YALE UNIVERSITY
BEINECKE RARE BOOK AND MANUSCRIPT LIBRARY
GENERAL COLLECTION OF RARE BOOKS AND
MANUSCRIPTS
PRE-1600 MANUSCRIPTS
Marston MS 89 Northern France, s. XII 1
Boethius, De arithmetica
ff. 1r-37r //inchoans equaliter que disterminans [?]. Idem autem
dico numerat quod metitur. Si igitur bis maiorem numerum solum minor
numerus metiatur...sola est epigdous [corrected from epigdoun?]
differentia. Huius descriptionis subter exemplar adiecimus [added in
a later hand: et omnis]. f. 37v contains the "exemplaria" promised
at the conclusion of the text in a full-page illustration (with later
additions).
G. Friedlein, ed., Boetii De institutione arithmetica libri duo
Teubner (1867) pp. 47.14-173. Text begins imperfectly in Bk. I, ch.
23, missing perhaps two gatherings of eight leaves; loss of one leaf
with text between ff. 29-30 in Bk. 2, ch. 44-46 ("...in terminis ut
subita descriptio monet [followed by diagram] // tercium. Sin uero
fuerint cybi duas..."). Bk. 2 begins on f. 8v without table of
capitula
and without indication that one book has ended and the next begun.
Some contemporary corrections and annotations. On f. 37r a later hand,
s. xiii, added accounts in the lower half of the page.
Parchment (poor quality; end pieces), ff. 37, 210 x 140 (155 x 90) mm.
29 long lines. Single vertical bounding lines, full length; some
horizontal bounding lines, full width. Ruled in lead or in hard point
on hair side. Prickings prominent in upper, lower and outer margins.
I-III 8, IV 8 (-6), V 6.
Written by multiple scribes (some copying or correcting only brief
portions of text) in late caroline minuscule.
Plain intials, 6- to 2-line, red, blue or black, occasionally with
modest pen design in red (e.g., ff. 27v-28r). Numerous diagrams and charts
throughout.
Parchment stained and warped by damp.
Binding: Eastern Europe [?], s. xiv or xv. The back pastedown
consists of a portion of a Latin parchment document dated 1374 (see also
provenance below). Front pastedown removed and preserved as Marston MS
89A (see catalogue entry below). Sewn on three supports laced into
thick oak boards and wedged. Plain wound endbands on alum-tawed cores
originally laced into the boards.
Covered with parchment with irregularly serrated turn-ins, with a
strap-and-pin fastening, the pin on the upper board. The codex has been
so tightly rebacked that it is difficult to open.
Written in Northern France in the first half of the 12th century to judge
from the script. Bound in the 14th or 15th century, probably in Eastern
Europe, since the parchment document serving as back pastedown was executed
in "Camyn" (with abbreviation stroke) and contains the following proper
names: Nicolaus Zagentzen de Jasdowe (or Iasdow), Nicolaus Colver de
Warsecowe, and Wyscau. Purchased from G. Heilburn of Paris in 1951 by
L. C. Witten who sold it in 1953 to Thomas E. Marston (bookplate).
Bibliography: Faye and Bond, p. 74, no. 89.
Barbara A. Shailor