Hard-coded id of currently selected item: . JSON version of its record is available from Blacklight on e.g. ??
Metadata associated with selected item should appear here...
Add MS 17808
- Record Id:
- 032-002028268
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002028268
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000050.0x000237
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100059055158.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Add MS 17808
- Title:
-
Scientific treatises on Music, Mathematics, Astronomy and Astrology
- Scope & Content:
-
This manuscript contains a collection of scientific works. It opens with treatises on music by the Italian Benedictine monk Guido of Arezzo (b. c. 995, d. 1050) that were highly influential in the development of polyphonic music and staff notation. The section on music is followed by works on arithmetic and astronomy, particularly concerning the astrolabe, and astrology. The manuscript is an important witness to the fact that Arabic science had already permeated Western European culture before the 12th century. The manuscript includes astronomical terminology drawn from Arabic (e.g. names of constellations) and the Liber Alchandrei (The Book of Alchandreus). The latter is a work on astrology that is attributed Alchandreus, who is introduced as a 'supreme astrologer' although his existence has not been verified. The Liber is thought to have been translated into Latin from the Arabic in the 10th century.
Contents:
ff. 1v-11v: Guido of Arezzo, Micrologus, beginning ‘MUSICA GUIDONIS – IN NOMINE SANCTAE ET INDIVIDUAE TRINITATIS INCIPIT MIRCOLOGUS ID EST BREVIS SERMO IN MUSICA . COMPOSUIT A DOMNO [sic] GUIDONE PERITISSIMO MUSICO’.
ff. 11v-16v: Guido of Arezzo, Regule Rithmice (Rhythmic Rules), beginning ‘Gliscunt corda meis hominum mellita camenis’.
ff. 17r-18r: Guido of Arezzo, Prologus in Antiphonarium (Prologue to the Antiphonary), beginning ‘Temporibus nostris super omnes homines fatui sunt cantores’.
ff. 18r-22r: Guido of Arezzo, Epistola ad Michahelem (Letter to Michael), beginning ‘Haec pauca quasi in prologum antiphonarii de modorum et neumarum formulis’.
ff. 23r-49v: Musica Encyriadis (Music Handbook), beginning ‘MUSICA ENCHYRIADIS · Sicut vocis articulatae elementariae atque individiae’.
ff. 50r-51v: Tractatus de Musica (A Treatise on Music), imperfect, beginning ‘RATIO BREVITER EXCERPTA DE MUSICA’.
ff. 52r-55v: De Qualitatibus VIII Troporum (On the Properties of the Eight Modes), beginning ‘Omnis ergo natus huius tropi’.
ff. 56r-73r: Bernelinus de Paris, Liber Abaci (Book of the Abacus), beginning ‘[M]IRARI PATER SANCTAE NON desino exactionis tuae instantiam qui me opus aggredi’.
f. 73r: Fulbert de Chartres, Versus de Libra et Partibus Eius (A Poem on the Pound and its Parts), ‘Libra vel as ex unciolis constat duodenis’.
ff. 73v-79r: A treatise on the uses of the Astrolabe attributed to Ptolemy, De Utilitatibus Astrolabii (On the Uses of the Astrolabe), ‘REGULAE EX LIBRIS PTOLOMEI REGIS · DE COMPOSITIONE ASTROLAPSUS’.
f. 79r: A treatise on the astrolabe, beginning ‘DE HOROLOGIO SECUNDUM ALCHORAM ID EST SPHERAM ROTUNDAM’.
f. 79r: A treatise on the astrolabe, beginning ‘UT SCIAS QUANDO QUAELIBET STELLA FIXA SIT CUM SOLE’.
f. 79r-79v: A treatise on the astrolabe, beginning ‘DE HOR[A]S DIEI ET NOCTIS CUM ASTROLABIO INVENIEND[A]S’.
f. 79v: A treatise on the quadrant, beginning ‘AD HORAS CUM QUADRA INVENIENDAS’.
ff. 79v-80r: A treatise on the quadrant, ‘DE ALTITUDINE CLIMATIS INVENIENDA’.
ff. 80r-81r: A treatise called De Compositione Astrolapsus (On the Making of an Astrolabe), ‘DE COMPOSITIONE ASTROLAPSUS’.
ff. 81r-83r: A treatise called De Mensura Astrolabii (On the Measure of the Astrolabe), beginning ‘ITEM DE COMPOSITIONE ASTROLAPSUS’.
ff. 83r-84r: A treatise known as De Utilitatibus Astrolabii (On the Uses of the Astrolabe), ‘AD INVENIENDUM CLIMATA’.
ff. 84r-85r: Ascelin of Augsburg, Compositio Astrolabii (The Making of the Astrolabe), beginning ‘Componas circulum aequinctalem ad arbitrium’.
ff. 85v-97r: Liber Alchandrei (The Book of Alchandreus), beginning ‘INCIPIT MATHEMATICA ALHANDREI · SUMMI ASTROLOGI’ (including the Greek alphabet).
ff. 97r-99r: Epistola Argafalau ad Alexandrum (The Letter of Argafalau to Alexander), beginning ‘EPISTOLA ARGAFALAU · AD ALEXANDRUM’.
ff. 99r-99v: Breviarium Alhandrei (The Breviary of Alchandreus), I-III ‘BREVIARIUM ALHANDREI SUMMI ASTROLOGI DE DISCENDA QUA CUMQUE IGNOTA RE · NULLO DICENTE’.
The manuscript contains a number of additions:
f. 14r: contains ?11th-century additions: ‘Sit nomen Domini benedictum in secula. Adiutorium nostrum in nomine Domini’; ‘Speravi domino et fac bonitatem’; ‘Sancti spiritus ad sit nobis gratia’.
f. 100v: 11th-century notes in Latin.
f. 1r: A 15th-century table of contents.
f. 1r: An 18th- or 19th-century description of the manuscript.
[ff. 14v, [89a] recto, [89a] verso, and 100r are blank].
Decoration:
Large and small initials in brown ink throughout the manuscript. Small capitals coloured with red and green only on ff. 94v-95r. Numerous musical bars (some with neumes) and astronomical diagrams in brown ink throughout the manuscript. Marginal texts have been highlighted in green and red on f. 85v and f. 88v (the names of the Zodiac, the four climatic zones and elements); two green stars (?) in the margin of f. 89r; an astronomical diagram in red and green in the margin of f. 95r.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Additional Manuscripts
England and France 700-1200 Project - Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "032-002028268", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Add MS 17808: Scientific treatises on Music, Mathematics, Astronomy and Astrology" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002028268
- Is part of:
- not applicable
- Hierarchy:
- 032-002028268
- Container:
- not applicable
- Record Type (Level):
- Fonds
- Extent:
-
A parchment codex
- Digitised Content:
- https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100059055158.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1025
- End Date:
- 1099
- Date Range:
- 2nd quarter or 2nd half of the 11th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
Please request the physical items you need using the online collection item request form.
Digitised items can be viewed online by clicking the thumbnail image or digitised content link.
Readers who have registered or renewed their pass since 21 March 2024 can request physical items prior to visiting the Library by completing
this request form.
Please enter the Reference (shelfmark) above on the request form.If your Reader Pass was issued before this date, you will need to visit the Library in London or Yorkshire to renew it before you can request items online. All manuscripts and archives must be consulted at the Library in London.
This catalogue record may describe a collection of items which cannot all be requested together. Please use the hierarchy viewer to navigate to individual items. Some items may be in use or restricted for other reasons. If you would like to check the availability, contact our Reference Services team, quoting the Reference (shelfmark) above.
- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Materials: Parchment.
Dimensions: 290 x 165 mm (text space: 225 x 105 mm).
Foliation: ff. 100 ( + 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + 3 at the end); + 1 unfoliated parchment leaf between f. 89 and f. 90 (f. [89a]); f. 14 is a paper strip mounted on a paper guard; old pagination in pencil and ink (partially crossed out) throughout the manuscript.
Script: Protogothic.
Binding: Post-1600. Gold-tooled brown leather, the spine inscribed at the British Museum: ‘GUIDONIS MICROLOGUS. – TRACTATUS DE ABACO ETC.’; gilt edges.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: Northern France.
Provenance:
An unidentified scriptorium in Northern France: Van de Vyver argues that the manuscript can be located to France on palaeographical grounds (Van de Vyver, Les Plus anciennes Traductions latines médiévales (1936), p. 637); Juste argues that the manuscript tradition suggests that the manuscript originates in Northern France, perhaps Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Chartres or Fleury (Juste, Les Alchandreana primitifs (2007), p. 320).
An unknown French owner: 18th- or 19th-century description of the manuscript on f. 1r and contemporary pencil notes in the margins, in French and Latin, throughout the manuscript.
Adolphus Asher (b. 1800, d. 1853), Berlin bookseller and dealer to the British Museum 1841-1853: purchased from him by the British Museum on 25 June 1849 (see a note on f. [iii] recto) for £15.0.0.
- Information About Originals:
- Full digital coverage available for this manuscript; see Digitised Manuscripts, https://bl.uk/manuscripts/.
- Publications:
-
Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum in the Years 1848-1853 (London: Woodfall and Kinder, 1868), p. 55.
André van de Vyver, ‘Les Plus Anciennes Traductions Latines Médiévales Xe -XIe de Traités d' Astronomie et d' Astrologie’, Osiris, 1 (1936), 658-91 (pp. 666, 667-68).
Lynn Thorndike, A History of Magic and Experimental Science during the First Thirteen Centuries of Our Era, 8 vols (New York: Macmillan, 1923–1958), I, pp. 698, n. 1, 710-18.
Augustus Hughes-Hughes, Catalogue of Manuscript Music in the British Museum, 3 vols (London: British Museum, 1906-1965), III (1965): Instrumental Music, Treatises, Etc., p. 299.
Michel Huglo, Les tonaires, inventaire, analyse, comparaison, Publications de la Société française de musicologie, 3rd series, 2 (Paris: Heugel & Cie, 1971), pp. 302-08.
Guidonis Aretini: “Regulae rhythmicae”, ed. by Joseph Smits van Waesberghe, Divitiae Musicae Artis, Series A, 4 (Buren: Knuf, 1985), pp. 61-62 (as 'Lo3').
Charles Burnett, Magic and Divination in the Middle Ages: Texts and Techniques in the Islamic and Christian Worlds (Aldershot: Variorum, 1996), pp. 141, n. 37, 146, n. 16.
Charles Burnett, ‘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 (1998), 329-68 (pp. 334, n. 28, 335, 339, n. 55, 341, 343, 368).
Charles Burnett, The Introduction of Arabic Learning into England, The Panizzi Lectures 1996 (London: British Library, 1997), pp. 6-10.
David Juste, ‘Les doctrines astrologiques du Liber Alchandrei’, in Occident et Proche-Orient: Contacts scientifiques au temps des Croisades, Actes du colloque de Louvain-la-Neuve, 24 et 25 mars 1997, ed. by Isabelle Draelants, Anne Tihon and Baudouin van den Abeele, Reminisciences, 5 (Turnhout, Brepols, 2000), pp. 277-311 (pp. 278 and 281).
David Juste, Les Alchandreana primitifs: Étude sur les plus anciens traités astrologiques latins d'origine arabe (Xe siècle) (Leiden: Brill, 2007), esp. pp. 320-22
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)
- Notes:
- This manuscript is part of The Polonsky Foundation England and France Project: Manuscripts from the British Library and the Bibliothèque nationale de France, 700-1200.