Huguccio of Pisa, Liber derivationum; England, s. xiv1

Title

Huguccio of Pisa, Liber derivationum; England, s. xiv1

Shelfmark

Exeter College MS. 42

Place of origin

England

Date

s. xiv1

Language

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

parchment FHHF

Physical extent

206 leaves, preceded and followed by one 18th-century paper flyleaf.

Hands

A, gothic rotunda script of average quality, punctuated by medial point.

B, a rather rough gothic bookhand, semiquadrata or rotunda, punctuated by medial point and occasional double virgula.

Decoration

Eleven fine illuminated initials, mostly inhabited or historiated, with page-length marginal extenders. At least one is presumably lost with the first leaf of item 2 but all others survive. Although the style is a little unsophisticated the execution is very good and the decoration makes much effect by the use of bold colours, usually on a dark blue or occasionally crimson background delicately traced with white. Some of the subjects can be identified as having a connection with the text, others seem to have none. The subjects are (fol. 18r) ch. B in‘Baburra’, a seated teacher seemingly counting things off on his fingers; (fol. 24r) ch. C in ‘Cachinnor’, a jester; (fol. 48r) ch. D in ‘Dauir siue dabir oraculum Dei’, a seated figure ?writing on a scroll; (fol. 57v) ch. E in ‘Ebron ciuitas’, a tonsured figure seated on a ?throne, perhaps one of the three patriarchs referred to; (fol. 64v) ch. F in ‘Facio’, Mary, seated and crowned, a sceptre in right hand and a scroll in left hand with ‘Aue Maria’ on it; (fol. 82v) ch. G in ‘Gabriel’, an archangel; (fol. 97r), ch. I in ‘Ia. Est’, an abstract design with a spear-bearing figure seated on the top; (fol. 114v) ch. M in ‘Mach[i]na’, an abstract design; (fol. 131r) ch. N in ‘Nablum uel Nablath’, a seated figure apparently instructing or admonishing but without the musical symbols the text might suggest; (fol. 137v) ch. O in ‘Obelus’, a roosting bird of prey; (fol. 161r), ch. Q in ‘Quatuor’, a grotesque with a tail and a human face. In the margins of fols. 64v and 161r are crayon drafts of the completed initials.

Otherwise decoration consists of red and blue lombards flourished in the other colour, red and blue paraphs, and underlining of lemmata. Alexander and Temple, no. 279; pl. xviii no. 279 reproduces F and detail of border fol. 64v.

Binding

Sewn on five bands. Standard Exeter binding: simple and quite elegant, calf over millboards, the calf bearing blind decoration of a floral type, early 19th century. On the spine is a red leather label with the title in gold. Endbands were perhaps originally blue and yellow.

Provenance

Unknown. Recorded at Exeter c. 1600 as Ecloga, no. 7. Not in CMA.

Exeter library identifications are, on the front pastedown: ‘P8–11 Gall’ (deleted); ‘173–H–7’, ‘Ex: Coll: Oxon’ and ‘Coxe Cat. XLII’. On the spine is a round paper label with ‘7’ on it.