Beinecke MS 574
Germany, s. XIV/XV??
Iohannes de Sacrobosco, De sphaera, German tr. by Konrad von Megenberg

1. f. 1r	 Fliuezz in mich aller genauden kunst / So naigt sich meiner
minnen prunst /  Zemaul in 
goettliches wesen. / Darumb muost ich schriben und lesen /  Wie sich Gottes majestaut / Setz in 
seiner Trinitaut ...  In lattein ist ez gesessen, / So wil ich ez ze tuesch
auzmessen /  Den man 
dem ich gepunden bin, / Vermoecht so vil mein mut mein sin.

Second Prologue to art. 2 (74 verses), ed. Brevart, pp. 2-5.

2. ff. 1v-11v	[Survey of Contents:] [D]az kurtz buch von der gestalt der welt teil wir in vier 
hauptstuck. In dem ersten well wir sagen waz spera oder ain rundengroz sei, waz der rundengroz 
gemain mittelpunc sey, waz der rundengrozz achs sei, waz der himelspitz sei
... [Text:]  
Euclides der maister beschreibt uns waz spera sey ...[last lines ver faded, with loss of text:] 
entweder Got der maister der naturen leydet, oder daz ganz werk der werld endschluist [sich] 
und wil vallen. Herre vater Ihesu Crist durch [den selben unschuldigen tod]
erloez uns von allem 
[uebel und beschirm uns vor] dem ewigen tod. Amen.

Konrad von Megenberg (1309-1374), Die deutsche Sphaera, an adaptation in German of 
Iohannes de Sacrobosco, De sphaera. F.B. Brevart, ed., Altdeutsche Textbibliothek, v. 90 
(Tuebingen, 1980), pp. 6-61. On the author, see Verfasserlexikon, v. 5 (1985), 221-236.

3. f. 11v	 Nota bene. Possidet A numero quingentos ordine recto, / Trecentos quoque B 
per se retinere videtur; / Non plus quam centum C littera fertur habere, / Littera D velud A 
quingentos significabit ... Y dat centenos et quinquaginta tenendos, / Ultima Z canit finem, bis 
mille tenebit.

23 verses dealing with the numerical value of the letters of the alphabet,  Walther, Initia 14298. 
Walther does not mention an author, but they are said to be excerpted from Hugutio of Pisa (d. 
1212), Liber derivationum.


Paper, ff. I + 11, 290 x 205 mm. 

I 12 (-1).

Frame-ruling with lead (almost invisible) for two columns of c. 45-50 lines (c. 245 x c. 180 mm.).

Copied by one hand in Gothica Cursiva Libraria/Currens. Art. 3 is of a more careful execution.

The initials are not executed. Coarsely drawn diagrams; the principal ones are on ff. 2r (Earth in 
the middle of the circles of the elements, the planets and the heavens), 9v (a quadripartite circular 
map of the world, three quarters covered with sea and inhabited by fish), 10v (a circular diagram 
and another with "cauda Draconis" and "caput Draconis"), 11r (two diagrams showing eclipses), 
11v (related diagrams).

Yellow limp vellum binding too large for the present manuscript. 
On f. 10v we read in another, contemporary hand close to a diagram "1420", probably a date. 
Henry C. Taylor Collection. Bequest of Henry C. Taylor, 1971. 

Albert Derolez

Updated 30.11.2007