Mellon MS 23

 ALPHONSUS, REX CASTELLAE
 Tabulae astronomicae, with brief extracts from Canones in
 tabulas Alphonsi regis, by Johannes (Dank) de Saxonia, and
 with a few anonymous additions, all in Latin.
 North Italy (Florence?), unsigned, about 1500

Parchment and paper codex, folio, 303 x 222, 92 ff. including two stubs which
form part of the collation, plus two original parchment flyleaves; modern
pencil foliation 1-94 counts the flyleaves. No signatures. Collation:
(paper:) (1)^^2, (2-4)^^8, the last a stub; (parchment:) (5-6)^^8, (7)^^10,
(8)^^8, (9)^^10; (paper:) (10)^^4, the first a stub, (11)^^12-2, the last two
cut away, (12)^^8. No catchwords. In the first paper section, 2 columns, 46
lines maximum, 240 x 155; parchment section, tables in 2 to 7 columns varying
between 210 x 155 and 190 x 170; second paper section: ruled for tables, 33
lines, 2 columns, maximum 220 X 170. Headlines in the parchment section. Four
scribes have written the manuscript: (1) the professional, humanistic hand of
the parchment section; (2) the rapid, partly illegible cursive hand of the
paper leaves, which has also added a table in the margin of f. 30v, and
filled in tables left blank by the professional scribe on ff. 30v, 63v
(columns 2 and 3 in red), ff. 64r-65r, and has filled in the latitude of
Florence on 63r; (3) a late humanistic hand which has supplied "radices" in
red and brown inks in the lower margins of ff. 33-38; (4) a hand that filled
in the numerals on the whole of f. 63r and a part of f. 36v, distinguishable
by his numeral "7." Minimal abbreviation, except in the work of the second
hand, which is highly abbreviated. Brownish inks in the paper sections; the
parchment section headlined, partly written, and ruled in red (the sixth
place in each table is outlined in yellow glair, except in the table on f.
57r, where the ninth, fifteenth, and twenty- first places are outlined in
blues). Longitudinal spaces between columns of the tables in the parchment
section, ff. 38v-42v, 53r, and 61r-70v, have been decorated with arabesque
patterns of vines, leaves, and flowers in great variety and usually in
differing combinations of glair and blue, but the work has been left
unfinished toward the end of the section. No illustration. Scant marginalia
and correction. Parchment of very good quality, occasional irregularities.
Paper: (1) most like Briquet 5920 (ladder in a circle with star at top, two
varieties); and (2) close to Briquet 203 (eagle displayed within a circle).

BINDING: Modern binding of blue morocco, gilt, matching slipcase of
straight-grained blue morocco, by R. Wallis, original gilt edges.

PROVENANCE: Early ownership unknown; Mellon MS 140=C, acquired from C. A.
Stonehill, Inc. (bookseller), New Haven. De Ricci-Bond 39.

CONTENTS

 [The Tabulae astronomicae, along with the Canones of Johannes de Saxonia,
were first printed by Erhard Ratdolt at Venice, 4 July 1483. The manuscript
here described has been compared with a copy of the Ratdolt edition, referred
to below as GW 1257, in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale
University.]

Front flyleaf: [Blank.]

f. 1r, 1: Modus faciendi revolutiones nativitatum | singulis annis. |
 [Following are twenty scarcely legible lines in black. Remainder of f. 1r
and all of f. 1v are blank. Unidentified.]

f. 2r, 1: Ad inveniendum si luna sit in parte superiori | vel inferiori
etcetera. | [Following are fourteen lines of unidentified text. Remainder of
f. 2r and all of f. 2v are blank.]

f. 3r, headline: Jesus. Maria. | Incipiunt Canones super Tabulas alfonsi
Regis | [f. 3r, 1:] Tempus est mensura motus ut vult Aristoteles | quarto
physicorum. Cum igitur motus scire desideramus | necessaria est nobis
temporis praecognitio... [Ends f. 3r2, 45:] ... ibi inventa sub alijs scribe
primum | scilicet quodlibet sub suo genere quartum sub quartis etcetera. |
 [Johannes (Dank) de Saxonia, Canones in tabulas Alfonsi regis: TK 1561, etc.
An epitome of the opening section of the work, corresponding to GW 1257, f.
2r, 1 through f. 2v, 20.]

ff. 3v-6v: [Blank.]

f. 7r1, headline: Canon ad inveniendum verum locum Lune | [f. 7rl, 1:] Verum
locum Lune per tabulas invenire | ... [Ends f. 7r2, 20:] ... erit verus locus
lune in | nona sphera. | [remainder of f. 7r blank.]
 [Epitomized from Johannes de Saxonia, Canones, as in GW 1257, f. 7r, 29
through f. 7v, 17.]

ff. 7v-23v: [Blank.]

f. 24r1, headline: Canon Magistri Joannis de saxonia de | Retrogradatione et
directione planetarum; | [f. 24r1, 1:] Si vis scire utrum planeta sit di- |
rectus an retrogradus... [f. 24r1, 20:] Ad inveniendum latitudinem... [f.
24r2, 4:] De Latitudine Veneris | Si vis scire... [f. 25v1, 30:] De
latitudine Mercurij invenienda | ... [ends illegibly, f. 25r2, 39.]
 [Another extract in epitome, as in GW 1257, ff. 15v-16v, 14.]

ff. 25r-26v: [Blank, f. 26 being a stub.]

f. 27r: [Headline, red:] INCIPIUNT TABULE ALFONSII REGIS INCLITI CASTELLE.
[beneath, a table in six columns. Other tables follow on each page, ending f.
57v, lower margin:] ALFONSII TABULE EXPLICIUNT. VALE. |
 [Alphonsus, Rex Castellae, Tabulae astronomicae: TK 740, etc., as in GW
1257, but with differences in order and content. The tables include: Periods
of time in days between various astronomical epochs, viz., Deluge,
Nabonassar, Alexander, Incarnation, Alfonso of Castille, etc., f. 27r-v;
interpolation of days in bisextile years and collected years, f. 28r;
divisions of year, month, and day into proportional parts, ff. 28v-29r;
radices, i.e., fundamental positions for a particular epoch, of the argument
(amount of movement per unit of time) of each table for the meridian of
Florence, the numerical values not entered, and an unlabeled table in the
left margin entered by hand 2, all on f. 29v; radices of the argument of each
table of each epoch, the values for the table of the eighth sphere partly
entered by hand, (the values for the Deluge differ slightly from GW 1257),
the other values not entered, ff. 30r-31r; mean movement of the apogees of
the planets and sphere of the fixed stars (precession), trepidation of the
eighth sphere, and equation of the trepidation, f. 31v-32v, with differences
from GW 1257, mean motion (on deferent) of the sun and superior planets,
motion in anomaly (on epicycle) of inferior planets, mean motion of the moon,
its motion in anomaly, its latitude, its elongation, and motion of the lunar
nodes, ff. 33r-38r (in the lower margins of these pages the radices for each
table have been entered by hand 3 for the epoch of the Incarnation, A.D. 1,
and adjusted for the meridians of Florence and Bologna, a necessity since the
table of radices on ff. 29r-31r was left blank by scribe 1, and the tables
cannot be used without these values; the tables mainly agree with GW 1257 for
the first three places, but disagree beyond this point because of the
adjustments for the different meridians; however, the apogee of Mars is
altogether different). Equations of corrections for sun, moon, and the five
planets, somewhat differently arranged from GW 1257 and including a table for
the "Statio prima," are not found in GW 1257.]

f. 58r: [Blank.]

ff. 58v-59r: [Table of the length of the day for the meridian of Florence for
each day of the year, this table not in GW 1257; the latitude of Florence,
43§ 54', is written in the upper margin of f. 59r by hand 2.]

ff. 59v-62r: [Table of the elevation of the signs in a right sphere. This is
included among the Alfonsine Tables in GW 1257.]

f. 62v: [Table of the differences of ascension. Not in GW 1257.]

ff. 63r-64v: [Table designed for the elevation of the signs of any place
situated in the "clima primum," but with the heading changed to accommodate
the meridian of Florence and the word "Florentie" written in the upper
margin, probably by hand 3. Hands 2 and 4 have entered the values. Not in GW
1257]

ff. 65r-70v: [Tables of the equations of the lunar mansions in each sign of
the Zodiac in the first climate, with the space for the indication of
latitude left blank, the values entered only for a part of the first table,
for the sign of Aries. The remaining tables are ruled, titled, and
ornamented, but left blank.]

f. 71r-v: [A stub, blank except for the note at the foot of f. 71r, in hand
2:] Nihil | deficit |

ff. 72r-92v: [Ruled throughout on both sides of the leaves in tabular form,
thirty-three spaces down, twenty-four across, but otherwise left entirely
blank, except for f. 89, which has three tables in hand 2: an incomplete
table of the motion of the sun and moon in hours, and a complete table of the
sun and moon in minutes or sixtieths of a day, on f. 89r; an incomplete table
of the differences of aspects in a clima with the latitude 45§ 15', which
perhaps indicates Bologna, though the place name is not given.]

End flyleaf: [On the recto is a list in three columns in hand 2 of the signs
of the Zodiac, containing under each the names of various cities, mostly
followed by a sign and a value in arabic numerals. ln addition to Italian
cities, France, Constantinople, England, Armenia, and Egypt are listed, but
no values are supplied. The meaning of the table is not clear. The verso of
the leaf is blank.]

SUMMARY: The codex consists of the Alfonsine Tables, elaborately executed by
a skilled scribe on fine parchment and handsomely decorated, but unfinished,
to which paper leaves have been added at a not much later date, probably by a
scholar, identified above as hand 2, who perhaps bought the unfinished
parchment manuscript for his library, intending to complete, modify, and
amplify it for his own use. Both types of paper employed were current in
Tuscany shortly after 1500, and the scholarly scrawl of hand 2 which appears
on them is also of this period. The parchment section is probably a little
earlier, but the late appearance of the characteristically Florentine
decorative elements seems to date the manuscript at the end of the fifteenth
century at the earliest. lt is not impossible that the unfinished Alfonsine
Tables is one of those manuscripts under preparation for Mattias I Hunyadi,
King of Hungary (Matthias Corvinus), on which work was halted when he
suddenly died on 4 April 1490. It is clear that the Ratdolt edition of 1483,
GW 1257, is not the source from which this codex was copied. Though MS 23 is
a scientific work on astronomy, such texts had a profound influence on and
interrelationship with occult works involving prognostication and health.
Astrologers today as in past ages claim the closest possible association with
astronomy; a sumptuous example of this interaction, almost contemporary with
and written at no great distance from MS 23, is the book of prognostications
written for the Duke of Urbino, 1474-75, Mellon MS 13, described
above.