Harley MS 5425

Ars Commentata, or Galen's commentaries on the Ars Medicinae. An early copy of the collection of medical texts and commentaries generally known as the Ars Commentata that was put together around 1250 as part of the curriculum for medical teaching at university. The manuscript was written in Paris probably for the use of a university student, and contains:

1. Aphorisms from Hippocrates' Aphorismata (f. 1r);

2. Galen, Commentary on Hippocrates’ Aphorismata, (ff. 2r-53v);

3. Galen, De malicia complexionis diverse (ff. 53v-56v);

4. Commentary on Galen's De interioribus [continued on ff. 91v, 92r-93v] (ff. 56v-61v, 62r);

5. Galen, Commentary on Hippocrates' Prognostics (In Hippocratis Prognosticum Commentaria tria) (ff. 62r-92r);

4. Commentary on Galen's De interioribus [continuation of ff. 56v-61v, 62r] (91v, 92r-93v);

6. Haly, Commentary on Galen's Tegni (ff. 94r-140v);

7. Galen, Commentary on Hippocrates' De regimine acutorum, Books 1-3 (ff. 141r-174r).

The manuscript also includes:

• marginal glosses, additions and corrections added by one or two contemporary readers (13th-century), throughout;
• marginal glosses by the same hand who added the anonymous commentary to Galen (no. 4), throughout;
• the original texts in their Latin translations added to the margins (ff. 62r-173v, nos 5-7) by a university reader (late 13th- early 14th-century).

For an historical introduction to the single texts and the formation of similar manuscript colections see O'Boyle 1998; For a survey of the early editions see J. Arrizabalaga, The 'Articella' in the Early Press, c. 1476-1534, Articella Studies, 2 (Cambridge, 1998). As O'Boyle 1989 points out, the present manuscript is one of the few medieval copies of the Ars commentata in small format (i.e. in quarto).

Decoration:

Initials in blue or red with contrasting pen-flourished decoration extending into the margins (ff. 2r, 41r, 53v, 62r, 72v, 83v, 94r, 141r, 150v, 162v; 2-16 lines); minor initials in red, occasionally with contrasting pen-flourishing in blue (ff. 24r, 26r, 33v, 48r; 1-5 lines), some with guide-letters (see f. 26r; paragraph marks in alternate blue and red, throughout; titles (ff. 62r erased, 94r, 141r) in red in upper margin along the edge. Titles of the last three texts in abbreviated form on upper left corner of versos, 'pro' for 'prognostica' (ff. 62v-91v), 'teg' for 'tegni' (ff. 94v-140v), 're.' for 'regime acutorum' (ff. 141v-173v). Marginal pen sketches of human faces or profiles (ff. 5r, 11r, 28r, 34r), occasionally in a hat, and of a man in a hat with a sword (f. 35v).