Royal MS 2 D I

2 D. 1

SUMMARY OF THE BOOKS OF THE BIBLE, in Latin verse, with a prologue in prose, which states that the author's name was john, but gives no further information about him; beg. 'Quoniam modernis temporibus nonnulli. . . perniciores inveniuntur ad disputandum' (f. 7). Title (f. 11 b): 'Summaria compilacio metrificata docens quid communius et utilius continetur in unoquoque capitulo tocius biblie unde quodlibet verbum unius capituli sentenciam tenet'. The summary is of two kinds: (i) a 'memoria technica' in hexameters, in which each chapter is represented by a single word or phrase; beg. 'Sex-proibet -peccant - Abel - Ennok-archa fitintrant', being the 'Summarium Biblicum' of Alexander de Villa Dei (d. circ. 1240), printed in La Haye's Biblia Maxima, 1660, i, pp. 1-10; (2) interspersed after every six lines of the foregoing, a summary of contents in rough rhyming verse, in which each chapter is represented by a couplet, and the couplets successively begin with the successive letters of the alphabet: beg. 'Ante fir [i.e. firmamentum] lux producitur distinguens undas congregat Ornatus factis additur producta Ade

subiugat'. At the end (f. 84 b) are hexameter lines forming a memoria technica of the order of the books of the Bible; beg. 'Penteu Genesis exiitque leui nume deutro'. Colophon : 'Explicit ordo librorum tocius biblie cum capitilis cuilibet libro assignatis' (f. 854). Another copy of the work, omitting the verses of Alexander, and with a shorter prologue, is in Arundel MS. 189, and in the catalogue of that collection is attributed to Giovanni Fidanza (S. Bonaventura), but apparently without authority. The contents do not correspond with the description of the similar work ascribed to Bonaventura (cf Fabricius, Bibl. Med. et Inf. Latinitatis, i. 254). Vellum ; ff. 90, 61 in. x 4 in. XV cent. Gatherings of 8 leaves (except the first, which has 10, and the, last, which has 12), with catchwords. Sec. fol. similiter y et z'. The fly-leaves at the beginning and end (ff. 1 b-6, 87 b-90) contain records of a subsidy of an eleventh and a fifteenth in a late 13th cent. hand. On f. 3 (but in the reverse direction to the writing on that page) is the date 'Ao xix', i. e. presumably 19 Edward I [1290-91]. The names of places mentioned include Aspalee [Aspall], Tymeworth [Timworth], Cheldiston [? Chelmondiston], Ottelee [Otley], all in co. Suffolk. On f. 4 a section of the subsidy return is headed ' [? ob]lata de ysslape'. On f. i is a diamond-shaped library ticket with the number 326, as in the cat. of john Theyer's MSS. (Roy. App. 70, f. 27).