APPENDIX I
MANUSCRIPTS OF THE LIBER VACCAE
The three first MSS in the list are those which I have used. Steinschneider (1906), p. 43, listed four MSS: Digby 71, Corpus Christi 125 and 132, and Montpellier 277. The three which I examined were wretchedly written and full of abbreviations.
Arundel 342, 14th century, Italian hand, fols. 46r-54v. The Titulus is “Incipit liber institutionum activorum (sic) Platonis in quo Humayn filius Zacarie sic loquitur dicens.” The Incipit is “Galienus cum praeparavit ut abreviaret librum Platonis physici, qui nominatus est liber anguemis.” The Explicit is “Expletus est liber aggregationum Anguemis Platonis cum expositione Humayn filii Ysaach gratia Dei.”
Digby 71, 14-16th century, fols. 36r-56, Liber Vaccae, precepta et experimenta alchemica et magica, praemisso prologo (ut videtur) longo. Incipit prologus, “Conferat tibi Deus mores nobiles.” Incipit liber (fol. 40v) “Galienus cum propter amatum voluit abbreviares (sic) librum Platonis philosophi qui nominatus est liber anequems.” Ad calcem (fol. 56) “Completur liber anequems Platonis id est liber vacce.”
Corpus Christi 125, 13-15th century, fols. 121v-141r (141-60, according to the system of numbering which I have followed in the foot-notes of the preceding chapter). This MS repeats the first prologue, found in Digby 71 but missing in Arundel 342. It ends, “Completus est liber Anaguenis, id est, liber vaccae.”
Corpus Christi 132, 15th century, fols. 139-66, has the same title and opening as the preceding.
CLM 22292, 12-13th century, fol. 68, Epistola de medicina, opening, “Conferat tibi deus mores,” and ending, “Explicit epistola Ameti” (a name which usually means the astrologer Alfraganus); fol. 70, Prologus in librum Anguemis, of which the text does not seem to follow, since at fol. 72 comes a commentary on the Aphorisms of Hippocrates. In this early MS therefore we seem to have only the two prologues.
Amplon. Quarto 188, written in 1267 A. D., 1319, and later, fols. 103-4, Liber vacce seu liber aggregacionis diversorum philosophorum, opening, “Primor queritur quare risus magis sequitur titillacionem,” and closing, “significet fleubotomia predominari et odor debet et etiam.” From its brevity and opening and closing words this would seem to be only a fragment of our treatise. Schum states that it was originally followed in the MS by another treatise on nigromancy, since torn out, and that in the sixteenth century the two works were given the common title, “Liber vacce nigromanticus.” But perhaps it is only a part of the Liber Vacce that has been torn out.
Florence II-iii-214, 15th century, fol. 57-, “Liber institutionum activarum Platonis in quo Hunayn filius Ysac sic loquitur;” fols. 59-72, “Inquit Hunayn, Galenus dixit ... / ... completus est liber agregationis aneguemis maioris et minoris Platonis cum expositione Unayn filii Ysac et declaratione Galieni.”
The treatise was once found in the library of St. Augustine’s Abbey, Canterbury, 1275, vacca platonis.
Among MSS which T. Allen had in 1622 but which are no longer in the Digby collection was, in 16mo, Liber Anequems Platonis, id est, Liber vaccae.