278. London, British Library, Harley 6258B "Herbarium Pseudo-Apulei," "Medicina de quadrupedibus," "Peri didaxeon," etc.

Abstract

278. London, British Library, Harley 6258B
"Herbarium Pseudo-Apulei," "Medicina de quadrupedibus," "Peri didaxeon," etc.
[No Ker or Gneuss numbers; cf. Ker Cat.,xix]
HISTORY: Not known.
DESCRIPTION: A fragmentary small-format late 12c copy in OE of the enlarged Pseudo-Apuleian "Herbarium" and "Medicina de quadrupedibus" (OE versions preserved also in Harley 585, Cotton Vitellius C. iii, and Bodleian Library, Hatton 76) and the "Peri didaxeon." The entire manuscript appears to be written by the same hand. Titles in red, most nearly illegible now. Titles (circled) and some glosses have been added in margins, probably by the original scribe. Initials in black minuscules in margins, probably by the original scribe; corresponding red capitals, probably added. Indexical letters run at the tops of pages and occasionally beside the text from "A" (f. 1) to "X" (f. 44), corresponding to the alphabetical arrangement of the "Herbarium" in this manuscript, of which many chapters are missing, omitted, or abbreviated (see de Vriend 1984: xxxiv-xxxvi). "Peri Didaxeon," of which Harley 6258B is the only known copy, is a translation of selected and rearranged parts of the Practica of Petrocellus, compiled about 1035 from earlier, pre-Salernitanian materia medica; since Talbot (1965) has shown that much of this same material was also used in British Library, Royal 12. D. xvii, "Bald's Leechbook" (mid 10c), doubt exists about the very late date (12c) traditionally ascribed to the composition of "Peri didaxeon" (see Voigts 1979: 250).

[Note: Ker excluded this manuscript because he considered it later than 1200 on the strength of the shape of "biting d" before o and e and the stroke through the et-nota, but mainly on the "small ill-formed" nature of the script, although he allowed that these features are found in pre-1200 manuscripts. But the language is clearly Late W-S, with some simplifications of æ to a, eo to o, etc., and leveling of inflections, such as would be expected of a late transcript of an OE text; but the OE forms predominate (see de Vriend 1984: lxxv--lxxviii; Bierbaumer 1976: xi-xii) and the texts are clearly transmitted from OE exemplars. Writing is late 12c pointed Insular minuscule with some Caroline features, possibly before 1200 (de Vriend 1984: xxx).]

CODICOLOGICAL DESCRIPTION: [v] + 66 + [v] (fly- and end.leaves modern paper). Entitled "A Saxon Herball" above the Harley pressmark on f. lr. Old foliation runs from ff. 31-39, 54-98. Nine burnt fragments in paper frames "recovered" from the Cotton collection in the mid-19c (see Cockayne 1864-1866: 1.lxxxv) have been bound in as ff. 11-19 in the more recent foliation (the small fragment "f. 5" is actually part of f. 19, upper outer corner). The older foliation shows that thirty leaves are missing (the "Herbarium" is lacking the usual titles and capitula, but perhaps this alphabetical version never had them).
Average overall size is 185 x 143 mm., with a writing area of approximately 148 x 100 mm. Leaves are ruled (unpricked) in pencil on flesh side, with a range of 21 to 31 lines, many for 29 lines. Most leaves have double bounding verticals on outer and inner sides. Writing quality is poor and does not carefully follow the rulings. Quality of parchment is tough and smooth, but the individual sheets are generally of poor quality with many holes and irregularities (e.g., ff. 6, 34, 46). Much of the original book seems to have been made up of scraps of rejected parchment (cf. Meaney 1984: 253-54): many of the foliated leaves are in fact merely undersized slips written on only one side, pasted to parchment tags, specifically: f. 4 (132 x 76 mm.), f. 6 (lower corner irregular), f. 9 (120 x 60 mm. up to 94 mm.), f. 21 (130 x 60 mm.), f. 22 (114 x 27 mm.), f. 29 (bound in sheet with most of the leaf cut away, 55 mm. at greatest height), f. 30 (132 x 60-64 mm.), f. 33 (height 97 mm.), f. 35 (height 64 mm.), f. 41 (122 x 38 to 83 mm.). The burnt leaves ff. 16, 17, 18 were also apparently added slips. Each added slip contains a chapter or two of the text, apparently ones omitted in the original campaign and added (by the scribe) after the main manuscript had been copied. Quire III is cut down to 165 mm. or less. The whole book is irregularly trimmed. First and last leaves are darkened on outside as if book was unbound for some time.

COLLATION: Quires VI-VIII, XI-XII, XIV are FH, I-IV are HF. The folios have been remounted by being glued to parchment binding slips, so the following is a collation merely of the present, remounted, manuscript. I4+1 (slip added after 3 [f. 4]) (ff. 1-5), II4+1 (slip added after 3 [f. 9]) (ff. 6-10) [insertion: 9 paper frames holding burnt fragments (ff. 11-19)], III3 3 singletons + 2 slips (two slips added after 1 [ff. 21-22]) (ff. 20-24), IV6+2 (5 gone, 2 slips [ff. 29-30] added after 4 [f. 29 pasted to tag of sheet 5]) (ff. 25-31), V2 2 singletons (ff. 32 and 34) + 2 slips (ff. 33 and 35), VI4•1 (f. 2 an added halfsheet) (ff. 36-40), VII4•1 (a slip bound
in before this quire [f. 41]) (ff. 41-45), VIII4 (ff. 46-49), IX2 bifolium (ff. 50-51), X2 bifolium (ff. 52-53), XI-XIl4 (ff. 54-61), XIII singleton (f. 62), XIV4 (ff. 63-66).
[Note: In quire III, sheets 1 and 3 seem to have been a bifolium; if so, then sheet 1 is gone. According to de Vriend (1984: xxxv), the correct disposition of the inserted burnt and framed leaves is: afterf. 10, one folio missing, f.11, two folios missing, f. 14, f. 13,f. 12, ff.16-17 or ff. 17-16,f. 18, f. 19 (withf. 15 as a part off. 19).)
CONTENTS:
1. ff. lr-44r (explicit on f. 44v) Pseudo-Apuleius, enlarged "Herbarium": '[W]iđ innooes sar. genim þa wirte. þe man artemesia<m> ... ealne pane bite pres cancores heo afeormao' (ed. Berberich 1901, following the order of the manuscript; this is supplemented but not replaced by de Vriend 1984: 31-233, rectos, who has rearranged text according to the order of Cotton Vitellius C. iii).
Note: Harley 6258B, unlike the other OE versions of the "Herbarium," arranges the contents alphabetically by their Latin names (considering the first letter only), by folios as follows (from Berberich 1901 text, and de Vriend 1984: xxxvii-xxxviii; added slips are marked *):
f. 1 arthemisia, astrologya, apollinaria, agrimonia
f. 2 astularegia, astularegia, asterion, absinthium, anetum, action
f. 3 abrotanus, aizos minor, aizos, acantaleace
f. 4* acylleia
f.5 acanton, aini, ancura, aglafota, betonica
f. 6* continuation of betonica
f. 7 baration, hrewen hudela (Lat. bryttannica), buglosa
f. bulbus scilliticus, peristerion id est vervena (Lat. berbena), basilica, bulbus
f. 9• buoptalmon
f. 10 camemelon, chamedris, cameelea, camepithis, chamedafne, centaurea mator
(Ff. 11-19 are burnt and framed leaves separately bound into the manuscript.)

[f. 11 celidonia, caput canis, cynoglosa, coliandrum, cerefolia, cardium silua­ ticum, cucumis
f. 14 dracontea, dictanum, delfinion, eliotrophus, erusti
f. 13 erinion, erifion, eliotropus, elleborum album, elleborum album
f. 12 ecios, eringius, ebulum, eptafilon, feniculum
f. 16* filix
f. 17* fraga
f. 18* gladiolus
f. 15 + 19 gentiana, gallicrus, grias, glicirida, hieribulbum]
f. 20 millefolium, mente, mandragora

f. 21* mentastrum
f. 22* apium (OE merce)
f. 23 sion, melotis
f. 24 nasturcium, narcisum, nymfete, nepta, orbicularis
f. 25 ostriago, oenantes, oleastrum, ocimum, origanum, plantago
f. 26 pentafilon
f. 27 pes leonis, proserpina, personacia
f.28 prassion, politricum, pionia, peristerion, panastica, siluatica, perdiculus, pollegium
f. 29* peristerio
f. 30* peucedanum
f. 31 psillios, philantropos
f. 32 porrum, vica pervica, cimino (quiminon), rosemarino, radiolum
f. 33* ruta
f. 34 ricinum, symphoniaca, scelerata, saturion
f. 35* saxifragia
f. 36 splenion, solago, scordeon, solate, senecion
f. 37 sparagia, sauina, saxifragia, serpillum
f. 38 sauina, sisimbrium, semperviua, spreritis, structium, samsuchon
f. 39 stecas, scolinbos, scordios, stauisagria, temolum, saxifragia
f. 40 titimallos calatites, petrosillinum, tribulus, tiapis
f. 41* viola purpurea, viola
f. 42 vermenaca, viperina
f. 43 veneria, victoriole, verbascum, urtica
f. 44r xifion, zima lentition

2. ff. 44v/2-51r/23 "Medicina de quadrupedibus" (ed. Delcourt 1914; de Vriend 1984: 235-73, rectos; on title, see de Vriend, lxii) consisting of three originally separate treatises:
(a) ff. 44v/2-45v/16 "De taxone liber": ‘þe egypta King þe idpartus wæs hatan ... sona he byđ gebeted'.
(b) ff. 45v/16-46r/20 "On the Mulberry": 'Wid blodes flewsan ... þan<n>e byđ heo geclænsod'. The incipit is marked by small paragraphs (¶) in both margins and in text. (c) ff. 46r/22-51r/23 Sextus Placitus, "Liber medicinae ex animalibus" (A-version): Wya nædra<n> slite ... swylas gedwæsceþ'. Divided into titled chapters.
3. f. Slr/24-25 OE herb cure: Wiđ eafod ece pollege ... 7 smyre þ<æt> heafod mid' (ed. Cockayne 1864-1866: 1.380; Delcourt 1914: 24).
4. f. Slv/1-23 De Beta Wiđ ealda 7 singalu<m> heafod ece ... 7 unga I| nares . et statim sedabit<ur>'. Several OE and three Latin herb cures; the OE texts are run together as a single text, the Latin set off with pararaph marks (ed. Cockayne 1864-1866: 1.380-82; cf. Meaney 1984: 241-43).

5. ff. 51v/24-66v "Peri didaxeon": lncipit lib<er> qui dicit(ur) p<er>i didaxeon [ends imperfectly with opening of a chapter: '... Gif þ(æt) blod of þan in<n>oþe cump..vii.'] (ed. Cockayne 1864-1866: 3.82-144; Löweneck 1896).

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Berberich, Hugo, ed. Das Herbarium Apuleii nach einer Jruh-mittelenglischen Fassung.Anglistische Forschungen, 5.Heidelberg: Carl Winter, 1901.
Bierbaumer,Peter, ed. Der botanische Wortschatz des Altenglischen. II. Teil:
Lacnunga, Herbarium Apuleii, Peri Didaxeon. Grazer Beitrage zur eng­ lischen Philologie, 2. Bern: Peter Lang, 1976.
Cockayne, Oswald, ed. Leechdoms, Wortcunning, and Starcraft of Early
England. 3 vols. Rolls Series, 35. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1864-1866; repr. Wiesbaden: Kraus, 1965.
Delcourt, Joseph, ed. Medicina de Quadrupedibus, an early ME Version.
Anglistische Forschungen, 40. Heidelberg: Carl Winter, 1914.
Hollis, Stephanie, and Michael Wright. Old English Prose of Secular Learning. Annotated Bibliographies of Old and Middle English Literature, 4. Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 1992. ["Herbarium" pp. 311-324; "Peri didaxeon" 327-28; bibl. 329-40]
Loweneck, Max, ed. Peri Didaxeon, Eine Sammulung von Rezepten in Englischer Sprache aus dem 11./12. Jahrhundert. Erlanger Beitrage, 12. Erlangen: Fr. Junge, 1896.
Meaney, Audrey L. "Variant versions of Old English medical remedies and the compilation of Bald's Leechbook." Anglo-Saxon England 13 (1984): 235-68.
Schiessl, Johann. Laut- und Flexionsverhiiltnisse der Jruhmittelenglischen Rezeptensammlung Peri Didaxeon. Diss. Erlangen: Fr. Junge, 1905.
Talbot, C.H. "Some Notes on Anglo-Saxon Medicine." Medical History 9 (1965): 156-69.
Voigts, Linda E. "Anglo-Saxon Plant Remedies and the Anglo-Saxons." ISIS 70 (1979): 250-68.
Vriend, Hubert Jan de, ed. The Old English Herbarium and Medicina de Quadrupedibus. Early English Text Society, 286. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984.