Details

Form/Genre:

Codices.
Diagrams.
Tables (documents)
Treatises.
Volvelles.
World maps.
Alphabets (symbols)
Manuscripts, Latin -- 15th century.
Manuscripts, Hebrew -- 15th century.
Manuscripts, Medieval.
Manuscripts, Renaissance.

Language:

Latin, with a Hebrew alphabet and a few Hebrew words (f. 95v).

Summary:

Late 15th-century collection of Latin astronomical treatises and tables of the 12th through 14th centuries, illustrated with six volvelles and numerous diagrams. The Alphonsine tables have calculations added in the bottom margins for various cities, mostly in Germany, including Erfurt, Magdeburg, Leipzig, Mainz, Nuremberg, Paris, Prague, Regensburg, and Worms (f. 45v-51v), and a colophon dated 30 December 1481 (f. 61v). A leaf at the end of the volume has the Hebrew alphabet and a few Hebrew transliterations, including Magdeburg, carefully written parallel to the spine (f. 95v).

Contents:

1. f.1r-14v: Theorica planetarum / [Gherardo da Cremona]
2. f.15r-36v: [Sphaera mundi] / [Joannes de Sacro Bosco]
3. f.40r-61v: Tabulae illustris regis Alfonsii
4. f.63r-68v: [Astronomical tables]
5. f.69r-73v: [Canons for the Alphonsine tables]
6. f.75r-82r: Canones tabularum regis Alphonsii / [John of Saxony]
7. f.82r-84v: Correctorium tabularum Alphonsinarum
8. f.84v-87v: Canones eclipsium / magistri Iohannis Dankonis de Saxonia
9. f.87v-89r: [Treatise on solar eclipses]
10. f.89v-90v: Tabulae planetarum augentium ad annos Christi collectos
11. f.90v: Introitus solis in 12 signa anno Domini 1400
12. f.91r-94r: [Notes on the correction of the tables and canons]
13. f.95r: Tabula veri motus lunarium in una hora et in uno minuto diei
14. f.95v-96r: [Notes on the tables]

Notes:

Ms. codex.
Title supplied by cataloger.
Collation: Paper, i (modern paper) + 93 + i (modern paper) leaves; 1(8, -1) 2(8, -1) 3-6(6) 7(6, -1) 8-9(6) 10(6, -6) 11(6) 12(6, -6) 13(6) 14-15(8); modern foliation in pencil, 1-96, upper right recto (including numbered stubs, f. 39, 62, 74).
Layout: Texts written in two columns of a varying number of lines, except for Gherardo da Cremona's work, written in long lines (f. 2r-11r).
Script: Written in Gothic cursive script by multiple hands.
Decoration: Large climate zone world map in brown and red ink (f. 33v); numerous astronomical diagrams, many with colored wash; six volvelles (f. 1v, 13v, 19v, 25v, 35r, 35v; one small volvelle missing, f.20r); tables in red and brown ink; three-line initials alternating between red and blue, with a seven-line space left blank for the first initial, in the Theorica planetarum (f. 1r-14v) and one set of canons for the Alphonsine tables (f. 69r-74v); two-line initials in red in the Sphaera mundi (f. 15r-36v); two-line initials, underlining, and capitals touched in red in the canons of John of Saxony and following works (f. 75r-89r).
Binding: Modern flexible parchment with two pairs of leather ties, by Richard C. Baker (St. Louis, Missouri), 2008.
Origin: Written in Germany, circa 1481; one treatise is dated 30 December 1481 (fol. 36v).

Local notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Edward Potts Cheyney Memorial Fund.
Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Constance L. Rosenthal Book Fund.
Acquired with support from the B.H. Breslauer Foundation.

Penn Provenance:

Sold by Erik von Scherling, Rotulus I, 2 (April 1931), number 1161, to Charles D. Humberd (Barnard, Missouri).
Gift of Charles D. Humberd to Conception Abbey (Conception, Missouri).
Sold by Conception Abbey, 2017.

Cited in:

Listed in De Ricci, Seymour. Census of medieval and Renaissance manuscripts in the United States and Canada, v. 2 p. 1144, no. 6.
Listed in Faye, C. U., and Bond, W. H. Supplement to the Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada, p. 301, no. 6.

Publications about:

Brannon, James. "The Sphere of Anthony Ascham: sources for the earliest-known English-language cosmography based on Sacrobosco's De Sphaera." Centaurus 63 (2021): 353-80, at 373n103.
Malcolm, Aylin. "In the orbit of the sphere: Sacrobosco's De sphaera mundi in UPenn MS Codex 1881." Manuscript Studies: A Journal of the Schoenberg Institute for Manuscript Studies 5, no. 1 (2020): 181-202

Cited as:

UPenn Ms. Codex 1881.

Contributor:

Edward Potts Cheyney Memorial Fund.
Constance L. Rosenthal Book Fund.
Humberd, Charles D., 1897-1960, former owner.

Contains:

Gherardo, da Cremona, 1113 or 1114-1187. Theorica planetarum.
Sacro Bosco, Joannes de, active 1230. Sphaera mundi.
John, of Saxony, active 1327-1355. Canons.
Alphonsine Tables.

OCLC:

1017938709

Web link:

The Edward Potts Cheyney Memorial Fund Home Page

The Constance L. Rosenthal Book Fund Home Page

Access Restriction:

Access to this item is subject to staff review.