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Harley MS 4114
- Record Id:
- 040-002049951
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002049951
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000807.0x000272
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 4114
- Title:
- Jacques Despars, Commentary on Avicenna, Canon Medicine
- Scope & Content:
-
The volume contains the commentary by Jacques Despars (c. 1380-1458), regent master of medicine at the University of Paris, on the Canon Medicine, Book 3, Fen iv-vi by Ibn Sīnā, Abú 'Ali Al-Husain ibn 'Abd Allah (Avicenna) (d. 1037), in its Latin translation by Gerardus Cremonensis (Gerard of Cremona) (c. 1113/4-1187). Despars compiled his commentary between 1432 and 1453, and the only extant copy of his full work survives in Harley MS 3799-3809.
The present manuscript contains only Despars' commentary without the original text by Avicenna. It belongs to a set copied between 1486-1487 for the French chancellor Jean Budé (d. 1502), counsellor to the King, auditor of the Chancellery of France, and bibliophile. This set survives incompletely in four other manuscripts in Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, MS lat. 6926-6928, 6937, of which one MS lat. 6937 contains the commentary on Fen II-III of Book 3, immediately preceding the text of the present manuscript: see Jacquart 1980.
Rubric (f. 1r) 'F . IIII . III', seven verses 'Aure melos capimus nostre / precepta salutis … O pars digna suo tot pre/bens munera totj', table of contents with rubric 'Fen quarte tercij que / est de aure et egritudinibus / eius sunt xxv. capitula', incipit: 'Capitulum primum de / anathomia auris', explicit: 'Capitulum .xxv. de terrore / auris ex vocibus magnis', rubric 'Fen quarte tercij de / dispositionibus auris sunt / capitula xxv. Capitulum / primum de anathomia auris', incIpit: 'Auris est / membrum / In hoc / capitulo primo / agit de / officio et / composicione / auris', explicit (f. 195r): 'mem/brorum ut aurium oculj la/brorum dentium etcetera / Explicit expositio fen / vie tercij canonis avicenne'. The text corresponds to Fen IV (ff. 1r-65r), V (ff. 65r-142r; including Tractatus II on ff. 114r-142r), VI (ff. 142v-195r), each preceded by a table of contents.
Marginal nota signs.
Copies of the complete Canon in Latin translation are Additional MS 14424, Royal MS 12 G. vi, Sloane MS 1933 (ff. 184r-275r, imperfect), Sloane MS 2157, Sloane MS 3095; Books I, II, V, and IV in Harley MS 3744 (ff. 6r-135r, 138r-154v); Book III in Harley MS 3757; excerpts in Harley MS 3407 (ff. 92r-101v) and Harley MS 4087 (ff. 39r-108v).
Despars' commentary with additions by Johannes Lascaris was edited by Jacques Ponceau and printed in 1497-1498 at Lyons by Jean Trechsel and Jean Clein: see H 2214*; Arnold C. Klebs, Incunabula scientifica et medica (Bruges 1938; repr. Hildesheim 1963), p. 69, no. 131.13; Frederick R. Goff. Incunabula in American Libraries. Third Census. (New York, 1964), A1428; GW 3127; ISTC ia01428000 [the British Library copy is IC.41940]. For Despars see also 'Desparts (Jacques)', Dictionnaire de biographie française, vols 1- (Paris, 1932-), 10 (1965), p. 1506; Ernest Wickersheimer, Dictionnaire biographique des médicins en France au moyen âge. 2 vols (Paris: E. Droz, 1936, repr. Genève, 1979), I, pp. 326-327; D. Jacquart, Supplément to Wickersheimer, Dictionnaire biographique des médecins en France au moyen âge (Geneva, 1979), pp. 134-135. For bibliographical details on Avicenna, Gerard of Cremona, and the canon, see Harley MS 3744.
Decoration:
Large illuminated initials in colours and gold, some with coats of arms, with partial borders in colours and gold with acanthus and floral motifs, at the beginning of fen (ff. 1r, 65v, 143v) and major section of the text (f. 114r). Small puzzle initials in red and blue at the beginning of chapters. Paraphs in red or blue. Rubrics and running headers in red. Capitals marked in yellow. Cadels (see f. 132r).
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
Harley Science Project - Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002049951", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 4114: Jacques Despars, Commentary on Avicenna, Canon Medicine" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002049951 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 4114 : Jacques Despars, Commentary on Avicenna, Canon Medicine - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[4107]/040-002049951
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
-
195 folios.
- Digitised Content:
- http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Harley_MS_4114 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Latin
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1486
- End Date:
- 1486
- Date Range:
- 1486
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Material: Paper codex.
Dimensions: c. 287 x 210 mm (text space: 150-151 x 115-117 mm).
Foliation; ff. viii + 195 (all flyleaves are modern paper leaves). Modern foliation in pencil '1-195' (f. 195v is blank).
Collation: i-xvi12 + 3 final leaves; with alpha numerical leaf signatures and vertical catchwords descending along the vertical bounding line on last verso of gatherings.
Layout: Ruled in red ink or metal point (single vertical bounding lines) for double columns of 36-38 lines. Text above top line.
Script: Gothic hybrid. Written in black ink possibly by Jean de Bailleul, one of Jean Budé's scribes, who also copied Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, MS lat. 6929, one of the volumes preceding the present manuscript in Budé set: see Garand 1967-1969.
Binding: British Museum/British Library in-house binding with the Harley arms and motto gilt at the centre of the covers; rebound in 1971; edges painted in a pattern of red and dark green-grey triangles.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: France (Paris). Copied in 1486 for Jean Budé (d. 1502), bibliophile, counsellor, and secretary to the king of France: his arms (ff. 1r, 65v, 114r, 143r), and his partially effaced ownership inscription, 'Hic liber est Johannis Bude Regis consiliarii Francieque / audienciarii hunc librum scribere fecit Actum xvii? / decembris? Anno mcccciiiixxvj / Johannes Bude' (f. 195r).
Possibly written by Jean de Bailleul, one of Budé's scribes (see M.-C. Garand, 1967-1969).
Provenance:
No. '207' (old shelfmark?) in brown ink at the lower right corner of f. 1r.
Gui II Arbaleste (d. 1570), counsellor in the Parliament of Paris and bibliophile: his arms painted over those of Budé (f. 1r).
Pierre Séguier (index Seguier) (b. 1588, d. 1672), chancellor of France from 1635 (see Wright 1972); not mentioned in his sale catalogue, Catalogue des Manuscrits de la Bibliothèque de défunt M. le Chancelier Séguier (Paris, 1686). For Séguier library and its dispersal see L. V. Delisle, Le Cabinet des Manuscrits de la Bibliothèque Nationale, (Paris, 1874), II, pp. 79-99; Y. Nexon, 'La bibliothèque du chancelier Seguier', Histoire des bibliothèques françaises (Paris, 1988), II, pp. 147-155
Andrew Hay (d. 1754?), dealer: sold to Harley together with other manuscripts from the Séguier collection on 5 September 1720.
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. 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 '124.C.18 / 4114', and '2/III D' in pencil (f. 1r).
- Publications:
-
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), III (1808), no. 4114.
The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715-1726, ed. by Cyril Ernest Wright and Ruth C. Wright, 2 vols (London: Bibliographical Society, 1966), I: 1715-1723, p. 68 n. 1.
M.-C. Garand, 'Les copistes de Jean Budé', Bulletin de l'Institut de recherche et d'histoire des textes, 15 (1967-1969), 293-315.
Cyril Ernest Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), pp. 183, 301.
D. Jacquart, 'Le regard d'un médecin sur son temps: Jacques Despars (1380?-1458)', Bibliothèque de l'Ecole des Chartes, 138 (1980), 35-86 (pp. 40-42).
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)