Details

Standardized Title:

Livre de Sydrac

Subjects:

Philosophy, Medieval.
Science, Medieval.
Materia medica, Vegetable -- Early works to 1800.
Materia medica, Vegetable.

Form/Genre:

Codices.
Dialogues.
Romances (medieval narratives)
Manuscripts, French.
Manuscripts, Renaissance.

Language:

Middle French.

Summary:

Encyclopedic and didactic dialogue on natural philosophy in the form of a series of questions and answers, often classified as a romance. The philosopher Sidrac responds to the questions of Boctus (or Boccus or Bocchus), an Eastern king. Another subject of the dialogue is the therapeutic properties of plants. A table of contents at the beginning of the manuscript (f. 3r-20v) lists the questions.

Notes:

Ms. codex.
Title supplied by cataloger (Zacour-Hirsch).
Foliation: Paper, ii (modern paper) + 218 + ii (modern paper); [1-218]; modern foliation in pencil, lower right recto.
Layout: Written in 32 long lines.
Script: Written in a cursive script.
Decoration: 7-line puzzle initial in black and red (f. 21r); 2- and 3-line initials in red throughout; rubrics in red; capitals touched with yellow.
Binding: 15th century blind-stamped calf, repaired and rebacked.
Origin: Written in France in 1457 (f. 1r).
Incomplete at the end, 2 or more leaves missing.
Wormholes in text, water-stained.

Penn Provenance:

Sold by Il Polifilo (Milan), cat. 21 (1952), no. 93.

Cited in:

Described in Zacour, Norman P. and Hirsch, Rudolf. Catalogue of Manuscripts in the Libraries of the University of Pennsylvania to 1800 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1965), p. 58 (Ms. French 23).

Cited as:

UPenn Ms. Codex 912

OCLC:

155925191