GERVASE OF TILBURY. MARTINUS POLONUS, ETC.
Vellum, 11.125 x 7.75, ff. 156 + 2, double columns of various numbers of lines: several columns. 14th and 13th cent., in good English hands. Rough skin over boards.
Donor, T. Baker. Wagstaff, 3473.
From Syon Monastery. On the cover is a label, under horn, inscribed :
Tractatus de mundi creacione usque ad Noe. Mappa mundi. Imago mundi. De mirab(i)libus mundi. Cronica fratris Martini penitenciarii pape. Cronica breuis de diuersis bellis et gestis. 2 fo. duo fuerunt.
Bracebr(idge).
The book is entered under K. 28 in the Syon Catalogue, edited by Miss Bateson, see p. xviii.
There is an old foliation showing that 24 leaves originally preceded the present f. 1.
Collation : 2 flyleaves, 114 (wants 1, 2) | 28 (wants 8) 38 48 (+ 1) 510 (wants 1) 62 78 814 912 (11 canc.) 1010 (+ 2 slips) 1110 1210 (+ 2 slips) 1310 (+ 1) 146 (wants 5) | 158 1610 | 1710.
On the flyleaf a note by T. Baker:
Est idem liber qui citatur in Fasciculo edito ab Ed. Browne qui inde adstruit aut confirmat historiam de Johanne Papissa, quae quidem hic occurrit inter Leonem et Benedictum, rectene an secus uideant alii. Certe credidit Edv. Browne:
Sed non ego credulus illi.
Contents :
I. De mundi creacione disposicione et ornacione Inc. liber . f. 4 (1)
Cum uniuscuiusque rei principium eius pars sit.
A note by Dr Liebermann gives the following account. I
slightly condense it. See also Neues Archiv, IV 33.
“ff. 1-93, in several hands of the beginning or middle of cent. xiv.
Excerpts from Gervasius Tilburiensis’ Otia Imperialia (ed.
Leibnitz, Scriptt. Rer. Brunsvic. I): or rather the greater part
of G.’s text transcribed verbatim but in a very different order.
The prologue of G. occurs here at the end. There is no table
of contents, but the rubrics of the chapters are generally
given.
The first Distinctio of Gervase ends at f. 36 [really 12b: aeris
desiccacionem iam ceptam].
The second is thus headed :
Inc. liber qui dicitur mappa mundi . . . . 37 (13)
Nominaciones et diuisiones terrarum et orbis.
This title properly applies only to a part of Dist. II.
f. 35 = Leibnitz I 906: 36 = 907. ff. 44, 58, 61, 71b, 72, 73, 77,
78, 80, 89, 90, are taken (at least materially) from Gervase.
f. 80 verbatim = Gervase 972-3 (c. 35).
f. 89b, col. 2 = 931.
On f. 74b, where in the original the author speaks of himself,
our MS. inserts after me, ‘Galfridum’ (sic): otherwise the
text = Leibnitz 998.
On f. 73 he also cites Galfridus de Tilliberia, which citation is
so clumsily inserted as to spoil the sense.
On f. 77 Willelmus Beroquer, the authority for an anecdote, is
described as ‘postea unus de iusticiariis domini Henrici
regis Anglie filii regis Iohannis.’
f. 90b = Leibn. 942.
92, col. I = „ 944.
91 = „ 943. But an original continuation of the
history of the empire is added, ending with 1266, and alluding
to Simon de Montfort’s rebellion as ‘hoc anno,’ and adding,
of England, ‘que uix uel raro propter scisma erigetur in
statum pristinum’ (92a). This seems to show that our tract
was composed before the end of Henry III’s reign.
The readings of this MS. agree rather more with those of the
Canonici Geruasius (Bodl. Canon. Misc. 53) than with those
of Vespasian E. IV.”
Ends f. 93 (69) b: qui auctor est humilitatis et pietatis per
infinita seculorum secula. Expl. mappa mundi.
II. Chronica Martini Poloni.
Nomina romanorum pontificum . . . . 94 (70)
From Peter to Innocent IV, 1284, in the first hand: continued
to 1352 and again to Urban VI, 1378 (in three hands). At
855, after Leo V, is Johannes; a marginal note (xiv) says :
papissa non ponitur in cathologo pontificum.
Inc. cronica fratris Martini de pontificibus . . . 95 (71)
Quoniam scire tempora
Dr Liebermann’s notes are as follows :
“f. 95. The prologue mentions John XXI. It therefore is
Martin’s second edition (called in Mon. Germ. Hist. SS. XXII,
Class C), which contains the ancient Roman history and the
story of Pope Joan. At the end (f. 120b, col. 2) there is the
same addition as in the MS. called (l. c.) No. 8 (MG. p. 443+).
The second hand continues, but only for the pontificate of
Nichloas III : and this piece is repeated verbatim on ff. 121b,
col. 1-122a, col. 1 by a second hand, which comes down to
Clement V. This part, although certainly connected with
the source of the Continuatio Romana (printed l. c.) and
sometimes agreeing with it verbatim, still seems to be a
different work, most likely unprinted.
A hand of the end of cent. xiv has added some short notices on
f. 123b and brings the history down to Urban V.”
f. 124 (100) is blank.
After it, a slip in the same hand as the List of Popes :
Nomina Imperatorum from Octovianus to Frethericus II (1212).
Continued in two hands to Ludouicus IV (1338): with some
marginal notes.
Inc. cronica fratris Martini de Imperatoribus . . . 125 (101)
Post natiuitatem d. n. I. C. octouianus augustus imperauit
annos xiiii.
Dr Liebermann continues :
“The beginning and end of this again agree exactly with
Codex 8.
Text ends 146 (14)b, col. I, 1. 5 :
in domo fratrum ordinis b. marie de monte carmeli est defunctus.
“There is a short but interesting continuation to Pseudo-
Frederick II in the same hand :
Et in eodem portu multe naues et uasa naualia propter elaciones
maris terribiles incurrerunt naufragium.
Ends with paragraph on Pseudo-Frederick :
Anno gracie mo cc lxxxo iiiito cum per xxxii annos et amplius
sedes imperialis uacasset apparuit in Alemannia Frethericus
de quo superius mencio facta fuit imperialem uendicans
dignitatem non sine admiracione multorum hunc dicencium
antichristum pro eo quod ante mortuus putabatur. Ille uero
se fuisse Imperatorem argumento uisibili comprobauit narrans
quomodo per supradicta tempora iacuisset in habitu peregrino
agens penitenciam per consilium patris patrum.
“The writer apparently believes in this impostor, and the
passage therefore would seem to have been written before
it was known that the false Frederick had been burned as
a heretic.
ff. 147, 148 deal with the pontificate of Martin IV. This piece is
nothing but the end of the Continuatio Romana Pontificum.”
These leaves, 147, 148 (122-3), are in a later hand.
Temopore Martini pape III a. d. m. cco lxxxi. quadam die
dominica per quendam latinum de familia regis
- misericorditer a deo largiuntur. Et qui scripsit hec uidit ea.
ff. 149-151 (124-126) blank.
III. Cent. xiii late? : double columns of 39 lines.
Ici comence la petite philosophie . . . . 152 (127)
Li sages ki iadis esteient
De moult grant sen sentremetteient.
Ends f. 169 (144) :
U li beneiz serront sanz nul degrez
Treis en persones et un en maiestez. Amen.
In the tract previously cited M. Paul Meyer gives an account
of this poem and prints ll. 1-184 and about 32 lines at the
end with variants from the MS. Dd. 10. 31 in the University
Library; another copy is in MS. Gg. 6. 28, and a fragment
in Bodley MS. Douce 210. The poem was previously un-
described (Meyer, 1. c., pp. 336-340).
On 169b, in a hand of cent. xiv late, is :
Nomina Regum Christianorum in Anglia.
Saxonum. Yne. xxxvii annos.
The first hand ends with Edward III. Richard II has been
added.
Recapitulacio terre sancte et descripcio eiusdem . . 170 ( 145)
Le apostoille de Rome Innocent uout sauoir
-e les custoumes de la terre des sarazins.
Ed. from a Brussels MS. by K. Hopf, Chroniques Greco-romanes,
Berlin, 1873, 30-34. Meyer, l. c., p. 340.
In another hand :
Recapitulacio Rome et descripcio eiusdem . . . 172 (147)b
Quoniam huius splendide urbis pulcritudinem sedule cogitans
-unde ergo lacrimabiliter legimus ab antiquis cercius
audiui in quantum potui curaui.
De sepulcro Romuli. In dalmacia est sepulcrum Romuli quod
uocatur meta.
Ends, after a section on ‘Equi marmorei,’ with description of
13 Regions
-continet pedes xxxiiii .m.
Expl. mirabilia mundi.
Negative microfilm in St John's College Library.
This MS. appears in an auction sale catalogue of 1687. Dd.9.1013, p. 83, no. 49, Earl of Ailesbury's Library.
C. de Hamel, 'The Medieval manuscripts of Syon Abbey, and their dispersal', Syon Abbey (Roxburghe Club, 1991).
Charles Garton, 'A Fifteenth Century Headmaster's Library', Lincolnshire History and Archaeology 15 (1980), 29-37. Copy in St John's College Library.
K. V. Sinclair, French Devotional Texts of the Middle Ages (Westport, Conn., 1979).
Monumenta Germaniae Historiae 24, 251.
Monumenta Germaniae Historiae 30, 708.
A. M. Bouly de Lesdian, 'III Section Romane. Les Manuscrits Didactiques Anterieurs au XIVe Siècle Essai D'inventaire', Institut de Recherche et D'Histoire des Textes 13 (1964-65).
William Hilliard Trethewey (ed.), La Petite Philosophy: an Anglo-Norman poem of the thirteenth century (Oxford, 1939).
Wolfgang-Valentin Ikas, Martin von Troppau (Martinus Polonus), O.P. (d. 1278) in England: Überlieferungs- und wirkungsgeschichtliche Studien zu dessen Papst- und Kaiserchronik, Wissensliteratur in Mittelalter 40 (Wiesbaden : L. Reichert, 2002) pp. 40, 59, 66, 80, 107-112, 115-122, 152, 155, 172-174, 176, 264.