Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Marston MS 119
Miscellaneous texts, including a bestiary (part 6) and extracts from the Etymologiae of Isidore of Seville (part 7).
Written in Northern Italy in the second half of the 13th century to judge from the style of decoration.
Texts:
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f.1r-2r: Prologue to part 3 by the author, Aegidius Beneventanus, who remains unidentified.
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f.2v-29v: Table of contents for part 3, arranged in three columns.
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f.30r-167v: 'Nota contra otiosum pigrum et sompnolentum. Plus uigila semper ne sompno deditus esto. Nam diuturna quies uitijs aumenta ministrat...'. Collection of extracts on moral subjects (Part I), historical, genealogical and geographical subjects (Parts II and III) drawn from classical, Biblical and medieval texts. Authors and texts cited include: the Bible, Cato, Cassiodorus, Vergil, Sallust, Ovid, Seneca, Boethius, Socrates, Bernard, Juvenal, Hrabanus Maurus, Cicero, Claudian, Jerome, Augustine, Isidore, Lucan, Ambrose, Symmachus, Horace.
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f.167v-175v: Alphabetical list of figurative meanings, ending with Z, for which there are no entries.
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f.176r-177v: Biblical and classical genealogy, in tabular format.
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f.177v-183r: Bestiary, with extracts from Isidore, Etymologiae, Books 12.1.1-12.8.17. '[O]mnibus animantibus. Adam primum uocabula indidit appellans unicuique nomen iuxta conditionem nature cui seruiret. Gentes autem unicuique animalium...Gurgulio dicitur quia fere nil est aliud nisi guttur.'
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f.183r-v: Extracts from Isidore, Etymologiae, Books 2 and 8. '[P]hilosofi grece latine amatores sapientie interpretantur.
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Nomen philosophorum primo a pictagora fertur exortum [corrected from ortum]. Nam iste interrogatus quid profiteretur...'.
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f.183v-184r: 'De aquis et earum ueritate ac uirtutibus...'.
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f.184v-186r: Unidentified table, damaged at the top of each folio and with text missing at beginning; explicit: '...Vnusquisque non tantum a proximis dissenset plerumque [?] etiam a se ipso. Amen."
- Two attractive illuminated initials, 4-line, with partial borders. Folio 1r, initial constructed of a winged dragon, pale yellow with white highlights and red contouring strokes against a blue ground. Tail of dragon extends down the inner margin to form a partial bar border, blue, red, pale yellow with beads in red, blue, and yellow and small stylized leaves, blue and pale yellow swirling around bar. Border ends in lower margin in stylized scroll inhabited by a bird, outlined in red and brown ink, and a fowler, pointing a bow and arrow. Folio 30r, initial, red and pale yellow against blue ground with white filigree, filled with a grotesque and a dragon.
[Adapted from Beinecke Library manuscript description; Shailor]
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