PAL

Ptolemaeus Arabus et Latinus

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Oxford, Bodleian Library, Digby 178

s. XIV1 (f. 1-14 and 88-115) and XV (f. 15-87).

Or.:

University of Oxford, f. 1-14 and 88-115 are in Simon Bredon’s hand.

Prov.:

f. 1-14 and 88-115 were part of Simon Bredon’s bequest to Merton College in 1372; f. 15-87 have been annotated by Lewis Caerleon (e.g. f. 38r-38v and 46r); John Dee; Thomas Allen.

Parchment, 115 f. Composite MS made two parts: I, f. 1-14 and 88-115 (14th c., a single hand); II, f. 15-87 (15th c., two main hands: f. 15-38 and 39-86). F. 1-14 and 88-115 originally belonged with MS London, BL, Harley 625 (see entry for this MS, under Note 1).

Astronomy and geometry: table of contents, early modern (1r); tables: equation of houses for latitude 51° (4v); tables: planetary latitudes (5r-8v); ‘De motu Thebith. Campanus Novariensis capitulo 10 compoti sui sic diffinit annum…’ (9r-10v); solar tables 1341-1344 for Oxford (11r-12v); Simon Bredon, Conclusiones de quadratura circuli ‘Omnis numerus quadratus totus est in numerorum ordine — Has conclusiones recommendo ego Simon de Bredon<e> volenti circa quadraturam circuli laborare’, added in lower margin (11v-13r); table: latitude of the Moon (13r); scattered astronomical and mathematical notes by several hands (13v-14r); Richard of Wallingford, Quadripartitum (15r-38r), with notes by Lewis Caerleon (38r-38v); Ptolemaica (39r-86v); notes on the distance earth-Moon (87r-87v); Euclid, Elementa, ed. Campanus of Novara, reworking (88ra-107ra); Ptolemaica (107rb-108rb); Theodosius, Spherica, tr. Gerard of Cremona (108va-111rb); Menelaus, Spherica (111va-115vb); ‘Omnis trangulum duorum equalium laterum…’, end gone (115vb). Blank: 1v-4r, 14v.

Bibl. G. D. Macray, Catalogi codicum manuscriptorum Bibliothecae Bodleianae, IX: Codices a viro clarissimo Kenelm Digby, Oxford, 1883, 190-192; J. D. North, Richard of Wallingford: An Edition of His Writings with Introduction, English Translation and Commentary, Oxford, 1976, II, 32 and 36-37; A. G. Watson, ‘A Merton College Manuscript Reconstructed: Harley 625; Digby 178, fols. 1-14, 88-115; Cotton Tiberius B. IX, fols. 1-4, 225-35’, Bodleian Library Record 9 (1976), 207-217 (reprinted in A. G. Watson, Medieval Manuscripts in Post-Medieval England, Padstow, 2004, XIII).

39r–⁠86v

‘Arcus dicitur pars circumferencie circuli sive medietati talis circumferentie — (41v) Et hec pauca sufficiunt dicta pro sinus et arcus aliquali notitia. Explicit. (42r) Commentum m<agistri> Symonis Bredon super aliquas demonstrationes Almagesti [title in upper margin, hand of the scribe]. Nunc superest ostendere quanta sit maxima declinatio ecliptice ab equinocciali — erunt qui provenerint anni Nabugodonosor, qui sunt per quos intrabis in hunc librum’ (followed by the two tables ‘Ferie annorum’ and ‘Reductio earum’).

= Simon Bredon, Commentum super Almagesti (C.1.8)

, I.9-11, 39r-41v; I.12-14, 42r-47r; II, 47r-65r; III, 65r-86v. A few marginal notes by the scribe, a longer note by Lewis Caerleon f. 46r and a few notes by a much later hand f. 66r-69r. For f. 39-41 as belonging to the text, see H. Zepeda, The First Latin Treatise on Ptolemy’s Astronomy: The Almagesti minor (c. 1200), Turnhout, 2018, 96.

107rb–⁠108rb

‘Cum superficies secet speram tunc differentia communis illi superficiei et superficiei spere — prescriptorum prout volueris.’

= Geber, Liber super Almagesti (C.1.2)

, excerpts from Book I (enunciations only, with additional notes). No glosses.