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Harley MS 3799

Record Id:

040-002049632

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

036-002049631

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000807.0x000134

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 3799

Title:

Jacques Despars, Commentary on Avicenna Canon Medicinae, Book 1, Fen I

Scope & Content:

The manuscript is the first volume of the 11-volume set containing the commentary by Jacques Despars (c. 1380-1458) on the medical summa by Ibn Sīnā, Abú 'Ali Al-Husain ibn 'Abd Allah (Avicenna) (d. 1037), in the Latin translation by Gerardus Cremonensis (Gerard of Cremona) (c. 1113/4-1187).

The volume includes the commentary on Avicenna, Canon Medicinae, Book 1, Fen I. Avicenna's text: rubric (f. 1r) 'Liber canonis avicenne principis abohali / de medicina quem de arabico in latinum trans/tulit toleti gerardus cremonensis // Prohemium avicenne in suum canonem', preface incipit: 'In primis deo gratias agemus / sicut sui ordinis', explicit (f. 2v) 'ad alia me preparabo // Explicit prohemium', table of contents rubric 'Sequitur divisio huius tocius libri / in quinque libros partiales et primi libri / in fen doctrinas summas et capitula', incipit: 'Hunc autem hunc componam librum quem in quinque sic dividam libros', explicit (f. 4r): 'Capitulum xxxj a quibus medicationibus est nobis incipiendum', rubric 'Prima igitur capitula huius primi / sunt ducenta et lxiiij. // Capitulum primum doctrine prime fen / prime libri primi de diffinicione medicine', main text incipit: 'Dico quod medi/cina est scientia / qua humana in / corporis dispo/sitiones no/scuntur', explicit (f. 333v): 'et medicamenta comprehendit / Hunc autem de virtitibus [sic] loqui incipiemus'. Commentary: Prohemium, incipit (f. 1r): 'Canon arabice latine norma seu regula dicitur / Ideo principi placuit ut liber infrascriptus canon / nominetur … // Prohemium grece sonat latine principium … // In hoc prohemio primitus aguntur deo gratie'; commentary to Book 1, incipit (f. 4r): 'Dico quod. Princeps in hoc capitulo / primo ponit diffinitionem medicine / secundo circa eam movet et solvitur dubium', explicit (f. 334v): 'Media harum trium utriusque dividitur / in duas venas // Explicit summa de venis et sic com/pletus est sermo de anathomia membrorum / consimilium deo gracia'. The text corresponds to Fen I, divided into two parts (ff. 1r-191r, 192r-334v), and includes (ff. 2v-4r, 192v) two tables of contents.

Includes sparse scribal additions and corrections and marginalia by later hands.

Decoration:

Two large historiated initials in blue with white tracery and spray borders in colours and gold with foliate tendrils, small leaves, flowers and berries: 'D'(ico) of a teacher and students (f. 4r) and 'D'(icemus) of a physician and a naked patient (f. 192r). The historiated initials are in the style of the Master of Jacques de Besançon. Cadels (ff. 147v, 191r, 208v). Diagrams touched in yellow (ff. 204r, 281r). Initials and paraphs in alternating blue and red. Sentence initials touched in yellow. Rubrics in red throughout.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection
Harley Science Project

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
036-002049631
040-002049632

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MSS 3799-3809 : Jacques Despars, Commentary on Avicenna, Canon Medicinae.

Harley MS 3799 : Jacques Despars, Commentary on Avicenna Canon Medicinae, Book 1, Fen I

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[3800]/036-002049631[0001]/040-002049632

Container:

View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

335 folios.

Digitised Content:

http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Harley_MS_3799 (digital images currently unavailable)

Thumbnail:

Languages:

Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1475

End Date:

1475

Date Range:

1475

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment codex.

Dimensions: 395 x 280 mm (text space: 285 x 180 mm).

Foliation: ff. iv + 335 (the flyleaves include 2 unfoliated modern paper leaves and 2 unfoliated parchment leaves at the beginning; 2 unfoliated ruled blank leaves after ff. 191 and 334) Modern foliation in pencil '1-335' (including original back pastedown as f. 335; f. 191v ruled but blank).

Collation: i-xxviii¹², with two sets of alpha numerical leaf signatures (one set for each part of the text, corresponding to gatherings i-xvi and xvii-xxviii). With two alpha numerical leaf signatures and vertical catchwords in the lower right corner of last versos.

Layout: Pricked from recto (see Harley MS 3800, ff. 30r-31r), and ruled in red ink (single vertical bounding lines, with extra double vertical and horizontal lines in the margins) for double columns of 65 lines. Text written below top line.

Script: Gothic hybrid.

Binding: British Museum/British Library binding with the Harley arms and motto gilt at the centre of the covers.

Custodial History:

Origin: France (Paris). The first volume of a set of 11 volumes (Harley MSS 3799-3809), dated 1475 (see inscription in Harley MS 3809, f. 284r).

Provenance:

Leather label from the original binding pasted onto the flyleaf and bearing the title 'Expositio fen prime primi canonis / avicenne domini Jacobi des par[s]' followed by 'Invent. iiij' added by a different hand, late 15th century (f. 335v).

Gui II Arbaleste (d. 1570), counsellor in the Parliament of Paris and bibliophile: his arms and motto 'Ingenium superat vires' (f. 1r, lower border).

Pierre Séguier (index Seguier) (b. 1588, d. 1672), count of Gien, chancellor of France from 1635 (see Wright and Wright 1966, Wright 1972).

Andrew Hay (d. 1754?), dealer: sold to Edward Harley together with other manuscripts from the Séguier collection on 5 September 1720 (see Wright and Wright 1966, Wright 1972).

The Harley Collection, formed by Robert Harley (b. 1661, d. 1724), 1st earl of Oxford and Mortimer, politician, and Edward Harley (b. 1689, d. 1741), 2nd earl of Oxford and Mortimer, book collector and patron of the arts, inscribed as usual by their librarian, Humfrey Wanley ‘5 Septembris, 1720’ (unfoliated flyleaf before f. 1r).

Edward Harley bequeathed the library to his widow, Henrietta, née Cavendish Holles (b. 1694, d. 1755) during her lifetime and thereafter to their daughter, Margaret Cavendish Bentinck (b. 1715, d. 1785), duchess of Portland; the manuscripts were sold by the Countess and the Duchess in 1753 to the nation for £10,000 (a fraction of their contemporary value) under the Act of Parliament that also established the British Museum; the Harley manuscripts form one of the foundation collections of the British Library. Harley shelfmarks in brown ink '120.C.1 / 3799', and '2/III E' in pencil (f. ii recto).

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)