Details

Standardized Title:

Circa instans

Subjects:

Materia medica, Vegetable -- Early works to 1800.
Materia medica, Vegetable.
Medicinal plants -- Early works to 1800.
Medicinal plants.
Medicine -- Early works to 1800.
Medicine.
Medicine, Medieval.

Form/Genre:

Codices.
Treatises.
Manuscripts, Latin.
Manuscripts, Medieval.
Manuscripts, Renaissance.

Language:

Latin.

Summary:

Medical compendium of or treatise on simples (medicines made from one component, mostly botanical), with notes on their preparation and properties, grouped by first letter, but not arranged alphabetically within each letter group. A list of the herbs starting with a given letter appears at the beginning of each letter section. Occasional marginal notes and corrections, often slightly trimmed.

Notes:

Ms. codex.
Title from spine.
Collation: Parchment, i (18th-century paper) + 74 + i (18th-century paper); 1-3¹⁰ 4⁸ 5-6¹⁰ 7⁸ 8¹⁰(-2); gatherings 3-7 signed III-VII, signatures of gatherings 1-2 cropped, lower center of last verso. Last gathering misbound, so leaves appear in order 1, 4, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 9, 7, 10, with only stubs remaining from leaves 8 and 9.
Layout: Written in 2 columns of 32-35 lines; frame-ruled in ink. Prickings visible.
Script: Written in Gothic textura script by a single hand.
Decoration: 1 5-line and 1 6-line puzzle initial in red and blue with penwork infill and extensions in red and turquoise (f. 1r, 2r); 17 2-, 3-, and 6-line initials in blue with red flourishing or red with turquoise flourishing (f. 14r, 17r, 28r, 30v, 34v, 36v, 40r (6-line), 41v, 45v, 53r, 54v, 57r (6-line), 61r, 64v, 68v, 71v, 72r); many 1-, 2-, and 3-line initials in either red or blue; red and blue paragraph marks; rubrication in red, once in blue (f. 46v). Guide initials usually visible, text for rubrics often visible in margins, frequently trimmed.
Binding: 18th-century calf, gilt spine; paste paper doublures.
Origin: Written in southern Germany or Austria, ca. 1400.

Local notes:

Lawrence J. Schoenberg & Barbara Brizdle Manuscript Initiative.

Penn Provenance:

Formerly owned by Pangracius Chrewczer and his son Cristoferus Chrewczer (written Chrewczuar in inscription), both professors of medicine (late 14th- or 15th-century inscription, f. 1r; exact match of the inscription in another late 14th/early 15th-century medical manuscript at the Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Göttingen, Acc. Ms. 1969.4)
Formerly owned by the Caesareum Societatis Jesu Collegium Viennense (Jesuit college in Vienna), 1773.
Sold at auction as part of the Schönborn-Buchheim library at Reiss & Auvermann (Königstein), 12 Oct. 1993, lot 437.
Sold by Sam Fogg Ltd. (London) to Lawrence J. Schoenberg, June 2002.
Gift of Lawrence J. Schoenberg and Barbara Brizdle, 2013.

Cited in:

Described in Transformation of knowledge: early manuscripts from the collection of Lawrence J. Schoenberg (London: Paul Holberton, 2006), p. 91 (LJS 437).

Cited as:

UPenn LJS 437

Contributor:

Chrewczer, Pangracius, former owner.
Chrewczer, Cristoferus, former owner.
Schoenberg, Lawrence J., former owner.
Caesareum Societatis Jesu Collegium Viennense, former owner.
Lawrence J. Schoenberg Collection (University of Pennsylvania)

OCLC:

805159341

Web link:

The Lawrence J. Schoenberg and Barbara Brizdle Manuscript Initiative Fund Home Page