Details

Standardized Title:

Naturae constantia

Subjects:

Boethius, -524. De consolatione philosophiae.
Science -- Early works to 1800.
Science.
Literature and science -- Germany.
Literature and science.
Germany.

Form/Genre:

Codices.
Annotations.
Treatises.
Manuscripts, Latin.
Manuscripts, European.

Language:

Latin; some words in Greek (as on f. 12r, 49r); French lines of verse (f. 47v).

Summary:

Manuscript copy of printed version published in Amsterdam in 1632; it was also translated into English in 1657 by J. Rowland under the title An history of the constancy of nature. Jonston argues against the idea of a decline in nature, drawing from many and varied sources. Marginalia include references to authors including Seneca, Tacitus, Pliny the Younger, Aristotle, Boethius, Suetonius, Cicero, Livy, Herodotus, Joannes Barclaius, Jean Bodin, and Erasmus, as well as various verses from the Bible, mostly from the Old Testament. Within the text itself, more famous names appear, such as Copernicus, Brahe, Kepler, Melanchthon, Euripides, Homer, Vergil, Epictetus, the Gracchi, Pompey the Great, Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, John the Evangelist, Cleopatra, Francis I of France, and the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. The work is introduced by two quotes, one from book of Pliny the Younger's letter to Caninius (6.21), the other from book 3.55 of Tacitus's Annals. Within the text are numerous quotes from Boethius, lines 585-591 of book six of Vergil's Aeneid, and a poem, Regiarum rationum apud Parisios patroni epigrammatum libro primo, by Stephanus Paschasius.

Notes:

Ms. codex.
Title from title page (f. 1r).
Collation: Paper, i + 166; modern pencil foliation, upper right recto, 1-116 (remaining leaves blank and unnumbered).
Layout: Written in 20 long lines; left margin on each page defined in drypoint and includes annotations.
Script: Written in a cursive script by Wolfgang von Popschitz.
Binding: Contemporary half parchment.
Origin: Written in Germany in 1663 (note, inside upper cover).

Penn Provenance:

Formerly owned by Christoph Wentzel Graf von Nostitz (armorial bookplate, inside upper cover, and reference number 22 on spine).
Sold by Ludwig Rosenthal (Hilversum, Holland), 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. 31 (Ms. Latin 135).

Cited as:

UPenn Ms. Codex 1181

Contributor:

Nostitz, Christoph Wentzel, Graf von, 1648-1712, former owner.
Popschitz, Wolfgang von, scribe.

OCLC:

228826724