Adelard of Bath

Quaestiones naturales. Written in a small upright gothic script, 36-40 lines to a page. Fol. 1v Qua ratione herbe sine preiacenti/nascantur semine/... 3, line 28 FINIVNT CAPITVLA/ET SIC FACIVNT CAVSE RERVM. [A]DELARDVS Meministi nepos quod septennio iam transacto cum/te in gallicis studiis pene puerum iuxta laudisdunum ... 24v ... Quietis igitur refectionem/libens accipio ut ad tractum nouum noui VENIAMVS. This work was first printed at Louvain c.1475. Signature of Nicolaus Anziani 1889 on the recto of the first leaf.

Late 13th Century

1 volume 25 ll. (last bl.). 8vo. 19 x 10 1/2 cm. On vellum. 15th cent. rough calf binding, wormed and defective. The first two leaves are wanting, but have been supplied by two leaves written in a late 15th cent. humanistic hand. Margins slightly cropped in binding.

Purchased 1910.

For the great importance of Adelard in the history of scientific ideas, cf. Thorndike, History of Magic and Experimental Science, Vol. II, Ch. xxxvi, 1923; Haskins, 'Studies in the History of Mediaeval Science', Ch. II, 1924; and Sarton, 'Introduction to the History of Science', Vol. II, Part I, pp. 167-169.

Database description transcribed from S.A.J. Moorat, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts on Medicine and Science in the Wellcome Historical Medical Library (London: Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, 1962-1973).