Liber dietarium universalium et particularium, Fragment

Type: Fragment

Date: 13th century

Setting: University

Produced By/For: Constantine the African (Isaac Israeli)

Contents: Liber dietarium universalium et particularium

Shelf Mark: Fragm.Lat.4

Location: Shelf 02/B/20 (Acc. 2006-023)

Identification by James Kendrick, 2016

Fragment of Constantine the African’s Liber dietarium universalium et particularium (a Latin translation of Isaac Israeli’s Arabic Kitāb al-aghdhiya), a standard text in the medieval medical curriculum. This leaf includes the beginning of the third section on “particulars,” on the medicinal and dietary uses of melon, cucumber, squash, watermelon, and lettuce.

Introduction, description, and transcription by James Kendrick completed in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Master of Arts, University of Victoria, Department of English, November 2016, available here.

Description by Erik Kwakkel, July 2006

Codicology

Parchment sheet (half a bifolium) that has been trimmed on one of the long sides, probably because it was cut out of a book (see irregular edge on the left side of the initial 'L' for 'Lactuce')

• used as a wrapper around a booklet of modest proportions (the folds and stitch holes on both the left and the right of the letters 'c' in the margin mark the outlines of the back of this unknown volume)
• parchment of mediocre quality (as shown by the hole and the 'transparent' patch in lower margin, which are original)
• dimensions: 255x150 (170x115) mm
• 1 col , 36 lines
• ruling visible (plummet); pricking survives in upper margin only
• several reference letters ('c') in margin on recto indicating what initial the illuminator needed to produce.

Paleography

Main text and rubrics by one scribe (littera textualis, 1250-1300), who worked in France, possibly in the south

• marginal corrections and additions by main hand
• writing below topline.

Decoration

Initials with penwork flourishing.

Provenance

Purchased through Erik Kwakkel in July 2006 from the collection of Herman Mulder (Hombeek, Belgium), who bought it from Antiquariaat Moon Beams, Maastricht, the Netherlands, on May 31, 1994.

Articles

Boyarin, Adrienne Williams, Ravana Eagleheart, James Kendrick, Lynnea Ness, and Merridy Peters. "Medieval Manuscripts and Fragments at the University of Victoria: An Early Grant of Hubert de Burgh, Constantine the African's Translation of Isaac Israeli, and a Mendicant Breviary between Italy and Croatia." Florilegium 33 (2016): 193-232. https://dspace.library.uvic.ca/handle/1828/11170.

Images

Facsimile images available through UVic Libraries Digital Collections.

Click on thumbnail for full size image.

Recto

Verso