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Harley MS 5139
- Record Id:
- 040-002050983
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 040-002050983
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000859.0x000292
- LARK:
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Harley MS 5139
- Title:
- Petrus Hispanus, Thesaurus Pauperum, in an anonymous Italian translation; alchemical and medical recipes; fragment of the Livre de Sydrac
- Scope & Content:
-
This manuscript contains an anonymous Italian translation of the Thesaurus pauperum (Treasury of the poor), a comprehensive medical manual of diseases and remedies by Petrus Hispanus (or Peter of Spain), traditionally identified with the Portuguese scholar and ecclesiastic Peter Juliani (b. c. 1215, d. 1277), who was elected Pope John XXI in 1276. A copy of the original Latin text is now Harley MS 5218 (ff. 3v-83r).
The volume also contains a collection of alchemical and medical recipes in Italian, and a leaf from a late 14th-early 15th century manuscript of the Livre de Sydrac, an anonymous philosophical work written in Old French. For an edition of the text, see Sydrac le philosophe. Le livre de la fontaine de toutes sciences. Edition des enzyklopädischen Lehrdialogs aus dem XIII.Jahrhundert, ed. by E. Ruhe, Wissensliteratur im Mittelalter, 34 (Wiesbaden, 2000).
Contents:
f. 1r-v: A table of contents, beginning, 'dei cavelli che cade del chano', and ending, 'Capitolo de la polvere solutivo del corpo. cxvij / Capitolo ultimo';
ff. 2r-54r: Petrus Hispanus, Thesaurus pauperum, in an anonymous Italian translation, beginning, 'Qui scomenza i capitoli de libro el / qual ven appello thesaurus pauperum / segondo lo ordine sovra scripto / In nome de la sancta et indivi/dua trinita', and ending, ''Qui se compi el libro el qual / ven chiama thesaurus pauperum / al honor de dio et exaltatione / et magnifico del mio signore ciriser? / Amen';
ff. 54r-60v: a collection of alchemical and medical recipes in Italian, added by various hands, beginning, 'A fare boraso / Recipe salgema alumenis rocha';
f. 61r-v: a fragment from a late 14th-early 15th century manuscript of the Livre de Sydrac, in Old French, corresponding to questions 324-327, 329 (f. 61r) and 330, 336-338 (f. 61v) in the prose text.
The manuscript features a number of added notes, including:
f. 59v: a note relating to the concession to practice medicine and surgery granted to the owner of the volume, probably by the Venetian authorities, dated 11 September 1480;
ff. 59v-60v: notes referring to births in the family of the manuscript's owner and one (f. 60r) to a rental agreement, dated 1470-1478.
Decoration:
Large initials in alternating red and blue ink; paraph marks in red.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Harley Collection
- Hierarchy Tree:
- [{ "id" : "040-002050983", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 5139: Petrus Hispanus, Thesaurus Pauperum, in an anonymous Italian translation; alchemical and medical recipes; fragment of the Livre de…" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002045828
040-002050983 - Is part of:
- Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts
Harley MS 5139 : Petrus Hispanus, Thesaurus Pauperum, in an anonymous Italian translation; alchemical and medical recipes; fragment of the Livre… - Hierarchy:
- 032-002045828[5139]/040-002050983
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
- 1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- Languages:
- French, Old
Italian - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1400
- End Date:
- 1499
- Date Range:
- 15th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Material: Paper.
Dimensions: 235 x 195 mm (written space: 200 x 145 mm), in two columns of 45 lines.
Foliation: ff. 61 (+ 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning and + 4 at the end).
f. 61 is a parchment leaf, from another manuscript, and originally used as a flyleaf.
Collation: i-vi10.
Gatherings mounted on guards with alphabetical leaf signatures.
Script: Gothic cursive, written above the top line.
Binding: British Museum in-house. Rebound 1972.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin: Northern Italy (possibly Venice).
Provenance:
A note relating to the concession to practice medicine and surgery granted to the owner of the volume, probably by the Venetian authorities ,'1480. adi 11 detembrio avi la licencia plenaria / dei provededori de comun e de comandamento / de la Signoria de poder medigar liberamente / in fizicho e in cirozia e in tute cose che se pertien / al medigon zoe al medigar', 11 September 1480 (f. 59v).
Other notes (ff. 59v, 60v) by the same hand, dated 1470-1478, referring to births in the family and one (f. 60) to a rental agreement, '1479 adi 3 zugno miser francisco in questo zorno / afita la ca a maistro zuane barbier a san simeon / memoria'.
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. Edward Harley bequeathed the library to his widow, Henrietta Cavendish, née 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.
- Publications:
-
A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), III, no. 5139.
Karl Daniel Bülbring, 'Sidrac in England' in Beitrage zur Romanischen und englishcen Philologie. Festgabe fur Wendelin Foerster zum 26. Oktober 1901, ed. by Rudolf Lenz (Halle: Max Niemeyer, 1902), pp. 443-78 (p. 447).
Maria Helena da Rocha Pereira, Obras médicas de Pedro Hispano (Coimbra: University of Coimbra, 1973), pp. 41, 42, 43, 49.
Giuseppe Zarra, Il 'Thesaurus pauperum' pisano: Edizione critica, commento linguistico e glossario (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2018), pp. 57, 88, 120.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)
- Names:
- John XXI, Pope, d 1277
- Places:
- Venice, Italy