PAL

Ptolemaeus Arabus et Latinus

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Oxford, Corpus Christi College, 283

s. XIex-XIIin (f. 66-113).

Or.:

northern France, perhaps Chartres (f. 66-113).

Prov.:

the whole MS belonged to William de Clara, monk of St Augustine of Canterbury, who annotated it in 1277 (see Thomson, 147); St Augustine of Canterbury; John Dee before 1583; donated to Corpus Christi College by Christopher Wase, fellow of the college, in 1704.

Parchment, 174 f., composite MS made of seven parts bound together by 1277, the third of which (f. 66-113), copied by one main hand, is bound in disorder and should read f. 66-81, 82-89, 98-113 and 90-97, with a lost quire after f. 81 and after f. 113. The other parts consist of f. 1-5 (12th and 13th c.), 6-49 (13th c., France), 50-65 (13th c., France), 114-145 (12th c., England); 146-155 (13th c., France); 147-174 (13th c., Paris).

Astronomy (f. 66-113): Ptolemaica (66r-81v); (added by a late 12th-c. hand) introduction to astronomy ‘In principio huius artis requiruntur ea que in ceteris artibus requiri solent…’ (81v, beginning only, due to the lost quire); compilation from the old corpus on the astrolabe, including chapters from De mensura astrolapsus, De mensura astrolabii, Sententie astrolabii, De utilitatibus astrolabii and Ascelinus Teutonicus’s Compositio astrolabii (82r-113r); Isidore of Seville, Etymologiae, III.28-50 (113r-113v). The other parts of the MS contain scientific and various texts: notes of arithmetic and music (1r-5r); Cicero, De natura deorum (6r-37r); Cicero, Epistolae (37v-45v); Gregory the Great, Epistolae (45v-49v); Euclid, Elementa, version ‘Adelard II’, Books X-XI (50r-65v); Algorismi [al-Khwārizmī], astronomical tables (114r-145r); Pseudo-Aristotle, Secretum secretorum, excerpt (146r-146v); various introductions to philosophy by Parisian masters of the middle of the 13th c. (146v-153r); various documents issued by the University of Paris between 1252 and 1266 (f. 156r-160v); sermons (160r-161v); text on the rainbow (162r-162v); Euclid, De visu (163r-165v); Euclid, De speculis (166r-168v); sermon notes (169r-171r).

Bibl. H. O. Coxe, Catalogus codicum qui in collegiis aulisque Oxoniensibus hodie adversantur, II, Oxford, 1852, Codices MSS. Collegii Corporis Christi,221-224; A. G. Watson, Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts c. 435-1600 in Oxford Libraries, I, Oxford, 1984, 130 (no. 782); C. Burnett, ‘Catalogue. The Writings of Adelard of Bath and Closely Associated Works, Together with the Manuscripts in which they Occur’, in Adelard of Bath. An English Scientist and Arabist of the Early Twelfth Century, ed. C. Burnett, London, 1987, 163-196: 187 (no. 90); J. Roberts, A. G. Watson, John Dee’s Library Catalogue, London, 1990, 124 (M136); H. L. L. Busard, M. Folkerts, Robert of Chester’s (?) Redaction of Euclid’s Elements, the so-Called Adelard II Version, Basel-Boston-Berlin, 1992, I, 68-69; D. Pingree, Preceptum canonis Ptolomei, Louvain-la-Neuve, 1997, 10-11; C. Burnett, ‘Avranches, B.M. 235 et Oxford, Corpus Christi College 283’, in Science antique, science médiévale (Autour d’Avranches 235). Actes du colloque international (Mont-Saint-Michel, 4-7 septembre 1998), eds L. Callebat, O. Desbordes, Hildesheim-Zürich-New York, 2000, 63-70; F. S. Pedersen, The Toledan Tables. A Review of the Manuscripts and the Textual Versions with an Edition, København, 2002, I, 151-152; B. C. Barker-Benfield, St Augustine’s Abbey, Canterbury, London, 2008, II, 1019-1025 (BA I.1009); R. M. Thomson, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Medieval Manuscripts of Corpus Christi College Oxford, Oxford, 2011, 143-147.

66r–⁠81v

‘Incipit preceptum canonis Ptolomei. Intellectus climatum polis episeme requires si inveneris platos civitatis — requires superiorem et addes aut deduces.’