Add MS 44922

PALLADIUS, De Agricultura; Epitome of Vitruvius, De Architectura; Giraldus Cambrensis, Topographia Hibernica; etc., in Latin. As follows:-

(1) 'Palladii Rutili Tauri Emiliani viri illustris opus agriculture' in thirteen books. Beg., after tituli, 'Pars est prima prudentie'. Colophon (f. 64b) 'Palladii Rutili Tauri Emiliani viri illustris opus agriculture explicit'. The text of Book II, chapter xi, which is headed 'de tabulis vinearum' and opens with the words 'fiunt ergo' (f.15b) is usually assigned to chapter x: the text of chapter xi as printed in J.C. Schmitt's edition, Leipzig, 1898, is here omitted. For other MSS. of the work see Sloane MS. 296, ff. 1-59 (where it is followed similarly by artt. 2-4 of the present MS.), Harley MSS. 3296, 5263, Add. MSS. 22O15, 38818; cf. D.W. Singer, Cat. Alchemical MSS. in Great Britain and Ireland, ii, 1930, no. 997. ff. 1-64b.

(2) Epitome of Vitruvius, De Architectura, by M. Cetius Faventinus, with eight of the interpolated technical recipes, etc., commonly found in MSS. of the work, cf. e.g. Sloane MS. 296, ff. 59b-72b. Beg. 'Multa oratione de artis architectorie'. Colophon (f. 74b) 'Explicit de architectura'. For the text of the Epitome, and other MSS., see V. Rose and H. Müller-Strübing, Vitruvii de Architectura, Leipzig, 1867, pp. 287-313; cf. the subsequent re-editions by V. Rose, Leipzig, 1899, pp. 285-309, and F. Krohn, Leipzig, 1912, pp. 262-283. Six of the interpolations are printed from Vatican MS. regin. 1286 by J. Poleni, Exercitationes Vitruvianae, Padua, 1739, pp. 187-215, passim, and a seventh from Vatican MS. regin. 309 by Rose, op. cit., 1899, pp. xxviii-xxix; see also Rose and Müller-Strübing, op. cit., p. xii, and F. Krohn, Quaestiones Vitruvianae, i, Berlin, 1896. None of the editors named had seen the present MS., or Trinity College Cambridge MS. O.3.42. (for photostats of some specimen leaves from which, and from Paris, Bibl. Nat. MS. lat. 6842c, see MS. Facsimiles Supplement VIII, art. 66). The interpolations, of which (i) follows chapter vii of the main work, (ii)-(iv) follow chapter xxvi, and (v)-(viii) follow chapter XXIX at the end, are as follows:-(i) 'De

organicis fistulis'. Poleni, op. cit. pp. 187-188. ff. 67-68;-(ii) 'De generibus colorum'. Ibid., pp. 207-208. ff. 71b-72b;-(iii) 'De croco hispanico'. Ibid., p. 208. f. 72b;-(iv) 'Quomodo scribatur de auro vel cupro'. Ibid., p. 209. f. 72b;-(v) 'De spera vel hemisperio'. Ibid., pp. 211-212. ff. 73- 73b;-(vi) 'De maltis diversis'. Ibid., pp. 212-215 (as chapter xxx of the main work). ff. 73b-74b;-(vii) 'De mensuris arborum vel turrium', beg. 'Arborem sive turrim'. f. 74b;-(viii) 'De probatione auri et argenti'. Rose, op. cit., 1899, pp. xxviii-xxix. f. 74b. ff. 64b-74b.

(3) 'Incipit de multiplicatione numerorum': nine extracts from the opening chapters of the treatise 'De numerorum divisione' by Heriger of Lobbes (cf. C. Jones, Bedae Pseudepigrapha, 1939, p. 53), beg. 'Si multiplicaveris singularem numerum'. Cf. Migne, Patr. Lat. xc, col. 681; cxxxix, coll. 86-87; Sloane MS. 296, f. 72b. ff. 74b-75.

(4) 'De medecina valde utilis scientia': a recipe for removing bad smells and superfluous hair, beg. 'Propsiletrum (sic) ad noxios quosque', end. 'curant accipere potionem'. Cf. Sloane MS. 296, ff. 72b-73. ff. 75- 75b.

(5) Giraldus Cambrensis, Topographia Hibernica, with introduction beg. 'C[onsideranti] mihi quam brevis' (ff. 77-78) and dedication to Henry II beg. 'Placuit excellentie vestre' (f. 78). The main work, beg. 'Hybernia post Britanniam' (f. 78), breaks off unfinished in the middle of Dist. III. 49 at the words 'viribus, Augustus moribus, ore'. The text represents the second edition of the treatise as described by J.F. Dimock, Giraldi Cambrensis Opera, Rolls Ser., v, 1867, pp. xiv-xvii, and corresponds closely to that of Bodleian Library MS. Rawlinson B. 483, although the marginal additions found in the latter MS. have here been incorporated. ff. 77-105. Vellum; ff. ii + 105. 290 mm. x 185 mm. XII and (art. 5) XIII centt. Artt.

1-4 are written as a single compilation on gatherings of 10 leaves (viii, last, lacks 6-9) ruled 35 lines to a page, in double columns, with a stylus, and have rubrics and plain red, green and purple initials. Art. 5, originally a separate MS., is written on gatherings of 8 leaves (iv, last, lacks 5, 6, 8) ruled 46 lines to a page, in double columns, with a plummet, and has rubrics and red and blue decorated initials. At the foot of f. 1 (a blank page) is an added early 13th-cent. library title 'pallidius de agricultura': at the head of the same folio is the 15th-cent. library title 'Palladius de agricultura et tropographia (sic) vel historia hibernie'. Medieval binding of oak boards covered with parchment: attached to the fore-edge of the front cover is a vellum tag (f. i) with a 16th-cent. library title. Belonged to Sir John Price of Brecon, d. 1555, who annotated artt. 1-4 and compiled an index to art. 1 of which part remains as f. 76; cf. N.R. Ker, 'Sir John Prise', The Library, 5th ser., x, 1955, pp. 15, 21. Later 16th-cent. rough marginal plans in ink of a house and garden (f. 5) may represent Treago Castle, co. Heref., cf. Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, Herefordshire, i, 1931, p. 231. No. 32 in the library of Sir Hungerford Hoskyns, 7th Bart., of Harewood, co. Heref., 19th cent. (armorial bookplate, f. ii).