Royal Appendix MS 10

FRAGMENTS of three vellum MSS., viz.:-

1. 'Incipit proemium in librum qui dicitur Aurora': a single leaf from the beginning of a Rochester MS. of which the rest is perhaps lost (see, however, 15 A. XIX). It contained, as shown by the table of contents, the complete work of Petrus Riga (Cf. 2 D. XXIII, 15 A. XIX) and bears the 13th cent. inscription 'Liber S. Andree Rofensis (Siluestri prioris, de antiquis), qui eum alienauerit anathema sit'; also in a 15th cent. hand 'De claustro Roffensi per Siluestrum priorem'. What remains is only the prose introduction, written at the top and in the margin, and the first thirty-two lines of the verse preface, which was added by Aegidius of Paris. Introduction beg. 'Frequens sodalium peticio'; preface, 'Initium mundi quales ab origine prima'. In a 13th cent. hand, with initials in red and blue. The inserted reference to Prior Silvester as donor is probably a mistake, his date being apparently before 1182, whereas the MS. is evidently later. f. 1 b.

2. Fragment of a book of medical and other recipes in Latin, paged 348-363, the recipes being numbered 179-207. Beg. '. . . quas poteris'; ends 'muliere [resupina iacente hoc sepius]'. The first complete recipe is for extracting a phosphorescent liquid from glowworms. In a 15th cent. hand. Initials flourished in red and blue. f. 2.

Artt. 1, 2 measure 71/2 in. x 51/4 in Fourteen folios of Lyndwood's Canon-law book after art. 2 have been taken out and restored to their proper place, 9 A. XIII, ff. 168-181.

3. Three fragments apparently of a theological commonplace-book. The order is uncertain, but as now bound they correspond to the description in CMA. 6673. The label on f. 16 identifies the book with no. 330 in the Theyer sale-cat., where the false description is 'MS. de iure canonico, &c.'. Ff. 8-15 have a quire signature xxi. The chief contents are (a) Note on the 'quatuordecim beatitudinis partes' abridged from the Similitudines attributed to S. Anselm (see 5 F. IX, &c.). f. 8;-(b) Notes on the Hebrew scriptures, &c. Beg. 'Primum scripturas ueteris testamenti'. f. 14;-(c) On the canonical hours, 'Octo sunt hore regulares quarum numerus'. f. 16:-(d) 'De sex gradibus castitatis'. f. 25;-(e) Verses (35 elegiac couplets) on the religious life, beg. 'Non tonsura facit Monachum nec horrida uestis'. f. 30.

Art. 3 is in a late 13th cent. band. 61/4 in. x 5 in. On f. 23 b is the inscription 'Robert Taylor, his booke, 1625'. Afterwards belonged to John Theyer, see above.

Vellum; ff. 31. XIII and XV centt.