Wolfenbüttel HAB Cod. Guelf. 51. 9. Aug. 4º and BL, …¼ttel HAB Cod. Guelf. 51. 9. Aug. 4º and...

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Wolfenbüttel HAB Cod. Guelf. 51. 9.Aug. 4º and BL, Harley MS. 3542:Complementary Witnesses to RalphHoby’s 1437 Treatise on AstronomicalMedicineLinda Ehrsam Voigts

In volume 4 of Lynn Thorndike’s A History of Magic and Experimental Science, in a discussion of fifteenth-century astrological medicine,1 we find the following passage:

In … 1437 … someone finished either composing or copying ‘A Treatise ofAstronomical Physic for the greater security of the exercise of the art of medicine’.The manuscript in which this composition occurs is now in the library atWolfenbüttel, but it came from some English monastery … Such questions are putto the stars as: what is the cause of the sickness and nature of the disease? is thesickness curable? will the physician benefit or harm the patient? in what part of thebody is the disease, above or below, on the right or left side, before or behind? is thesickness one of the body or soul? is it new or inveterate? will the disease alter fromone form to another? what will the color of the urine be? when will the patient recoveror die? The author also considers the relation of the signs and planets to differentparts of the body and their ailments … Such Arabic astrologers as Aomar, Haly andAlkindi are cited; also Dorotheus, Aristotle, Grosseteste, William of England, andRoger Bacon. These last citations as well as the provenance of the manuscript ratherpoint to an English author.2

Thorndike described this text as found in Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek, Cod.Guelf. 51.9.Aug. 4°, ff. 123-33, as significant in the history of medieval science andmedicine, but he was unaware of the author and uncertain as to whether or not 1437represented the date of composition, and he believed the manuscript came from an Englishmonastery.

eBLJ 2008, Article 10

1 I am grateful for the assistance of a number of people who aided me in my consultation role during the cataloguingof Harley medical manuscripts: Claire Breay, Peter Jones, Scot McKendrick, Laura Nuvoloni, Pamela Robinson,and Christopher Wright, and for further assistance in my pursuit of Ralph Hoby: Barrie Dobson, A. I. Doyle,Diana Greenway, Nicholas Orme, Jane Sayers, and M. Teresa Tavormina.

2 Lynn Thorndike, A History of Magic and Experimental Science, 8 vols (New York, 1923-58), vol. iv (1954), pp. 145-6. Because there is a difference in incipit identification between the entries for the Wolfenbüttel and Harleyversions of the text in question, they are separately identified with no indication of connection in Thorndike andPearl Kibre, A Catalogue of Incipits of Mediaeval Scientific Writings in Latin, rev. ed. (Cambridge, MA, 1963),1313D for Wolfenbüttel (incipit: ‘Radicem fidei non enervat(?) corpora planetarum’; title: ‘Tract. phisiceastronomice’), and 369L for Harley (incipit: ‘De convalescentia et debilitate infirmorum paucas interrogationesastronomicas’; title: ‘Tract. physicae astronomicae’). The use of letters identifies specific records in this researchtool, as utilized in eTK, the on-line version of the work forthcoming on the US National Library of Medicine,History of Medicine website: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/. Subsequent references are abbreviated eTK.

Wolfenbüttel HAB Cod. Guelf. 51. 9. Aug. 4º and BL, Harley MS. 3542: Complementary Witnesses toRalph Hoby’s 1437 Treatise on Astronomical Medicine

2 eBLJ 2008, Article 10

Thorndike’s speculations can now be resolved as a consequence of the cataloguing ofmedical manuscripts in the Harley Collection at the British Library, an effort funded by theWellcome Trust. That undertaking resulted not only in Laura Nuvoloni’s invaluable on-linemanuscript descriptions, but also in identifying many previously uncatalogued texts in theHarley Collection. One such treatise is the work Thorndike described in the Wolfenbüttelmanuscript. That text is also to be found in Harley 3542, ff. 103-110, and that versionresolves some of Thorndike’s questions. See the description of Harley 3542 by LauraNuvoloni on-line at www.bl.uk/catalogues/manuscripts and figs 1W and 1H.

A comparison of these two manuscripts and of their treatment of the text in questionshould begin with the Herzog August Bibliothek codex, the earlier of the two versions,where the treatise in question survives as a carefully written single text in a discrete booklet,ff. 123-33. The manuscript itself is described in the catalogue by Von Heinemann as acomposite manuscript containing some ten astrological and mathematical treatises fromseveral centuries.3 The texts include three on mathematics and geometry; a computus; apseudo-Ptolemy astronomical treatise; tables for astronomy and logic; and two texts on theconstruction and use of the astrolabe. The work that is singled out by Thorndike amongfifteenth-century scientific writings is found near the end of the Wolfenbüttel codex andidentified by Von Heinemann as 9, ‘Tractatus physice astronomice ad magnam securitatemexercitii artis medicine’.

The Wolfenbüttel codex has protective flyleaves containing English names, apparentlyfrom an English monastic cartulary, and two contents lists that correspond only partially tothe texts in the codex. These contents lists were written by Roger Marchall (fl. 1436-1477),a Cambridge-trained royal physician who was a major donor of books to Cambridge colleges(see figs 5 and 6).4 In 1995 I published a study identifying 44 manuscripts which Marchallannotated and to which he supplied contents lists, along with others with some connectionto him. In the intervening years, Cambridge University Library MS. Kk.4.7 hassubsequently been identified as a Marchall manuscript, so the two Wolfenbüttel contentslists suggest the existence of the forty-sixth and forty-seventh Marchall manuscripts knownto me. They will be discussed further in this study regarding a probable Marchallconnection with the booklet containing the treatise on astronomical medicine that is alsofound in Harley 3542.

In the manuscript held at the Herzog August Bibliothek, the treatise in question has beenwritten on a quire separate from the other texts in the codex and bears no relation to them.A. I. Doyle describes the script of this discrete booklet as having the fluency of aprofessional secretary hand, while at the same time making use of Anglicana letter-forms.He dates the hand to the mid-fifteenth century.5 The Wolfenbüttel booklet emphasizeswords and phrases with red underlining and also utilizes a hierarchy of gothic script for theincipit and authority citations. See, for example, fig. 1W for the incipit and the authoritycitation for Willelmus Anglicus in fig. 2W. A horoscope diagram is found on f. 130v (fig. 3W).

3 Otto von Heinemann, Die Handschriften der Herzoglichen Bibliothek zu Wolfenbüttel, Zweite Abtheilung [sic] dieAugusteischen Handschriften, vol. v (Wolfenbüttel, 1903), no. 3549, pp. 58-9.

4 Voigts, ‘Marchall, Roger’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, 2004), and Voigts, ‘A Doctor and HisBooks: The Manuscripts of Roger Marchall (d. 1477)’, in New Science out of Old Books: Studies in Manuscripts andEarly Printed Books in Honour of A. I. Doyle (Aldershot, 1995), pp. 249-314. As Von Heinemann notes, there is alsoan inscription referring to the first text in the Wolfenbüttel manuscript, f. 1r, ‘ex dono M. Rogeri Marshal [sic]…’,but that inscription is by a later hand, not by Marchall.

5 Personal communication, 13 July 2008. I am also grateful for the analysis of hands in the two manuscripts by LauraNuvoloni and Pamela Robinson. Both of them concur in A. I. Doyle’s mid-fifteenth century dating of theWolfenbüttel manuscript.


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What is important about the colophon to the treatise in Wolfenbüttel, f. 133, is that itoriginally contained the identification of the author, Ralph Hoby OFM as found in theHarley colophon, f. 110. See figs 4W and 4H. The crucial information has been scrapedaway in the Herzog August Bibliothek codex, f. 133, but it can for the most part be identifiedby the naked eye familiar with the Harley colophon. In both cases it reads ‘[H: Et] sic finiturtractatus parvus scilicet utilis collectus a fratrem radulpho hoby herfordensi ordinisminorum anno gracie 1437 [H primo die junii: Benedictus deus Amen]’.6 The lettersscraped out, but discernible, in Wolfenbüttel are here underlined.

To turn to Harley 3542, we find that the author’s name is also provided in the commentsprefatory to the list of chapters or interrogations. ‘[I]ncipit tractatus physice astronomicecollectus ad magnam securitatem exercitii (?) artis medicine per solitudinem ffratrisRadulphi Hoby’ (see fig. 1 H). Because it is difficult to ascertain the actual beginning of thetext with this conflated rubric and prologue, the Thorndike Kibre citation for the text asfound in Harley 3542, taken from the contents list, differs from that given for theWolfenbüttel codex. See note 2.

There is no question but that the author of this treatise is the Hereford Franciscansometime present in Oxford, Ralph Hoby, and that the date of composition of the treatisewas 1437, almost certainly confirmed by external evidence.7 I have elsewhere discussed thetradition of Franciscan astrology in England, records concerning Ralph Hoby, and thetreatise and its sources.8 This present discussion is a further exploration of the evidence forthe text based on a close examination of the two manuscript witnesses.

Harley 3542 is made up of three sections which have been bound together at least sincethe seventeenth century. The following discussion owes much to Laura Nuvoloni’sdescription. The first of the three divisions, ff. 1-16, contains three 15th-century MiddleEnglish translations of works on alchemy and metallurgy. The second booklet, ff. 17-94,contains sixteen Latin texts, most of them dealing with alchemy. The first two sections takentogether give us both English and Latin versions of the Pseudo-Albertan Semita Recta.Following the alchemical texts in the second section is a late 15th- or early 16th-centuryMiddle English treatise on how to use the two-handed sword, and this second bookletconcludes with medical and alchemical recipes and charms, mostly Latin, some macaronic.

It is the third section of Harley 3542, ff. 95-118, made up of two quires of twelve, that isrelevant to the Hoby treatise. These two quires probably should not be considered a discretebooklet, but rather are two gatherings separated from a larger manuscript. The first of fourMiddle English recipes at the top of f. 95 is acephalous, and the four remedies likelyrepresent the end of a larger receptary. The final text on measurement, f. 118v, appears tobe the initial section of a longer treatise. Although incomplete as a booklet, ff. 95-118, thethird section of Harley 3542, written by two careless hands from the second half of thefifteenth century, displays a certain unity. The script used for the Hoby text utilizes mostlyAnglicana letter forms and is highly compressed and abbreviated (see figs 1H, 2H, 3H, 4H).9


6 The colophon in Wolfenbüttel is followed by ‘Per omnia’ and a nomen sacrum in later scripts.7 For some information on Hoby, see A. B. Emden, Biographical Register of the University of Oxford to A.D. 1500

(Oxford, 1958), vol. ii, p. 939. Hoby’s expertise and presence in Oxford at a date relevant to 1437 is confirmed bya notation by William Worcester in Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Laud misc. 674, f. 99v: ‘Expliciant 1022 stellefixe … anno gratie 1440 secundum tabulas Alfonsi et erudicionem Fratris Radulphi Hoby, professoris theologie acdisciplinam librorum Fratris Johannis Somour, ordinis Minorum ….’ Additional information on the connectionsbetween Hoby’s treatise and Worcester is provided in my forthcoming study, cited below.

8 ‘The Medical Astrology of Ralph Hoby, 15th Century Franciscan’ in The Friars in Medieval Britain, HarlaxtonSymposium, 2007, ed. Nicholas Rogers (Donington, forthcoming).

9 I am grateful to Laura Nuvoloni and Pamela Robinson for their advice on this hand.


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In the Hoby treatise there can be as many as 43 lines in a written space of c. 170 mm inheight, so the scribe is able to provide much text in little space. There is minimal decoration,and the only visual material consists of the horoscope, f. 108 (fig. 3H), and a bloodlettingman on f. 112v. Some effort has been made to introduce an inexpert gothic script for chaptertitles in the Hoby treatise, as on f. 107 (see figs 2H and 4H).

Following the opening recipes in the third section of Harley 3542 are three Latin texts onpulse: the first, on f. 95, an almost illegible verse on pulse and humours; the second, ff. 95v-97, the prose De pulsibus of Walter Agilon; and the third, an unidentified passage on pulse,on f. 97. Then follows the Trota or Trotula De ornatu mulierum, ff. 97v-100v, a work oncosmetics that was part of a medical compendium.10 On ff. 101-2 is a Latin text, perhaps anextract from a longer work, on five kinds of materia medica citing Dioscorides, Galen, andPlatearius: satirion, borage, jarus, borax, and oxymel. Samuel Knott apparently identifiesthis text with the writings of John Arderne in a gloss in the upper margin of f. 101, but thereappears to be no obvious identification with the known writings of Arderne.11 On f. 102v,originally blank in an otherwise crowded quire, is a sixteenth-century addition of nearlyillegible Latin verse having to do with the hour of death.

After these initial short works in the third booklet, Hoby’s treatise follows on ff. 103-10,preceded by prologue and list of chapters or interrogations (fig. 1H). Like Wolfenbüttel, theHarley codex contains a horoscope diagram, f. 108 (figs 3W, 3H), but — unlike Wolfenbüttel— Harley also contains before the diagram on f. 107v, what appears to be an unrelated briefembedded text discussed below. Following the Hoby colophon on f. 110 (fig. 4H) are anotherastronomical note, perhaps to be inserted in the Hoby treatise; eight more lines of Latinverse on pulse with prose notes on the subject; and a dense text on the location of the GadesHerculis (Cadiz).

The remainder of the third section consists of several relatively short texts, beginningwith what appears to be a composite treatise on uroscopy, ff. 110v-111v, the first partidentifiable with eTK 1610B, and the second, ff. 111rv, with eTK 1608C or 1004G.12 Theuroscopy text is followed, ff. 111v-112, by a common treatise on phlebotomy, eTK 875H,with two additional unidentified lines on hematoscopy (f. 112); three paragraphs onastrological reckoning for bloodletting, f. 112; and the pen sketch of a bloodletting man onf. 112v. Although the figure of the man does not indicate bloodletting points, the diagram issurrounded by the traditional listing of twenty bloodletting veins. Folio 112v also containsa Latin recipe and a charm, ‘Contra inimicos’.

Folios 113-16v contain excerpts from the writings of Rogerius de Barone, called theRogerina, where Roger de Baron is cited as ‘Roger Barnes’ — sections on oils and syrups. Itcontains an embedded section, ff. 115v-116v, on clisters, suppositories, and pessaries takenfrom Roger of Parma, also known as Roger Frugardi. The Rogerina material is followed onf. 116v by tables of latitudes for the seven climates identified with Greek names. Demirabilibus Britanniae maioris in 37 sections is the subsequent text on ff. 117-118v,apparently an expanded version of Nennius, adding additional mirabilia for England.13 Thethird section concludes with an apparently incomplete short treatise on measurement,wanting the standard treatment of weights.

10 See Nuvoloni’s discussion of the scholarship of Monica Green relevant to this text in the British Library on-linecatalogue.

11 See the study by Laura Nuvoloni on the manuscripts and glossing habits of Samuel Knott, eBLJ (2008) art. 7. I am grateful to Peter Jones for evaluating this passage as a possible Arderne text and finding the connectionunlikely.

12 M. Teresa Tavormina has kindly suggested this fusion of texts.13 I am grateful to Nicholas Orme for his comments on the mirabilia found in this treatise.



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The combination of texts found in this third section of Harley 3542 is unusual in onerespect, that is, in the presence of topographical texts in what is otherwise a medicalmanuscript. The works on the Gades Herculis, on latitudes of climates, and on the mirabiliaof the British Isles are unlikely in a medical compendium and may suggest furtherconnections between Ralph Hoby and William Worcester.14

Most of the medical texts in the third section of this manuscript are themselves quitecommon, and appear frequently in what might be called ‘middle market’ medicalcompendia. However, the Walter of Agilon and Rogerina material suggest a familiarity withuniversity medical writing, and the Ralph Hoby treatise is quite exceptional. It is muchmore academic than the other medical writing in this section of the manuscript, and itrequires a high level of astronomical learning and expertise to be utilized in any practicalway. Indeed, its level of sophistication may suggest why it is a rare text, one in fact more athome in a compendium such as the Herzog August Bibliothek manuscript than in the thirdsection of Harley 3542.

Perhaps the west country provenance of Harley 3542 may be of some significance, givenRalph Hoby’s identification with the Franciscan convent in Hereford. The earliestidentifiable ownership of Harley 3542 is that of Samuel Knott (d. 1687), rector of CombeRaleigh and priest of Broad Hembury, both in county Devon. Knott supplied a number ofmarginal annotations throughout the manuscript, as discussed in Laura Nuvoloni’s articlein this journal. From him or from his estate it was acquired by Robert Burscough (1651-1709), prebendary of Exeter and archdeacon of Barnstaple, and was part of a collectionpurchased from Burscough’s widow for the Harleian library in 1715 for £40.15

Finally, the two witnesses to Ralph Hoby’s Treatise of Astronomical Physic —Wolfenbüttel Herzog August Bibliothek Cod. Guelf. 51.9.Aug. 4°, ff. 123r-133r, hereaftercited as W, and British Library Harley 3542, ff. 103r-110r, hereafter cited as H — can becompared. W is the earlier of the two witnesses, and much the more clearly written. Notethat the Hoby treatise occupies 19½ pages in W, in contrast to the intensely abbreviated textin H (a smaller codex), which occupies 14½ pages.

These two copies of the work are, however, related. They both present the text in a similarway (see figs 1W, 1H). A brief prologue is followed by a list of the interrogations, which makeup the chapter divisions, before the text itself begins (on f. 123v of W and following the tableof chapters on f. 103r of H). W allows a separate line for each chapter title, whereas the titlesare sometimes run on in H. In both manuscripts the chapters in the text itself are in asequence different from the chapter lists at the beginning, and in both cases the wording ofchapter titles in the text varies somewhat from the preliminary listing. Both W and Hunderline the same passage beginning ‘Parabole aliorum sapiencium’, W, f. 124, and H, f.103v, and both share a blank between ‘operantur’ and ‘Si’, W, f. 128, and H, f. 106r.

Nonetheless there are significant differences in the treatment of the Hoby text betweenthe two codices, arguably suggesting the priority of W as a witness to the Hoby treatise.There are several instances of blanks in the text in W that suggest the scribe’s awareness ofmissing text, blanks not found in H, where the text is presented as continuous. Scribalblanks may indicate that the scribe could not read his exemplar or that the original text wasincomplete. The following blanks occur in W but not in H: between ‘morietur’ and ‘Aspice’,W, f. 125r, not present H, f. 104r; between ‘in eo’ and ‘Cum’, W, f. 127v, not present H, f.105v; between ‘infortutus’ and ‘per’, W, f. 128r, not present H, f. 106r; between ‘anima’ and‘¶ Cum’, again W, f. 128r, not present H, f. 106r.

14 See n. 7. The study cited in n. 8 deals more fully with Worcester.15 See the Nuvoloni study of Knott cited above, n. 11, and Cyril Wright, Fontes Harleiani (London, 1972),

pp. 87-9.



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There is also an instance where words missing in H, f. 106v, and indicated by a blank, arein fact supplied in the text in W, f. 129r. Where W reads ‘costas quas(?) & virga & renesG[alen] declarat’, there is a blank between ‘costas’ and ‘declarat’ in H, partially infilled withan insert mark, although I have not found a passage to be supplied. W, f. 130v, also containsinformation in the horoscope diagram not found in H, f. 108r, where W provides the planetlocation ‘sol 8’ (see figs 3W, 3H).

A significant difference between the two versions of the Hoby text occurs where the textin H is fuller than in W, apparently because the scribe of H, or his exemplar, supplied whatseems to be another short text on what was likely a blank on the lower third of f. 107v, afterthe treatise directs the reader to the ‘figura’ of the horoscope on the next leaf. In this case,W directs the reader on f. 130r to the ‘figura’ on f. 130v and leaves a blank at the bottom off. 130r. The H scribe, however, appears to abhor a vacuum. He adds additional material onf. 107v and resumes the Hoby text under the horoscope on f. 108, whereas the space underthe horoscope is blank in W, f. 130v, resuming the text found under the horoscope in H onthe following page, f. 131r (see figs 3W, 3H).

The short text supplied in the space preceding the horoscope in H, f. 107v (and notpresent in W), may well be an interpolation unrelated to the Hoby treatise altogether. Itfollows the title ‘De complexione hominum’ and deals with the four humours. It lacks theinterrogation format of the other chapter headings in the Hoby work. It does not, however,resemble any text I have been able to identify in Thorndike and Kibre, including 269A, ‘Decomplexione corporis’ or 191K ‘Aliud documentum de complexione humana’.

The carefully written version of the treatise in W, surviving in a booklet devoted to it, isalmost certainly the better witness to what Ralph Hoby wrote than is H. H is valuablenevertheless, its careless and cramped presentation notwithstanding. Only because of H dowe know the identity of the author and have confirmation that Hoby’s treatise survives inmore than one manuscript.

A discussion of the significance of the Wolfenbüttel manuscript to our understanding ofthe treatise on medical astrology by Ralph Hoby OFM also requires an analysis of twofeatures of the codex at the beginning, f. 2v, and end, f. 138v, of the composite codex: thetwo manuscript contents lists written by Roger Marchall (figs 5 and 6). These twoinscriptions by the English royal physician Roger Marchall (fl. 1436-77) are the mostimportant clues in W for the provenance of the manuscript and for a possible source of theHoby booklet in W. For the comparable lists in other manuscripts, see figs 7 and 8.

While both Thorndike and von Heinemann saw the flyleaves from an English monasticcartulary as significant, they may well be no more than binders’ waste with no previousconnection to the codex beyond their English origin.16 The Marchall lists in W, on the otherhand, appear to be of real significance to the texts in the codex, as are Marchall’s manyannotations to the manuscript. Beneath both contents lists, the name ‘R. Marchall’ withMarchall’s customary penwork frame has been scraped out, but can be discerned (figs 5 and6). For Marchall’s name under one of his many contents lists, characteristically enclosed ina frame with open top, see the medical compendium, BL, Sloane MS. 420, f. ii verso (fig.7). For a Marchall contents list of astronomical and astrological treatises similar to thosefound in the Wolfenbüttel manuscript, see BL, Harley MS. 531, f. 1* verso (fig. 8). TheSloane contents list is significant here, not only because it displays the Marchall name, butalso because it contains, in the entry for text 15, Marchall’s characteristic abbreviation of thename ‘Aristotle’ also found in a gloss to the Hoby text in W, f. 126r.

16 I do not believe that Thorndike’s statement that ‘this composition … comes from some English monastery’ iswarranted; Thorndike, HMES, vol. iv, p. 145; and Heinemann, p. 59. Another possibly early English owner maybe reflected by the inscription on f. 1 of ‘Wylyam Wynkel/s booke’. It is not clear whether the name is ‘Wynkel’ or‘Wynke’ in the possessive.



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Between the contents list and scraped name on f. 2v of W, Marchall’s name has also beensupplied in Greek letters (fig. 5). While it is possible this was Marchall’s doing, the spacingsuggests that it was the addition of a later reader, perhaps the person who removed theEnglish form of the name below it. Roger Marchall utilized a harmonious layout in hisinscriptions, and the off-centre Greek inscription, in contrast to the position of the framedEnglish name, does not look like something Marchall was likely to do.

The two Marchall contents lists are important because they tell us of a likely possessor oftwo composite manuscripts which were the sources of the texts assembled in W.17 From thelist on f. 2v (fig. 5) texts 1, 2, and 3 are the first three treatises in W, text 4 is the seventh inW, and text 7 is the eighth. From the list on f. 138v (fig. 6) texts 7 and 8 appear to be thefourth and fifth treatises in W. The two lists may not be entirely mutually exclusive, however,as text 6 on f. 2v may be the same as text 9 on f. 138v. Of concern here is whether or not theHoby text is indicated in either contents list, and the answer is not clear. It is possible thattext 5 in the first list is the Hoby treatise which deals with complex astrological medicalprognostication, but we cannot be certain of that (fig. 5).

We can, however, be certain that the Hoby treatise was precisely the kind of text in whichRoger Marchall was intensely interested. Of the texts I surveyed in 43 of Marchall’smanuscripts, 162 were medical, and 145 were astronomical/astrological, both numbersnearly three times larger than those for other subjects.18 The Hoby treatise on medicalastrology combines Marchall’s primary interests in medicine and in celestial powers.Marchall’s keen interest in judicial astrology is revealed not only in his many manuscriptson the subject, but also in the fact that he added horoscope diagrams, sometimes signingthem, to at least three of the manuscripts he owned.19

We can also be reasonably certain that the Hoby text, like other treatises in W, passedthrough Marchall’s hands. Marchall supplied titles and rubrics to W, and his extensiveannotation and correction of the other texts in W is significant. His characteristic hand isrecognizable on ff. 15, 19v, 21v, 25v, 27rv, 32, 35v, 45v, 46v, 49, 51, 53, 57v, 58, 68 (sixteenlines in Marchall’s cursive hand), 69rv, 70rv, 71rv, 72v, 73v, 74v, 75, 91v, 114v, and 115.

Marchall similarly inscribed the margins of the Hoby treatise in two instances: f. 123v,and f. 126. In the first case, we have the marginal authority citation ‘lincoln’ referring toGrosseteste in what is apparently Marchall’s cursive hand and in Marchall’s characteristicopen-top frame, also found with his name in contents lists. The gloss corresponds to the‘lincolniensis’ marginal gloss in H, f. 103. It must have been present in the exemplar for bothmanuscripts, and Marchall would seem to have had access to the exemplar for W.

The second example of a Marchall gloss to the Hoby text in W, on f. 126, is similarly amarginal authority citation, here again in a cursive hand unlike that of the scribe, and itcorresponds exactly to the abbreviation for Aristotle in Marchall’s contents list for Sloane420 (fig. 7). This marginal authority citation is again in Marchall’s characteristic frame, andagain corresponds to the scribal notation ‘Aristotiles’ on f. 104v of H. Another marginalreference to Aristotle in the Hoby text in W, f. 126v, may also be Marchall’s hand, althoughthe identification is not so clear as in the case of the gloss on f. 126.

Roger Marchall commissioned the copying out of manuscripts containing texts of interestto him. He was resident in London from the 1450s and almost certainly ordered theproduction of a number of his manuscripts by a recognizable London scribe active in thethird quarter of the fifteenth century.20 It is certainly possible that the booklet in Wcontaining the Hoby treatise was written by a professional scribe for Marchall. The presence

17 On Marchall, see above, n. 4. Besides the 45 Marchall MSS that can indisputably be linked with him, another sixhave a likely identification, and 12 Marchall MSS have not been traced.

18 See ‘A Doctor’, p. 265. 19 On horoscope diagrams drawn in manuscripts by Marchall, see ‘A Doctor’, p. 252.20 ‘A Doctor’, p. 262.



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of his glosses and the implication that he had access to another version of the text, possiblythe exemplar, which enabled him to provide two glosses corresponding to glosses in the laterHarley text, may suggest that Marchall commissioned the W booklet containing the Hobytreatise.

A final speculation regarding the provenance of the Wolfenbüttel codex, apparentlyassembled from at least two Roger Marchall manuscripts, has to do with John Dee’spossession in the second half of the sixteenth century of a number of Roger Marchallmanuscripts, many of them from Marchall’s Cambridge college, Peterhouse.21 The Marchallmanuscripts known to have been in Dee’s possession contained works on astronomy andastrology, the subjects of W and especially Hoby’s treatise. For Marchall’sastronomical/astrological manuscripts owned a century after Marchall by Dee — M36,M37, M91, M97, and DM68 — see Dee’s library catalogue.22 In my examination of themanuscript in the Herzog August Bibliothek I did not note Dee’s characteristic delta,Jupiter, or ladder marks, but a close examination of every leaf of the codex for such marks isa desideratum.

The two witnesses to Ralph Hoby’s 1437 treatise on astronomical medicine:Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek, Cod. Guelf. 51.9.Aug. 4°, ff. 123-33, and BritishLibrary, Harley 3542, ff. 103-10, must be understood in relationship to each other. Not onlydoes each codex provide complementary evidence about the Hoby text, each also helps usunderstand the other manuscript. In addition, the association of Wolfenbüttel with theEnglish royal physician Roger Marchall (fl. 1436-77) tells us something of the earlycirculation and reception of Hoby’s treatise, as well as the mid-fifteenth-century provenanceof the Herzog August Bibliothek manuscript.

21 ‘A Doctor’, pp. 289-92; and M. R. James, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Library of Peterhouse(Cambridge, 1899), pp. 364-66.

22 John Dee’s Library Catalogue, ed. Julian Roberts and Andrew Watson (London, 1990). See both the facsimileentries for these manuscripts, and the discussion of them, pp.116, 120, 121, and 168.




Fig 1W. Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek, Cod. Guelf. 51.9.Aug. 4°, f. 123r (with permission). Rubric,prologue, list of chapters or interrogations for 1437 treatise by Ralph Hoby OFM.



Fig 1H. London, British Library, Harley MS. 3542, f. 103r. Rubric, prologue, list of chapters orinterrogations, and beginning of text for 1437 treatise by Ralph Hoby OFM.



Fig 2W. Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek, Cod. Guelf. 51.9.Aug. 4°, f. 129v (with permission).Headings of chapters or interrogations for 1437 treatise by Ralph Hoby OFM. Authority citation in gothicscript.



Fig 2H. London, British Library, Harley MS. 3542, f. 107r. Headings of chapters or interrogations andauthority citation for 1437 treatise by Ralph Hoby OFM in gothic script.



Fig 3W. Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek, Cod. Guelf. 51.9.Aug. 4°, f. 130v (with permission).Horoscope diagram from 1437 treatise by Ralph Hoby OFM.



Fig 3H. London, British Library, Harley MS. 3542, f. 108r. Horoscope diagram and continuation of text from1437 treatise by Ralph Hoby OFM.



Fig 4W. Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek, Cod. Guelf. 51.9.Aug. 4°, f. 133r (with permission). Textand colophon for 1437 treatise by Ralph Hoby OFM with later notes.



Fig 4H. London, British Library, Harley MS. 3542, f. 110r. Text and colophon for 1437 treatise by RalphHoby OFM, followed by other texts.



Fig 5. Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek, Cod. Guelf. 51.9.Aug. 4°, f. 2v (with permission). Contentslist for a manuscript from which some texts in this codex have been taken. ‘R. Marchall’ in frame scraped out.‘Marshal’ supplied in Greek letters, probably by another hand.



Fig 6. Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek, Cod. Guelf. 51.9.Aug. 4°, f. 138v (with permission). RogerMarchall contents list for a manuscript from which some texts in this codex have been taken. ‘R. Marchall’ inframe scraped out, under later figures of division. Upper margin: ‘scawceby’ (?).



Fig 7. London, British Library, Sloane MS. 420, f. ii verso. Roger Marchall contents list for medicalcompendium, with signature in customary format. Note abbreviation for Aristotle in no. 15, as also found inWolfenbüttel gloss.



Fig 8. London, British Library, Harley MS. 531, f. 1* verso. Roger Marchall contents list for astronomical,astrological compendium. Final lines scraped out.

Wolfenbüttel HAB Cod. Guelf. 51. 9. Aug. 4º and BL, …¼ttel HAB Cod. Guelf. 51. 9. Aug. 4º and...

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