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Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Latin 7197

BnF Latin 7197
Bibliotheque nationale de France, Paris
Type	Student Manuscript
Date	After 1446
Place of origin	Paris, Fribourg, Namur, Neuchâtel
Language(s)	Latin, Early New High German
Material	Paper
Size	295 × 210
Format	130 folios

Latin 7197 (former shelfmarks Colbert 1499, Regius 5864.3) is a medieval astronomical miscellany preserved as a part of the Latin collection in Bibliothèque nationale de France. It is a Student manuscript of a Swiss physician and astrologer of the second half of XV century Conrad Heingarter, which he presumably composed during his studying years at the University of Paris around 1450s. The choice of texts within the manuscript allows not just to identify Heingarter’s academic interests during his time of studying, but also have a closer look at the university syllabus of the Arts faculty at the University of Paris in the mid-XV century.

The text also contains a variety of marginal annotations, diagrams and recapitulation of the content in a schematic form.

History

This manuscript is written for most part in the hand of Conrad Heingarter (before 1440 – after 1504), who was a physician and an astronomer of Swiss origin affiliated with the University of Paris. He served as an astrologer at the court of John II, Duke of Bourbon, and his wife Joan of France (a sister of the king Louis XI), to whom Heingarter has dedicated several treatises on the subject of health and astrology. He was likewise in the service of Louis XI himself and of Charles VIII.

The evidence of Heingarter’s university activity starts from the mid-1450s. He graduated as a bachelor in Arts in 1454, followed by the education in Medicine which he finished in 1466.

Most of the quires in BnF 7197 are dated approximately between 1455 and 1461, based on the paper watermarks (e.g. fol. 68). These years correspond to Heingarter’s university activity, particularly to his bachelor studies in the Arts (trivium and quadrivium). However, the manuscript contains mentions of various dates that are subject of astronomical computations, or could point towards the dating of the sources used as models for the BnF 7197 copyists. For instance, fol. 68v mentions the year 1446 (which was crossed out later), which reappears in marginal calculations at fol. 113v, among the other years from 1420 till 1504.

The quire 7, containing folios from 85 to 102, is of much earlier (around 1420) and non-French provenance. The incipit of the first table on fol. 85r mentions the city of Prague and the year 1400. However, it was certainly owned by Heingarter, who has left a marginal annotation on fol. 102v in the form of a brief computation mentioning the year 1456.

In terms of conservation history, BnF 7197 shares a similar path with another manuscript owned by Heingarter, BnF 7295A. Both of them entered the Royal library in 1732, while other manuscripts containing Heingarter’s autograph have become part of the collection during other time periods.

Codicology

BnF 7197 consists of 9 quires:

• fol. 2-21
• fol. 22-35, plus 4 tucked-in loose leaflets between folios 22/23, 23/24 and 32/34
• fol. 36-47
• fol. 48-61
• fol. 62-73
• fol. 74-84 (including a folio gap between 81 and 82)
• fol. 85-102
• fol. 103-116
• fol. 117-129

Most of the quires are from approximately the same period and likely of French provenance, apart from the quire 7 (fol. 85-102), which has been more likely produced earlier and outside of France (watermark Holland). This is also one of two quires that are copied in a hand different from Heingarter’s. The paper quality of the quire visibly differs from the preceding folios. Moreover, the first (85) and the last (102) folios are significantly more worn-out compared to the center of the quire, which makes possible an independent circulation of the quire before it was binded into BnF 7197.

Another specific feature of this manuscript is that it has survived in its original XV-century binding, that has been restored and is still largely extant, while most of the medieval manuscripts in the current collections have been rebinded in the XIX century.

Student manuscript

So-called Student manuscripts were produced in the university environment, largely by the students themselves who were willing to own certain texts for their educational purposes. The main feature of this type of manuscripts is that they are normally very personalized and contain a large number of annotations, however, while lacking the neatness and decoration of those manuscripts used for presentation. A particular feature of an astronomical Student manuscript, such as Latin 7295A, is the high presence of other complementary disciplines that have been mandatory for the university program, such as mathematics (arithmetic, geometry, optics, etc.), medicine or philosophy.

Some notes in BnF 7197 are partially made in [Early New High] German language, which was Conrad Heingarter’s mother tongue due to his Zurich origin. For instance, folios 2r-v contain a didactic poem written in German on the subject of all Liberal arts.

Alfonsine tables

BnF 7197 contains various tables, including so-called Parisian Alfonsine Tables complemented by John of Saxony’s canon entitled Canones super Tabulas Alfonsi (fol. 58v-68v). The Parisian Tables have been widely copied throughout the entire Alfonsine period and have survived in many manuscripts. In BnF 7197 only a fragment of the Alfonsine tables is found on folio 116r, as during the composition time of this manuscript Conrad Heingarter had not yet oriented himself toward the career of a court astrologer. The other astronomical tables found in BnF 7197 also seem to serve educational purposes more than practical computations.

The mean argument table on fol. 108r might be a variation on John of Lignères, however, it could likewise be of Toledan origin.

Diagrams

In Latin 7197 there are 16 folios containing technical illustrations. For instance, diagrams on folios 51r, 52r, 53v, 55v, 57v illustrate the treatise entitled Teorica planetarum Gerardi and serve for a visual explanation of a planetary theory in astronomy.

Folios 16r-v, containing notes on the subject of Geometry, also the three unfinished geometrical diagrams.

As a Student manuscript, BnF 7197 provides many examples of marginal diagrams, such as on folios 74v, 76r, 79r-v, illustrating Nicole Oresme’s theory of proportion.

Arithmetic

BnF 7197 contains many notes on the arithmetical subject. A treatise on arithmetic is found in this manuscript, separated between folios 9r-14v, 17-20, 22-30r (potentially due to rebinding and later addition of new quires to the codex). Within the treatise many arithmetical tables and marginal calculations are found.

Moreover, folio 34r, which is a loose leaf attached within John of Lignères’ Algorismus de minutiis vulgaribus et phisicis, contains a peculiar table for exercising large multiplications. A similar figure is found on the margins of folios 35r and 35v.

Non-mathematical disciplines

As BnF 7197 is not an astronomical Toolbox manuscript, but a student notebook, it contains various treatises not related to astronomical or mathematical computations. This allows modern scholars to get acquainted with the syllabus of the Arts faculty in Heingarter’s times. Folios 68v-71r and 71r-73v contain two works by Cicero, and on folios 118r-129v Hugo de Sancto Victore’s Didascalicon de studio legend and De Grammatica are found. These last treatises form a separate quire, copied by a different scribe, and are not annotated by Heingarter (unlike astronomical tables on folios 85r-102r, also copied in a different scribal hand).

Table of content

[I]-1 Tables for lunar movement

2r-v Notes in German and Latin

3r-8r [JOHANNES DE SACROBOSCO] Algorismus de integris, with glossing, tables and schemes

9r-14v Arithmetic in German and Latin, with the tables

15r-16r FRANCO DE POLONIA Tractatus torqueti

16v Notes on the subject of geometry in Latin, with figures

17-20, 22-30r Arithmetic in German and Latin (following fol. 14v)  

21r-v Fragment of a computation table in Latin, incipit: “Ad inveniendum litteram festorum mobilium per ciclum solarem...”

30r-31r Algorismus de minutiis phisicis

31r-36v [JEAN DE LIGNIERES] Algorismus de minutiis vulgaribus et phisicis, with schemes

36v-37v [Algorismus linealis]

37v-38r [Compositio et utilitates quadrantis veteris]

38r [De dominio planetarum in nativitatibus puerorum]

39r-50r JOHANNES DE SACROBOSCO De sphera, with glossing and figures

50r-v Notes on the subject of astronomy and arithmetic in Latin, accompanied by schemes

51-57v Theorica planetarum [Gerardi], with figures and glossing

58v-68v JOHANNES DE SAXONIA Canones in Tabulas Alfonsi

68v-71r [M. T. CICERO Oratio pro Marcello]

71r-73v [M. T. CICERO Oratio pro Ligario]

74r-79v [NICOLE ORESME] Algorismus proportionum, with figures

80r-81r [Algorismus de proportionibus]

81r-v [PS. JEAN DE MURS Arbor Boetii]

82r A note in Latin: “Supposito quod aliquis diversas habeat res in manibus...”

82v-84r [Divisiones Sacrae Scripturae]

85r-102r Tables on various subjects written in German (including computation tables mentioning the city of Prague and the year 1400)

102v [Prognosticatio]

103r Arithmetical notes in German and Latin»

103v Biblical and patristical abstracts on the subject of sin and vertue

104r-112r Astronomical tables mentioning the year 1444

112v-113v [De astronomia]

114r-115r [Practica geometriae]

115v Notes on the astronomical subjects in Latin

116r Fragment of the Alfonsine tables

118r A scheme recapitulation and classifying knowledge after Hugo de Sancto Victore’s Didascalicon de studio legendi, III,1

118r-129v HUGO DE SANCTO VICTORE De Grammatica

130-[I] Tables for solar and lunar motions

Bibliography

Notice BnF : https://archivesetmanuscrits.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cc66378g