Beinecke MS 597
Italy, s. XIII 1
Geoffrey of Vinsauf, Poetria nova

ff. 1r-45r		Papa stupor mundi, si dixero Papa Nocenti, / Azephalum nomen tribuam 
tibi, si caput addam ... Sed, licet omnis apes tibi crescat honoris honore, / Crescere non poteris, 
quantum de iure mereris. Deo gracias. Amen. Finito libro sit laus et gloria Christo. Qui scripsit 
scribat semper cum Domino nostro Ihesu vadat im paradissum. [signature]. Ego Bertolameus 
Iohannis May Burgi Sancti Andree notarius scripsi. Gloria Christo detur libri quia Christus 
habetur.  Nos cum prole pia benedicat virgo Maria.	ff. 45v-46v blank

Geoffrey of Vinsauf (Galfredus de Vino Salvo, d. c. 1220), Poetria nova, composed 1208-1213. 
E. Faral, ed., Les arts poetiques du XIIe et du XIIIe siecle. Bibliotheque de l'Ecole des Hautes 
Etudes. Sciences historiques et philologiques, v. 238 (Paris, 1924), pp. 197-262. With interlinear 
and marginal glosses. The headings for the different sections of the work are often missing. The 
first actually written ones are (the number of the next verse between parentheses): De invencione 
ac ordine tractandi materie (43), Exornatio materie per verba et sentencias (60), Quando 
artificiale principium sumitur a medio (126), Quando sumitur proverbium vel exemplum tribus 
modis (134), Sumitur proverbium tripliciter iuxta principium, medium et finem (142). On f. 2v 
lines 6-12 (verses 80-86: "Est opere prime, quo limite debeat ordo ... Vultus et gestus gemino 
condita sapore") are written on erasure. These verses are missing in several manuscripts.
 

Parchment, ff. II (paper) + 46 + II (paper), 220 x 170 mm. Low quality parchment, irregular 
lower and sometimes outer edges, holes, repairs. The outer side of the quires is flesh side.

I-V 8 (ff. 1-40), VI 6 (ff. 41-46). Horizontal catchwords in the middle, close to the lower edge, in 
a rectangular frame.

Pricked in the top, outer and lower margins for one column of 25 lines above top line (26 lines in 
quire VI). Lead ruling almost invisible, type 31, c.163x  c. 90 mm. (c. 173 x c. 100 mm.in quires 
V-VI). 

Copied by three scribes, all writing Southern Gothica Textualis Libraria: hand A copied f. 1r in 
typical Italian Rotunda; hand B copied ff 1v-32v; hand C (Bartolommeo di Giovanni Mai 
[Bartholomaeus Iohannis Mai]) copied ff. 33r-45r. The colophon, with the exception of the two 
final invocations, is written by him in a more fanciful and cursive handwriting. The invocations 
are in contemporary Southern Gothica Textualis Libraria/Formata. The glosses are by various 
hands (ff. 24v-26r are heavily annotated in small Gothica Cursiva Libraria). 

Red headings, paragraph marks and heightening of the majuscules. 2-line flourished initials 
alternately in red with blue penwork and in blue with red penwork (fishes are drawn in the initial 
on f. 2r, a face in the initial on f. 28r). A large littera duplex in the same colours (damaged) on f. 
1r. The decoration of quires V-VI (scribe C) is more crude and uses no blue. Clumsy marginal 
drawings: a pointing hand (f. 1v), a man committing suicide (?, f. 16r), a standing man, erased (f. 
26v), foliage in blue and red ink (f. 29v).

Binding s. XVIII: brown and green marbled leather over cardboard, with gold-tooled frame on 
both covers. Gold-tooled spine with five raised bands and inscriptions: "IACOB DE LVES (?) 
RHETO METR" on a red leather label and "IN MEMB" on a blue leather label. Marbled 
endpapers.

The Borgo Sant'Andrea where the scribe Bartolommeo di Giovanni Mai was a notary is not 
identified. On f. 45r, between the colophon and the final invocations, in contemporary hands: 
"Ista pe", "Ista poetria est Bonzoan (?) de sancta Lu**", the name crossed out and replaced by 
"Mathei de Luc", "legit (?) aput magistrum etc."; "Ista poetria  est (the name erased and replaced 
by) Iacobi de Luc. ****". On ff. 45v-46v pen-trials by different hands: "Nullus amor durat nisi 
fructus servet amorem" (with variants; Walther, Proverbia, v. 3, p. 467, no. 19060); "die Iovis", 
"mors";  twice the "SATOR AREPO" grid; "poietria Gualfredi"; "Iste liber /////////////////// vado ad 
scolas venerabilium magistrorum et sapientium, magistri Gaspari ac Simonis ///// gramatice loyce 
rethorice"; "Nunc dimittis servum tuum, Domine"  (Luke 2:29); "rex sprex fecx"; etc.
Sale Hoepli, Zuerich, 27-28 Nov. 1930, lot 47; see Colophons, 1789. Collection of Norman 
Holmes Pearson, Yale 1932 (MS 274). Bequest of Norman Holmes Pearson, 1976.

Albert Derolez

R 05.06.08