This page offers online links to many (if not all) of the known early manuscript drawings of the arbor porphyriana found in the Commentary on Porphyry's Isagoge by Boethius. There is no full English translation of this text that I am aware of, though a small section of the Commentary can be read in Paul Vincent Spade, Five Texts on the Mediaeval Problem of Universals.
No proof has ever been offered that Porphyry had any hand in devising the diagram. Adolf Busse's critical edition of the Isagoge, gathering that version of the original Greek text of Porphyry which remains and correcting it in the light of the translations to Latin, Syriac and Arabic, contains neither the diagram nor the words of introduction to it, nor does the more recent edition of the Latin texts by Lorenzo Minio-Paluello. [*]Busse, Adolf. Porphyrii Isagoge et in Aristoteles Categorias Commentarium. Berlin: Reimer, 1887. Minio-Paluello, Lorenzo. Categoriarum Supplementa: Porphyrii Isagoge Translatio Boethii et Anonymi Fragmentum Vulgo vocatum ‘Liber Sex Principiorum’, Accedunt Isagoges Fragmenta M. Victorini Interprete et Specimina Translationum Recentiorum Categoriarum. Corpus Philosophorum Medii Aevi. Bruges: Descl�e de Brouwer, 1966. See the useful list by Roger Pearse) of some of those manuscripts, and look for example at BAV, Urb.gr.35 (fols 1-20; Greek), BAV Vat.sir.158 (Syriac) or Karlsruhe, Aug. perg. 172 (fol 16r-20v; Latin) to note that where there are scholia, they contain a great many diagrams by commentators, but that none are the arbor and none is attributed to Porphyry himself.
It is therefore a proper and cautious policy to assume that the diagram is the work of Boethius, not Porphyry, and I term the diagram here the Stemma of Boethius. That certainly fits well with the proclivity of Boethius to demonstrate many matters diagrammatically, as in his Musica (e.g. clm 14372 in Munich).
The diagram is referred to at III. 3 of the second book of the Commentary, and is variously shown at the beginning of the work as a frontispiece, set into the body of the text at III.3, or placed in a margin near that text. There is a detailed discussion of how it works on my Boethius page.
This listing is similar to the tabulation I created for my own use for the Great Stemma. Since it may be useful to others, I am placing it online.
My tabulation is based on the list of manuscripts in the Codices Boethiani: a Conspectus of Manuscripts of the Works of Boethius edited by the late Margaret Gibson, Lesley Smith, Marina Passalacqua and others. Only four of the planned seven volumes have been issued so far, so the following list is incomplete for Germany and France, for which volumes have yet to be published. This list is limited to those codices which contain the second or "posterior" commentary (2 in Isag. is the abbreviation for it in the Conspectus), and any manuscripts that do not include the diagram have been shifted to the bottom of the table and marked XX.
For French and German manuscripts, I have relied on the introduction to the older critical edition, edited by Samuel Brandt in 1906 for the CSEL series (accessible at Archive.org). The conspectus there begins at page xlii. The Stemma of Boethius is reproduced as a diagram in the Brandt edition's text of the posterior commentary at III.3 (page 209) with the following note (the letters are the sigla, reproduced in my table below):
figuram supra depictam exhibent P (est altera de duabus ipsa quoque a m1 facta, prior minus dilucida est), nisi quod ad pr. animal add. sensibile et rationale post post, animal pos., et E, in quo ordo nominum cato plato cicero est, simillima est in G, sed extrema pars homo— Cicero deest, et in H, nomina tamen socrates plato cicero sunt; in S uoces mediae tantum substantia— homo extant, sub uoce homo unum nomen est FVLCO GONCL (explicare non potuimus); figura deest in CFLNR, in F post ponat exemplum est SVBSTANTIA.
The older Patrologia Latina edition contains an engraving of the diagram at PL 64: 103: C-D.
For German catalogs, many of them new, consult the Manuscripta Mediaevalia web index. The 19th-century French catalogs are mostly online and can be tracked down using the Gatt� list. Brigitte Pfeil's portal, Handschriftenkataloge Online, is especially helpful in finding digitized catalogs.
As with my other lists, I primarily checked for digitizations in Manuscripta Mediaevalia. Repeat searches at a later date for the manuscripts that have been digitized should be conducted through the Digital Scriptorium and other web portals including Manuscrits Enlumin�s in France and Austria's Mittelalterliche Handschriften in �sterreichischen Bibliotheken. Please write to me if you can add to or correct the list.
The manuscript-creation dates in the right column of the table are obviously very approximate, and are only included so the table will be ultimately sortable: click on the headers to arrange the materials by date, by language, or grouping what has been digitized, and so on.
N | Repository | Online | Shelfmark | Fol | Evol | Text | Cent | Format | Notes | Date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
A | Klosterneuberg, Stiftsbibliothek | Cod. 672 | 38b-77b | Catalog; 38r-77v; Pfeiffer-Cern�k IV 866-867: f 78 sequitur: brevis definitio et fidei. Hill MML. | ||||||
CH | Einsiedeln, Stiftsbibliothek | Digitized | 315 (605) | 53r | X | inset | One of the finest presentations of the diagram. With Socrates as example of man. | |||
CH | Einsiedeln, Stiftsbibliothek | 338 | E | 2-271 | X | This must contain the figure, as Brandt said he partly based his reconstruction on it; not online | ||||
CH | St Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek | Digitized | 831 | 184v | XI | 1050 | ||||
DE | K�ln, Dombibliothek | Digitized | 188 | 45v | H | margin | Exceptional for having Socrates as an example of a man. Library. Image file. Also of interest is the diagram of Philosophiae namque sunt tres partes late in the codex: folio and folio 199v. | |||
DE | K�ln, Dombibliothek | Digitized | 189 | 1r | front | Image file. Library | ||||
DE | K�ln, Dombibliothek | Digitized | 191 | 4r | Γ | margin | Image file. Library | |||
DE | M�nchen, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek | clm 6403 | 53r | C | X | front | New Catalog; Old Catalog; OPAC; Brandt states that C does not contain the figure, yet the current catalog describes it thus: Schema ... Substantia: corporeum/ incorporeum mit Ver�stelungen. | 1000 | ||
DK | Copenhagen, Kongelige Bibliotek | Thott 167 2� | 16-102 | X | 1r described as "several xiln definitions". Jorgensen catalog, page 366. Link to old catalog, page 290. | |||||
ES | C�rdoba, Catedral | 78 | 41v | Conspectus confirms diagram on this folio. | ||||||
FR | Paris, Biblioth�que Nationale de France | Digitized | Latin 11129 | 73v | P | XI | inset | Curious because drawn twice in the same page (is the second a correction?); used by Brandt as the basis of his version of the diagram. Catalog. | 1050 | |
FR | Paris, Biblioth�que Nationale de France | Digitized | Latin 12958 | 38r | S | IX-X | inset | Diagram exceptional for having Fulco Goncl, whoever he was, as the specimen man; Catalog | 0900 | |
FR | Paris, Biblioth�que Nationale de France | Digitized | Latin 13955 | 22r | G | X | inset | Brandt said he partly based his reconstruction on this figure; Catalog | 0950 | |
FR | Paris, Biblioth�que Nationale de France | NAL 1611 | Δ | XI | Catalog | 1000 | ||||
FR | Paris, IRHT | CP 368 | 2r | XII | Fmr Phillipps 16236, now privately owned; description lodged at IRHT is by Pieter Beullens; see Scriptorium. | 1125 | ||||
FR | Paris, IRHT | CP 368 | 130v | XIII | Second diagram in fmr Phillipps 16236 (above, q.v.), a composite ms. | 1210 | ||||
IT | Bergamo | "vis animae on 1r". See Catalog. | ||||||||
IT | Firenze, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana | Digitized | plut 89 sup.80 | 3r | X | margin | Discussed by Brandt, but no siglum. Catalog | |||
IT | Firenze, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana | Digitized | plut 89 sup.80 | 41r | X | margin | Discussed by Brandt, but no siglum. Catalog | |||
IT | Firenze, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana | San Marco 102 | 25v | |||||||
IT | Firenze, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana | San Marco 113 | try 83v-88r | |||||||
IT | Firenze, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana | San Marco 130 | 25v | |||||||
IT | Pistoia, Archivio Capitolare | C 77 | Library, three images from same | |||||||
IT | Venezia, Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana | lat. Z 272 | 31r-64v | |||||||
VA | Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana | Digitized | Reg. lat. 1240 | 28v | Pointed out by @LatinAristotle | 950 | ||||
VA | Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana | Digitized | Ott. lat. 1149 | 2v | Not old, but distinctive for its treelike ornament | 1450 | ||||
VA | Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana | Digitized | Reg. lat. 1332 | 17r | R | Brandt wrongly states that "R" does not contain the figure; is it possible he did not in fact consult it? | ||||
VA | Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana | Rossi 537 | 38v | |||||||
XX | Klosterneuberg, Stiftsbibliothek | Cod. 296 | 1r-v, 2r-3v |
Catalog; fragment, no diagram. | ||||||
XX | Bamberg | 325 | N | 2b-25a | Brandt states that N does not contain the figure. | |||||
DE | Erlangen | 579 | Ψ | 2a-9a | XII century. Not in catalog. | |||||
XX | K�ln, Dombibliothek | Digitized | 187 | F | 22v-32v | XI | No diagram visible. Brandt confirms that F does not contain it. An incomplete Commentary text. | |||
XX | M�nchen, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek | Digitized | clm 4621 | 76r-120v | Diagram unfound. Text present mainly as marginal notes to Porphyry; Brandt says text resembles H. Catalog | |||||
XX | M�nchen, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek | Digitized | clm 14516 | L Λ |
12r-49r | XI | New Catalog. Old Catalog. Brandt states that L does not contain the figure, and visual inspection confirms this. Note other diagrams at 1v and 7r before the start. | 1050 | ||
XX | Oxford, Bodleian Library | Laud lat. 49 | 27vb-28vc | Fragment only | ||||||
XX | Firenze, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana | Digitized | plut 71.6 | No diagram visible: not the diagram at 150r. Catalog. | ||||||
XX | Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana | Digitized | Urb. lat 188 | 1-25a | Online, but definitely does not contain any arbor | |||||
XX | Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana | Digitized | Vat. lat. 566 | 73v? | XII | Discussed by Brandt, but he gives it no siglum. Online, but no arbor visible, though note the fig on 72v |
The Library of Latin Diagrams
by Jean-Baptiste Piggin
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