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...
Harley MS 3802
- Record Id:
- 040-002049635
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 036-002049631
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000807.0x000137
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 3802
- Title:
-
Jacques Despars, Commentary on Avicenna, Canon Medicinae, Book 1, Fen III
- Scope & Content:
-
The manuscript is the third 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 III. Avicenna's text: table of contents incipit (f. 1r): 'Fen tercie de conservatione sanitatis / est capitulum unum et doctrine quinque / Capitulum singulare est de causis sanitatis', explicit: 'Capitulum viii. de regimine iter agentis in mari', rubric 'Fen tercie primi de regimine sanitatis / est capitulum unum et doctrine quinque. Capitulum / singulare est de causis sanitatis et egri/tudinis et necessitate mortis', main text incipit: 'Medicina in / prima sui di/visione in duas / dividitur', explicit (f. 140r): 'Na/res quoque eius interius cum ce/rusa sunt epithimande'. Commentary: incipit (f. 1v): 'Medicina in prima. In hoc capitulo primo / dividit medicinam et declarat eius / membra dividencia', explicit (f. 140v): 'et comedere paulatim principiat quae vomitum / reprimunt // Explicit commentum super tercia fen / primi canonis avicenne. Deo gratias'. A table of contents (f. 1r).
Also includes fragments of Augustine, De civitate Dei, from a 9th-century manuscript (or manuscripts) used as flyleaves. The text corresponds to Book 20, Chapters xi-xiv (ff. 1*r-1*v), beginning (f. 1*r) '… est nomine latitudinis terre ibi erunt / castra', breaking at (f. 1*v) 'Et tamen illud prius dictum est; hoc est ergo', and Book 8, Chapters xxiv-xxvii - Book 9, Chapter i (ff. 141r-141v), beginning (f. 141r) '[sancti]s divinisque mysteriis pro quas idola et bene faciendi / [et ma]le vires habere potuissent', breaking at (f. 141v) 'poetarum et magicarum artium scelera[tam…]'.
Decoration:
One small miniature of a woman in a veiled hat holding a flask and herbs (the personification of Medicine?), with a decorated initial 'M'(edicina) in gold and colours, and spray border in colours and gold with foliate tendrils, small leaves and flowers, with one large initial in blue with white tracery and foliate decoration (f. 1r). Diagrams (ff. 45r, 92r). Initials and paraphs in alternating blue and red. Sentence initials touched in yellow. Rubrics in red throughout.
Direction to the rubricator in the lower margin on f. 32r.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
Harley Science Project - Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
036-002049631
040-002049635 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MSS 3799-3809 : Jacques Despars, Commentary on Avicenna, Canon Medicinae.
Harley MS 3802 : Jacques Despars, Commentary on Avicenna, Canon Medicinae, Book 1, Fen III - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[3800]/036-002049631[0004]/040-002049635
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
- 141 folios.
- Digitised Content:
- http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Harley_MS_3802 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1475
- End Date:
- 1475
- Date Range:
- 1475
- 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 codex.
Dimensions: 395 x 280 mm (text space: 285 x 180 mm).
Foliation: ff. iv + 1* + 2* + 141 (+ 2 unfoliated ruled blank leaves after f. 140). Modern foliation in pencil '1*-2*, 1-141' (including flyleaves, ff. 1*, 141, formed by two leaves from one or possibly two 9th-century manuscripts; f. 2* is a parchment flyleaf).
Collation: i-xi12, xii10.
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 below top line. ff. 1*r-1*v and 141r-141v: ruled in hard point with single bounding vertical lines for double columns of 37 lines.
Script: Gothic hybrid. ff. 1*r-1*v and 141r-141v: Caroline minuscule; written by two different hands.
Binding: 18th-century British Museum binding in mottled brown leather with the monogram 'M.B.' gilt-tooled at the centre of the covers.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: France (Paris). The manuscript belongs to a set of 11 volumes (Harley MS 3799-3809) completed on 22 Dec. 1475 (see Harley 3809, f. 284r).
Provenance:
Leather label from the original binding pasted onto f. 2*r and bearing the title 'Expositio fen 3e primi canonis / avicenne domini Jacobi des pars' followed by 'Invent. iiij' added by a different hand, late 15th century (f. 2*r).
No. '198' (old shelfmark?) in brown ink at the lower right corner of f. 2*r.
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’ (f. 2*r).
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.4 / 3802', and '2/III E' in pencil (f. ii recto).
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)