Royal MS 12 F XV

TREATISES on natural science, sermons, and theological collections, in Latin, viz.:

1. Treatise on the fundamental notions of natural science, apparently from a medical point of view. Authorities quoted, besides Aristotle, include Plato (in Timaeus), Galen, Philaretus, Ovid, Boethius, S. Ambrose, Macrobius, Johannicius, Constantinus Africanus, Isaac, and Remigius ('in progno. fisic.', f. 8 b). The subjects treated are nature, motion, matter, elements, and complexions. Beg. 'Propositum est circa instans negocium quid de me[dicin]a et qualiter'; ends 'uel quia ex natura est frigidum. Explicit'. f. 5.

2. On the qualities of the elements. Beg. 'Quatuor hee qualitates, caliditas, frigiditas, siccitas, humiditas, dicuntur prime et principales'; ends 'reparacione proficitur. Explicit'. f. 18 b.

3. Further quaestiones and extracts, chiefly from the Canon medicinae of Avicenna. Beg. 'Ex calida dieta calidi generantur humores'. f. 22 b.

4. Abridgement of Aristotle's zoological works, corresponding in text and arrangement of books to Michael Scot's translation (cf. 12 C. XV, art. 7). Imperfect, breaking off in lib. xiv (De partibus animalium, lib. iv). Beg. 'Quedam partes corporum animalium dicuntur non composite'. f. 31 b.

Artt. 1-4 are written in an early 14th cent. hand. The 15th cent. table of contents (f. 4 b) unites them under the title 'Tractatus utilis de naturis rerum'. The rest of the volume is earlier.

5. 'Incipiunt distincciones bonorum uerborum': a set of theological distinctions, the first part taking the form of a numerale, like that of William de Monte (cf. 11 A. III, art. 1). Beg. 'De manna. Unus est uiuus et uerus panis'. f. 65.

6. 'Sermones Ecce dies' (so table of contents): a collection of about 57 sermons probably for monastic use, chiefly de tempore, but not arranged in a single series. Beg. 'Ecce dies ueniunt, &c. [Jer. xxiii. 5]: Preconium sue natiuitatis'. f. 82b.

7. 'Sermones Aspiciebam' (so table of contents) thirteen sermons de tempore, Adventto Lent, Imperf. at end. A later hand has inserted the title 'Sermones Comestoris', which is supported by 7 F. X, but is probably incorrect, the sermons forming part of the collection contained in 7 C. II, art. 3, of which the author is apparently Petrus Lombardus. Printed in Migne, Patr. Lat. clxxi. 370-864 passim. Beg. 'Aspiciebam ego in uisione, &c. [Dan. vii. 13, 14]: Celestibus Daniel fragrans desideriis'. f. 111.

8. 'Sermones Deus manifeste' (so table of contents): sermons, distinctiones, and notes, over seventy in all. Among the sermons are a few (nos. 28, 34, 56, 71, 118) printed in Beaugendre's edition of Hildebert (Migne, clxxi), but really by Galfridus Babion, scholasticus of Angers circ. 1096-1110 (see Hauréau's Not. et Extr., 1890, &c., passim). One of the distinctiones ('Duo inferna sunt', f. 144) is probably the same as an article noticed by Haurdau, ii, pp. 263, 315. Beg. 'Deus manifeste ueniet, &c. [Ps. xlix. 3]: Dauid propheta, dilectissimi, in regnum'. f. 127. Artt. 9, 10 are in a later hand (end of 13th cent.),

9. 'Tractatus siue summa mag. Roberti episcopi Lincoln.' (so later title and table of contents) : the tract of Robert Grosseteste called Templum Domini (cf. 7 A. IX, art. 20). f. 165.

10. The metrical penitentiary which begins 'Peniteas cito peccator'; attributed sometimes to Johannes de Garlandia and in one MS. to ' magister Thomas'. With prose comment as in 9 A. XIV, art. 26. Preceded here by a quotation from S. Bernard (Migne, clxxxiii.

853), 'Bernardus super canticum serm. xvi, Quo periculosius noxa', &c. f. 180 b.

The fly-leaves include three folios (ff. 1, 2, 183) of a 13th cent. MS. of the Digest (f. 2, contains lib. v, cap. i, 12-34). On others are a number of pencil notes from various authors, including excerpts from the histories of Orosius, Trogus Pompeius, and Jordanis of Ravenna, from Boethius de Consolatione and Sidonius Apollinaris (f. 3), also from Macrobius (Saturnalia), from 'Itinerarium Clementia' [this is the title of a Bury MS. of the Clementine Recognitions, see the catalogue at Pembroke Coll., Cambridge, printed by M. R. James, Abbey of S. Edmund, p. 30], and from Cassiodorus (Hist. Trip.) ff. 108 b, 109. Theological notes on ff. 163 b, 164 are no longer legible. On f. 165 is a 14th cent. list of monks, among whom 'Iohannes nonus de Brinkele' may be the John who became abbot of Bury in 1361. A few more names are on f. 167. Vellum; ff. 183. 11¹/₂ in. x 8 in. XIII and XIV centt. Gatherings (excl. fly-leaves), i-viii¹², ix¹¹, x, xi⁸, xii, xiii¹⁰, xiv⁸, xv¹⁰, xvi¹¹, xvii⁷. Double columns. Sec. fol. 'granum in frumentum'. Initials in colours. Belonged to Bury St.Edmunds Abbey, bearing (ff. 4b 65) the press-mark S 55 (James, op. cit. p. 75, no. 193); afterwards to [John, Lord] Lumley. Lumley cat. f. 129; cat. of 1666, f. 6; CMA. 8123-8125 and 8540.