Beinecke MS 335               Italy, s. XV^^1
Sacro Bosco, De sphaera, etc.

1. ff. 1r-11v Incipit tractatus spere. Tractatum de spera in quatuor
partes distinguimus. dicentes in primo quid sit spera, quid centrum, quid
axis spere...aut deus nature patitur aut mundi machina dissoluetur. Explicit
tractatus spere materialis. ff. 12r-13r ruled, but blank

     Joannes de Sacro Bosco, De sphaera; L. Thorndike, ed., The Sphere of
Sacrobosco and its Commentators (Chicago, 1949) pp. 76-117.

2. ff. 13v-15r Incipit prima introductio astrologie. Nos iuxta
rectam ymaginationem inchoantes astrologiam intelligamus mundum esse
spericum corpus...hec sunt que introducendis primo ymaginando occurrunt.
finis deo gracias amen.

     Unidentified Cosmographicae libellus also found in Vat. Urb. lat. 507,
ff. 310r-311r (P. Kibre provided this information).

3. ff. 15v-37v Incipit alius tractatus spere quem transtuli de
galico in latinum. Liberi hominis et ingenij nobilis est figuram et
dispositionem mundi numerum et ordinem elementorum...[table:] De figura
et partibus principalibus mundi capitulum primum./De natura celi
capitulum secundum/...[text, f. 16r:] De figura et partibus
principalibus mundi.
Mundum tamquam pomum dicimus esse rotundum. Corpus autem similis forme...vt
subito ad illum capitulum possit haberi reuersus et ipsius vocabuli seu nominis
diffinicio repperiri. Explicit tractatus quem repperi in gallica lingua et
transtuli in latinum substancia non mutata. deo gracias amen.

     Nicolas Oresme, Traite de la sphere, in a Latin translation
apparently extant only in this manuscript; see C. E. Lutz,
"A Fourteenth-Century Argument for an International Date Line," Gazette 47
(1973) pp. 125-31, reprinted in her Essays on Manuscripts and Rare Books
(Hamden, Conn., 1975) pp. 63-70.

4. ff. 37v-38r Incipit tabula vocabulorum et nominum diuersorum vt
infra. Axis. capitulo. v../ Arcus diurnus. capitulo. xviij/...
zodiacus. capitulo. vii./ zona seu zone. capitulo. xxviij./
Explicit tabula. ff. 38v-40v ruled, but blank

     Alphabetical index for art. 3.

     Parchment, ff. ii (parchment, i = front pastedown) + 40 + iv (parchment,
iv = back pastedown), 232 x 159 (170 x 105) mm. Ca. 49 long lines;
frame-ruled in crayon with prickings at the corners of the written space.
     I-V^^8. Catchwords in center of lower margin, with flourishes in both black
and red, verso.
     Written by one person in small fere-humanistic script bordering on
cursive.
     Simple decorative initials, 5- to 2-line, in red. Headings, paragraph marks,
strokes on majuscules at beginning of sentences, and marginal notes, in red.
     Seventeen carefully executed astronomical drawings and two tables, in red,
black, yellow and beige, accompany arts. 1 and 3.
     Binding:  s. xviii-xix.  Limp vellum case.  "Tractatus spere" on tail
edge.

Written in Italy, possibly in Florence, in the first half of the 15th
century, according to A. C. de la Mare; early modern provenance unknown. Belonged
to W. Redmond Cross, Yale 1896; gift of Mrs. Cross in 1968.

secundo folio: etiam aliud

Bibliography: Exhibition Catalogue, pp. 228-29, no. 52.

Barbara A. Shailor