De Consolatione Philosophie / Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius.

Extent:

48 leaves : parchment, illustrations ; 165-185 x 110 (140-145 x 75-95) mm bound to 190 x 120 mm.

Date:

Language:

Author:

Abstract:

Philosophical/religious work by Boethius. Contains other short treatises on philosophical and theological topics.

Contents:

1. fol. 1r-37v: Phylosophice Consolationis / Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius.
2. fol. 38r-38v, 40v: [De septem gradibus consanguinitatis]. Attributed to Isidore of Seville in some manuscripts. Illustration (fol. 40v).
3. fol. 37v, 38v-40r: [Commentary on De consolatione philosophiae (book 3, metrum 9)] / [Pseudo-Johannes Scotus Erigena]. Illustration (fol. 40v).
4. fol. 41r-48v: [Florilegium of theological readings]
5. fol. 48v: De VII liberalibus artibus / [Alain de Lille]. Includes verses on grammar, dialectic, rhetoric, arithmetic, music, and geometry, but omits the final verse on astronomy.

Description:

Incipit: “Anicii Manlii Severini Ordinarii Boethii Exconsularis Patr[i]cii Phylosophice Consolationis Liber I Incipit. Carmina qui quondam studio florente peregi | Flebilis heu mestos cogor inire modos…”
Explicit: “Magna uobis est si dissimulare non uultis necessitas indicta probitatis, cum ante oculos agitis iudicis cuncta cernentis. Amen. Anicii Manlii Severini Boecii Exconsulibus Ordinarii Patricii De Consolatione Philosophie Liber V. Explicit”
Ms. composite codex.
Title from explicit (fol. 37v).
Collation: Parchment ; fol. 48 + ii (paper) ; modern foliation in pencil.
Layout: 38-45 lines per page ; verse in two columns.
Description: Two booklets brought together (fol. 1-40; 41-48) ; first section written in late Carolingian miniscule ; second section written in late Protogothic.
Decoration: Two decorated brown Romanesque pen-drawn initials and several plain Romanesque initials. Each of the five books opens with a multi-line initial; book 1 opens with the most elaborate (10-line initial C with two beasts entwined eating foliage).
Origin: Booklet I was produced in France in a Cistercian house in the second half of the 12th century.

Binding note:

France(?), late 18th or early 19th century. Brown calf over pasteboard, gilt stamped borders around perimeter and along edges and turn-ins of both upper and lower covers. Gilt-stamped floral designs along spine. Blue and pink marbled paper pastedowns. Pink silk bookmark.
France (?), late 18th century or early 19th century. Brown calf over pasteboard, gilt stamped borders around perimeter and along edges and turn-ins of both upper and lower covers.

Provenance:

Both booklets belonged to a Cistercian house, as evidenced by an ex libris dating to the turn of the 13th century on fol. 40v ("Liber sancte marie cystercii"). Intermediate provenance unknown. Was sold with the library of Joseph-Jean-Pascal Gay in 1833. Robert Garrett purchased the manuscript on 26 March 1925 from the New York bookseller Wilfrid M. Voynich (1865-1930). His gift to the Princeton University Library, 1942.

Source acquisition:

Former owner:

Contributor:

References:

Medieval & Renaissance manuscripts in the Princeton University Library, volume 1, pages 261-263.

Alternative:

View in catalog: