Royal MS 12 C XVII

MATHEMATICAL and astronomical treatises and tables, in Latin: two collections bound together. The first, which has much in common with the Oxford MS. Ashmole 1522 (see Black's Catalogue), has a table of contents at the end (f. 143 b), the other at f. 145 b. Contents :

1. 'Kalendarium Petri' (so table of contents), calendar, with astronomical information and explanatory introduction, by Petrus Dacus, who seems to be an earlier namesake of the Petrus de Dacia who was rector of Paris University in 1326 (see Langebek, Scriptores Rerum Danicarum, vi, p. 260, Denifle and Chatelain, Chartularium Univ. Paris. ii, p. 301). The saints in the calendar are not very distinctive, but are not inconsistent with a French Dominican origin. Explanation beg. 'In hoc primacionum ciclo 4 linee descendentes'. f. 1.

2. 'Tabule Gerlandi': perpetual calendar for Easter, &c., for the great cycle 1044-1575, perhaps by Gerlandus, scholasticus of Besançon circ. 1141-1148; but the authors of this name have not been certainly discriminated. Cf. Harley MS. 3647, f. 2 b. Explanation beg. 'Quere inter numeros in superiori capite tabule'. f. 7 b.

3. 'Tabula Petri Daci de loco lune inueniendo in quolibet dic anni a media nocte sui incepto': a table found also in Ashmole MSS. 360, 1522 (see Black's Catalogue). f. 8b.

4. 'Incipit algorismus': the treatise on arithmetic of Johannes de Sacrobosco (al. Holywood, see Dict. Nat. Biogr.). Printed without place or date (1490?), &c., and in Halliwell's Rara Mathematica, 1841. Beg. 'Omnia que a primeua rerum origine'. f. 9.

5. 'Tractatus de sp[h]era mag. Iohannis de Sacro Bosco': the common treatise on spherical astronomy (cf. 8 A. XVIII, art. 4). With coloured diagrams. Beg. 'Tractatum de spera quattuor capitulis distinguimus'. f. 16 b.

6. 'Compotus mag. Iohannis de Sacro Bosco' (cf. 12 C. IX, art. 1). Beg. 'Compotus est sciencia considerans tempora'. Coloured diagrams. The verses quoted are written in a very large hand. f. 32 b.

7. 'Tractatus quadrantis veteris secundum mag. Iohannem in Monte Pessulano' (cf. 12 C. IX, art. 6). Beg. 'Geometrie due sunt partes theorica et practica'. Coloured diagrams. f. 61.

8. Tables (a) of the sun's place in the ninth sphere, daily for the intercalary period of four years, and (b) of the sun's declination 'secundum Albategni'. ff. 69, 71.

9. 'Tractatus quadrantis noui compositus a mag. Profacio Hebreo anno dom. incarn. 1288, et correctus ab eodem anno dom. 1301': the second recension of this tract, the work of the Jew Jacob ben Makir, of Marseilles and Montpellier, called Profatius Judaeus (see Hist. Litt. de la France, xxvii, p. 611). Other copies are in Harley MS. 80, Arundel MS. 268. Beg. 'Cum stellarum sciencia sine instrumentis'. f. 71 b.

10. 'Incipit composicio quadrantis': another short tract, preceded by two coloured diagrams and tables relating to the instrument. Beg. 'Quadrans e. k. l. constans ex quarta parte circuli'. f. 81.

11. 'Tractatus de minuciis philosophicis': a treatise on vulgar and sexagesimal fractions, attributed in Harley MS. 3735 (f. 59) to 'magister Ricardus Anglicus'. Beg. 'Minuciarum vulgarium scribes superius numeratorem'; ends 'in predictis tamen sunt vtiles. Explicit algorismus de minuciis philosophicis'. f. 83.

12. 'Tractatus de turketo': on the astronomical instrument called Torquetum. Beg. 'De omnibus parcium (sic, so also in Ashmole MS.) instrumenti quod turketum dicitur'. Another copy is in Ashmole MS. 1522 (see Black's Cat.). Coloured diagrams. f. 88 b.

13. 'Tractatus chilindri': on the astronomical cylinder. Beg. 'Inuestigantibus chilindri disposicionem, qui dicitur horologium uiatorum, sumendum est lignum'; ends 'per vmbram scies altitudinem cuiuslibet rei erecte. Et sic terminatur tractatus'. Other copies are in 12 E. xxv, art. 15, Arundel MS. 292, f. 105, Egerton MS. 843, f. 27, and in the Ashmole MS. Coloured diagrams. f. 91 b.

14. 'Astrolabium Messehallach': the treatise of Messahalla in two parts, Compositio astrolabii and Practica astrolabii (cf. 12 C. IX, art. 13). Preface beg. 'Scito quod astrolabium est nomen Grecum'; pt. i, 'Cum ergo volueris facere astrolabium'; pt. ii (f. 110), 'Nomina instrumentorum sunt hec: primum est armilla'. Coloured diagrams. f. 95.

15. 'Theorica planetarum' [by Gerardus Cremonensis the younger, al. Gherardo da Sabbionetta], cf. 12 C. IX, art. 15. Beg. 'Circulus e[c]centricus uel egresse cuspidis uel egredientis centri dicitur qui non habet centrum suum cum mundo'. Coloured diagrams. f. 118.

16. 'In nomine domini [&c.] incipit tractatus de spera solida siue de astrolabio sperico compositus anno domini 1303'. This tract [by Johannes de Harlebeke a Flemish physician, see Arundel MS. 268, f. 67, and a MS. at Cambrai, no. 821] is printed (with the omission of the preface and of ch, 13 of pt. ii) in the Venice compilation called Spherae Tractatus (1518, 1531). In the latter ed. it is assigned to Campanus of Novara. In two parts. Preface beg. 'Totius astrologice speculacionis radix'; pt. i, 'Cum igitur fauente domino volueris hoc instrumentum componere facies primo pilam'. Colophon, 'Explicit spera volubilis'. Coloured diagrams. f. 127 b.

This concludes the first section of the MS.

17. 'Patefit' (so styled in the contemporary table of contents): a calendar and compilation of tables of the motions of the sun and moon with canons for their use. Dedicated to Gaufridus [Fare], Abbot of Bec-Hellouin in Normandy, by a compatriot and neighbour in 1321. For this year and for the meridian of Paris. The canons begin 'Patefit ex Ptholomei disciplinis in libro suo'. After the colophon (f. 210), 'Hiis actis sisto, sit laus et gloria Christo. Hoc opus exegi, summo sit gracia regi. Explicit Kalendarius Beccensis', follow some additional canons probably by the same author, beg. 'Dato ascendente domos 12 adequante', with colophon 'Expliciunt addiciones Kalendarii Beccensis dyocesis Rothomagensis'. A further insertion in the same hand is a table of the places of the planets (1340-1369) at f. 190. f. 146.

18. 'Electiones laudabiles' (so table of contents): an astrological tract, beg. 'Quoniam electiones laudabiles sunt salubres'. Imperfect at end. f. 212 b.

19. 'Sermo de regulis compotistarum' (so colophon), with two tables. Imperf. at beginning. Beg. ' . . . doctrina non video'; ends 'inuenire facile est studenti'. f. 213.

20. 'Incipiunt canones eclipsium mag. Iohannis de Ianua, tam de sole quam de luna de vera coniunctione': a tract of which there is another copy in an Oxford MS., Digby 97, f. 125. Possibly the author was the physician of Clement VI. Beg. 'Ad sciendum eclipsim solis primo quere coniunccionem'; ends 'ad presens supersedeo. Laus deo et beate Marie. amen'. Colophon, 'Expliciunt canones eclipsis, quas mag. Ioh. de Ianua compilauit, extrahendo eos partim a canonibus communibus, partim ab albategni, partim a minori almagesti, partim a mag. Ioh. de Scicilia in scripto suo super tabulas Toletanas, et specialiter quantum ad puncta (?) eclipsis minuta casus ac etiam minuta more. Anno 1332 incompleto, 22^a die Ianuadi'. f. 214.

21. 'Ad habendam diuersitatem aspectus lune pro situ in epiciclo Iohannes [Danck] de Saxonia dicit sic': note on the use of the [Alphonsine] tables. Beg. 'Et si luna non fuerit in parte superiori'. At the end are a few additional notes and colophon 'Explicit, expliceat, ludere scriptor eat'. f. 217.

On the fly-leaves of the latter part of the MS. (ff. 144 b, 145) are some latc 14th cent. memoranda of rents, &c., by a French (Parisian ?) owner, but 15th cent. additions to the calendar (f. 150 b) were more probably made at Oxford.

Vellum; ff. 218. 9³/₄ in. x 7 in. Artt. 1-16 may have been written in England, beg. of XIV cent.; artt. 17-21 were written in France circ. 1330-1340. Gatherings, artt.1-16, i-xi⁸, xii⁶, xiii-xviii⁸, xix¹, xx2; artt. 17-21, i-v⁸, vi¹⁸, vii⁸, viii⁶. Sec. fol. (excluding tables) 'et duo numeri'. Small illuminated border-initials with grotesques in both parts. Belonged to John Theyer. Theyer sale-cat. no. 310; not in CMA.