Royal MS 13 D VIII

VINCIENT DE BEAUVAIS, Speculum Historiale, libb. ixvi (i consisting of the prologue and the table of capitula of the entire 32 books composing the complete work). Libb. i-viii are described as composing the first volume of the work and ix-xvi the second. Title, 'Incipit speculum hystoriale fratris Vincencii'. Lib. i (which is common to this and the other two Specula of Vincent) beg. 'Quoniam multitudo librorum et temporis brevitas lib. ii, 'Deus est substantia incorporea'. Printed in 1473 and subsequently.

Vellum; ff. 314. 1 ft. 3¹/₄ in. x 10¹/₄ in. XIV cent. On the margin of f. 17 is written, perhaps as a scribe's pen-exercise, the date 1334. Gatherings of 8 leaves, with catchwords: x¹¹, xi12 (inserted in a different hand), xx⁴ (ending vol. i), xxiii⁷, xxix⁶ (followed by a sheet in a different band), xxxvii¹⁰, xxxviii¹¹. Double columns of 62 lines (except ff. 84-95, which have 54 lines, and ff. 230-237, which have 57). At the end of each sheet are notes of a double revision of the MS., e.g. 'cor(rectus)': 'cor(rectus) it(er)um', or 'cor(rectus) it(er)um per R.' Sec. fol. ipotentiam'. Initials slightly flourished in colours. On f. 1 is the note 'Ex dono Willelmi Cates' (or 'Cates[by]'), who may very possibly be the William Catesby (d. 1510) who presented several books to Syon Monastery (see Cat. of the Library of Syon Monastery, ed. M. Bateson, 1898, p. xxiv). No copy of the Speculum Historiale occurs in the catalogue, but a 'Tabula Vincencii in speculo historiali' is among the books presented by Catesby (p. 87). Initial T or monogram T. C. (f. 1). Old Royal press-mark 'no. 1314'; cat. of 1666, f. 17b; CMA. 8257.