The De animalibus by Albertus Magnus.

This manuscript is thought to be an autograph copy in Albert's own hand; there is a note from a later date (sixteenth century) on the second flyleaf that states "Libri de animalibus propria manu Alberti Magni ante trecentos annos conscripti" (Books about animals written by Albert the Great's own hand three hundred years ago). Other evidence suggests this is true (see below). While the handwriting is all by one person, the varying colors of the ink suggest it was produced in stages, The text is very difficult to read, with no breaks (other than a paragraph mark) between chapters or even between books.

This is the manuscript designated C by Stadler.

The individual animals are described in Book 22-26:

22. Quadrupeds : folio 359r-381v
23. Birds : folio 381v-405v
24. Aquatic animals : folio 405v-414r
25. Serpents : 414r-420v
26. Worms/insects : 421r-426r

Alternate shelfmark: W* 8° 258a.

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[

From Scanlan, page 15]

On the recto and verso sides of each page is an average of 38 to 51 lines of script. Though inscribed by one writer, the varied colors of ink employed in different sections indicates that the manuscript was composed over a period of time, perhaps as long as several years. There seems little doubt that this was among the books which Albert bequeathed to the library of the 'studium generale' at Cologne before his death. As late as 1483 an inventory of the books in this Dominican cloister included a volume on the nature's of animals in Albert's own hand ('de manu sua').

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[From Stadler, page viii-ix (paraphrase)]

The main reasons for the assertion that this is Albert's autograph copy are as follows:

1. Only the Köln manuscript offers the complete text; all other manuscripts as well as the editions suffer from numerous omissions and gaps that sometimes distort the meaning.
2. In the remaining manuscripts and editions, the text is distorted by many reading errors, the majority of which can only be explained if one accepts the Köln manuscript as the basis of the entire tradition.
3. The Köln manuscript contains a number of corrections made by crossing out half and whole words and even complete sentences, which differ from the usual copyist's corrections in the carelessness with which they are made, but especially in the fact that they sometimes refer to the main sources of Albertus , Aristotle and Avicenna, go back or contain factual comments that would not be possible for a copyist. Rather, they show the activity of the author who changes and improves during the work.
4. Two further natural history writings by Albertus are inserted into the Köln manuscript (De natura et origine animae and De principiis motus processivi) and this insertion is taken into account in the text itself.
5. The writing is quite individual, differs significantly from the usual scribe's writing and corresponds to the writing style around the middle of the 13th century. century.
6. From 1483 onwards, tradition expressly reports that in the Dominican monastery in Köln, where Albertus lived most of his life, died and was buried, a volume marked De naturis animalium de manu sua was found next to a theological work. These manuscripts can be found there until the beginning of the 19th century and, after the monastery was destroyed during the French era, they finally came to the city archives, where they are still located today.
7. The Köln manuscripts are not the only autographs from Albertus that have survived to us. In the Latin miscellaneous codex 273 of the Vienna Court Library, another such document has been proven - it contains the important book De natura locorum - which comes from the Dominican monastery in Vienna.

Additional Descriptions

Additional description

Editions and Facsimiles

Printed editions

Stadler, 1916-20
Scanlan (trans.), 1987

Digital facsimiles

Historisches Archiv der Stadt Köln