| Description | Manuscript volume, dated 1453-4, containing the entitled 'Florens Rosa', comprising tracts on art; a treatise apparently based on Petrus Hispanus's 'Summulae logicales', with herbal recipes; a guide to letter-writing. Written by students at Zerbst, near Magdeburg, one of whom is possibly named Julian Oswelt.
Contents are as follows:
1. fols. 2-197v: Tract entitled 'Florens rosa'. Ex quo presens liber est loycalis ideo primo queritur quid sit loyca … (fol. 6) Proposicio est oracio …gloriosus et Benedictus deus in secula seculorum amen. Et est finis huius paruuli loyce per me Iulianum Osuelt scriptum in Zerbst tunc temporis scolatizantem(?) ibidem. Sub annis domini 1454. Heu male finiui scripsi sine minibus ipsum. Ker identifies this as a commentary on item 2, divided into seven tractates (3, fol. 02v; 5, fol. 131; 6, fol. 143v; 7, fol. 176), fol. 198r-v blank, apart from a diagram in another, probably contemporary, hand. This diagram appears to correspond to the fold-out diagram tipped in at fol. 211.
2. fols. 199-250. Proposicio est oracio uere uel false significans iudicando ut homo currit … poterunt require supra etc. Finito libro sit laus deo Sub annis domini 1454. Ker identifies this as a treatise based on Petrus Hispanus, Summulae logicales (ed. I. M. Bochenski, 1947, etc) but shorter and in a different order. Interlinear glosses throughout.
2*. Fol. 250v. A page of herbal recipes in another hand written vertically in a single column.
3. fols. 252-269v. Alphorabius in libro de recommendacione scienciarum pro recommendacione rethoricalis sciencie sicut inquit Hec est perspicua … nec non fautori speciali N. talis ciuitatis. Finito libro sit laus deo Sub annis domini etc. l3* In die agate hora 5ta post meridiem etc. Ker identifies this as a guide to letter writing in two parts, the first concerned with salutation, exordium, and narration, and the second (fol. 265) with petition, conclusion, and valediction, and with modes of address under 23 heads, Papa-Socio. Letters to and from a Pope Urban are provided under Salutatio. Fols. 270-272v were left blank.
Paper, 157 x 108 mm. Written space c. 125 x c. 80 mm. 10 or 11 widely spaced lines in item 2; c. 22 lines in item 3; c. 31-33 lines in item 1. Ruling with vertical bounding lines only. Collation: 1-2(12), 3(18) wants 18, blank, after fol. 41, 4-17 (12), 18 (12) + 1 leaf inserted before 1 (fol. 251), 22(12), 23(12) wants 7, 9, 10, blanks: 12, fol. 272, pasted down.
Written in a current and at times difficult cursiva by 3, possibly 4, scribes. Initials are in red with ornament in red and in the ink of the text. Capital letters in the ink of the text are sometimes tipped with red. Parchment binding over wooden boards with a central metal clasp. |
| CustodialHistory | Part of the library of Charles Kay Ogden (1889-1957), linguistic psychologist, founder of the Orthological Institute and originator of the language system Basic English, whose interests in language systems are reflected in the subject matter of his collection, which comprised individual manuscripts and manuscript collections dating from the 14th to the 20th century. |