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Unde versus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 July 2016

Lynn Thorndike*
Affiliation:
Columbia University

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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Articles
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Copyright © Fordham University Press 

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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

Expliciunt versus quos scripsit scriba Robertus
Quique prior quartus fuit est sub humo modo versus
Infra claustra iacens de Bridligton ubi rexit
Non est ipse tacens quamvis cum pluribus exit.
Doctor clarus erat indulgens bibliis iste
Quas planas fecerat nunc esto salus sua Christe.

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

Est Aries Taurus Gemini Cancer Leo Virgo
Libraque Scorpius Architenens Capricornus et Urnam
Qui tenet et Pisces; sita sunt hoc ordine signa, — OHI VI 273, lines 115-7.

11 The Sphere of Sacrobosco 91.Google Scholar

12 Ibid. 99. — In the Massa compoti line 119 reads: Google Scholar

Est Li Ari Scor Tau Sa Gem Can Ca Le A Pisc Vir.

[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

25 Grosseteste, OHI VI 257, has a very similar wording: Google Scholar

Aureus hac arte numerus formatur a parte
Principium Jani, quia janua dicitur anni,
Ternarium retinet ne posterus ordo vacillet.
Scito per hanc artem numerum formare sequentem.

Roger Bacon, OHI VI 125, omits the first line, then has:

Prima dies Jani que janua dicitur anni.
Ternarium retinet nemo sic esse recuset
Per precedentem numerum dant 8. sequentem.

26 See OHI VI 125, 127, 257-8, 269-70 for the passages in question.Google Scholar

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

32 OHI VI 105, 271.Google Scholar

33 OHI VI 273: Sequitur de diebus Egyptiacis: Google Scholar

Augurio decies audito lumine clangor
Linquid olens abies coluit colus escula galle.

Quota sit hora contraria Egyptiaci diei:

Menfalus illud habet armatos filia fidus
Munus agit sedes eskiros iffilus aufert.

34 MS Vat. Palat. lat. 1367, fol. 15arab: ‘Dies Egiptiacas invenire. Scias quod unaqueque dictio istius versus deservit uni mensi: Google Scholar

Augmo decies audito lumine clango
Unquam oleis abies coluit colus escula gallus, etc.

De horis eiusdem scias quod unaqueque dictio istius versus deservit uni mensi:

Mimus agit sedes yskyros afflicis amphylus aufert.'

For the full text of Pheffer Kuchel see pp. 234-8 of my article, ‘Computus,’ Speculum 29 (1954) 223–38.Google Scholar

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

Festum Clementis caput est hyemis orientis;
Cedit yems retro cathedrato Simone Petro.
Ver Petro detur, estas exinde sequetur;
Hanc dabit Urbanus; autumpnum, Simphorianus.

John of Gaddesden, in his Rosa medicinae of the fourteenth century, adhered more closely to the earlier form: ed. of 1502, fol. 93va:

Ver Petro detur; estas hinc inde sequatur (sic),
Quam dabit Urbanus; autumnum, Simphorianus;
Festum Clementis hyemis caput est orientis.

38 Worded differently in the Massa compoti, lines 301-2 (OHI VI 280): Google Scholar

Solsticium deno Christum parit atque Johannem
Et totidem sequitur perinoctia nuncius horum.

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)rv, 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

44 ‘Kalendarium Veronense ecclesiae Rupisclarae in ea diocesi.’ Codex 1 (15th cent.) of the monastery of S. Michele di Murano when it was described in detail by Mittarelli, J.-B., Bibliotheca codicum manuscriptorum monasterii S. Michaelis Venetiarum prope Murianum (Venice 1779) 560–7, whose transcription is here followed. The present location of the MS has not been determined. [For the relation of these verses to others likewise dealing with the dies Aegyptiaci, see supra, in the article of Hennig, John, ‘Versus de Mensibus,’ n. 88. — Edd.] Google Scholar

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. 6rab 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

Septimus incipiet (incipitur) mi fa sol, quartusque la sol la;
Nunc (His) quintum dicas (iungas) quem fa la re fa bene cantas.

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. 202vab, 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

Allec unda fovet; gamaleon [i.e. chameleon]
Aere vivit; talpam mittit humus;
Flamma pascit salamandram.

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

Omnis hypocrita facie tenus est heremita
Mente licet tacita latens sanguis aconita.'

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

Sunt quinque fratres quorum duo sunt sine barba;
Tres sunt barbati, sine barba sunt duo nati.

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. 93rb .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. 87vab, Google Scholar

138 Ibid. fol. 92vb, where also: ‘Et ideo sunt multi versus de hoc’: Google Scholar

Nocturna cena stomacho sit maxima pena;
Si vis esse levis, sit tibi cena brevis.

and four lines more, then, ‘Ut dicit versus’:

Nec mictum cohibere velis nec cogere ventrem.

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. 93rbva .Google Scholar

146 At fols. 93va, 107rb, 115ra and 115vb, 124ra. I also omit those on fols. 78vb, 80va, 96rb, 100rb, 102ra, 105vb, 111va, 112ra .Google Scholar

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 operachymica (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

Bestia cauda brevi male tegit posteriora;
Stulta lingua et levis male tegit interiora.

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