Liber Alchandrei, plus astrological, divinatory and medical texts

Written in a small gothic hand, in double column of 53-55 lines to a column, between red and black rules in the design of Norman arches with two large and one small light at the top for the first work; and without the top light in the second work. The top light contains a few lines of text belonging to the first column. Initials in alternate blue and red, headings in red. Illustrated on f. 4r with a diagram of five interlocking circles in red, green and black, containing Roman letters and numerals; and on f. 7v with the Spheres of Pythagoras' in red and black.

Contents

1. ff. 1r-7v Alchandrus, De naturis planetarum, beginning wanting and preceded by a fragment of a text on the planets

The Alchandreana texts were the first Arabic astrological treatises to be translated into Latin in the tenth century. See David Juste, Les Alchandreana primitifs: Étude sur les plus anciens traités astrologiques latins d'origine arabe (Xe siècle) (Leiden: Brill, 2007).

(begins imperfectly) '...ipsa erit quasi humida…[first complete entry f. 1r col. 1] Saturnus in quo signo....De naturis planetarum. Luna nature frigide coloris argentei...'

Explicit: '…ambiguo erit.'

2. f. 7v Two redactions of the 'Sphere of Life and Death'

This is a very common onomancy (i.e. divination by the numbers that correlate to the letters of an individual's name) for predicting whether a sick person will live or die, the outcome of a duel or battle, or anything else requiring a binary yes/no answer. The operator takes the name of the person in question, finds the numbers that correspond to the letters of their name, and adds into a total. To this is added the number of the day of the moon on which they first fell sick, and the number corresponding to the planetary weekday. This grand total is divided by 30 and if the remainder is found in the top of the 'Sphere' diagram the patient will live, if not, they will die. See e.g. Linda Ehrsam Voigts, 'The Latin and Middle English Prose Texts on the Sphere of Life and Death in Harley 3719', The Chaucer Review 21.2 (1986), 291-305; eadem, 'The Golden Table of Pythagoras', in Popular and Practical Science of Medieval England, ed. by Lister M. Matheson (East Lansing: Colleagues Press, 1994), pp. 123-139

Work 3 and 4 described below are associated with work 2 and represent the two redactions of the Sphere of Life and Death

3. Tabula Cratonis

Incipit: 'Disce diem lune…'

4. The Sphere of Pythagoras

Incipit: 'Ratio spere Phitagore…'

5. ff. 8r-14v Anonymous, Physionomia, reordered and imperfect

See Thorndike, Lynn and Kibre, Pearl. A Catalogue of Incipits of Mediaeval Scientific Writings in Latin (Cambridge, MA: Mediaeval Academy, 1963), no. 538. An electronic version of Thorndike and Kibre's database can be found at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/indexcat/index.html

This version ends abruptly in the middle of chapter 69 on the thighs. See Richard Foerster, Scriptores Physiognomonici, vol. II: Physiognomonica Anonymi, Pseudopolemonis, Rasis, Secreti Secretorum Latine, Anonymi Graece, Fragmenta, Indices Continens (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1994), p. 89. The cataloguer is grateful to Joseph Ziegler for information on this text

Incipit: 'Ex tribus auctoribus quorum libros pro manu habui.'

(ends imperfectly) '...intemperatum impudentemque…'

12th Century

1 volume

14 ll. folio. 32 1/2 x 18 cm. On vellum, unbound. Beginning and end wanting. Lower outer corner of last leaf torn away. The upper margin has been cut into a semi-circular shape. As the manuscript both begins and ends imperfectly, it clear that this is either one quire of a longer work, or that an outer bifolium or set of bifolia were removed at some stage.

Particulars of acquisition not known.

This manuscript is described in S. A. J. Moorat's finding aid.

This material has been digitised and can be freely accessed online through Wellcome Collection catalogue.