Irish Script on Screen

MS 1388

APHORISMS OF HIPPOCRATES

16th or 17th cent. Paper. 18.5 × 14 cm. Pp. 38, stamp-numbered; two unnumbered endpapers front and back. No scribal signature.

Bound in boards. ‘Aphorisms / of / Hippocrates’ and ‘H. 5. 16’ in gold on front cover. Labelled ‘Ms / H. / 5. / 16’ on spine; typed label ‘1388’ affixed to lower inner corner of front cover and covered with cellulose tape. ‘Rebound / Oct. 1897’ on pastedown inside front cover. ‘Ms. H. 5. 16. / (1388)’ (in pencil) on recto of first endpaper. Numbers ‘Olim 104’ and ‘H. 5. 16’, p. 1, upper margin.

Collation obscured by binding. Pencilled numbers ‘2’ and ‘3’ on pp. 7 (upper margin, outer corner) and 30 (upper margin), respectively, perhaps inserted by binder, may refer to order of gatherings and suggest an arrangment as follows: i⁴ (wants 1), ii⁶, iii⁶, iv⁴. Single columns, ruled in dry point, 23–28, lines. First line of opening aphorism in each book in display script; ornamental initials (2- to 1-line), pp. 1, 10, 20, 30; final words of bk 1 (p. 9.z) written below text-frame and boxed; final words of bks 2 (p. 20.5), 3 (p. 30.8) followed by mark of closure comprising five points in cruciform arrangement; catchwords, pp. 11, 16, 20 (part of word only), 22; final word (or part thereof) of previous pages repeated as opening word on pp. 1–4, 10, 12–15, 18, 23–4, 26–9, 31, 35–7. Pencil marks, evidently made by later reader, pp. 5 (outer margin, facing l. 1), 6 (outer margin, facing ll. 10, 17, and perhaps also ll. w, x), 7 (facing ll. 10, 12). Staining of upper edges and corners, and especially of lower inner corners of all leaves.

Scribal notes: (a) 6.z. ‘a Dhia mhóir.’ (b) 8.z. ‘uch ach a Dhía dena trocaire orum anois.’ See also p. 38.z below.

Notes and jottings. (a) 3, outer margin, transversely. ‘m[? a]nd’

1. [Nicolaus Leonicenus, Aphorismi Hippocratis bks 1–3, 4 (in part).] Beg. Vita breuis ars uero longa, occasio autem praeceps: experimentum periculosum iudicium. difficile … .i. O ta anealadha co fada ⁊ an betha go gerr ⁊ aimsir an leighis co hobann ⁊ na dearbhtha co guasachtach ⁊ brethamhnus an leighis co decrach. [Bk 1] beg. p. 1.1; [2], 10.1; [3] 20.6 (‘Tosach an .3. lebuir annso’, 20.7); [4] 30.10 (‘Tosach in .4.adh pairtegail annso’, 30.9). Incomplete. Ends here (with aphorism 4.46) Si rigor [MS with final r represented by point] incidat febre non defitiente, aegro iam tebili letale est .i. da tti rigor ⁊ gan in fiabrus do loighdiughadh ⁊ an corp co hanbfann foillsidh bás (p. 38.z) ‘och ach’. Aphorisms unnumbered except for aphorism 1.4 numbered ‘4’ (p. 3.5, inner margin). Aphorism 4.3 (p. 30.y–z), Latin only, with following space for Irish translation blank. Corresponds to Nicolaus Leonicenus, Nicolai Leoniceni Vicentini in libros Galeni e Graeca in Latinam linguam a se translatos praefatio communis … Galeni in Aphorismos Hippocratis, cum ipsis aphorismis, eodem Nicolao Leoniceno interprete (Ferrara 1509), ff. 1r4–42r4 (second numeration) [excluding commentary], and to National Library of Ireland MS G 453, ff. 9r1–28rz.