library
Bibliography:
Haskins, Charles H., "Adelard of Bath", The English Historical Review 26 491-498 (1911) http://ehr.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/doi/10.1093/ehr/XXVI.CIII.491 Accessed: 2015-06-29T14:43:03Z.
Juschkewitsch, A.P., "Über ein Werk des Abū 'Abdallah Muhammad ibn Mūsā al-Huwārizmī al Maīğusī zur Arithmetik der Inder", in Irene Strube and H. Wussing (eds), Beiträge zur Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften, Technik und Medizin / herausgegeben zum 60. Geburtstag Gerhard Harigs (Leipzig: B.G. Teubner, 1964) 21-63.
Pedersen, Fritz S. (ed.), Petri Philomenae de Dacia et Petri de S. Audomaro opera quadrivialia, Corpus philosophorum Danicorum Medii Aevi 10, 2 (Copenhagen: Gad, 1983).
Thomson, Rodney M., "England and the twelfth-century renaissance", Past and Present: A Journal of Historical Studies 101 3-21 (1983).
Burnett, Charles, Adelard of Bath: an English scientist and Arabist of the early twelfth century, Warburg Institute surveys and texts 14 (London: Warburg Institute, University of London, 1987).
Crossley, John N and Alan S Henry, "Thus spake al-Khwārizmī: A translation of the text of Cambridge University Library Ms. Ii.vi.5""Thus spake al-Khwārizmī", Historia Mathematica 17 2 103-131 (1990) http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/031508609090048I Accessed: 2015-06-29T15:02:58Z.
Folkerts, Menso, Die älteste lateinische Schrift über das indische Rechnen nach al-Ḫwārizmī, Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften: Philosophisch-Historische Klasse Abhandlungen n.f. 113 (Munich: 1997).
Thomson, Rodney M., "The library of Bury St Edmunds Abbey in the eleventh and twelfth centuries", in Rodney M. Thomson (ed.), England and the 12th-Century Renaissance, Variorum Collected Studies Series 620 (Aldershot: Variorum, 1998) 617-645.
Burnett, Charles, "King Ptolemy and Alchandreus the Philosopher: The earliest texts on the astrolabe and Arabic astrology at Fleury, Micy and Chartres", Annals of Science 55 4 329-368 (1998) https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00033799800200241 Accessed: 2022-11-09T14:07:12Z.
Gameson, Richard, The manuscripts of early Norman England (c.1066-1130) (Oxford: Published for the British Academy by Oxford University Press, 1999).
Barker-Benfield, B.C., St Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury, Corpus of British medieval library catalogues 13, 3 (London: British Library in association with the British Academy, 2008).
Katz, Victor J., Menso Folkerts, Barnabas Hughes, Roi Wagner and J. L. Berggren (eds), Sourcebook in the mathematics of medieval Europe and North Africa (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2016).

Section shown in images 7 to 10

Classmark: Cambridge University Library, MS Ii.6.5, ff. i-ii
Title: Extracts from Exodus 9:21-35; 10:1-12; extracts from Numbers 3:42 - 7:11 ; extracts from Numbers 7:5-10:4
Origin Place: Probably copied in England.
Date of Creation: 12th century, probably copied in the first half.
Language(s): Latin
Note(s): Extracts from biblical books rather than complete biblical works - perhaps a fragment of a lectionary.
Physical Description:
ii recto: recensuit moyses sicut Dominus praecepit primogenitos filiorum Israhel
Extent: Fragment: 2 leaves (ff. i-ii). Leaf height: 167 mm, width: 130 mm.
Material: Parchment (HFFH).
Format: Codex
Condition:
Text lost to trimming. Both leaves stained and rubbed - some text lost to rubbing. Lower part of f. i torn away and repaired with silk and parchment.
Binding:
Traces of adhesive on i recto suggest that it was once used as a pastedown in a former binding. The lower portion of f. ii has dark orange rust stains probably caused by metal fittings (e.g., a plate for a fastening or a chain staple) attached to a former binding.
Script:
Written in protogothic minuscule by a single scribe.
Layout: Written height: 167 mm, width: 105-112 mm. Ruled in single-column format, in leadpoint, frame and lines, ruling mostly erased. 27 written lines extant, but leaf has been trimmed with obvious loss of text.
Decoration:
Offset of a light blue initial (perhaps a 'C' or an 'O') in the inner margin of ii recto, but actual initial not present on the adjacent leaf.
Excerpts:
Incipit: i recto dimisit seruos suos et iumenta in agris . Et dixit Dominus ad
Explicit: ii recto moysen . Singuli duces per singulos dies offerant munera

Section shown in images 14 to 214

Title: Part 2
Date of Creation: 13th century
Language(s): Latin
Physical Description:
4r prosunt et spuma marina et quidam adddunt nitrum cum olio amigdalino amaro
Extent: Codex: 102 leaves. Leaf height: 175 mm, width: 115 mm.
Collation:
- Parchment endleaves: (ff. 1-2) +
- Quires 1-6⁸ (ff. 3-50)
- Quire 7⁴ (ff. 51-54)
- Quires 8-9⁸ (ff. 55-70
- Quire 10¹⁰⁺¹ (ff. 71-81; 9th leaf, f. 81, an inserted singleton)
- Quires 11-12⁸ (ff. 82-97)
- Quire 13^6-1 (ff. 98-103; 5th leaf excised, but counted in foliation as f. 102)
Catchwords in the hand of one of the main scribes in the lower margins of the final versos of Quires: 1-2, 4-5, 7-13.
Material: Parchment (HFFH).
Format: Codex
Condition: Lower margins have minor rodent damage; no loss of text or decoration. Some decoration lost to trimming.
Binding:
Part 2 of this manuscript (ff. 1-103) was probably once bound separately, and f. 103, was probably the right pastedown in that former binding. The leaf f. 103 has adhesive residue and stains from the turn ins of the earlier binding, however, the leaf must have been free by the late-medieval period as it has later additions on f. 103v and has a catchword for the text on f. 104r in a late medieval hand.
Script:
Written in northern textualis libraria by several scribes working closely together and who occasionally begin their stints mid-sentence, e.g., f. 25r.
Layout: Written height: 120 mm, width: 65 mm. Ruled in leadpoint, and occasionally in faint brown ink, frame and lines. Mainly single columns, typically 33 lines to the page, but double-columns for ff. 95r-96v, 98r-101v. Written variably above and below top line.
Decoration:
Puzzle initial f. 3r. Simple flourished initials in red and blue ff. 3r-62v at major divisions of the text. Some initials unfilled, and then later filled (e.g., f. 49v) by the artist who supplied missing initials throughout the volume, and who supplied all of the major initials from f. 63v onward.

Plain initials in red or blue at some minor divisions of the text, e.g., ff. 3r-4r. Plain initials in alternating red and green or red and blue for each entry in the list of chapters at the beginning of each book.

Occasional paraph marks in red or blue. Some initials at the start of sentences touched with red.
Additions:
The number '808' in ink twice in the gutter of 1r and twice in the gutter of 3r.
Title of the first work in this part of the volume added on. f. 3r in another hand, perhaps that of Henry de Kirkesetede: 'Liber constantini monachi cassinensis qui dicitur uiaticum'.

Section shown in images 14 to 14

Title: List of the contents of the volume and the contents of a missing volume of sermon-texts
Language(s): Latin
Note(s): List of the contents of the volume added in a 15th or early 16th century hand. The medical and scientific texts are organised under the designation 'U' for 'uiaticum', the first and largest text in the extant manuscript. Underneath the list of medical texts is a list of sermon-texts under the designation 'S.62'; these sermon-texts may once have been bound with the medical texts in the surviving volume. The sermon-texts are no longer present in the volume, and they have not been identified among any other extant manuscripts.
Excerpts:
Rubric: 2v U. Liber Sancti Edmundi Regis in quo continentur
Incipit: 2v Liber Constantini monachi cassinensis qui dicitur uiaticum
Explicit: 2v Item De inquisicionibus in confessione faciendis secundi magistri Willelmus de monte
Bibliography:
CBMLC 11, K136.3

Section shown in images 15 to 181

Title: Viaticum
Author(s): Constantinus Africanus
Language(s): Latin
Note(s):
- Bk 1: ff. 3r-15r
- Bk 2: ff. 15r-24v
- Bk 3: ff. 24v-38v
- Bk 4: ff. 38v-54v
- Bk 5: ff. 55r-69r
- Bk 6: ff. 69r-75r
- Bk 7: ff. 75r-86r
; Several changes of hand.; Marginal annotations throughout.
Excerpts:
Rubric: 3r Liber constantini monachi cassinensis qui dicitur uiaticum
Incipit: 3r Quoniam quidem ut in rethorice tullius omne inquit expedenter
Explicit: 86r rubeo pone desuper per decem dies . Nec moueatur nisi in fine dierum

Section shown in images 182 to 187

Title: De somno et uigilia [Latin]
Author(s): Roger Bacon
Language(s): Latin
Note(s): 89v blank.
Excerpts:
Incipit: 86v Sompnus ergo et uigilia decribuntur
Explicit: 89r de illa spiritualitate subliti . explicit

Section shown in images 189 to 202

Title: Medical recipes
Language(s): Latin
Note(s): Single column ff.90r-94v, double-columns ff. 95r-96v.; 97r blank.
Excerpts:
Incipit: 90rMedietium contra ruptiuum siue carnes ruptas cito sanandum et consolidandum omnimodo
Explicit: 96v altera die [curationis] fuit cum tamen diu fuit primus in cura eius.

Section shown in images 204 to 204

Title: Table of the planetary rulers of the days of each month, and texts on prognostics and lunar astronomy
Language(s): Latin

Section shown in images 204 to 204

Title: ?Poem on the significance of the age of the moon
Note(s): Text above lunar table.
Excerpts:
Incipit: 97v uersibus [impune] patet [habet] uariacio lune
Explicit: 97v nos de nomine primo

Section shown in images 204 to 204

Title: Table of the planetary rulers of the days of each month
Language(s): Latin
Note(s): Also includes zodiac symbols for Aries and Aquarius.

Section shown in images 204 to 204

Title: Text on prognostics and astronomy
Language(s): Latin
Note(s): Text to right of table in inner margin.
Excerpts:
Incipit: 97v Alphabeti
Explicit: 97v luna existat et [na?]tur tabula signorum

Section shown in images 204 to 204

Title: Text on prognostics and lunar astronomy
Language(s): Latin
Note(s): Text underneath lunar table.

Section shown in images 205 to 212

Title: Rogerinus minor
Author(s): Rogerius de Baron
Language(s): Latin
Excerpts:
Incipit: 98r Cum medicinalis artis due sint partes integrales scilicet theorica et practica
Explicit: 101v in calefaccione eparis preiudicat trifera sar . data in mane cum aqua calida
Bibliography:
eTK 0317F
Printed as part of the Practica, in Cyrurgia Guidonis de Cauliaco, Venice 1498, 211r-232v

Section shown in images 213 to 214

Title: Medical recipes
Language(s): Latin
Note(s): Recipes in several hands.

Section shown in images 215 to 230

Classmark: Cambridge University Library, MS Ii.6.5, ff. 104r-111v
Title: Arithmetic
Author(s): Alcoarismi (Abu ‘Abd Allah Muhammad b. Musa al-Khwarizmi)
Date of Creation: 13th century.
Language(s): Latin
Note(s): Edition of and extensive commentary of the text in M. Folkerts (1997), MS 'C'.; The original Arabic text has not survived. The Latin version is only found in this manuscript and one other: New York, Hispanic Society of America, HC 397/726.
Physical Description:
105r Et ita usque ad .ix. erit scilicet circulus in prima differentia
Extent: Codex: 8 leaves. Leaf height: 125 mm, width: 125 mm.
Collation:
One quire of 8 leaves
- Quire 14⁸ (ff. 104-111)
Although this part consists of a single quire (Quire 14) there are two sets of catchwords in the lower inner corner of the last verso of the quire. The upper catchwords are by the scribe of the main text and supply the appropriate continuation of the text; the subsequent quire suggested by these catchwords has been lost. The lower catchwords are the work of the late-medieval collator who supplied catchwords throughout the volume across its composite parts.
Material: Parchment (HFFH)
Format: Codex
Condition: Some staining to leaves. Minor losses of decoration to trimming.
Script:
Written in a northern textualis libraria of the mid-13th century, by at least two scribes.
Layout: Written height: 125 mm, width: 85 mm. Ruled in leadpoint, frame and lines, in single-coulmn format. Written above top line, typically 32 lines to the page.
Decoration:
Inhabited initial - animal head with emerging foliage and flowers in the counterspace of the initial 'D', and marginal pen-flourishing (f. 104r).

Blue initials with red marginal flourishing at divisions of the text.
Excerpts:
Incipit: 104r Dixit algorizmi laudes deo rectori nostro atque defensori
Explicit: 111v unius . Post hec scribes in alia parte .viii. et sub eis tres et sub tribus .xi. Sicque constitues .viii.
Bibliography:
M. Folkerts (1997)

Section shown in images 231 to 260

Title: Part 4
Origin Place: Benedictine Abbey in Bury Saint Edmunds
Date of Creation: 12th century, or perhaps final quarter of the 11th century.
Physical Description:
113r cursibus limitem ponunt . Inter quos extremos
Extent: Codex: 16 leaves. Leaf height: 125 mm, width: 125 mm.
Collation:
Two quires of 8 leaves.
- Quires 15-16⁸ (ff. 112-127)
Alphanumeric leaf signatures in red ink in the lower outer corner of the rectos in the first half of each quire: Quire 15 designated 'y' and Quire '16' perhaps designated 'z' with a Greek zeta (ζ). These alphanumeric leaf signatures cross several 'parts' of the composite manuscript, but are not present throughout the extant volume.
Catchwords in ink in the lower inner corner of the last verso of Quire 15.
Material: Parchment (HFFH)
Format: Codex
Condition: Trimmed with minor losses to decoration and glosses throughout, see e.g., f. 117v. Adhesive residue on f. 127v.
Binding:
Adhesive residue on f. 127v suggesting it was a pastedown in a former binding.
Script:
Written in Caroline minuscule of the late-11th or early-12th century by three scribes, the second scribe beginning at f. 125r and the third at f. 126r.
Layout: Written height: 120 mm, width: 80 mm. Ruled in hardpoint, frame and lines, in single-column format. Typically 21 lines to the page, written above top line.
Decoration:
Diagram of an astrolabe: 3 concentric circles, 12 segments, 5 locations in the diagram designated as 'a'-'e' on f. 127r.

Spaces for initials left unfilled by original scribes, see e.g., f. 123v ln. 3 and filled in later middle ages by the scribe who added flourished initials to the unfilled initial spaces throughout the volume.

Plain initial in text-ink f. 125r.

Line fillers in red in a loose foliate style on f. 120r.
Origin: 12th century, or perhaps final quarter of the 11th century. Benedictine Abbey in Bury Saint Edmunds
According to Charles Burnett (1980), p. 344, the text on ff. 127rv adapts the text on the astrolabe in order to give the calculation of the meridian of Bury Saint Edmunds.

Section shown in images 231 to 249

Title: De utilitatibus astrolabii, Book 1: Chs 2, 4-6, 8-10, 19
Author(s): ?Hermannus Contractus
Language(s): Latin
Note(s): Book 1, Ch 19 defective at beginning and end.; The end of Book 1, Chapter 10 is at the end of a quire. The next leaf opens imperfectly in Book 1 Chapter 19, so a quire may have been lost between the leaves now designated as f. 119 and f. 120.
Excerpts:
Incipit: 112r Est quidem guazal cora tabula ad celi rotum
Explicit: 121r si in ipsis fuerat insulis abtergarum(!) quod cuilibet probandum dimittitur
Bibliography:
PL 143, 381-90

Section shown in images 249 to 251

Title: Compositio Astrolabii, Chs 4 and 5
Author(s): Ascelin of Augsburg
Language(s): Latin
Excerpts:
Incipit: 121rSol(!) uelli quod alii recte
Explicit: 122r Sic de ceteris secundem numerum adscriptum cuique stelle
Bibliography:
Edited and translated in C. Burnett (1998) as 'MS C'.

Section shown in images 251 to 256

Title: De cursu solis per menses et signa: Qualiter bissextilem diem quarto suo compleat anno
Author(s): ?Bede
Language(s): Latin
Note(s): Edited as one of the 'Opuscula fortassis genuina' of Bede in CCSL 123C; Ends imperfectly, omitting CCSL 123C, p. 653, ll. 39-45; In the edition, the text is arranged in four chapters, each beginning with a variant of 'anno prim-a/o', 'anno secundo', 'anno tertio', 'anno quarto', but in this manuscript, the first and second chapters are both designated 'anno prim-a/o', the third chapter as 'anno .ii.', and the fourth as 'anno .iii.'
Excerpts:
Incipit: 122r Bissextili anno prima hora noctis
Explicit: 124v Et ex .xii. hora diei plena quidem est .xvi. kalends aprilis
Bibliography:
CCSL 123C, pp. 647-653; MS not used

Section shown in images 256 to 257

Title: Text on the 'Shadow Square'
Language(s): Latin
Note(s): This text begins immediately after the previous text, on the same line and without any obvious indication of a change of text. See C. Burnett (1998).
Excerpts:
Incipit: 124v Componitur in astrolabio quadratus quamuis
Explicit: 125r sibi super frixorum foramina equali interstitionem sint sibi respondentia

Section shown in images 257 to 260

Title: Text on inscribing the hour lines on an astrolabe
Language(s): Latin
Note(s): Change of hand on f. 126r.; Text is followed by a diagram on f. 127r of an astrolabe with 5 points marked 'a'-'e'.
Excerpts:
Rubric: 125r Qualiter hore distingui debeant in astrolabio
Incipit: 125r Ad horas uero distinguendas . ^{uel designandas} trium circulorum
Explicit: 126v per ambas cruces equinoctialis circuli et transducte linee . iustissime transeat