A paper manuscript copy of the Circa instans attributed to Platearius, without illustrations, written possibly in Germany in the 1440s-1450s. Contents: ff. 1r-69r: Circa instans or Liber de simplici medicina, in Latin, a late 12th-century pharmacopoeial and therapeutic compilation attributed to a physician operating in the milieu of the School of Salerno, known under the name of Platearius. The text in the present manuscript is identifiable with the first version of variant B (versio B) of the Circa instans, including between 250 and 277 chapters and testified in approximately 133 manuscripts produced between the last decades of the 12th and the late 15th century: I. Ventura, 'Il Circa instans attribuito a Platearius: trasmissione manoscritta, redazioni, criteri di costruzione di un'edizione critica', Revue d'histoire des textes, 10 (2015), pp. 251-362 (in particular pp. 261-6; with mention of the present manuscript on pp. 265, 302, 337); eadem, 'Un best-seller farmaceutico medioevale tra produzione di libri e pratiche di lettura: il Circa instans attribuito a Platearius', in Orbis disciplinae. Hommages en l'honneur de Patrick Gautier Dalché, ed. N. Bouloux, A. Dan and G. Tolias (Turnhout: Brepols, 2017), pp. 628-30. Listed in eTK, A digital resource based on Lynn Thorndike and Pearl Kibre, A Catalogue of Incipits of Medieval Scientific Writings in Latin (Cambridge, MA: Mediaeval Academy, 1963; with supplements in 1965 and 1968; online at https://medievalacademy.site-ym.com/?page=Books#etk), as no. 211C*. For the text, see G. Keil, 'Circa instans', in Die deutsche Literatur des Mittelalters. Verfasserlexikon (Berlin; New York: De Gruyter, 1978-), vol. 1 (1978), cols. 1282-5. First printed with the Latin translations of the Breviarium medicinae of Serapion the Elder and In medicinis simplicibus of Serapion the Younger, together with Galen's De virtute centaureae and Johannes Platearius's Practica brevis, in Venice by Bonetus Locatellus, for Octavianus Scotus, 16 Dec. 1497 (ISTC is00466000), signatures z8r-[rum]8v, i.e. pp. 186r-211v. For other manuscript copies of the compilation in the Wellcome Library, see MSS 536 (England?, late 13th century), 547, ff. 192r-215v (France or England, 14th century), and 625, ff. 1r-21r (excerpts on herbs from the Circa instans, Germany, mid 15th century); for an illustrated copy of its French adaptation, see MS. 626, ff. 1r-261r (France, c. 1470). The present manuscript was probably copied in Germany in the 1440s-1450s and includes 277 chapters. It has been identified by Iolanda Ventura as belonging to a particular redaction of the text, called by her 'redazione Göttingen' from the location of the first manuscript in which she found this particular number and ordering of the chapters, i.e. Göttingen, Universitätsbibliothek, MS. Hist. Nat. 12, a copy produced in Italy in the 14th century. The redaction is characterised by the addition of chapters to the section devoted to simples with Latin names beginning with 'S'; in the present manuscript, the additional entries, entitled De salice, De sambuco, De squilla, De storace, De sumac, De staphisagria, De sandalisi, are found between those entitled De serpentaria and De sene on ff. 65v-66v: see I. Ventura, 'Il Circa instans attribuito a Platearius ', pp. 279-80, with mention of the present manuscript on pp. 302, 337 no. 53, 353. f. 1r: Incipit: Incipit liber magistri Johannis platearii // [C]Irca instans negotium de simplicibus medicinis nostrum uersatur propositum ... f. 69r: Explicit: ... Nec vero presentis operis prolixitas in incensum diffundatur hoc leto fine concludamus istud. Explicit liber iste.
1 volume On paper; watermarks: 1. Bull head (height 60 mm; width 40 mm; distance between chain lines c. 41 mm) found in quires 1 and 6, unidentified; 2. Bull head (height 60 mm; width 30 mm; distance between chain lines 38 mm) in quires 2, 3 and 4, unidentified; 3. Grape, without additional motif, stem consisting of one line, with noose on stem (height 62 mm; width 33 mm; distance between chain lines 38 mm), in quire 1, similar to Piccard no. 128849 (Göttingen, 1442-1443) and a few other watermarks used in Germany between 1442 and 1452; 4. Stick, with crosier as additional motif, with star above (height 86 mm; width 15 mm; distance between chain lines 40 mm), in quire 5, similar to Piccard no. 32981 (Germany, 1439). 71 leaves, plus single modern paper flyleaves and conjoint pastedowns at the beginning and the end; ff. 45v, 69v, 70-71 blank; modern foliation '1-71' in pencil in upper right corner of rectos. 210 x 146 mm; written space 158/168 x 90/102 mm; ruling in metal point and ink for single vertical and horizontal bounders, with trace of one pricking hole per vertical bounder in the lower margin of leaves, no ruling for the horizontal written lines, 37/46 lines to the page (above upper horizontal bounder). Collation: 110-1 (wanting x), 2-412, 510, 612, four singletons with the paper of leaf i (f. 68) differing from that of leaves ii-iv (ff. 69-71) and belonging to the same batch of paper with the crosier watermark used in quire 5, possible original collation 76-2, or more (wanting v-vi or more). Leaf signatures in different styles: in lower right corner in quire 1; in lower margin, at centre towards the left in quires 5-6. Horizontal catchwords in different positions: in the lower margin below the text at the left of the right vertical bounder in quire 2 (f. 21v); in the lower margin at centre, just below the text, in quire 3 (f. 33v); in the lower right corner of the lower margin in quires 5-6. Secundo folio: [ce]pie et saluia Written in regular and neat cursive Gothic script (Northern Semihybrida or Libraria/Currens) in grey ink by two or possibly three hands (ff. 1r-9v, 10r-45r, 46r-69r respectively): see A. Derolez, The Palaeography of Gothic Manuscript Books from the Twelfth to the Early Sixteenth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003). Occasional marginal additions by the first scribe on ff. 9r, 19r, 20v, 21v, and possibly also on f. 61r; one addition by an early reader in black ink in a semi-humanistic hand on f. f. 2r. Dedicated spaces for initials (2-3 lines high) left blank throughout. Binding: decorated dark green paper over pasteboards, Germany, late 19th or early 20th century.
Medicine, Traditional; Formulas, recipes, etc.; Materia Medica; Botany
Purchased from the Swiss booksellers L'Art Ancien S.A., Zurich, on 6 October 1924, lot 2079 (sale description, giving the value of 'Frs. 250', pasted onto upper pastedown), for 234 Swiss Francs.
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Format: Archive, Institution: n/a, Identifier: b19625571, Digicode: digwms, Collection code: MS.624