Royal MS 16 F X

'LIVRE des secretz et ditz des philosophes', containing three tracts, viz.:

1. Anonymous compilation of moral sayings under thirteen headings. The first four are:-(a) 'Inicium sapiencie timor domini';-(b) 'Cy parle de Mesure';-

(c) 'De compaignie';-(d) 'Du sage, du traicteur et du fol'. Beg. 'Le commencement de sapience est doubter dieu '; ends 'aucunes choses non certainez'. f. 2.

2. 'Le liures des secretz': the Pseud-Aristotelian Secreta Secretorum (cf. 12 C. VI, art. 4, &c.), French translation, much abridged. Printed by Anthoine Vérard, Paris, n. d. The translator omits the first preface and after the chapters on drink passes to that on justice, and after three or four more extracts concludes with the chapters on physiognomy, somewhat abbreviated. Beg. '[D]ieu tout puissant vuille garder nostre roy'. f. 7.

At the end (f. 21 b) are three paragraphs on unlucky days; the second paragraph is ascribed to a sage of Jerusalem named Sidrac.

3. '[C]y commence les dis moraulx des philozophes translatez de latin en fra[n]coys par noble homme messire Guillemme de Tignonuille cheualier': the version by Guillaume de Thignonville (d. 1414) of the anonymous Latin compilation Dicta moralia philosophorum (see Add. MS. 16906, Renzi, Collectio Salernitana, iii, 1854, p. 69), which is itself derived from an Arabic original written in 1053 by Abu al Wafa Mubashshir ibn Fatik al-Ka'id (see G. F. Warner, Epistle of Othea, Roxburghe Club, 1904, p. xxiii). Printed by Colard Mansion, n. d. (Hain, Repertorium, 6282, 6283). Other copies are in 19 A. VIII, 19 B. IV. English versions from the French were made by Stephen Scrope (Harley MS. 2266, Add. MS. 34193, f. 137) and Anthony Wydville, Lord Scales, the latter appearing in Caxton's edition of 1477, the first book printed in England. Beg. '[S]edechias fut philosophe le premier'; ends 'autrefois este deceu '. Ff. 55-62 should follow f. 30, being misbound. f. 23.

Vellum; ff. 66. 19 in. x 10¹/₄ in. Middle of XV cent. Gatherings of 8 leaves (i⁶, ix⁴). Art. 2 is in double columns. Sec. fol. que hon'. Initials not inserted. Perhaps in cat. of 1666, f. 11 ; not in CMA.