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Unde versus
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 July 2016
Extract
Before the invention of printing and of easy multiplication of copies of a text, memory inevitably played a greater part in education, and basic textbooks were often expressed in verse in order to aid the memory. Of such works a number by named and known authors has come to us entire: in the field of elementary Latin grammar, the Doctrinale of Alexander of Villa Dei, written in 1199; in arithmetic, the Carmen de algorismo in 284 hexameters by the same author, who further wrote on computus; in botany and materia medica, the post-Carolingian poem of ‘Macer,’ consisting of 2269 lines on 77 herbs; on gems, the eleventh-century Liber lapidum of Marbod, in which sixty stones are described in 734 hexameters. Some of these texts were added to by succeeding generations, as in the case of the Regimen sanitatis ascribed to the medical school of Salerno. For the most part this last is in rhymed hexameters:
- Hec bona sunt ova — longa, parva, quoque nova;
- Et gallinarum tibi sint et non aliarum.
- Boni sunt pisces, si cum vino bene misces;
- Quod si non misces, forsan damnum adipisceris.
- Salvia cum ruta faciunt tibi pocula tuta;
- Adde rosam florem, minuit potenter amorem.
But sometimes not, as when a pick-me-up is advised for the morning after:
- Si nocturna tibi noceat potatio vini,
- Hoc tu mane bibas iterum et fuerit medicina.
Sometimes the practice of versification was extended to indicating the author of the text. A copy of the exposition of the Microtegni of Galen which Urso of Todi delivered at Avignon in 1198 says at the start:
- … Quare Ursus vocetur indicat versus,
- Laudensis medicus medicisque fidelis amicus,
- Quos super hanc partem Avenione duxit in artem.
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References
1 For earlier Latin poems on that subject: Manitius, Max, Geschichte der lateinischen Literatur des Mittelalters II (Munich 1923) 574, 688, 693. The Massa compoti of Alexander of Villa Dei was edited from an early-13th-century MS of the British Museum, Egerton 2261, by Robert Steele, together with the Compotus of Roger Bacon in Opera hactenus inedita Rogeri Baconi VI (ed. Steele, , Oxford 1926) 268-83. This volume, in which the Compotus of Roger Bacon occupies pp. 1-198, and that of Robert Grosseteste, pp. 212-67, will henceforth be cited as OHI VI.Google Scholar
2 Venice, St. Mark's, MS fondo antico 532 (Valentinelli XIV 8), 13th century, fols. 1-43.Google Scholar
3 Ibid. fol. 43.Google Scholar
4 Paris, BN, MS latin 14070, fols 92r-96r: ‘Cautelae diversorum numerorum,’ in verse and prose.Google Scholar
5 Oxford, Bodleian, MS Ashmole 191-II, fol. 143r .Google Scholar
6 British Museum, Cotton MS Vespasian E.VII, fol. 22(25)r .Google Scholar
7 Stanley Jevons, W., Elementary Lessons in Logic (new ed. London-New York 1889) 144–5, wrote: ‘In order to facilitate the recollection of the nineteen valid and useful moods of the syllogism, logicians invented, at least six centuries ago, a most curious system of artificial words, combined into mnemonic verses, which may be readily committed to memory. This device, however ingenious, is of a barbarous and wholly unscientific character; but a knowledge of its construction and use is still expected from the student of logic, and the verses are therefore given and explained below.' Google Scholar
8 MS Geneva 82 (151), fol. 56r; the poem goes on to fol. 61v .Google Scholar
9 British Museum, Arundel MS 66 (de luxe for Henry VII), fols. 288r-290va. Robert died before 1181, and his tomb had the epitaph, ‘Robertus cognomento Scriba quartus prior.’ The Dictionary of National Biography (16.1254) says that he owed his name of Scriba to his many writings. At fol. 290vb our MS adds these verses: Google Scholar
They also are found in MS Cotton Vespasian E. VII, fol. 134(137)v.
10 Cap. 2 (in Thorndike, Lynn, The Sphere of Sacrobosco and its Commentators [Chicago 1949] 88). Similar lines occur in the Massa compoti of Alexander of Villa Dei: Google Scholar
11 The Sphere of Sacrobosco 91.Google Scholar
12 Ibid. 99. — In the Massa compoti line 119 reads: Google Scholar
[For another occurrence see the text, presumably a commentary on Lucan, edited infra, p. 405 by Martin, J. — Edd.]Google Scholar
13 The Sphere of Sacrobosco 103.Google Scholar
14 Ibid. 167.Google Scholar
15 The reading ‘Latonem’ seems required to rhyme with ‘Errigonem.' Google Scholar
16 The Sphere of Sacrobosco 170.Google Scholar
17 Ibid. Google Scholar
18 Ibid. 422.Google Scholar
19 Ibid. 429.Google Scholar
20 Halliwell, J. O., Rara arithmetica (2nd ed. London 1841) 11.Google Scholar
21 I have used editions of Paris, 1543 and Antwerp, 1547 for the Computus, adopting in each case what seems the preferable reading. I omit those passages which have already been quoted from the Sphere; and do not cite pages, since these are unnumbered.Google Scholar
22 OHI VI 269. Google Scholar
23 OHI VI 272, lines 106-7.Google Scholar
24 OHI VI 224: ‘Et propter facilitatem memorie ponunt compotiste versus istos ad retinendum primas litteras mensium,' Google Scholar
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27 OHI VI 268.Google Scholar
28 OHI VI 220.Google Scholar
29 OHI VI 271, lines 63-7. Roger Bacon made no quotation.Google Scholar
30 OHI VI 105, 221, 271.Google Scholar
31 OHI VI 221. Google Scholar
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35 OHI VI 277; also 230, footnote.’ Google Scholar
36 But less correctly: see OHI VI 231 note.Google Scholar
37 Also quoted in the Massa compoti, lines 258-60 (OHI VI 279), while Roger Bacon (OHI VI 28) has the slightly different version: Google Scholar
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38 Worded differently in the Massa compoti, lines 301-2 (OHI VI 280): Google Scholar
39 Also in OHI VI 115, 267, 279, with slightly different wording and spelling.Google Scholar
40 Grosseteste and Bacon omit the third line: OHI VI 118, 267.Google Scholar
41 See too OHI VI 267.Google Scholar
42 Cf. OHI VI 113, 276. For further verses as to feast days, edition of 1543 of Sacrobosco, , Computus, fols. (f vir), (f vii)r–v, gr, and cf. OHI VI 144, 260, 246, 275, 260.Google Scholar
43 Quoted also by Grosseteste and Alexander of Villa Dei, OHI VI 246, 283.Google Scholar
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45 In the calendar proper, at the date July 19, is inserted a caution in prose: ‘A xiiii kal. Augusti usque ad nonas Septembris ne minuas sanguinem.' Google Scholar
46 British Museum, Cotton MS Julius D. VII, fol. 6ra–b is entirely filled with such verses.Google Scholar
47 British Museum, Sloane MS 282, fol. 5v, beginning at 5r: ‘In hoc calendario ad meridiem universitatis Oxonie composito anno domini 1380 primo ponuntur menses…’ The Calendar itself follows at fols. 6v-16v .Google Scholar
48 Basel MS A. VIII 32, fols. unnumbered.Google Scholar
49 OHI VI 72.Google Scholar
50 British Museum, Harley MS 3647, fols. 195ra-197rb, opening, ‘Cum eclipsim lune et eius quantitatem…’ and closing, aside from the aforesaid couplet, ‘… Est etiam eclipsis solis possibilis bis in anno non tamen necessaria et pluries similiter est impossibilis sicut eclipsis lune.' Google Scholar
51 PL 137. 15-48.Google Scholar
52 PL 172.145-64.Google Scholar
53 Jones, Charles W., Bedae Pseudepigraphia (Ithaca 1939) 85.Google Scholar
54 PL 90.919-38 (at pp. 921, 925, and 934).Google Scholar
55 de Coussemaker, E., Scriptorum de musica medii aevi nova series (Paris 1863-76) IV 203, III 114.Google Scholar
56 In Coussemaker, I 270: ‘Ante vero longam tria tempora longa fatetur’; the second line the same. At I 272, ‘Continens igitur unum in se tempus, unde versus: Solo recta brevis moderatur tempore quevis.' Google Scholar
57 Coussemaker, I 278.Google Scholar
58 Coussemaker, I 261-2; also in the De musica plana of a Quidam Carthusiensis (ibid. II 451); de Muris, Johannes, Ars discantus (III 99); Henry of Zeeland (III 115). In de Cruce, Petrus, Tract. de tonis (I 283) and Anon. De musica plana et organica (II 497) the third and fourth lines are different: Google Scholar
59 See especially the aforecited De musica plana of the Carthusian (II 434-83); De musica plana et mensurabili, III 416–75.Google Scholar
60 At Munich, CLM 56 (15th century), fols. 123r-153v: ‘Cum Ptolomeus in Almagesti edisterat (sic) quod bonum fuit…/… habes quia de secretis Ptolomei est. Explicit liber theoreumancie finitus Salzburge anno 1436to.’ In a Table of Contents pasted on the inside of the front cover we read: ‘Item liber theoreumatum totius quadrivii et continet tractatus plures. Primus est de theorematibus aritmetrice folio 123, Secundus geometrie 131, Tertius musice 138, Quartus astronomie 145.’ The verses occur on fol. 138r .Google Scholar
61 Boston Medical Library 7 (in J. F. Ballard's catalogue [Boston 1944]; 20 in De Ricci, S. - Wilson, W. J., A Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada I [New York 1935] 914. 193 fols.).Google Scholar
62 Vienna MS lat. 3528, fols. 172r-73v .Google Scholar
62a At the Bodleian, MS Digby 47, fols. 57r-60v .Google Scholar
62b Paris 1936; II 695.Google Scholar
63 It so opens in a MS at Oxford, Exeter College 35, fol. 249va .Google Scholar
64 Basel A.V.14, fol. 104ra, later cites a Richardus without place-name and without verses as to the pulse. There is no corresponding citation in Basel F.II. 6.Google Scholar
65 Basel A.V.14, fol. 103va, ‘Unde Richardus de Florentiis.' Google Scholar
66 Basel, F.II.6, fol. 198vb .Google Scholar
67 Basel F.VIII.16, fol. 161v. Also at p. 289 of the Latin text of De complexionibus as printed in Archiv für Geschichte der Medizin 20 (1928).Google Scholar
68 Basel A.V.14, fol. 104rb. And in Archiv 20.291.Google Scholar
69 Archiv 20.292, 293–4.Google Scholar
70 Basel A.V.14, fol. 105va. In another MS of the same work, Basel F. II.6, fol. 202va–b, another citation of the pseudo-Boethius, apparently favoring fornication, is similarly followed by verses.Google Scholar
71 In De Ricci and Wilson's Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada II (New York 1937) 1238-9, numbered B. 60 (A. 7393), fol. 1v. I am indebted to the Cornell University Library for a photostat of this page. The brief prose comments on the four temperaments, here printed below each couplet, occur to their right in the MS. These couplets, without the prose, terminate the eight verses on sanguine persons, and the six each on the other three complexions in the Regimen sanitatis ascribed to the School of Salerno: see Ackermann's edition of 1790, lines 267-8, 273-4, 279-80, 285-6. But none of our MSS cite the Regimen for them, although some credit them to Richard, and others, as we are about to see, to Alexander.Google Scholar
72 In Copenhagen Gl. kgl. S. 1656 (14-15th century), fols. 168ra-170rb, Alexander is represented as the author, ‘Incipit tractatus magistri Alexandri de quatuor complexionibus hominum.’ In CLM 4784 (15th century), fols. 144v-149r, ‘Tractatus de quatuor complexionibus’ and Bodleian, Canon. Misc. 480 (15th century), fols. 92-3, which I have not seen, it is anonymous.Google Scholar
73 In the other two MSS the words ‘Hic tractandum est’ precede ‘de complexionibus.' Google Scholar
74 The Copenhagen MS omits ‘et vita.' Google Scholar
75 Cop. MS has ‘quomodo’ in place of ‘has explanare. Et ut omnis homo.' Google Scholar
76 Cop. MS has ‘sitam cognoscere possit’ instead of ‘pars eius possit cognoscere.' Google Scholar
77 Cop. MS has ‘versiculos et’ instead of ‘versus sequentes incipiens.' Google Scholar
78 Cop. MS omits ‘que est nobilior omnibus illis.’ Google Scholar
79 CLM 4784, fol. 145r .Google Scholar
80 CLM 4784, fol. 145v .Google Scholar
81 CLM 4784, fol. 148v; Copenhagen MS (cit. supra n. 72), fol. 170ra omits the third line and part of the first.Google Scholar
82 CLM 2655 (13th cent., membr.) fols. 1-94vb; 3206 (13th-14th cent.) fols. 1ra-145va; 16189 (15th cent., paper) fol. 14ra-99vb .Google Scholar
83 CLM 2655, fol. 49ra. Google Scholar
84 CLM 16189, fol. 108vb .Google Scholar
85 CLM 3206, fol. 158rb .Google Scholar
86 CLM 16189, fol. 108va .Google Scholar
87 MS Vat. lat. 4864, fol. 10v, ‘Frater Albertus super libro de animalibus.' Google Scholar
88 There are similar passages in the De animalibus but without indication of verses: lib. I, tract. ii, cap. 13 (p. 106 in Stadler's edition of 1916) ends, ‘et illi qui auferunt a praedicto numero ossa viginti octo dicunt numerum ossium esse ita quod ossa ducenta [not duodena] sunt atque duodena’; I ii 19 (p. 135 in Stadler), ‘Sunt igitur hominis nervi septem cum septuaginta.’ Google Scholar
89 CLM 22297 (anno 1320) fol. 25r: ‘Et illud quod per sermonem longum dictum est, aliter consuevit dici per quatuor versiculos qui sunt tales’; in the edition of Amsterdam, 1740, p. 22, the last clause reads: ‘solet dici per quatuor versus.’ Google Scholar
90 Ed. of 1740, ‘Conceptum.’ Google Scholar
91 Ibid. ‘crude.’ Google Scholar
92 Ibid. ‘et. ‘ Google Scholar
93 Ibid. ‘ab.’ Google Scholar
94 Ibid. ‘reliquum tempus producit.’ Google Scholar
95 In BN, MS lat. 3660A appear three citations of Albertus Magnus, which could not have been made by Michael Scot: fol. 173v, ‘Secundum Albertum’; 179r, ‘Alberti magn: menstruum in secundum mensem expellitur’; 184v, ‘Albertus Magnus De proprietatibus rerum lib. 6, cap. 4, de creatione infantis dicit sic.’ But these passages are not found in the edition of 1740, although it has ‘Unde dixit Pamphilus’ at p. 226, corresponding to the same citation in BN 3660A at fol. 173r .Google Scholar
96 Ed. of 1740, p. 228, ‘tres.’ Google Scholar
97 BN 3660A, fol. 174v, ‘carnem figurat.' Google Scholar
98 Ibid. ‘habet.’ Google Scholar
99 Cap. 2 (ed. of 1740, p. 215).Google Scholar
100 Cap. 23 et 24 (ibid. 262).Google Scholar
101 Ibid. 39.Google Scholar
102 Utrecht, , MS 723, fol. 52ra; ed. 1740, p. 15.Google Scholar
103 Utrecht 723, fol. 54rb, ‘Antecedens patet in hiis versibus’; ed. 1740, p. 23, ‘Antecedens patet per hunc versum,’ and cites only one line.Google Scholar
The passage is quoted in full in another connection in two Basel MSS of a commentary on John of Paris, De complexionibus: Google Scholar
From Basel A.V.14, fol. 101vb; about the same in Basel F.II.6. Google Scholar
104 Ed. 1740, p. 29, ‘Et.’ Google Scholar
105 Utrecht 723, fol. 56rb .Google Scholar
106 Ed. 1740, p. 41, ‘Februoque.' Google Scholar
107 Utrecht 723, fol. 59va: ‘Unde nota versus de coytu.’ Google Scholar
108 Utrecht 723, fol. 60va: ed. 1740, p. 47: ‘Jejunes vigiles, faciens sic rheumata cures.’ Google Scholar
109 Rosa medicinae (Venice 1502) fol. 50vb .Google Scholar
110 Inde? Google Scholar
111 I.e., ‘Chirona’ or ‘Sagittarius.' Google Scholar
112 ‘Cantus’ in the MS.Google Scholar
113 Utrecht 723, fol. 63va. Not included in ed. 1740.Google Scholar
114 Utrecht 723, fol. 62va: ed. 1740, p. 54, ‘Versus: Google Scholar
115 Utrecht 723, fol. 76ra, ed, 1740, p. 114, ‘Sunt hominis dentes triginta duo comedentes.’ Google Scholar
116 Rosa medicinae fol. 118va .Google Scholar
117 Ibid. fol. 118vb .Google Scholar
118 Ibid. fol. 119ra .Google Scholar
119 Edition of 1492, fol. 1ra. In MS Berne 71 (15th century), fol. 1va, two lines are quoted: Google Scholar
An older MS, which I have examined only for its incipit and date, is BN 16643 (a. 1356), fols. 1ra-196rb: ‘Galienus primo de ingenio sanitatis, Non visites nimis curias et aulas … … Iste liber est completus per manus Magistri Iohannis dicti Roststil de Aquis Grani (?) canonici Aquen anno domini M°GCC°lvio in crastino sanete Katherine virginis deo laus et gratiarum actio.’ Google Scholar
120 And two more lines which I omit: ed. of 1502, fol. 7rb .Google Scholar
121 The explanation is added: ‘id est, furfureus.' Google Scholar
122 Ibid. fol. 29vb .Google Scholar
123 Ibid. fol. 42ra, ‘Est enim tinea scabies in capite et dicitur quasi caput tenens et de quibusdam istorum sunt versus.’ Google Scholar
124 Ibid. fol. 45rb, ‘et de hoc sunt versus.’ I omit four verses at each of fols. 45ra, 46rb, and 46va .Google Scholar
125 Ibid. fol. 44vb, ‘Et sunt versus de istis sudoribus.’ Google Scholar
126 Ibid. fol. 51va, ‘Unde versus’; 51vb, ‘Unde de ipsa sunt duo versus.’ Google Scholar
127 Ibid. fol. 54ra, ‘Unde versus…’ and ‘et ideo scribitur.’ Google Scholar
128 Ibid. fol. 56rb. I omit two distichs on fol. 56vb and a verse on fol. 57ra .Google Scholar
129 Ibid. fol. 57vb; at 60ra, ‘Et sunt versus de centaurea quod ipse optime valet in emorroydis,’ followed by six lines which I omit, Google Scholar
130 Ibid. fol. 64rb. This hexameter, from Ovid, , Remedia amoris 91, is quoted with its pentameter (‘cum mala per longas invaluere moras’) in the De imitatione Christi 1.13.Google Scholar
131 Ibid. fol. 93r–b .Google Scholar
132 Both quotations at fol. 74rb, and the latter is repeated at 93rb .Google Scholar
133 Both at fol. 74vb .Google Scholar
134 Ibid. fol. 70rb, ‘et versus communis est ad hoc.’ ‘Et similiter, “Ubi dolor, ibi egritudo”.’ Google Scholar
135 Ibid. fol. 74vb, ‘et ideo dicitur in versu communi.' Google Scholar
136 Ibid. fol. 110vb, Google Scholar
137 Ibid. fol. 87va–b, Google Scholar
138 Ibid. fol. 92vb, where also: ‘Et ideo sunt multi versus de hoc’: Google Scholar
and four lines more, then, ‘Ut dicit versus’:
139 Ibid. fol. 93vb .Google Scholar
140 Ibid. fol. 74va .Google Scholar
141 Ibid. fol. 78va .Google Scholar
142 Ibid. fol. 73vb; again at 93rb .Google Scholar
143 Both at fol. 74ra .Google Scholar
144 Ibid. fol. 93ra .Google Scholar
145 Ibid. fol. 93rb–va .Google Scholar
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147 These three on fols. 93va and 94ra .Google Scholar
148 Ibid. fol. 135vb .Google Scholar
149 British Museum, Harley MS 3843 (15th century), fols. 9v, 11r, 11v and 12r .Google Scholar
149a Copenhagen Gl. kgl. S. 1656 (14th century), fol. 171va: ‘Hic tractandum est de mensibus quomodo te debes regere per totum annum, quem utere debes in quolibet mense.’ Google Scholar
150 Canon. Misc. 524 (15th century; olim monasterii Sancti Zenonis de Verona), fols. 22a, recto (with a smaller inset leaf) - 22b, verso (22b, recto is left blank). These verses are not listed in Coxe's catalogue of the Canonici MSS, which, after recording the ‘Secreta Alberti Magni de serpente dedita viro doctori sacrae theologiae ordinis minorum de Norenbergia,’ at fol. 17, recto and verso (see Thorndike, , A History of Magic and Experimental Science II [New York 1923] 796) jumps to a treatise on urines by Zacharia of Feltre at fol. 53.Google Scholar
151 On fol. 23r, after a text, ‘De consuetudine in cibariis. Hora et tempus commedendi, et quotiens in die secundum medicos,’ at the bottom of the page come more verses on eating and drinking.Google Scholar
152 Singer, D. W., Catalogue of … Alchemical Manuscripts in Great Britain and Ireland (Brussels 1928-31) II Nos. 822-66. For the Mappe clavicula, No. 867.Google Scholar
153 Riccardian. 119 (Lami, III.xiii), fol. 45vb .Google Scholar
154 Florence, Bibl. Nazionale Centrale, MS Palat. 758 (15th century), fol. 79v, ‘Ad lunam alia praticha.’ Google Scholar
155 printed in Zetzner, E., Theatrum chemicum (Strassburg 1659-61) III 138, 139, 140, 142.Google Scholar
156 Ibid. IV 860. Incipit, ‘Argentum vivum est frigidum et humidum… see Thorndike, L. and Kibre, P., A Catalogue of Incipits (Cambridge, Mass. 1937) 54, and Singer, D. W., Catalogue…Nos. 568, 1057v. Another ascription to Avicenna in De alchimia opuscula (Frankfurt 1550) I 75r-91v; another anon. MS (Univ. Bologna 1062, fols. 43r-45r).Google Scholar
157 Omnia opera … chymica (Frankfurt 1603) 34–5.Google Scholar
158 A History of Magic and Experimental Science III 106.Google Scholar
159 Zetzner II 395.Google Scholar
160 John Rylands Library, MS 65, fols. 55r-73r .Google Scholar
161 Ibid. fol. 70v .Google Scholar
162 Ibid. fol. 147v. In Zetzner IV 989 the couplet reads: Google Scholar
163 Zetzner III 663-97.Google Scholar
Columbia University. Google Scholar
164 British Museum, Cotton MS Vespasian E. VII, fol. 1, ‘De diametro terre et distantiis planetarum.' Google Scholar
165 Vesp. E. VIII, fol. 108.Google Scholar
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