Royal MS 12 C VI

TRACTS on shorthand, music, &c., with spurious works of Aristotle, in Latin. The table of contents includes several articles now lost, viz.:-(a) 'Ars memorandi', before art. 1;-(b) 'Modus componendi rotam uersatilem', after art. 1;-(c) 'Excerpta de tragediis Senece', at the end. Present contents:

1. Treatise on shorthand (colophon, 'explicit ars notoria') by an anonymous monk who claims the friendship and patronage of S. Thomas of Canterbury, and describes his miraculous cure by intervention of the martyr. Described in Hermes (Berlin, 1874), viii, p. 303, by Valentin Rose, who finds the author in John of Tilbury, mentioned as 'scriba doctus et uelox' by Herbert of Boseham (Robertson, Mat. for Hist. of T. Becket, Rolls Ser., iii, p. 527). Rose prints the introduction and conclusion from this and other MSS. (Arundel MS. 165, Oxford, Corp. Chr. Coll. MS. 233). He regards the rubric 'Incipit epistola ad dom. Henricum regem Anglorum' as a blunder, the person addressed being probably a prelate. Begins, after a table of contents, 'Salutatione premissa, o preciosa placensque deo'. In a hand of circ. 1300. f. 2.

2. Vita et sententiae Secundi Philosophi; see above, 9 A. XIV, art. 7, with which this text is in general agreement. f. 10.

3. Rhyming moral maxims (43 lines) addressed to King Henry [II or III ?]. Beg. 'Pax Henrico dei amico. Decet regem dicere legem'; ends 'Qui se fatetur reum, cito placet deum'. f. 11 b.

4. 'Incipit liber moralium de regimine dominorum, qui alio nomine dicitur secreta secretorum, editus ab Aristotele ad Alexandrum regem': the Pseudo-Aristotelian Secreta Secretorum. A more intelligible text than 9 B. II, art. II, and including three considerable passages there omitted. The contents are nearly as in the Paris edition, 1520. Imperf. by loss of [three?] leaves after f. 39, breaking off in the ch. De cornu, with the words 'Est igitur'. Prologue beg. 'Domino suo excellentissimo in cultu religionis Christiane strenuissimo Guidoni de Valencia ciuitatis Tripol[itane] glorioso pontifici'; second prologue, 'Deus omnipotens custodiat'; third, 'Iohannes qui transtulit'; text, 'O fili gloriosissime imperator'. Several notes are in the Bury librarian's hand. f. 12.

5. 'Epistola Iohannis presbyteri' (so colophon): the supposititious letter from Prester John to the Emperor Manuel Comnenus (1143-1180). The text, as in the majority of MSS. (cf. 13 A. XIV, art. 19), is slightly shorter than, and differs in arrangement from, that printed in the early editions (Eichstädt, circ. 1478, &c.) and by Gustav Oppert, Presbyter Iohannes, Berlin, 1864, whereas the Cotton MS. Cleopatra C. x is considerably longer than the printed text. Imperf. at beg. to l. 21 of Oppert's text 'potencia nostra'. Ends 'ciborum essemus repleti'. f. 40.

6. Medical verse, viz.:-(a) Nineteen lines on various herbs, generally differing considerably from the corresponding lines in Renzi's text of Schola Salernitana (Collectio Salern. v), cf. lines 1166-7 and 1116-1122; and (b) Five lines on diet, whereof the last four correspond to ll. 359-362 of op. cit. f. 42 b.

Art. 7 is an insertion, but nearly contemporary.

7. Rules for diet and regimen. Beg. 'Secundum Aristotelem in De secretis, non est uia'. f. 42 b.

8. 'Phisionomia Aristo[te]lis' (so colophon), without title: a Latin version of the Greek tract attributed to Aristotle (not the Arabic tract which forms part of the Secreta Secretorum). The translation is not the same as that printed (Vitebergae, 1538, &c., and in the Berlin Aristotle). Beg. 'Quoniam et anime sequuntur corpora et ipse secundum seipsas non sunt impassibiles'. Another copy is in Egerton MS. 847, f. 26. Brief marginal commentary beg. 'In isto prohemio ponit propositum philosophus'. f. 43. At the end is a note by the Bury librarian (f. 49), 'Vide de phisonogmia breuius et melius in quodam paruo quaterno mag. Ioh. Tebaud rectoris de Elmeswell [Elmswell, co. Suff.] et incipit sic Matrix est e[m]brion, etc., fi[niendo] expellere' [probably the latter part of the Secreta Secretorum, which contains these opening words].

9. 'Hic incipiunt tituli librorum Gal[ieni] cum principiis et terminacionibus eorundem'; incomplete, comprising 12 works (30 books), genuine or spurious. f. 49.

Artt 10-13, which are musical tracts in early 14th cent. hands, occur also in Cotton MS. Tib. B. IX, possibly copied (about 1400) from the present MS., but with additions. The Cotton MS. was much injured in the fire, but a transcript previously made by Dr. Pepusch is in Add. MS. 4909. The tracts are printed in Coussemaker's Scriptores de musica, 1863, i, pp. 327-377. See also an ac count in Sir John Hawkins' History, ii, pp. 174, 196. For description see also Hughes-Hughes, Cat. of MS. Music, iii, p. 302.

10. Ars cantandi. Beg. 'Est autem vnisonus'. The passage at the end, preceding the diagram of a hand, which begins 'De tonorum agnicionibus', is omitted in Add. MS. 4909; the part of the Cotton MS. corresponding is lost. One sentence is in a simple cipher. f. 50.

11. Treatise chiefly on Cantus mensurabilis. Beg. 'Cum in isto tractatu de figuris siue de notis que sunt et de carum proprietatibus'. Add. MS. 4909 has a few slight omissions near the end, but a more considerable addition. It is to this addition that the reference to [Walter] Odyngton applies (Hawkins, l. c.). f. 54.

12. On Cantus mensurabilis. Beg. 'Cognita modulacione melorum secundum uiam octo temporum'. Probably by a Parisian, but contains the names of several English singers (Joh. filius Dei, Makeblite of Winchester, Blakesmit at the court of Henry [III] f. 71), as well as continental musicians. f. 59.

13. A short tract on the synemmenon tetrachord. Beg. 'Sequitur de sineminis'. f. 80 b.

Vellum; ff. 81. 9 in. x 6¹/₄ in. Late XIII-XIV centt. Gatherings, art. 1, i⁸; artt. 2-7, i-iii⁸, iv⁹; artt. 8, 9, i⁸; artt. 10; 11, i⁹; artt. 12, 13, i⁸, ii¹⁰, iii⁵. Double columns, except art. 12. Sec. fol. '-nibus que'. Initials in red and blue. Belonged (f. 1 b) to Bury St. Edmunds Abbey, press-mark M83, 'Liber monachorum sancti Edmundi in quo continentur', &c. (M. R. James, Abbey of S. Edmund, p. 67). On the same folio are the old initials H. de K. Afterwards belonged (f. 2) to [John, Lord] Lumley. Lumley cat. f. 267; cat. of 1666, f. 20b; CMA. 8448, 8451, 8527, and 8543.