Ynstruction of the ephimeredes.

Format:

Book

Manuscript

Author/Creator:

Schöner, Johann, 1477-1547.

Contributor:

Alleyn, James, former owner.

Stanitz, John D., former owner.

Lawrence J. Schoenberg Collection (University of Pennsylvania)

Language:

English, Middle (1100-1500)

Latin

Subjects (All):

Astronomy--Early works to 1800.

Astronomy.

Ephemerides--Early works to 1800.

Ephemerides.

Genre:

codices (bound manuscripts)

manuals (instructional materials)

tables (documents)

Manuscripts, Renaissance.

Penn Provenance:

Formerly owned by James Alleyn (signature in another part of parent manuscript).

Parent manuscript formerly held in the library of the Marquesses of Bute, Ms. 13.

Parent manuscript sold at auction at Sotheby's as part of the Bute collection, 13 June 1983, lot 32 (part 6).

Appears in H. P. Kraus's cat. 180 (1988), no. 134, and cat. 186 (1991), no. 35.

Formerly owned by John D. Stanitz (Cleveland, Ohio), Ms. 19.

Acquired by Lawrence J. Schoenberg with other Stanitz manuscripts, Sept. 1997.

Deposit by Lawrence J. Schoenberg and Barbara Brizdle, 2011.

Gift of Barbara Brizdle Schoenberg, 2021.

Physical Description:

20 leaves : paper ; 188 x 142 (146-156 x 107) mm bound to 196 x 152 mm

Production:

[England], [circa 1540]

Language Note:

Middle English.

Summary:

Copy of the first of the six texts in Opusculum astrologicum, ex diversorum libris, summa cura pro studiosorum utilitate collectum, in a 16th-century English translation. Instructions in 22 chapters for the use of the Ephemerides of Regiomontanus, astronomical tables giving the positions of planets, the sun, and the moon. Includes tables for the latitude of the moon, hourly motion of planets, duration of lunar eclipses, and lunar motion. A table for the risings and settings of fixed stars is "rectyfyed to the yere of our Lorde 1540 complete" (f. 17r). This manuscript was part of Bute MS 13 (formerly f. 101r-120v), followed by another section (formerly f. 124r-141v), now LJS 191, University of Pennsylvania.

Notes:

Ms. codex.

Title from opening rubric (f. 1r).

Collation: Paper, ii (modern) + ii + 20 + i + ii (modern); 1¹² 2⁵ 3⁴(-1); [1-20], modern foliation in pencil, upper right recto.

Layout: Text pages written in 24-31 long lines; 6 tables are in various arrangements of rows and columns.

Script: Written in a secretary script.

Decoration: Tables in brown and red ink; 6-line initial on red and silver ground with red flourishes (f. 1r); 3-line initials in red, or on a ground of red or brown penwork, or on red ground, or simply outlined in ink (some spaces for initials left blank with guide letters visible); initials touched with red throughout, some underlining in red; 2 pages frame-ruled in red ink (f. 1v-2r).

Binding: Modern calf (after Sotheby's sale in 1983).

Origin: Written in England, circa 1540 (f. 17r).

The first part of Bute MS 13 (f. 1r-46v), including a copy of Chaucer's Treatise on the astrolabe, was purchased after 1988 by Shozo Asahata (Nara, Japan); current location unknown (Kurtz and Voigts).

Local Notes:

Lawrence J. Schoenberg & Barbara Brizdle Manuscript Initiative.

Related Collections:

The fourth part of Bute MS 13 (formerly f. 145r-161v) is HM 60320, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

Cited in:

Described in Transformation of knowledge: early manuscripts from the collection of Lawrence J. Schoenberg (London: Paul Holberton, 2006), p. 78-79 (LJS 188).

Publications about:

Patricia Deery Kurtz and Linda Ehrsam Voigts. "The significance of now-dispersed Bute 13: a mixed-language scientific manuscript." In Communicating early English manuscripts, edited by Päivi Pahta and Andreas H. Jucker, 38-54. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011.

Cited as:

LJS 188

OCLC:

746947629

Online:

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