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Burney MS 236

Record Id:

040-002237117

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

032-002236305

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000001311.0x00011c

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Burney MS 236

Title:

Priscian, Institutiones grammaticae; Aelius Donatus, Ars grammatica; treatises on rhetoric and grammar.

Scope & Content:

This manuscript contains a collection of texts about grammar, as well as several anonymous texts and verses on theological topics added towards the end. The main text is the Institutiones grammaticae (Institutes of Grammar) by Priscian (fl. 500), followed by a part of the Ars grammatica (The Art of Grammar), in the longer version known as Ars major (Greater Ars), of Aelius Donatus (fl. c. 350), accompanied by a commentary in the margins.

The manuscript was formerly bound with Burney MS 306 and Burney MS 315, as is shown by the flyleaf that previously faced Burney MS 306, f. 1 (now bound upside-down as Burney MS 306, f. 20). It lists the contents as 'Grammatica Guidonis (in Burney MS 315), ‘Grammatica Prisciani’ (in this manuscript), ‘Ovidus de mirabilibus'.

Content:

ff. 2r-189v: Priscian, Institutiones grammaticae, books 1-18.

ff. 189v-195r: Aelius Donatus, part of Ars grammatica concerning errors and correctness of speech, surrounded by commentary, beginning: ‘Barbarismus est una pars orationis’.

ff. 195r-198r: An anonymous treatise on rhetoric, beginning: ‘Preter iam dictas figuras secundum alios’.

ff. 198r-203v: An anonymous text about grammatical questions, beginning: ‘Dominus equi est albus, et equus domini est sanguineus’.

f. 204r: A short text on the nature of God, beginning: ‘Queratur de ista locucione, Deus est dignissima’.

ff. 204v-205v: Six short anonymous verses, about the vanity of life, man compared to the sea, Christ’s crucifixion, and avoiding vices (see Walther, Initia carminum ac versuum (1959), nos. 17287, 12898, 5073, 3395; Walther cites the present MS as the only known source).

Decoration:

Medium to small initials in red, with red and (from f. 84v) blue pen-flourishing. Illustrated with ink drawings: a seated figure (probably Priscian) holding a scroll inscribed with the incipit to the Institutiones grammaticae (f. 2r); the Crucifixion (f. 205r); and simple human faces, fish, and other creatures throughout.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Burney Manuscripts

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002236305
040-002237117

Is part of:

Burney MS : Burney Manuscripts

Burney MS 236 : Priscian, Institutiones grammaticae; Aelius Donatus, Ars grammatica; treatises on rhetoric and grammar.

Hierarchy:

032-002236305[0231]/040-002237117

Container:

View / search within Archive / Collection: Burney MS

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

A parchment codex

Digitised Content:

Languages:

Greek
Latin

Scripts:

Greek
Latin

Start Date:

1300

End Date:

1324

Date Range:

1st quarter of the 14th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment.

Dimensions: 280 x 180 mm (written area 210 x 135 mm, in two columns, except ff. 189v-198r in one column).

Foliation: ff. viii + 212; ff. i-vii, 206-212 are modern paper flyleaves; ff. viii, 1 are modern parchment flyleaves; former pagination in ink throughout, now crossed out.

Script: Gothic.

Binding: Post-1600. Gold- and blind-tooled brown Burney binding; spine rebacked at the British Museum in 1962.

Custodial History:

Origin: England.

Provenance:

Unidentified owner, 15th century: texts added to ff. 198-205v.

Charles Burney (b. 1757, d. 1817), D.D., classical scholar.

Acquired by the British Museum as part of Burney’s library from his son Charles Parr Burney in 1818.

Information About Copies:

Select digital coverage available for this manuscript: see Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts at http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/welcome.htm.

Publications:

Catalogue of Manuscripts in The British Museum, New Series, 1 vol. in 2 parts (London: British Museum, 1834-1840), I, part II: The Burney Manuscripts (1840), pp. 62-3.

Hans Walther, Initia carminum ac versuum medii aevi posterioris latinorum, Carmina medii aevi posterioris latina, 1 (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1959), no. 3339, 5073, 12898.

Margaret Gibson, ‘Priscian, ‘‘Institutiones grammaticae”: A Handlist of Manuscripts’, Scriptorium, 26 (1972), 105-124 (p. 114).

Marina Passalacqua, I codici di Prisciano, Sussidi eruditi, 29 (Rome: Edizioni di storia e letteratura, 1978), no. 316, p. 140.

G. L. Bursill-Hall, A Census of Medieval Latin Grammatical Manuscripts, Grammatica Speculativa: Sprachtheorie und Logik des Mittelalters, 4 (Stuttgart: Frommann-Holzboog, 1981), no. 87 (p. 114).

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Burney, Charles, classical scholar, 1757-1817
Donatus, Aelius, grammarian and teacher, 4th century,
   see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000121282471
Priscian, fl 500-530,
   see also http://isni.org/isni/0000000399133112,
   see also http://viaf.org/viaf/76294069

Places:

England, United Kingdom, Europe

Related Material:

Formerly bound with Burney MS 306 and Burney MS 315: the script and decoration of all three are very similar; the dimensions of the leaves of Burney MS 315 and Burney MS 236 are the same; the dimensions of the leaves of Burney MS 306 and the flyleaves of Burney 236 are the same; the flyleaf that previously faced Burney MS 306, f. 1 (now bound upside-down as Burney 306, f. 20), which lists the contents as 'Grammatica Guidonis (in Burney 315), ‘Grammatica Prisciani’ (in Burney MS 236), ‘Ovidus de mirabilibus'.

Catalogue of Manuscripts in The British Museum, New Series, 1 vol. in 2 parts (London: British Museum, 1834-1840), I, part II: The Burney Manuscripts (1840), pp. 62-3:

‘Codex membranaeceus, in folio minori, pp. 408, sec. XIII.

1. Prisciani Caesariensis Commentariorum Grammaticorum libri duodeviginti. p. 1.

2. Ælii Donati libellus de barbarismo soloecismo, ceteris vitiis, schematibus, et tropis, cum commentario. p. 376.

3. Anonymi de figuris rhetoricis tractatus, cum notis marginalibus. p. 387. Incip. “Preter jam dictas figuras secundum alios alie inveniuntur figure.” Desin. “Omopasion interpretatur similis passio.”

4. Quaestiones grammaticae. p. 393. Incip. “Dominus equi est albus, et equus domini est sanguineus.”

5. Quaestio scholastica de natura Dei. p. 405. Incip. “Queratur de ista locucione, Deus est dignissima creaturarum.”

6. Carmen de vanitate vitae. p. 406. Incip. ”Sanum conservando statum Sub estate quondam pratum Intravi diluculo; Aves ibi cecinere, Redolentes et crevere Rose cum feniculo.” Desin. “Fugiendo quo tunc ibit Mortis schiphum cum quis bibit Terentque judicia; Fallit mundus si quis fidat, Felix enim sursum qui dat Mentem ad celestia.

7. Versus de homine mari comparato et de Christo Salvatore. p. 406. Incip. “O quam mare maggnum homo . O quam spaciosum, In quo jam diverti modo . O quam est undosum, Nam fluit et refluit . cum sit fluctuosum, Huc illuc nos agitans . O quam procellosum.”

8. Versus de Christo crucifixo. p. 407. Incip. “Ecce crucis signum . qua mundi vita pependit, Vitam per lignum . pro te moriendo rependit, Cor petit ecce tuum . non res nec munera rerum, Te cupit esse suum . cupit et tibi lucra dierum.”

9. Versus de vitiis evtiandis. p. 407. Incip. ”Crapule versuciam tu domans refrena, Nequam ejus motibus apponendo frena, Nam in ejus latitat viciorum vena, Per quam mens effecitiur virtutits egena.”

10. Versus de gallo cantante. p. 408. Incip. “Lucis ecce primis gallus cum amena Voce canit primitus, nocte semiplena Hic demulcet animos sua cantilena, Diei praenuncians tempora serena.” Subjeiuntur hic, et quoque in fine art. sequentis, versus de nomine auctoris, Johannis de Siluro [?]. “Ejus hoc qui fecerit nomen si queratur, Sonat heri gratiam quo hic nuncupatur, Silurique pagulum unde nascebatur; Jungantur hec invicem et sic appelatur Juvet eum Dominus omne quo creatur. Amen.”

11. Versus alii de eodem. p. 408. Incip. ”Dudum nocte media cumque dormitavi, Galli cantus erigi tunc consideravi, Qui se Dei laudibus dederat tota vi, Quo canente obstupens ad Deum clamavi.”’

Related Archive Descriptions:

Burney MS 306