Royal MS 12 B XX

THREE TRACTS on mnemonics (one printed), in Latin, accompanied by some medical commonplaces, and by a curious set of exercises in Lat. and Engl. composed for Oxford undergraduates, viz.:

1. Medical commonplaces in a 16th cent. hand, including-(a) Miscellaneous notes. ff. 2-4;-(b) 'Tractatus vtilis et valde breuis de pulsibus', beg. 'In omnibus arteriis fit pulsus'. f. 5.

Art. 1 was probably bound up with the rest in the 17th or 18th cent., as Lord Lumley's name does not occur until art. 2. Fol. 1 bears a ticket with the no. 908.

2. 'Iacobus de arte memoratiua, licet breuis et compendiosa, subtilis tamen et difficillima'. The author is apparently English; he promises a book of about 300 mnemonic pictures, which shall suffice 'pro omni diccione in omni lingua'. Beg. 'Incipiamus ergo per dei omnipotentis graciam dicentes eum Tullio'. f. 11.

3. 'Magistro Patricio Consularis ornatissimo viro domino Dominico Georgio proconsulique urbis Padue dignissimo..... G .... doctor deuotissimus mittit' (so the partly illegible title) : another tract on artificial memory, 'De memoria et reminiscencia naturali et artificiosa', less complete and practical, but more filled with classical and other learning. It concludes with applications to dice, chess, and cards. Preface beg. 'Cum omnis res omnisque artes'; text, 'Constituenti michi de memoria'. f. 22.

On the same quire as art. 3 follows:

4. A set of exercises, Latin and English, evidently composed for Oxford undergraduates, and full of local references. The hand is more like that of the master than a scholar. Among the sentences are (f. 48) 'I am purposid to leue my cuntre and go in to Italie and that only for the desire of Latyn and Greke, for thought I can fynd here in Ynglonde that can thech me, yet by cause I thynke I can lerne better ther then her, I haue a gret desire to goo thether', and 'When we last fothe from the vniuersite for sikenes we had a fole slutty kechyn for owr scole, but now we be prouydyd of a place a lityl more honest', &c. To which of the several migrations due to pestilence in the late 15th and early 16th cent. this refers has not been determined. f. 35.

Paper; ff. 49. Quarto. 8³/₄ in x 6 in. Late XV-XVI cent. Sec. fol. of art. 2 'septimo requiritur'. Artt. 3, 4 have the name as owner of Humfray Barbar (f. 22). Art. 2 (and probably Artt. 3-5) belonged (see f. 12) to [John, Lord] Lumley. Lumley cat. f. 322; cat.of 1666, f.20 b; CMA. 8496, 8515.