Vincent of Beauvais Newsletter [42]

Table of contents :
Editorial - 3
María José Ortúzar Escudero, The Role of the spiritus animalis in Accounts of Perception: Medical and Philosophical Remarks from three 13th-century Encyclopedias - 4
Annamária Kovács, A fragmentary Hungarian translation of Vincent of Beauvais’ Liber de laudibus beate Marie virginis from the 14th century? - 17
Recent publications dealing with Vincent of Beauvais - 27

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Volume 42, 2018

Vincent of Beauvais Newsletter

Founded by Gregory G. Guzman Editors: Hans Voorbij and Eva Albrecht

Vincent of Beauvais Newsletter 42 (2018)

Table of Contents

Editorial ........................................................................................................................................................................................ 3 María José Ortúzar Escudero, The Role of the spiritus animalis in Accounts of Perception: Medical and Philosophical Remarks from three 13th-century Encyclopedias ................................................................. 4 Annamária Kovács, A fragmentary Hungarian translation of Vincent of Beauvais’ Liber de laudibus beate Marie virginis from the 14th century? ............................................................................................................... 17 Recent publications dealing with Vincent of Beauvais ......................................................................................... 27

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Editorial This is the second year in a row that an issue of the Vincent of Beauvais Newsletter contains two Feature Articles. María José Ortúzar Escudero, the author of the first article, focusses on the medieval ventricular theory of the brain and the role that the “animal spirit“ plays in views of perception. She discusses the views expressed by the thirteenth-century encyclopedists Bartholomew the Englishman, Thomas of Cantimpré, and notably Vincent of Beauvais (in his Speculum naturale), who pays much attention to the “medical-physiological” and “philosophical-functional” approaches of the ventricular theory. The Speculum historiale is by far the most popular work by Vincent of Beauvais. To this popularity testify, for instance, the many surviving manuscripts, several incunabulum printings and a number of translations and adaptations into medieval vernaculars. The second most popular work Vincent compiled is probably his Liber de laudibus beate Marie Virginis. More than 50 surviving manuscripts and an incunabulum edition testify to a favorable reception. Modern scholarship, however, almost totally neglected this work. In her contribution to this Newsletter, Annamária Kovács presents her research of a lost manuscript from Königsberg, of which several photographs have been discovered recently. The manuscript contained, apart from two other theological works by Vincent, the text of his Liber de laudibus beate Marie Virginis as well as a text in medieval Hungarian, which is probably a fragmentary translation of Vincent’s work on the Virgin. The date of this Hungarian text is the subject of a curious debate. The Newsletter concludes with an exceptionally short list of recent publications dealing with Vincent of Beauvais. We end this Editorial, as usual, with the appeal for contributions and, especially, Feature Articles. We would also appreciate any information that you can provide on papers, articles, books, or reviews on Vincent of Beauvais that you present or publish. Only with your ongoing help and assistance can we keep our files and information up-to-date. You can send all your information to [email protected]. Hans Voorbij and Eva Albrecht

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The Role of the spiritus animalis in Accounts of Perception: Medical and Philosophical Remarks from three 13th-century Encyclopedias María José Ortúzar Escudero (Universidad de Chile)

Abstract

The compilations of Bartholomew the Englishman, Thomas of Cantimpré, and Vincent of Beauvais (Speculum naturale) offer a vantage point from which we may examine the culture of knowledge during the first half of the 13th century. In particular, their views on perception shed light on the contemporary discussions in medicine and philosophy. All encyclopedias present some version of the ventricular theory of the brain. This theory relates typically to the medical pneuma theory and to an active view of perception. Nevertheless, the ventricular theory in its philosophical version, which is associated with a passive account of perception, is clearly recognisable in the Speculum naturale. Interestingly, the spiritus animalis seems to be important for both views.

Introduction The views on perception in the 13th-century encyclopedias reflect the growing interest of that period in explaining how human beings come to understand their world. An important aspect of these explanations is the “ventricular theory” of the brain. According to this theory, the brain is divided into three chambers, which is where cognitive faculties operate. This doctrine occupies a prominent place in the medical treatises, where the cognitive faculties of imagination (or fantasy), reason, and memory are examined together with sense perception. The ventricular theory also appears in philosophical writings, where it is treated as the physiological correlate to the five inner senses (common sense, imagination or fantasy, estimative power, cogitative power and memory), that is, faculties that operate with the information provided by sense perception. Christel Meier-Staubach, who has examined the encyclopedias with a view to the different versions of the ventricular theory of the brain and of the cognitive faculties that are thought to reside in it, distinguishes between a “medical-physiological” and a “philosophical functional” approach to these



This work was supported by the ‘National Fund for Scientific and Technological Development’ (Fondecyt Postdoctorado, Chile) under Grant N°3170071.

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faculties.1 In contrast to the articles by Meier-Staubauch, I will suggest in the present paper that the ventricular theory corresponds to two encompassing frameworks: The “medical-physiological” approach, which is related explicitly to the pneuma theory, and the “philosophical-functional” approach, which is related to the Aristotelian-Avicennian account of cognition. Both views, while related, should be seen as different theoretical bodies for explaining how perception functions. In this paper, I will offer a summary of the development and basic characteristics of both frameworks as well as their reflection in the encyclopedias of Bartholomew the Englishman, Thomas of Cantimpré, and Vincent of Beauvais. These encyclopedias reveal that the spiritus animalis plays an important role in both contemporary approaches to perception.

Pneuma theory, ventricular brain theory and the spiritus animalis Antecedents The origins of the notion of “pneuma” hark back to Greek natural philosophy: Pneuma was conceived of as the life principle. As such it was connected to the world soul and to the breath. Already in some writings of Aristotle there is an association between pneuma and vital heat and, therefore, with the physiology of the organism.2 The notion of pneuma as something capable of alteration or change was developed later by the Stoics, especially in their embryology. The embryo is considered natural, becoming vital during gestation; consciousness first arises once the embryo has developed into a full human being.3 This is the basis for how Galen († c. 200 or 215) formulates his “pneumatic physiology”. The inhaled air enters the lungs, suffering a first alteration. From the lungs, this pneuma-like material substance enters the left ventricle of the heart, where it is transformed into

For the “medical-physiological” account in the works of Bartholomew the Englishman and of Thomas of Cantimpré, cf. Christel Meier, ‘Imaginatio und phantasia in Enzyklopädien vom Hochmittelalter bis zur frühen Neuzeit’, in Thomas Dewender and Thomas Welt (ed.), Imagination, Fiktion, Kreation: Das kulturschaffende Vermögen der Phantasie, München etc., 2003, 161–181, here p. 163-164 and 167. For the “functional-philosophical” approach, see Ibid., p. 166 and 168–173. See also Christel Meier, ‘Über den Zusammenhang von Erkenntnistheorie und enzyklopädischem Ordo in Mittelalter und Früher Neuzeit’, in Frühmittelalterliche Studien 36 (2002), 171–192, here p. 179–184. The “philosophical-functional” approach is considered by Green as the “properly medieval” ventricular theory of the brain, cf. Christopher Green, ‘Where Did the Ventricular Localization of Mental Faculties Come from?’, in Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences 39/2 (2003), 131–142, here p. 133. 2 Hermann Siebeck, ‘I. Neue Beiträge zur Entwicklungsgeschichte des Geist-Begriffs’, in Archiv für Geschichte der Philosophie 27/1 (1914), 1–16, here p. 9. 3 Julius Rocca, ‘From Doubt to Certainty: Aspects of the Conceptualisation and Interpretation of Galen’s Natural Pneuma’, in Manfred Horstmanshoff, Helen King and Claus Zittel (ed.), Blood, Sweat and Tears: The Changing Concepts of Physiology from Antiquity into Early Modern Europe, Leiden, 2012, 627–659, here p. 634–635. 1

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vital pneuma in virtue of the innate heat of the left ventricle and the altered venous blood from the right ventricle. This vital pneuma then enters the arterial system, from where it goes to the brain through a network of fine arteries at its base and a cluster of veins and arteries in the ventricular system. It is thereby transformed in the psychic pneuma. The brain ventricles are the final repository of psychic pneuma, from where it continues through the nerves to the rest of the body, providing sensation and voluntary motion.4 Galen does not develop in his writings a mechanism of elaboration for the natural pneuma.5 His association of the Platonic three souls or parts of the soul (desiderative, irascible, and rational) to three organs, namely, the liver, the heart, and the brain, is at the base of the understanding by later authors of the natural, vital and animal-psychic spirits as produced in these three organs.6 Galen’s description of the cerebral ventricular system is based, among others, upon the teachings of Herophilos of Calcedon (fl. c. 300 B.C).7 Although Galen sees a connection between this ventricular system and the generation of the psychic pneuma, there is no mention of cognitive faculties operating in these ventricles. The localisation of the faculties of thought, judgement, and memory in these ventricles is attributed to Posidonius, a 4th-century Byzantine physician.8 Versions of ventricular theories can be found in Augustine’s (†430) De Genesi ad litteram,9 and in the treatise De natura hominis by Nemesius of Emesa (written 390–400).10 In this latter work, three psychic functions are located in the brain: the imagination as the centre of perception in the frontal ventricle; a thinking faculty in the middle of the brain, which is also “the source of voluntary bodily movements through the nerves going from its organ to the muscles”; and memory in the posterior ventricle, where the cognitive contents of the faculties of sense and thought are deposited.11 Nemesius was an important source for the Syrian theological writer Yanah ibn Mansur ibn Sarjum (latinised as John of Damascus, †749), who also distinguished between an imaginative or fantastical, an excogitative or ratioIbid., p. 636–637. Ibid., p. 639. 6 Ibid., p. 645–646. 7 Cf. Walther Sudhoff, Die Lehre von den Hirnventrikeln in textlicher und graphischer Tradition des Altertums und Mittelalters: Inaugural-Dissertation zur Erlangung der Doktorwürde in der Medizin, Chirurgie und Geburtshilfe, Leipzig, 1913, p. 9–10. For Herophilos, see George Bruyn, ‘The Seat of the Soul’, in F. Clifford Rose and W. Bynum (ed.), Historical aspects of the neurosciences: A Festschrift for Macdonald Critchley, New York, 1982, 55–81, here p. 57–58. 8 Cf. Sudhoff, Die Lehre von den Hirnventrikeln, p. 11. 9 Green, ‘Where Did the Ventricular Localization of Mental Faculties Come from?’, p. 140. 10 Cf. Peter Theiss, Die Wahrnehmungspsychologie und Sinnesphysiologie des Albertus Magnus: Ein Modell der Sinnes- und Hirnfunktion aus der Zeit des Mittelalters, Frankfurt am Main etc., 1997, pp. 41–42; Green, ‘Where Did the Ventricular Localization of Mental Faculties Come from?’, p. 139. 11 Simo Knuuttila, Emotions in Ancient and Medieval Philosophy, Oxford, 2004, pp. 105–106; see also Bruyn, ‘The Seat of the Soul’, p. 63. 4 5

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nal, and a memorative power.12 In the late ninth and tenth centuries, ventricular theories of the inner faculties are adopted and further developed by the Nestorian Christs Hunayn ibn Ishaq alIbadi (latinised as “Johannitius,” †873/77)13 and Qusta ibn Luqa (known as Costa ben Luca) (†923) and the Persian physicians Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Zakaryā ar-Rāzī (better known as Razi or Razhes) (†925)14 and Ali ibn al-Abbas al-Majusi (latinised as Haly Abbas or Ali Abbas) (†994/95).15 These texts appear to connect the Aristotelian distinction of three souls or parts of the soul (nutritive or vegetative, sensitive or animal and rational) with the function of three kinds of “spirits.”16 Thus, Haly Abbas maintains that the nutritive powers of the soul act through the natural spirit, which has its seat in the liver and the veins. It governs generation, nutrition, and growth. The vital spirit is located in the heart, from where it disperses through the arteries to animate the body. Sensation takes place through the sense organs and the front of the brain. The middle ventricle of the brain, the spinal cord, and the nerves branching from it are responsible for movement. The ruling power comprises imagination, cognition, and memory. These faculties are located respectively in the two front ventricles, the middle ventricle, and the hindmost ventricle of the brain.17 These elaborations of the pneuma-ventricular theory came to be known to the “Latin West”. Of considerable influence for its further development were the (abbreviated) translations by Constantine the African (†1087) of the work of Johannitius known as Isagoge, which became one of the five key texts of the 12th-century Articella, a most influential collection of medical treatises,18 and of the work of Haly Abbas called the Pantegni. The thoughts of these medical writings were further transmitted through 12th-century authors such as William of St. Thierry, Adelard of Bath, William of Conches, Bernardus Silvestris, and even Hugh of St. Victor.19 The contemporary Pseudo-Augustinian treatise De spiritu et anima refers to the vis naturalis, vis vitalis, vis animalis in connexion with an

Ludwig Lieser, Vinzenz von Beauvais als Kompilator und Philosoph: Eine Untersuchung seiner Seelenlehre im Speculum maius, Leipzig, 1928, p. 147–148. 13 Rocca, ‘From Doubt to Certainty’, p. 631 and 647–648. 14 E. Ruth Harvey, The Inward Wits: Psychological Theory in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, London, 1975 (Warburg Institute surveys), p. 10 and 11. 15 For Haly Abbas and his “Royal Book” (Regalis Dispositio), see ibid., p. 13–21. 16 Rocca, ‘From Doubt to Certainty’, p. 651. 17 Harvey, The Inward Wits, p. 16–17. 18 Rocca, ‘From Doubt to Certainty’, p. 648–649. 19 Meier, ‘Imaginatio und phantasia’, p. 162–163; Mark Jordan, ‘The Construction of a Philosophical Medicine: Exegesis and Argument in Salernitan Teaching on the Soul Source’, in Osiris 6 (1990) 42–61, here p. 47. For William of Conches, see also Bruyn, ‘The Seat of the Soul’, p. 67–68; Danielle Jacquart, ‘A l’aube de la renaissance médicale des XIe-XIIe siècles: L’Isagoge Johannitii et son traducteur’, in Bibliothèque de l'école des chartes 144 (1986) 209–240, here p. 209. 12

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active principle in the organisms, and to the doctrine of the brain chambers20 (see Figure 121). Both ideas have an important place in diverse encyclopedias up to the middle of the 13th-century,22 including the encyclopedias analysed here.

Figure 1: Depiction of a monk’s head with the five outer senses (visus, auditus, olfactus, gustus, tactus) and ventricles with five inner senses (sensus communis, fantasia, [virtus] imaginativa, [virtus] estimativa, memoria sensualitatis vel [virtus] retentiva). From: (Pseudo) Augustinus, Libellus de spiritu et anima. Ms. Cambridge, Trinity College, Wren Library, 0.7.16, f. 47r (early 13th-century, from a Cistercian house).

Leo Norpoth, Der pseudo-augustinische Traktat De spiritu et anima, Köln, 1971, pp. 109–114. For different brain depictions, see Edwin Clarke and Kenneth Dewhurst, An Illustrated History of Brain Function, Oxford, 1972 (http://books.google.cl/books?id=yz8YRf2sQDEC&printsec=frontcover&hl=de &source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false; accessed November 5, 2018). I would like to thank Alejandro García Aviles, Tawrin Baker and Matthew Milner for suggesting me several pictures of brain diagrams. 22 Meier, ‘Über den Zusammenhang von Erkenntnistheorie’, p. 182–183. 20 21

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Pneuma and ventricular theories and animal spirit in the encyclopedias Thomas of Cantimpré (1201–1270/2) alludes to the ventricular theory of the brain when describing the head in his book on anatomy in his Liber de natura rerum. He claims there are three chambers of the brain where three interior powers of the soul are formed, namely, the fantastic or imaginative, the intellectual and the memorative powers.23 The pneuma theory is visible especially in his book on the soul. In this book, which follows closely the treatise De spiritu et anima, he argues that a fiery force residing in the heart ascends to the brain, where it is purified and cleansed; it then moves outwards through the eyes, ears, nose, and the other instruments of the senses. By entering in contact with external things, it constitutes the five senses of the body.24 This fiery force, after having come in contact with the external bodies through the “instruments of the senses”, brings the similitude of these bodies to the “fantastic chamber” in the front of the head, contributing to the formation of the imagination. Imagination transits to the “central chamber” of the brain, joining there the substance of the rational soul. Thus, the (upper) bodily spirit (spiritus animalis) and the (lower) rational spirit are linked in the imagination.25 Here, the spiritus animalis seems to be identical to the fiery force. It appears to be an active principle that enables first sensation and then the further processing of the bodily images by the faculties located in the brain chambers. In De proprietatibus rerum, specifically in the book dedicated to anatomy, Bartholomew the Englishman (1202-1272) discusses the ventricular theory, sensation, and the “animal power”. The distribution of the sense organs, the seat of the animal power, and the many nerves which enable sensation and movement are examined in the chapter on the head.26 Bartholomew argues that the brain comprises three ventricles, where imagination, reason and memory, and recollection are situated.27 Sensation itself is discussed in the book on the soul, often in association with the pneuma theory. Thus, he refers to the natural, vital and animal powers (virtutes) or spirits (spiritus). The natural power is responsible for the movements of the humours, the vital power for the movement of the spirits from the heart, and the animal power for sensation and voluntary movement. This animal motive power resides in the ventricles of the brain.28 It advances through nerves, which are very Thomas Cantimpratensis, Liber de natura rerum, Teil 1: Text, ed. Helmut Boese, Berlin, 1973, I.2. Ibid., II.15. 25 Ibid. 26 Bartholomaeus Anglicus, De genuinis rerum coelestium, terrestrium et inferarum proprietatibus, libri XVIII (…) cui accessit liber XIX de variarum rerum accidentibus, Frankfurt a. M., 1964 (Facsimile of the edition of G.B. Braitenberg, Frankfurt a. M., 1601), V.2. 27 Ibid., V.3. 28 Bartholomaeus Anglicus, De proprietatibus rerum. Vol. I: Introduction générale, Prohemium, et Libri I-IV, ed. Baudouin van den Abeele et al., Turnhout, Brepols, 2007, III.12, III.14 and III.22. 23 24

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soft, to form sensation (sensus). Depending on where the spirit is directed, it forms sight, olfaction, etc.29 Each of the five senses is examined according to the following pattern: efficient cause, organ, medium, and the intention of the soul (intentio animae). The efficient cause is the animal spirit. These chapters are introduced and concluded with a somewhat general discussion of sensation. The introductory chapter explains the working of the “animal spirit” or “animal power” as being responsible for sensation, for this spirit accounts for the formation of the senses in the anterior ventricles of the brain and then in the sense organs, because it advances from the brain through very soft nerves to form “sense”.30 The concluding section repeats the view that sensation results from the animal spirit, which regulates the senses and the powers (of the soul). This spirit is defined as substantial, although its substance is subtle and aerial – according to Ben Luca’s treatise De differentia animae et spiritu.31 Vincent of Beauvais (c. 1184/94–c. 1264) devotes more than two thirds of one of his books on the soul to the pneuma theory (Speculum naturale XXIV, chapters 3–60), referring only once to the ventricular theory of the brain and the action of the animal spirit, whose actions consist in the faculties of fantasy, reason and memory.32 In addition, several chapters of his Speculum naturale associate the ventricular theory with a version of the pneuma theory, the action of a “spirit” and sense perception. He quotes the account of perception in terms of the actions of an “igneous spirit” of the treatise De spiritu et anima, also used by Thomas.33 He also interprets the Augustinian ventricular theory of De Genesi ad litteram, where sensation is considered a result of fire, the most subtle body. A bright quality of the fire in the anterior part of the brain is clarified before it ascends to the highest part of the brain. From there, the rays of the eyes come forth. The fine tubes from the centre of the brain lead not only to the eyes, but to all sense organs. Furthermore, the brain has three ventricles: one in front, towards the face, from which all sensation is controlled; a second behind, towards the neck, from which all movement comes; the third between the two, in which memory is active. Memory ensures that movement follows sensation.34 Correspondingly, Vincent’s descriptions of human anatomy consider the brain as divided in three cells, in which three operations of the soul

Ibid., III.9. Ibid., III.16. 31 Ibid., III.22. 32 Vincentius Belvacensis, Speculum naturale (ed. Douai 1624), XXIV.56. Online edition based on the reprint Graz 1965 (http://sourcencyme.irht.cnrs.fr/encyclopedie/voir/133; accessed July 28, 2017). 33 Ibid., XXIII.54. 34 Ibid., XXV.11. 29 30

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(imagination, reason, memory) take place.35 The “fantastic cell” is regarded as the vestibule of the soul, for it communicates with the five sense organs by means of ten nerves. Travelling through these nerves are “spirits” that enable the functioning of the sensory faculties.36 One can see that the ventricular and pneuma theories provided by the encyclopedias exhibit an active view of sense perception. The “igneous spirit” of the Augustinian tradition and the “animal spirit” of the medical tradition are viewed as the cause of perception: for there to be perception, it is necessary that this spirit first be formed in the anterior ventricle of the brain, then to reach the different organs of the senses and finally to bring the information from the senses to the brain.

Ventricular theory, animal spirit and the peripatetic account of perception Antecedents The ventricular theory also has its place in the “philosophical-functional” accounts on sensation. These accounts consider typically not three, but five inner cognitive faculties. These faculties or inner senses are expounded in De anima of the Persian polymath Ibn Sina (latinised as Avicenna, †1037), which exposes a widely held account of the soul and its powers.37 According to Avicenna, the impressions of the five outer senses are processed and abstracted by means of five inner senses or faculties: common sense, imagination, imaginative (in animals) or cogitative power (in humans), estimative power, and memory.38 Located in the first cavity of the brain are the “common sense”, a receptive instance that integrates all the data of different sensations, and the imagination, whose role it is to retain the information given by the five senses, after the object responsible for the sensory input has disappeared.39 Located in the central cavity of the brain are the imaginative or cogitative power, which separates or combines the images retained by the imagination, and the estimative power, which acts as a sort of instinct that identifies, for instance, a wolf as something to be feared. Memory has its seat in the posterior cavity of the brain, where it retains the contents of the estimative faculty.40

Ibid., XXVIII.40. Ibid., XXVIII.43. 37 Alain de Libera, Die mittelalterliche Philosophie, München, 2005, p. 22–23. 38 Alain de Libera, art. ‘Sensus communis’, in Barbara Cassin (ed.), Dictionary of Untranslatables: A Philosophical Lexicon, Princeton (N.J.), 2014, 967–969, here p. 967. 39 Ibid., p. 968. 40 Ibid. 35 36

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Copyright Universitätsbibliothek Erfurt Figure 2: Depiction of a version of the “Avicennian model” connecting inner and outer senses (late fifteenth century?). The five outer senses are related to the five sense organs and the sense nerves that connect each sense organ with the sensus communis in the first ventricle of the brain. The sensus communis is also linked to other faculties of the soul, placed in different ventricles. In this schema these faculties comprise the imaginative power (ymaginativa) as distinguished from fantasy (fantasia), the cogitative power (cogitativa) and the memorative power (memorativa). From: Peter of Dresden, Parvulus philosophiae naturalis, Ms. Erfurt, Universitätsbibliothek, Dep. Erf., CA. 4o 240 (chart., 1404, 1405 and later), f. 139v.41

Courtesy of the Universitätsbibliothek Erfurt. For a discussion of this image, including its dating, see A. Verboon, ‘Brain ventricle diagrams: a century after Walther Sudhoff. New manuscript sources from the XV th century’, in Sudhoffs Archiv 98 (2014), 212–233, here p. 222-225. 41

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These five inner faculties are related to a passive view of perception, as described by Aristotle in his De anima (II.5-III.2). In a nutshell, it is the object, and not a power inside the subject, which is the efficient cause of sensation. As a result of the object, the subject suffers an alteration to his or her perceptual apparatus and this is called sensation. Within this frame, the (Avicennian) five inner powers are regarded as “post-sensory faculties”42 that act upon the impressions received first by the outer senses (see Figure 2). Passive views of perception that consider the different functions of the five inner senses can be found in various writings of 13th-century philosophers, for instance, in the Summa de anima of the Franciscan John of La Rochelle (written about 1235/6) and in De homine of the Dominican Albert the Great (written about 1242–43). These treatises, extensively used by Vincent of Beauvais, also take into consideration the operation of an “animal spirit”.

Ventricular theory and animal spirit in the peripatetic account in the encyclopedias In the encyclopedias of Thomas and Bartholomew, the passive account on sensation and the five inner senses plays a minor role. However, in the De natura rerum, we read two listings that bear some resemblance to the “philosophical” inner senses: an enumeration of six, not five powers of the soul (sensation [sensus], imagination, reason, memory, intellect, and intelligence)43 and the distinction between four different degrees of progression for the “bodily life” (sensation, imagination, memory of the things conceived by the imagination, and foresight [providentia]). In particular, the description of “foresight” is similar to that of the “estimative power” in the Avicennian schema.44 In his De proprietatibus rerum, Bartholomew mentions four of the five inner senses: the inner or common sense, the imaginative power (not distinct from imagination), the estimative power (described as the “reason of the sensibles”), and memory. Here, Bartholomew appears to understand the common sense as composed of imagination, reason, and memory, which are situated respectively in the anterior, middle, and posterior chambers of the brain.45 A similar list occurs in another account of the different powers of the soul: “sense” (described as sensation and as common sense), the imaginative power (equated to imagination), the estimative power or “sensitive reason”, and the power of memory or recollection.46 The interior or common sense is also mentioned in the conclusion to the exposition on perception. The external senses are affected according to the different affections

Cf. Harry Wolfson, ‘The Internal Senses in Latin, Arabic, and Hebrew Philosophic Texts’, in Harvard Theological Review 28/2 (1935), 69–133. 43 Thomas Cantimpratensis, Liber de natura rerum, II.9. 44 Ibid., II.10. 45 Bartholomaeus Anglicus, De proprietatibus rerum, III.10. 46 Ibid., III.11. 42

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of the sensitive organs, and thereafter bring to the common sense the forms and similitudes of what they have sensed.47 Vincent of Beauvais develops extensively the notion of sensation as a passive phenomenon in his Speculum naturale. He explores the Aristotelian account of perception and its further interpretations by Avicenna, John of La Rochelle and Albert the Great, especially in the book dedicated to the animal or sensitive soul (XXV). Vincent distinguishes between objects, media and organs of sensation. It has been shown by Ludwig Lieser and Christel Meier that the doctrine of the five inner senses can be found in Vincent’s book on the sensitive soul.48 Here I will concentrate on the role of the “animal spirit” within the passive accounts of sensation rendered in the Speculum naturale.49 The “animal spirits” are referred to in a discussion taken from John of La Rochelle about how the different organs are conformed. The nerves that descend from the anterior part of the brain with the “sensible spirits” constitute at their tips the perfect organs. A nerve descends from the front part of the brain and then branches out; at the tips of these branches are formed the pupils and the disposition of the eyes, which constitute the organ of vision. Similarly, other nerves form respectively the bellows in the concavities of the ears (organ of audition), the caruncles of the nose (organ of olfaction), and the tongue (organ of taste). The fifth nerve ramifies in the manner of a net that dresses the whole body and builds the organ of touch.50 While the function of the sensible spirits is not specified at this point in the text, there is a clear reference to an explanation of the working of the sense faculties in terms of sensible spirits. The action of the animal spirit for explaining the function of the sense faculties is expounded more exhaustively in a quotation from a “philosopher”, actually the anonymous treatise De anima et potenciis eius. The five senses are passive powers. We sense by receiving internally, not by sending something outside. To this end, sense (sensus) needs an object, a medium, an organ and a spirit (spiritus). The abstract form (what is perceived) is, first, in the medium, second, in the organ, third, in the spirit, fourth, in the “sensible power” (potentia sensibilis), and fifth, in the “rational power”

Ibid., III.21. Cf. Lieser, Vinzenz von Beauvais, p. 147–150; Meier, ‘Imaginatio und phantasia’, p. 168–173. 49 Elsewhere, I have discussed sense perception and the philosophical-functional view of the inner senses. Cf. María José Ortúzar Escudero, ‘Ordering the Soul: Senses and Psychology in 13 th-century Encyclopaedias’ (ms.); idem, ‘The place of Sense Perception in 13th-century Encyclopaedias: Two Different Readings of Aristotle’ (ms.). 50 Vincentius Belvacensis, Speculum naturale, XXV.24. 47 48

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(potentia rationalis).51 In another long section from this treatise, Vincent examines the objects, media and instruments of the five senses. The object of vision is colour, its medium air, and its instrument the eye. To the eye comes the optic nerve that contains the visible spirit. This receives colour through the crystalline humour, that is, through the pupil of the eye. Similar accounts are given for the remaining four senses. In all of them, the organ of the senses conveys its information to a nerve that contains a sensible spirit or directly to the spirit itself (with the exception of touch, where no spirit is mentioned).52 A passage from De homine alludes to the animal spirit. At this point in his account, Vincent recapitulates in some detail the discussion of the being of the object of the senses (sensibilia) in the object itself, in the sensory faculty and in the medium. In the three senses that have an external medium (vision, audition and olfaction), this being is in the object according to nature (= material being); in the sense faculty this being is accordingly the “intention” or the “form” (= spiritual being); in the medium the object is accordingly the same medium (= sensible being). The two senses which have an intrinsic medium, taste and touch, have sensibilia that are the same in the object, in the medium, and in the sense organ. In the case of these two senses, the objects of the sense acquire their “spiritual being” by means of the animal spirit that attracts and conveys to the brain the contents (“intentions”) of these sensibilia.53 Thus, the animal spirit carries the object of sensation from the organ to the brain. The different philosophical interpretations of the action of the animal spirit represent in some manner an adaptation of its description in the medical explanations of perception: Also here animal spirits seem to render the sense organs apt for perception – as we saw in the quotations of La Rochelle and from De anima et potenciis eius; or, much more specifically, they help taste and touch to perceive their proper object and then to bring them to the brain – as we saw in the passage taken from De homine.

Ibid., XXV.17. Cf. Anonymus, ‘Le traité De Anima et de potenciis eius d’un maître ès arts (vers 1225): Introduction et texte critique’, in Recherches de Sciences philosophiques et théologiques 66 (1982), 3–55, here p. 36–37. 52 Ibid., XXV.26. Anonymus, ‘Le traité De Anima’, p. 37–42. 53 Ibid., XXV.15. 51

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Conclusion The medical and philosophical traditions reflected in the encyclopedias make use of the ventricular theory to explain perception. Within the medical framework, the ventricular theory is associated with the pneuma theory. The pneuma theory points to a physiological explanation in terms of diverse “spirits” of the different phenomena associated with life, sense perception being just one of these phenomena. Sense perception is conceived of as an active phenomenon, since it is explicated fundamentally by the activity of the psychic or animal spirit. This animal spirit is responsible for rendering the sense organs apt to perceive, for transmitting the sensations from these organs to the brain, and sometimes for the further processing of the information from the senses by the faculties of fantasy (or imagination), reason and memory. Whereas the medical notion regards sense perception as an active principle, the framework inherited (ultimately) from Aristotle endorses a passive account of perception. Accordingly, the ventricular theory is associated with the function of different cognitive powers in the task of abstraction rather than with an all-encompassing physiological model of the phenomenon of life. Nevertheless, the authors writing from within this tradition seem to adopt the notion of animal spirit to account for the ability of the sense organs to perceive or for the transmission of the information received by the senses to the brain. The evidence from the encyclopedias indicates that, in the medical as well as in the philosophical accounts of sense perception, the animal spirit serves in some manner to connect either the object of sensation or the sense organ with the brain (and in some cases, also with voluntary motion). The animal spirit is, in other words, responsible for the connection between the outer and the inner senses.

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A fragmentary Hungarian translation of Vincent of Beauvais’ Liber de laudibus beate Marie virginis from the 14th century?

Annamária Kovács (Institute of Hungarian Literature and Culture, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary)

The so-called “Königsberg Fragment and its Pastedowns” is a document found on the flyleaf and in the binding of Ms. 1194 of the Königsberg University Library in the mid-19th century.1 In the spring of 1863, the Königsberg chaplain Franz Hipler called attention to a fragmentary text in an unknown language on the flyleaf of the manuscript. The director of the library, Julius Zacher, tried to read it in vain and asked for the help of linguists. Friedrich August Pott and Johann von der Gabelentz identified the language as Hungarian and notified the Hungarian Academy of Sciences about their discovery. Thirty years later, in 1894, Paul Schwenke, the new librarian of the library, re-examined the manuscript. He realized that the binding’s internal pastedowns contained written text as well: four out of the five pastedowns appeared to be written in Hungarian.2 The Hungarian texts were published repeatedly in the course of the 19th and 20th centuries,3 but the manuscript itself which contained the fragments, received little attention. It perished in the Second World War, together with most of the books in Königsberg (now Kaliningrad, Russian Federation), before any detailed codicological examination had been carried out. Luckily, the flyleaf with the Hungarian text and the Pastedowns of the binding had been detached from the manuscript beforehand and received the I would like to thank Prof.em. Alison Stones, who has corrected my English text. Emil Julius Hugo Steffenhagen, ‘Handschriftliche Funde aus Königsberger Bibliotheken’, in Altpreußische Monatsschrift 1 (1864) 750-752; András Vizkelety, ‘A Königsbergi Töredék új lelőhelye’, in Magyar Könyvszemle 100 (1984) 330-333; in English: András Vizkelety, ‘The Königsberg Fragment’, in The New Hungarian Quarterly 26/99 (1985) 159-162. For a full catalog of the relocated manuscripts, see Ralf Päsler, ‘Zum Handschriftenbestand der ehemaligen Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Königsberg. Quellenrepertorium und neues Standortverzeichnis’, in Scriptorium 61 (2007) 198-217, here p. 213. 3 Emil Jakubovich and Dezső Pais, Ó-magyar olvasókönyv [Old-Hungarian Anthology], Pécs, 1929, 173–192; reprint editions: Budapest, 1971; Budapest, 1995; Loránd Benkő, Az Árpádkor magyar nyelvű szövegemlékei [The Linguistic Monuments in Hungarian Language of the Árpádian age], Budapest, 1980, 49–52; Áron Szilády, ‘A Königsbergi Töredék’ [The Königsberg Fragment], Akadémia Értesítő 5 (1895) 561–580. 1 2

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shelfmark Ms. 1194a.4 The cassette preserving the flyleaf – but lacking the Pastedowns – surfaced in the University Library of Toruń in 1983, where it received the shelfmark Rps 25/III. Ms. 1194 including the fragments was a codex containing for the most part theological writings by Vincent of Beauvais. Although no detailed description of the manuscript was published, a few scholars have made a preliminary account of its contents. In 2018, I published the notes of Emil Jakubovich, an eminent scholar of Old Hungarian, who examined the manuscript on two occasions in Berlin in 1930 and 1932.5 He noted that the manuscript consisted of 108 folios containing the following texts (I include all the scraps of information contained in his notes): 1r-1v: The original location of the Hungarian fragment (Ms. 1194a, now Torún, Rps 25/III) 2r-43v: Vincent of Beauvais, De poenitentia. Inc.: Summe collecte ex patrum summis. Quoniam peccantibus… 44r-82v: Vincent of Beauvais, Liber de laudibus beate Marie virginis. Inc.: Tractatus de beata virgine. Quoniam de gestis beatissime uirginis… 83r-88v: Vincent of Beauvais, Liber Johannis Evangeliste. Inc.: Incipit libellus beati Johannis ewangeliste editus ab eodem fratre. 90r-97v: Miracula Umbriae [read: V. Mariae ?]. On the bottom of 97v: Anno domini Xíííj c 2o [=1402] post Omnium Sanctorum. 98r-106r: Sermo bonus de Sancto Johannes evangelista. 106v-107r: blank 107v: Various notes: Dinstlichen grus, Liber iste datus est fr[atr]ibus minoribus antiqui conuentus Welouiensis. 108r-108v: Inc.: Ecce magi ab oriente… At the end, by another hand: In nomine domini Amen. Anno natiuitatis eiusdem millesimo CCCmo lx. indictione prima pontificatus Bonifacii pape noni anno 3o die autem mensis Aprilis fui in Wratislauia in habitacula honorabilis viri Petri de Boleslauia vicecancellarii causarum et audiencie loci eiusdem suae. The codex originally contained two codicological units on parchment (2r–43v; 44r–97v and 108), written in the 13th or 14th centuries. According to the description by Jakubovich, six leaves were cut Péter Tóth, ‘A Königsbergi Töredék és Szalagjai újabb vizsgálata’ [New Research of the Königsberg Fragment and its Pastedowns], in Edit Madas (ed.), “Látjátok feleim..." Magyar nyelvemlékek a kezdetektől a 16. század elejéig [“Látjátok feleim…” Hungarian Linguistic Monuments from the Beginnings to the early 16th Century], Budapest, 2009, 97-118, here p. 101; Vizkelety, ‘A Königsbergi Töredék’. 5 Annamária Kovács, ‘Jakubovich Emil jegyzetei a Königsbergi Töredék őrzőkódexéről’ [Emil Jakubovich’s Notes of the Codex Containing the Königsberg Fragment and its Pastedowns], in Magyar Könyvszemle, 134, 3 (2018) (in print). 4

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out between 96v and 97r, which were blank (we do not know why he assumed this, perhaps the remaining stubs were visible). The third codicological unit (written on paper, in the 15th century) was inserted between f. 97v and f. 108r. According to notes on f. 107v and 108v, it is clear that the owner of the manuscript was in Wrocław in 1360 in the house of Peter of Boleslaw, and the codex became part of the Franciscan Library of Wehlau (now Znamensk near Kaliningrad). Jakubovich’s notes are confirmed by current research on the history of the Königsberg library, which claims that several manuscripts of the Wehlau Franciscan convent arrived to the Tapiau (now Gvardeysk) library of the Teutonic order, including this codex, and from there it reached the Königsberg University Library.6 As only a few written fragments of medieval Hungarian dating from before the 15th century survive, many scholars have dealt with the so called “Königsberg Fragment and its Pastedowns” since its discovery. In fact, these notes seem to be the third oldest longer text written in Hungarian after the “Old Hungarian funerary sermon and prayer” (ca. 1200), and the “Lament of Mary” (ca. 1300).7 In spite of extensive research, several questions remain unanswered about both the Hungarian text and the Latin manuscript containing it. It remains unclear, for example, whether the 14th century text is a copy of an earlier translation, or a new composition, contemporary to the age of the codex itself. Similarly, the question of the source of the Hungarian text remained unresolved until Péter Tóth found photographs of the manuscript in the legacy of Emil Jakubovich in 2009.8 On the basis of this discovery, the Königsberg Fragment and its Pastedowns may probably be identified as a fragmentary translation of some passages of the Liber de laudibus beate Marie Virginis once included in that same manuscript.

Arno Mentzel-Reuters, Arma spiritualia: Bibliotheken, Bücher und Bildung im Deutschen Orden, Wiesbaden, 2003, p. 371. According to the early catalog, our manuscript bore the shelfmark B 52 in the Tapiau library; it is identified with the description “Ein geschribenn pergamen buch, deß anfang lautendt: Quoniam peccantibus etc.” For the edition of the catalog, see Eckhard Grunewald, ‘Das Register der Ordensliberei Tapiau aus den Jahren 1541-1543. Eine Quelle zur Frühgeschichte der ehem. Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek Königsberg’, in Berichte und Forschungen. Jahrbuch des Bundesinstituts für ostdeutsche Kultur und Geschichte 1 (1993), 6391. Later, the manuscript was part of the “Landesherrbibliothek”; see Bernhart Jähnig, ‘Katalog der Handschriften der landesherrlichen Bibliothek in Königsberg 1700/1720’, in Axel E. Walter (ed.), Königsberger Buch- und Bibliotheksgeschichte, Köln, 2004, 251-302, here p. 270. 7 See the corpus of medieval Hungarian texts discussed in Madas, “Látjátok feleim...". 8 Tóth, ‘A Königsbergi Töredék és Szalagjai’, p. 97-118. 6

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Fig. 1: Königsberg, University Library, Ms. 1194, f. 44r: the prologue of the Liber de laudibus beate Marie virginis by Vincent of Beauvais

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Fig. 2: Königsberg, University Library, Ms. 1194, f. 45r: the first chapter of the Liber de laudibus beate Marie virginis by Vincent of Beauvais

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Although the Königsberg Fragment and its Pastedowns consist of two different parts, they once belonged to a single work, the protagonist of which seems to have been the Virgin Mary. The Fragment, nine lines of text in total, once found on f. 1r of Ms. 1194, is the end of a translation, followed by several unrelated Latin notes on the same page and the back side of the leaf. These nine lines include the words of unidentified persons who claim that it has never ever happened that a virgin could bear a son and remain a virgin. These persons confirm the actual presence of the virgin and the son, but the father remains unknown. Nevertheless they draw the conclusion that the son must be God, as otherwise he could not be immaculate. The much more fragmentary Pastedowns include some sections describing the election and the mission of Gabriel and the scene of the Annunciation. Towards the end of the Pastedowns, the devils are horrified by the birth of Jesus, which seems to suggest that they are the ones who speak with astonishment in the Fragment. When the Fragment was discovered, it was thought to belong to the 12th or 13th centuries based on the linguistic features of the Hungarian text.9 Later palaeographic analysis has demonstrated that it might have been written around the mid-14th century. Nevertheless, historians of the Hungarian language dated it to a much earlier period: István Kniezsa claimed that the orthography of the text reflects the tendencies of the late 12th century,10 and Éva B. Lőrinczy agreed with this dating in her monograph about the Hungarian fragment.11 Loránd Benkő addressed the date of the text in detail in his “The remnants of the Hungarian language from the Árpádian age”,12 and linguists generally still agree with his dating of 1200. Péter Tóth however argued in 2009 that it is probable that the Hungarian translation project is contemporary with Ms. 1194 itself.13 He realized – just as Emil Jakubovich did in his manuscript notes – that the Fragment and the Pastedowns must have been a part of the manuscript before they were detached and reused as a flyleaf to the same manuscript, as the Hungarian texts in the binding were written by one of the hands who wrote part of Ms. 1194 as well. Obviously the possibility that the Fragment and the Pastedowns contain a translation that was conceived earlier need not be excluded, but the presence of the Liber de laudibus beate Marie Virginis in Ms. 1194 makes this unlikely, if it is true that the Hungarian texts are paraphrased from that

Ferenc Toldy, [Without title], in Budapesti Szemle 18 (1863) 129–130. István Kniezsa, A magyar helyesírás története [The History of Hungarian Orthography], Budapest, 1952, 85– 87. 11 Éva B. Lőrinczy, A Königsbergi Töredék és Szalagjai mint nyelvi emlék [The Königsberg Fragment and its Pastedowns as a Linguistic Monument], Budapest, 1953, p. 5 and 21-23. 12 Loránd Benkő, Az Árpád-kor magyar nyelvű szövegemlékei [The Linguistic Monuments in Hungarian Language of the Árpádian age], Budapest, 1980, p. 26. 13 Tóth, ‘A Königsbergi Töredék és Szalagjai’, p. 115. 9

10

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Fig. 3 and 4: Ms. Königsberg, University Library, Ms. 1194a, f. 1r, now Ms. Torún, Rps 25/III: two photos of the Fragment

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Fig. 5 and 6: Ms. Königsberg, University Library, 1194: the four Pastedowns in Hungarian (recto and verso)

work, as Péter Tóth has hypothesised.14 Thus, the very same scribe who copied some texts to Ms. 1194 would be the author of the translations as well. Despite these arguments, historians of the language tried to refute this hypothesis by linguistic arguments.15 My own research has confirmed Péter Tóth’s hypothesis. The De laudibus beate Marie Virginis is a Mariological anthology by Vincent of Beauvais. There exists no critical edition of this rather popular work, which is transmitted in 52 surviving manuscripts, and two lost ones, including the one that was once in Königsberg,16 In the De laudibus beate Marie Virginis we can find the Latin parallels for Tóth, ‘A Königsbergi Töredék és Szalagjai’, p. 116–118. Ferenc A. Molnár, ‘A Königsbergi Töredék és Szalagjai (és más korai szövegemlékeink) datálásához’ [The dating of the Königsberg Fragment and its Pastedowns (and Other Early Hungarian Linguistic Monuments)], in Magyar Nyelv 110 (2014) 305–321; László Holler, ‘“Ki miatt ördögök szörnyülének és csodálkodván úgy szólának”. Kronológia és szövegrekonstrukció: a 120 éve felfedezett Königsbergi Szalagok alapkérdéseiről’ [Chronology and Reconstruction of Texts: the Fundamental Questions of the Königsberg Pastedowns Discovered for 120 Years], in Nyelvtudományi Közlemények 109 (2013) 268–336. 16 See: http://www.vincentiusbelvacensis.eu/ mss/mssLBV.html, accessed on 7.11. 2018. A study by Hans Voorbij contains important remarks about the relationship of this compilation to two versions of Vincent’s Speculum historiale, according to which the text of the earlier version of the Speculum historiale and of the Liber de laudibus coincide in some parts, which were later left out of the Speculum historiale by Vincent. See J.B. Voorbij, ‘La version Klosterneuburg et la version Douai du Speculum historiale: manifestations de l’évolution du texte’, in Monique Paulmier-Foucart, Serge Lusignan, and Alain Nadeau (ed.), Vincent de Beauvais: 14 15

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some parts of the Hungarian text. The 15th and 16th chapters are about the mission of Gabriel and the Annunciation. In the 15th chapter, the Lord instructs Gabriel about his duties (“Vade, inquit, Gabriel, ethereas sedes rumpe, et antiquum pro seculo consilium virgini nostre defer Marie”) as in the Pastedowns. Furthermore, the Lord tells Gabriel on the Pastedowns how to greet Mary, and what Gabriel should say to her. Hence, the Hungarian text includes the actual translation of the Ave Maria. Vincent of Beauvais cites the Ave Maria, too, although the text of the prayer is not uttered by God, but by Mary, when she speaks about the annunciation in first person singular in the 79th chapter. Another parallel between the two works is that both of them mention the rod of Aaron. In the 77th chapter of the De laudibus beate Marie Virginis, the rod of Aaron serves an argument against the Manicheans and the Jews, who do not believe that a virgin could bear a child, while in the third chapter of the work, it is mentioned as a typological symbol of Mary in the introductory words of Vincent to the chapter, derived from a sermon of St Bernard (“Quid virga Aaron florida non tamen humectata nisi Mariam ipsam concipientem licet virum non cognoscentem?”).17 Unfortunately, the context of this fragment on the Pastedowns is not identical, as it is God in the Hungarian who employs this metaphor, as he tells the purpose of his mission to archangel Gabriel. The longest surviving passage of the Hungarian text mentions that "from the beginning of the world, it has not happened to us that a virgin could bear a child, and the mirror of virginity could remain chaste, and we would have no notice of it.”18 The expression "from the beginning of the world” appears several times in the compilation of Vincent. First, we read in the 73th chapter that "From the beginning of the world it is an unheard of fact that a virgin would bear a child, and being a mother, remain a virgin still: she is the only one, in whom fertility and virginity meet (“A seculo quippe non est auditum quod virgo peperit, quod mater virgo permansit, sola hec est, in qua fecunditas et virginitas obuiauerunt sibi.”) The subject of this chapter however is the “miraculous commixtion”, about which there is no mention on the Fragment and the Pastedowns. The same expression “from the beginning of the world” turns up in the 86th chapter, and the context here seems more appropriate. It is the Devil himself (“Draco”) who speaks in this chapter and is dumbfounded by the virgin’s birth, and it was probably also the Devil who uttered these words in Hungarian on the Fragment. The argument of Vincent’s Devil closely resembles the text of the Fragment, as in both intentions et réceptions d’une oeuvre encyclopédique au Moyen Age. Actes du XIV e Colloque de l’Institut d’études médiévales, organisé conjointement par l’Atelier Vincent de Beauvais ... et l’Institut d’études médiévales ... 27-30 avril 1988, Saint-Laurent/Paris 1990 (Cahiers d’études médiévales. Cahier spécial 4), 111-140, here p. 130135). 17 De laudibus Virginis Matris, Homilia II, in J.P. Migne (ed.), Patrologia Latina, vol. 183, 63. 18 “Úgy szólánok: világnak kezdetüitül fugva rohjtonk ez nem lött vala, hugy szűz leán fiot szülhessen, szűzségnek tükere tisztán maradhassun, és nekünk hírünk benne ne lejessen.” See Figures 3 and 4.

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passages, the speaker expresses his astonishment that it has never ever happened that somebody was born and he did not know about it. Both the Latin and the Hungarian speakers mention that he sees the mother and the child, but he does not know who the father is, and both draw the conclusion that the child must be God. Beyond the investigation of textual parallels, a further aim of my research is a digital reconstruction of the codex itself. The most important sources for this project are the photographs and notes which Emil Jakubovich prepared in his lifetime, and survive now in the Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in his bequest.19 Jakubovich was one of the few scholars who realized the importance of the original manuscript containing the Fragment and the Pastedowns, took notes from it, and had photographs made of the pages which he considered important. Altogether, 61 pages of the original 108 folios – approximately 28 percent of the entire manuscript – survive in copy. An in-depth analysis of all the surviving pages would allow a thorough re-examination of the hands active in the manuscript, and could confirm or reject the hypothesis advanced by Péter Tóth that the scribe of the Hungarian texts made some annotations on the margins of the Latin manuscript as well.20 There remain numerous unanswered questions. How long was the Hungarian translation? Was it restricted to certain passages, or do the fragments represent an extensive translation project? What was the purpose of the translation? What patterns do the traces of reception reveal in other manuscripts of the De laudibus? Did its users use this Mariological anthology as a source for preaching, or as a reading in convents? What are the typical characteristics of the surviving copies of the De laudibus? Are there any translations prepared from it in the vernacular? I would gladly receive any information about the surviving manuscripts of the Liber de laudibus, and the context of its textual variants.

19 20

Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Ms. 4820/323, Ms. 4822/14–24 and Ms. 4822/230. Tóth, ‘A Königsbergi Töredék és Szalagjai’, p. 116.

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Recent publications dealing with Vincent of Beauvais

Articles •

Isabelle Draelants, with the collaboration of E. Frunzeanu, ‘Creation, Generation, Force, Motion, Habit: Medieval Theoretical Definitions of Nature’, in Florence Bretelle-Establet , Marie Gaille and Mehrnaz Katouzian-Safâdi (ed.) Health and Environment. Elements of a Global History (Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science), 2018 (forthcoming).

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Annamária Kovács, ‘Jakubovich Emil jegyzetei a Königsbergi Töredék őrzőkódexéről’ [Emil Jakubovich’s Notes of the Codex Containing the Königsberg Fragment and its Pastedowns], in Magyar Könyvszemle, 134, 3 (2018) (in print).

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Isabelle Draelants, ‘La Biblionomia de Richard de Fournival : une bibliothèque d’encyclopédiste? Enquête comparative sur les textes et les manuscrits’, in Joëlle Ducos and Christopher Lucken (ed.), Richard de Fournival et les sciences au XIIIe siècle, Firenze, 2018 (Micrologus’ Library, 88), p. 83-122.

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Thomas E. Burman, ‘Inspicientes — et non inspicientes — eius legem: Thirteenth-Century Dominicans, the Qur'an, and Islam’, in Journal of Qur'anic Studies 20 (2018), p. 33-50.

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Isabelle Draelants, ‘Magica vero sub philosophia non continetur : Statut des arts magiques et divinatoires dans les encyclopédies et leurs auctoritates (1225-1260)’, in Alessandro Palazzo and Irene Zavaterro (ed.), Geomancy and Other Forms of Divination, Firenze, 2017 (Micrologus’ Library, 87), p. 463-518.

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Colophon Editors: Dr. Hans Voorbij and Dr. Eva Albrecht Postal address: Blasiusstraat 47 – 8972 Krombeke (Poperinge) – Belgium Email: [email protected] Unsubscribe information If you do not like to receive the Vincent of Beauvais Newsletter, you can unsubscribe by sending a message to [email protected] .

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