Details

Standardized Title:

Dicta philosophorum. French

Subjects:

Hermetic philosophers.
Philosophy -- Quotations, maxims, etc. -- Early works to 1800.
Philosophy.
Cardinal virtues -- Early works to 1800.
Cardinal virtues.

Form/Genre:

Codices.
Aphorisms.
Maxims.
Manuscripts, French.
Manuscripts, Medieval.
Manuscripts, Renaissance.

Language:

Middle French.

Summary:

French translation by Guillaume de Tignonville of the Latin translation of an 11th-century Arabic work containing aphorisms or maxims from genuine or spurious works of 22 philosophers and poets, including Hermetic maxims, followed by Jean Courtecuisse's French translation of a Latin work on the cardinal virtues by Martin of Braga but attributed to Seneca, printed in 1491.

Contents:

1. f.1r-93v: [Dits moraux des philosophes]
2. f.93v-100r: Les commandemens de Seneque.

Notes:

Ms. codex.
Title from 18th-century note (flyleaf v verso).
Foliation: Parchment, v (modern paper) + 100 + iii (modern paper); 1-100; contemporary foliation in ink, upper right recto, mostly trimmed away; modern foliation in pencil, upper right recto.
Layout: Written in 2 columns of 29 lines; ruled in lead.
Script: Written in bâtarde script.
Decoration: 4-line initials in blue and gold with red and blue filigree (f. 1r, 3r); paragraph marks and subsequent 2-line initials alternate between gold with blue filigree and blue with red filigree.
Binding: 19th-century stamped calf (Zacour-Hirsch).
Origin: Written in France in the 15th century (Zacour-Hirsch).

Penn Provenance:

According to the 18th-century note (flyleaf v verso), signed "Muraire," the volume was sold "chez le Duc de la Valliere" in 1788 (Zacour-Hirsch).
Gift of Lessing J. Rosenwald, 1959.

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. 60 (Ms. French 33).

Cited as:

UPenn Ms. Codex 941

Contributor:

Guillaume, de Tignonville, -1414, translator.
Courtecuisse, Jean, -1423, translator.
Seneca, Lucius Annaeus, approximately 4 B.C.-65 A.D. attributed name.

Contains:

Martin, of Braga, Saint, approximately 515-579 or 580. Formula vitae honestae.
Commandemens de Seneque.

OCLC:

155925553