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Harley MS 3806

Record Id:

040-002049639

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

036-002049631

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000807.0x00013b

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 3806

Title:

Jacques Despars, Commentary on Avicenna, Canon Medicinae, Book 3, Fen XIII-XV

Scope & Content:

The manuscript is the eight 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 3, Fen XIII-XV. Avicenna's text: table of contents (f. 1r) 'Fen xiij de mery et stomaco et / dispositionibus amborum sunt .v. tractatus', incipit: 'Tractatus primus de dispositionibus mery / et de radicibus in re stomaci', explicit (f. 1v): 'Capitulum .xxiii. de dispositionibus accidentibus mirach', rubric 'Fen xiij.e de mery et stomaco et dispositio/nibus amborum sunt quinque tractatus. Tractatus / primus est de dispositionibus mery ed de / radice in re stomaci. Cuius sunt capitula xxxvi. / Capitulum primum est de anathomia mery et stomaci', main text incipit: 'Mery quidem est / compositum / ex carne et / tunicis', explicit (f. 286v): 'communi/tas medicorum nisi apud necessitatem / paucam'. Commentary: incipit (f. 2r) 'Mery quidem est. In hoc capitulo / primo agit de mery Secundo de stomaco', explicit (f. 286v): 'resolvere adiuvat grossas ven/tositates et est frenum humorum ventosa bilium // Explicit fen xv.a tercii / canonis avicenne '. The text corresponds to Fen XIII (ff. 1r-140v), XIV (ff. 141r-250r), XV (ff. 250r-286v), preceded by tables of contents( ff. 1r-1v, 140v-141r, 250r).

Decoration:

Three large historiated initials in colours with white tracery and spray borders in colours and gold with foliate tendrils, small leaves, flowers and berries: a doctor standing in front of a lectern and lecturing two pupils (ff. 1v, 141r, 250r). The historiated initials are in the style of the Master of Jacques de Besançon. Puzzle initials in red and blue (ff. 52v, 83v, 96v, 108v, 167r, 184r, 209r, 271v). 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
040-002049639

Is part of:

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

Harley MS 3806 : Jacques Despars, Commentary on Avicenna, Canon Medicinae, Book 3, Fen XIII-XV

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[3800]/036-002049631[0008]/040-002049639

Container:

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

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

286 folios.

Digitised Content:

http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Harley_MS_3806 (digital images currently unavailable)

Thumbnail:

Languages:

Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

-9999

End Date:

-9999

Date Range:

Unspecified

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment codex.

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

Foliation: ff. v + 1* + 287 (+ 2 unfoliated ruled blank leaves after f. 286; the flyleaves include 1 parchment leaf pasted onto a paper leaf, 2 parchment leaves and 2 modern paper leaves; f. 287 is the original lower parchment pastedown pasted onto a paper leaf). Modern foliation in pencil '1-287' (including the first flyleaf as f. 1*, and a flyleaf at the end as f. 287).

Collation: i-xxiv¹².

Layout: Traces of pricking from recto; 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 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 reversed onto f. 287r and bearing the title 'Expositio fen xiij xiiij xv.te / tercii canonis Avicenne / domini Jacobi despars' followed by 'Invent. iiij' added by a different hand, late 15th century (f. 287r).

Unidentified arms: azure, a tree or, late 15th century (ff. 141r, 250r).

No. '203' (old shelfmark?) in brown ink at the lower right corner of f. ii recto.

Gui II Arbaleste (d. 1570), counsellor in the Parliament of Paris and bibliophile: his arms and motto 'Ingenium superat vires' (f. 1v, superimposed within decorated 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. 1).

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.8 / 3806', and '2/III E' in pencil (f. ii recto).

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)