YALE UNIVERSITY
BEINECKE RARE BOOK AND MANUSCRIPT LIBRARY
GENERAL COLLECTION OF RARE BOOKS AND
MANUSCRIPTS
PRE-1600 MANUSCRIPTS
Beinecke MS 513
England, s. XIII/XIV
Theodulus, Avianus, Maximianus
1. ff. 1r-10v [text: ] Ethiopum terras iam fervida torruit estas [apart from the initial the opening
lines are almost illegible; the beginning of the commentary is totally illegible]... [text ends f. 10r:]
Sol petit occasum, frigus succedit oppacum, / Desine quod restat ne desperacio ledat. Explicit
liber Theodoli. [commentary ends f.10v, about Noach's Ark:] ... prima
stercorata, [secunda]
apotecaria, tercia feris animantibus, quarta mansue************.
Theodulus (tenth century ?), Ecloga, J. Osternacher, ed., Jahrbuch ?? des
bischoeflichen
Privatgymnasiums Urfahr 1901-1902 (Urfahr, 1902), pp. 1-59, with an unidentified commentary.
On the tradition of this text and on its commentaries, see B. Nye Quinn, CTC, v. 2 (1971), pp.
383-408.
2. ff. 11r-21v Rustica deflenti parvo iuraverat olim, / ni taceat , rapido quod foret esca lupo ...
Sic quociens duplici subduntur [sic] tristia casu, / expedit insignem promeruisse necem. Explicit
liber Aviani.
Avianus, Fabulae, Ae. Baehrens ed., Poetae latini minores, v. 5 (Leipzig, 1883), pp. 35-70,
without the Prologue Ad Theodosium, with interlinear and marginal glosses.
3. ff. 21v-31r Emula quid cessas finem properare senectus? / Cur et in hoc fesso corpore tarda
venis? ... sit satis, indignum leviter //.
Maximianus (sixth century), Elegiae, Ae. Baehrens ed., Poetae latini minores, v. 5 (Leipzig,
1883), pp. 313-348??, with a few interlinear glosses. The final verses (VI.4-12) are lost.
Parchment, ff. III (paper) + 31 + III (paper), 235 x 140-150 mm. Low quality parchment, the first
and last folios badly damaged and defective, making reading hard or impossible. The outer
margin of ff. 16, 24 and 25 cut off.
I-II 8 (ff. 1-16), III 12 (ff. 17-28), IV (now three singletons, ff. 29-31). Horizontal catchwords at
right, scarcely visible.
Pricked and ruled in brown crayon for one column of 32 lines below top line, 180 x 83 mm.
Ruling types as far as visible 14 (quire II) and 15 (quire III); in quire III the last of the vertical
row of pricks is double, in quire II the fourth prick from the bottom is double and corresponds
with an additional horizontal through line.
The text is probably written by a single scribe in a rather irregular Gothica Textualis Libraria, the
marginal and interlinear commentaries in Gothica Cursiva Antiquior Currens (Anglicana).
Red plain initials and heightening of majuscules.
Binding: s. XIX, parchment over cardboard, far too large for the manuscript. The cover is an
English document s. XVIII (?), the text turned inside.
Thomas Phillipps, MS 31979 according to a note on the front pastedown and a label on the spine
(and the description in the Sotheby catalogue), but this number does not occur in the Phillipps
catalogue. Bought by Alan G. Thomas at the Sotheby sale, 30 November 1971. Purchased 18
April 1972 from Thomas on the Edwin J. Beinecke Fund.
Bibliography: Cora E. Lutz, "A Medieval Textbook", Gazette, 49 (1974), pp. 212-6 (repr. in Lutz,
Essays, pp. 41-45).
Albert Derolez
Updated 28.11.2007