Manuscript

St John's College (Oxford) Library, MS. 178

Codicology

Produced: England, 13th - 14th century
Current Location: St John's College (Oxford) Library, Oxford, England, UK
Manuscript Type: Miscellany
Bestiary Family: Second
Language: Latin
Folios: 415
Illustrated: Yes
Binding: Modern
Media: Vellum
Dimensions: Height: 19 cm Width: 14 cm

Description

Made up of six separate manuscripts, including texts on medicine and astronomy, a bestiary, the Dragmaticon of Guillaume de Conches, and Cato in Anglo-Norman with glossaries.

Manuscript 4 (folios 156 - 261) contains the bestiary (f. 156 - 217) with a second family text, beginning "Incipit primus liber de naturis bestiarum Leo fortissimus Bestiarum ad nullius pauebit occursum Bestiarum vocabulum proprie conuenit Leonibus"; ending "...est condere corpora nam humare obruere dicimus hoc est humum in it[in]ere Explicit Svnt lapides igniferi in quodam monte--ab adam vsque nunc in filios inobediencie debachatur". Some text is missing between folios 172 and 173. The bestiary is illustrated up to folio 194v with about 90 small pictures usually set into the text area. Folio 169v and 170r (dog), 171v (Adam naming the animals), and 185r (doves in the peridexion tree, dragon below) contain somewhat larger pictures. The remainder of manuscript 4 consists of the secreta secretorum of Aristotle (f. 217-261) and a treatise on numbers (f. 261).

Additional Descriptions

Additional description

Editions and Facsimiles

None known