John of Seville, Epistola Aristotelis ad Alexandrum de regimine sanitatis (recension of Thomas of Cantimpré); Thomas of Cantimpré, de lapidibus; Annals, 413-1553. Germany, c. 1535

Title

John of Seville, Epistola Aristotelis ad Alexandrum de regimine sanitatis (recension of Thomas of Cantimpré); Thomas of Cantimpré, de lapidibus; Annals, 413-1553. Germany, c. 1535

Shelfmark

MS. Douce 85

Date

c. 1535, probably 1533 or soon after

Language

Latin

Contents

Form

codex

Support

Paper. The watermark is a shield with a saint's head, cf. Piccard Online 21061 (WZIS), Wrocław, 1532

Physical extent

i (modern paper) + ii (old paper) + 72 + ii (old paper) + i (modern paper); fols. 1v, 19v, 28v, 32br–32dv, 43ar–43bv, 43dv, 45v–46cv, 62r–63r, 64r–66v are blank

Hands

Cursive, written by Sebald Adloff of Wrocław (Breslau). Rubrics in blue and red.

Decoration

Most of the decoration consists of coloured woodcuts, within or around which inscriptions have been added: (fol. 1r) A woodcut of a man holding a blank cartouche, in which is handwritten: ‘Excellentissimo clarissimoue viro domino Christofero Schwerlero pontificii ac cesarii juris doctori etc. Hoc Aristotelis Sanitatis regimen etc. offert in amorisque pignus dat verissim.’ Below is written: ‘Sebaldus Adloff: natione Wratislavia non quidem posthabendus familiarium’. (fol. 2r) A woodcut of a scholar holding an open book, with astrolabe, sun, moon, and stars in the background, and frame incorporating the initials SWA; to which is added two inscriptions: ‘Libellulus huius condonatorum physionomiam intuere observaque’ and in red: ‘Amandius precipue amans’ (fol. 16v) A woodcut depicting a man displaying an image of three male heads, another man lying on the floor in the foreground; in a cartouche above is written ‘Sapientie et stulticie pictura’ and in the margin below is a four-line inscription, ‘Aequalitas servanda omni in re … Christianismus exoptat’. (fol. 17r) A small woodcut of two naked boys holding a cartouche, in which is inscribed Ecclesiasticus 30:14 (‘Melius est pauper sanus et fortis …’). Below is ‘Hec sic de bona sanitatis regimine satis superque satis’ and in red, ‘Sequitur nunc huius fit libelluli datorum monogrammos maius’. (fol. 17v) A woodcut depicting a large fish with a mast and sail on its back, the sail with the initials ‘S’ and ‘WA’ in monogram, at the top a cartouche in which is written ‘Monogrammatis litteralis significatio hec est’, in the lower margin is ‘S.A.W.’ and ‘Domine deus pater celestis. Non differas periclitanti auxilium oportunum Nam omnis fiducia mea in te est’. (fols. 19r, 28r) A woodcut wreath enclosing the initials ‘C S’. (fols. 27v, 63v) A woodcut of a wreath with initials ‘S AW’ (as on fols. 17v).

Coloured drawings: (fol. 2v) Hand-drawn painted arms (gules, a griffin? argent), above the inscription: ‘Elucet hic magnifica predecessorum moderneque cum hoc Schwerlenorii genealogie virtus preeminentiave’. A pair of facing coloured drawings: (fol. 31v) The of Arms of the city of Wrocław, as approved by Emperor Charles V in 1530 (fol. 32ar) Mercury (a man with winged headgear and feet) holding a cartouche with an inscription: ‘Felicia Wratislaviensis Regalis Mercurialisue civitatis intuere hec insignia Anno Christi 1530 Imperiali auctoritate locupletata et adaucta’

Diagrams, fols. 11v, 15r, 18r, see above.

Binding

Bound in pasteboards with cloth spine, formerly covered with part of a 16th-century German heraldic MS., which has been removed and is now MS. Douce d. 5, fols. 7–9 (S.C. 21982); offsets of armorials are visible on the covers and inside the front cover. The old flyleaves repurposed from leaves of another book folded in half and turned sideways, so that their old folio numbers, 175 and 176 in ink, are now aligned vertically at the fore-edge.

Acquisition

Bequeathed to the Bodleian in 1834

Provenance

Written by Sebald Adloff for Christoph Schwerler. Adloff’s name (fol. 1r) and initials ‘SWA’ (fol. 2r, 17v, 27v, 61v, 63v) appear several times, as does the name (fol. 1r 2v) and initials (fols. 19r, 28r) of the dedicatee; Adloff also wrote ‘De inventoribus astronomiae’, c.1521 (now Vatican, MS Reg. Lat. MS 1309), and a 13-leaf letter to Anton Fugger (see E. Wunderle, Die mittelalterlichen Handschriften der Studienbibliothek Dillingen (Wiesbaden, 2006), MS XV 62, at pp. 124–26).

Hans Albrecht von Derschau (1755–1824) collector of woodcuts and other prints: Verzeichniß der seltenen Kunst-Sammlungen … des K. Preuß. Hauptmanns Herrn Hans Albrecht von Derschau, III: Manuscripte und Bücher (Nuremberg, 1825), p. 11 no. 67 (‘Mit mehreren kleinen Tractaten von der nämlichen Hand, einem gemalten Portrait und dergleichen Wappen. 168 Bl.’).

19th-century English bookseller’s price-code and price in pencil, apparently using the Greek alphabet for the code, ‘Ο-ο/δ £1–1–’ ([fol. 165r])

Francis Douce, 1757–1834, with his bookplate (fol. ib verso)

Title

Treatises copied or composed by Sebaldus Adloff of Breslau (Wratislavia)

Shelfmark

MS. Douce 85

Summary

Treatises are:

medical (including the Secretum Secretorum. attributed to Aristotle, fol. 7)

on the virtues of stones ('de Lapidum sculpturis secundum quendam Techel philozophum Iudeorum', fol. 23)

historical (Roman emperors, 1313-1533, fol. 29: kings and dukes of Bohemia and Poland, 1001-1533, 967-1519, fols. 33, 43c)

miscellanea, (421-1533, fol. 46d).

These are pp. 144-214 of a larger volume, and are interspersed with curious engravings of and by the writer, often with his monogram S. A. W.: there are also two large folded diagrams.

Date

written in about 1530-1540 by S. Adloff

Language

Latin

Physical facet

On paper

Physical extent

73 Leaves