A short collection of texts on the virtues and healing power of wine, including works traditionally attributed to Arnaldus de Villanova and Palladius, in Latin

A short collection of texts on the virtues and healing properties of wine, including De vinis, traditionally attributed to Arnaldus de Villanova, and excerpts from Palladius, Opus agriculturae, in Latin, copied on parchment in Southern Italy in the 14th century.

Contents

1. ff. 1v-3v, line 24: Pseudo-Arnaldus de Villanova, De virtutibus aquae ardentis, in Latin.

Traditionally attributed to Arnaldus de Villanova, the text is now regarded as apocryphal.

f. 1v: Incipit: [caption in red] Isti sunt effectus aque ardentis que fit de vino. [end of caption] / [S]I facies cum aqua ardenti abluatur guctam roseam tollit ...

f. 3v, line 24: Explicit: … utatur patiens et liberabitur.

2. ff. 3v, line 24-13v, line 16: Arnaldus de Villanova (Valencia c. 1233 - Genoa 1311) (attr.), De vinis, in Latin.

The text describes the process of making wine and its healing properties. It is traditionally dated between 1309 and 1311 and attributed to Arnaldus de Villanova, while he was residing at the court of Robert of Anjou (c. 1278-1343), known as Robert the Wise, King of Naples, titular King of Jerusalem and Count of Provence and Forcalquier from 1309 to 1343: see Gifreu's introduction to his French translation of the text in Arnaud de Villeneuve, Le Livre des vins, translation, preface and notes by P. Gifreu (Perpignan: Éditions de la Merci, 2011), pp. 24-25.

The attribution of the text to Arnaldus de Villanova is still a matter of debate. The text can be found - with three different incipits - in at least 52 manuscripts, but a modern edition of the text is still wanting, so that its main textual reference remains the Opera Arnaldi (Lyons: Guilhelmi Huyon, 1520), ff. 262rb-265vb: see
M. McVaugh, 'Chemical medicine in the medical writings of Arnau de Vilanova', in Actes de la 'II Trobada Internacional d'Estudis sobre Arnau de Vilanova', ed. J. Perarnau (Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans, 2005), pp. 239-67 (in particular pp. 256-62);
A. Calvet, 'Le médecin Arnau de Vilanova et l'alchimie: dernière mises au point', in Actes de la 'III Trobada Internacional d'Estudis sobre Arnau de Vilanova', ed. J. Perarnau (Barcelona: Institut d'Estudis Catalans i Facultat de Teologia de Catalunya, 2014), pp. 171-90 (pp. 175-7).

The text first appeared in print, attributed to Arnaldus, in the German translation by Wilhelm von Hirnkofen entitled Von Bewahrung und Bereitung der Weine possibly in the edition produced at Esslingen by Conrad Fyner, after 2 October 1478 (ISTC ia01080000) or the one by Johann Bämler at Augsburg on 27 August 1479 (ISTC ia01081000), followed by ten more German editions.

The Latin text was printed for the first time in [Paris] by Félix Baligault, for Claude Jaumar and Thomas Julian, [about June 1500] (ISTC ia01078000), with attribution to Arnaldus, without the preface supposedly written for King Robert of Naples (see Gifreu's introduction, pp. 24-25) and with incipit similar to the present manuscript.

The present manuscript also differs in the number of chapters and their text from those in Gifreu's translation.

For another manuscript copy of De vinis in the Wellcome Library, see MS. 78, item 3, ff. 11v-22v.

f. 3v, line 24: Incipit: [caption in red] Incipit liber de confectione ui/ni. [end of caption] / [I]Gitur cum instar [sic for 'instat'] tempus in quo medicinalia / confici solent uina ...

f. 13v, line 16: Explicit: … Quam semper concedit et continuet dominus omnipotens inclito domino nostro regi .R. ad cuius Gloriam nominis et honorem libellus iste per me / humilem seruum suum perpetuum incepit et finit. Amen. Amen.

3. ff. 13v, line 16-16r: Palladius Rutilius Taurus Aemilianus (4th century), Opus agriculturae, Excerpts from Books 7 (ch. 6), 8 (chs 8-12) and 1 (ch. 35), in Latin.

First printed at Venice in 1472 by Nicolas Jenson within the edition of the Scriptores rei rusticate edited by Franciscus Colucia and Georgius Merula (ISTC is00346000).

For a modern edition, see Palladius, Opus Agriculturae, ed. R. H. Rodgers (Leipzig: Teubner, 1975).

For a manuscript copy of Palladius' work (Books 1-11, chs 1-11) in the Wellcome Library, see MS. 590, ff. 1r-53v.

The excerpts in the present manuscript are as follows: Book 8, chapter 6, De vino scillite; Book 9, chapters 8-12, De aqua invenienda, De puteis, De aqua probanda, De aquae ductibus, De mensura ponderibus fistularum; Book 1, chapter 35, De remediis horti vel agri, excerpts relating to remedies against ants, insects and other animals dangerous to grapes, mice and snakes.

f. 13v, line 18: Opus agriculturae, Book 8, chapter 6: Incipit [caption in red] Tituli mensis iulij. de libro palladij. De uino sallite [sic for 'scillite', corrected by expunction of 'a' and correct letters 'sc' transcribed above by an early reader]. 6.c. [end of caption] / [H]Oc mense vinum scilite sic facimus. Scillam de montanis aut maritimis locis sub ortu cannicularium ...

f. 16r: Opus agriculturae, Book 1, chapter 35, excerpts: Explicit: … [caption in red] Contra serpentes [end of caption] ... hoc genere monstra noxia prohibentur.

On parchment.

21 leaves; modern foliation '1-21' in pencil; ff. 16v-21v blank. 168 x 118 mm; written area 115 x 82 mm, pricking and ruling for single column in brown ink in single vertical and double horizontal bounding lines, 32 horizontal ruled lines for 31 written lines in quire 1, 31 horizontal ruled lines for 30 written lines in quire 2.

Collation: 1^12-1 (xii cancelled), 2¹⁰; no quire signatures, catchword '.de eius.' in lower right corner of f. 11v.

Secundo folio: [infer]mitates oris et lingue curat.

Written in a small round Italian Gothic hand (Southern Textualis Libraria) for text, with long trailing 's' at the end of words and a peculiar 'g' with a long angular tail with the closing stroke traced in hairline, and a small and rapid Gothic cursive hand written with the point of the quill for guides to captions, Italy, Southern Italy [?], early 14th century.

Decoration: 2- to 3-line initials, captions, paragraph marks and highlighting of capitals in red throughout, with guide letters for initials throughout, and guides to captions annotated by the scribe in the margins on ff. 1v, 2v, 3r-v, 8r, 10v, 12r, possibly cropped away by binder on other leaves.

Small marginal nota signs in black or red, passim, and scribal correction (f. 2v), addition (f. 10v) and variants (ff. 14r, 15r).

Binding: Longstitch (two sewing-stations) limp-parchment wrapper, c. 250 x 170 mm (excluding turns-ins), from a legal document in Italian Gothic chancery hand issued in Latin on 18 January 1326 during the reign of King Robert of Naples; wrapper-type flyleaves, i.e. a single leaf wrapped around the bookblock to provide conjugate flyleaves at the beginning and the end, the leaf being waste material from a manuscript copy of a work on Latin grammar, unidentified, c. 220 x 158 mm, written in an Italian Gothic hand in 43 long lines, Italy, late 13th or early 14th century, with marginal annotations to the text on the recto of the present lower flyleaf.

Purchased by Sir Henry Wellcome at the Phillipps sale (Further portion of the classical, historical, topographical, genealogical and other manuscripts & autograph letters of the late Sir Thomas Phillipps ... pt. 13), at Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge, London, 15 June 1908, lot 509: see pencil note in lower left corner of f. 1r.

Inscribed 'Ocelino bel / Ocelino', seemingly the beginning of an early 16th-century Italian pavane, on recto of upper flyleaf; one other note in the lower corner of same leaf, unintelligible.

Marked '35' in black ink on upper cover.

Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792-1872), baronet, collector of books and manuscripts, his armorial stamp 'Sir T. P. / Middle Hill' on f. 1r; his MS. '8358' (number inscribed on f. 1r and printed on small paper slip pasted onto upper cover); described in Catalogus librorum manuscriptorum in bibliotheca D. Thomae Phillipps, Bt. (impressum Typis Medio-Montanis [i.e. Middle Hill]), 1837-[1871]; Facsimile reprint: [London]: Orskey-Johnson, [2001], with new intro. by A. N. L. Munby), vol. 1, p. 129, MS. 8358 (and 1541 among the Cartae originales Prioratus S. Thomae de Stafford).

Marked '59.A.b' in pencil (former Wellcome shelfmark?) on f. 1r, 20th century.

For original description, see S.A.J. Moorat, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts on Medicine and Science in the Wellcome Historical Medical Library (London: Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, 1962-1973), vol. 1, p. 49. Description enhanced by Laura Nuvoloni in Summer 2017 based on the compiler's own research.