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newsletter 1/2008 (1) ISSN 1899-640X
The history of the collection of Romance manuscripts in the Berlin collection at the
Jagiellonian Library in Cracow
2
Supported by a grant from Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway through the EEA Financial Mechanism
2 Editorial Board:Piotr Tylus (Chief Editor)Iwona Piechnik (Co-Editor)Roman Sosnowski (Co-Editor)
Translation:Mateusz Urban
Design and DTP: Marcin Klag
ISSN 1899-640X
Copyright © by Interdisciplinary Research Team ”FIBULA” and Faculty of Philology, Jagiellonian University of Cracow
All rights reserved. No part of this journal may be reproduced in any form without prior written permission from the Publisher Faculty of Philology, Jagiellonian University of Cracowul. Gołębia 24, 31-007 Kraków, [email protected]/fibula
newsletter 1/2008 (1) ISSN 1899-640X
The history of the collection of Romance manuscripts in the Berlin collection at the
Jagiellonian Library in Cracow
4
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ContentsPiotr Tylus Romance manuscripts in the Berlin collection in Cracow – an international project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Monika Jaglarz The Berlinka in the collection of the Manuscript Department of the Jagiellonian Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Roman Sosnowski A note concerning Italian medical and veterinary manuscripts of the Berlin collection in the Jagiellonian Library . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Natalia Czopek The Guarani language in the Manuscripts of the Berlin collection of the Jagiellonian Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Krzysztof Kotuła Finances of the Kingdom of France in four Manuscripts of the Berlin collection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
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Opis fotografii
7
Piotr Tylus
Project Manager
Romance manuscripts in the Berlin collection in Cracow
– an international project
The origin of the Collection
Beginning with 1941, as a result of the bombing of Berlin by the Allied forces, 41
lorry convoys left Berlin, evacuating the most valuable items from the collection
of the Preussische Bibliothek, which were then stored in castles, cloisters and caves,
which had been suitably prepared outside the city. Some of the items found their way
to Lower Silesia, to the town of Fürstenstein (today’s Książ), and subsequently to the
town of Grüssau (today’s Krzeszów). It was fortunate that during the war the Germans
moved the collection from Książ to Krzeszów, because the Castle of Książ was burnt
by the Russians in 1945, and otherwise the collection would not have survived. As a
result of World War II and the Potsdam Agreement, the territories west and north of
the Polish border of 1939 (the so-called Western Territories or Regained Territories)
were given over to Polish administration (including Krzeszów). In 1945 in a directive
concerning preservation of abandoned book collections the Minister of Education
created a new office: the Representation of the Ministry of Education for preserva-
tion of book collections abandoned in the so-called Regained Territories, including
the territory of Lower Silesia. The recovered and salvaged book collections that had
been kept in Lower Silesia after the war, including the Berlin collection, were moved
to the Jagiellonian Library in Cracow, where the Representation held its office. In
1951, after the office had been closed down, the Ministry of Education transferred the
Preussische Staatsbliothek collection to the Jagiellonian Library as bailment of State
Treasury. According to Polish law the collection is property of the Polish State Treasury
and the Jagiellonian Library is its repository. The matter is currently being discussed
between Poland and Germany at a diplomatic level and it is not a researcher’s task
to take stance on it. It should be emphasised that the collection was found and not
looted. It is quite likely that it was thus preserved from destruction.
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The items in the collection and its significance1
The Berlin collection in Cracow includes prints and manuscripts. Bound manuscripts
constitute a considerable part of it, including: 67 Latin manuscripts (in two subgroups:
Latin manuscripts and Latin theological manuscripts), 140 Greek ones, 78 German ones,
44 Arabic ones, an Armenian one, 24 Chinese ones, 11 Syriac ones, over 90 Slavic ones
(including Polish ones), 15 American ones, over 190 volumes of genealogical materials,
91 libra amicum, very popular in the 16th–19th centuries as well as 35 other manuscripts
(including items from the Royal Academy of Arts in Berlin). The earliest manuscripts
come from the 8th–9th centuries, and the most recent ones from the 20th century. Ro-
mance manuscripts constitute a significant group in the collection, including: 235 French
manuscripts, an Occitan one, 106 Spanish ones, 3 Portuguese ones and 133 Italian ones.
Furthermore, the Berlin collection contains loose manuscript materials stored in boxes:
a collection of autographs (around 200 boxes – a collection of fragments from all around
Europe, from the Middle Ages to the 20th century), Karl Varnhagen’s collection (also au-
tographs, from the 18th–19th centuries, important for the study of German Romanticism,
around 300 boxes), and six legacies (archive materials on the life and activity of a person)
of the following people: Jacob Michael Reinhold Lenz, Wilhelm von Humboldt, Alexan-
der von Humboldt, Georg Schweinfurth, Gustav Freytag and Hoffman von Fallersleben.
Very valuable are the musical items: autographs of Beethoven, Mozart or Bach.
Romance manuscripts in the Berlin collection
The collection of Romance manuscripts in the Jagiellonian Library from the Staatsbib-
liothek in Berlin, often includes items that are unique in the world culture from the tex-
tological and iconographic point of view. These manuscripts were composed over many
centuries: mediaeval and early modern ones (13th–19th centuries), quite numerous.
The character of the collection is quite varied. The French manuscripts include phi-
losophical treatises, works by Voltaire and D’Alembert, unique journals, e.g. from the
Napoleonic wars, studies in historiography concerning both local and world history
(sometimes since the dawn of time), descriptions of the Polish royal court and the Sejm
from the pre-partition era, which are of interest to Poles, as well as works that did not
enter the French literary canon, which may be revealing to literary historians. Also very
important are diaries from travels to exotic lands (the 16th–18th centuries) as well as geo-
1 According to a chart prepared by Monika Jaglarz, PhD.
Piotr Tylus
Romance m
anuscripts in the Berlin collection in Cracow
– an international project
9
graphical descriptions and moralising and didactic works, which provide insight into the
mentality of the past and its development. There are also 18th-century financial records
of the Kingdom of France, battle plans, old military treatises as well as scholarly ones (in
the fields of mathematics, chemistry, physics, engineering and medicine), collections of
copies of letters, a 16th-century book of proverbs, cookbooks (the 16th–18th centuries),
interesting both culturally and linguistically.
A large number of the Italian manuscripts are literary texts, including Petrarch (a copy
of the Arqua codex), Boccaccio (Filostrato, Elegia di Madonna Fiammetta), Brunetto Latini
(a fragment of Tesoretto), 15th-century biographies of Dante and Petrarch written by
Leonardo Bruni of Arezzo; 13th-, 14th- and 15th-century translations of Latin works into
Italian, e.g. De Consolatione philosophiae by Boethius, Historia de proelis, commentaries
on literary works, e.g. a commentary on Dante’s Paradise by Benvenuto da Imola. The
Italian manuscripts also include passion plays (the oldest ones date back to the 15th cen-
tury), some of them written in verse, as well as treatises on religion, e.g. by Dominico Ca-
valca. A large part of the medieval manuscripts are treatises on medicine and veterinary
medicine. Many of the Italian manuscripts, both medieval and more recent ones, are
of historical-political character (chronicles, treatises, travel diaries, accounts written by
diplomats, examples of counsel given to rulers and armorials) including: a 15th-century
manuscript of Giovanni Villani’s Cronica, a 15th-century anonymous Venetian chronicle,
works by Tommaso Campanella and Giordano Bruno.
The Iberian manuscripts, mostly Spanish but also Catalan and Portuguese, are mainly
of historical-political and literary character: descriptions of travels, accounts written by
diplomats, examples of counsel given to rulers, chronicles, pieces of poetry, drama, in-
cluding short theatrical plays – the so-called entreméses or sainetes – about love. Also
very interesting are a copy of a manuscript from the court of the Catholic Monarchs from
the 15th century, and a manuscript describing customs at the 17th-century royal court.
Another interesting group encompasses texts on linguistic subjects (old dictionaries
and grammars, including a study on a South American Indian language: Vocabulario
de lengua guarani by Padre Blas Pretovio). Many of the Iberian manuscripts are worth
special attention, e.g.: works by Calderon de la Barca, Lope de Vega, Bartolomé de las
Casas, or Ramón Llull.
The collection of Romance manuscripts is not uniform in the sense that it is not a re-
sult of uniform and clearly defined bibliophilic tendencies. This, however, does not mean
that the individual manuscripts are not interrelated. Many of them form small thematic
groups. Some are of the same origin: they come from earlier book collections, e.g.: those
belonging to the counts von Starhemberg or the one belonging to Manzoni.
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The genesis of the project
For some time there had existed a great urge among the Romance philologists in
Cracow to study the collection of Romance manuscripts. As far as this collection is con-
cerned, excluding the manuscripts written in the territory of medieval France, we pos-
sess only a very brief 1918 catalogue by Siegfried Lemm2, where descriptions of the in-
dividual manuscripts are most often reduced to a few lines each. The catalogue contains
numerous inaccuracies, sometimes errors. Many texts have not been identified. Lemm’s
catalogue does not include the information on the origin of the manuscripts, the manu-
script tradition of the texts and the iconography. The Romance manuscripts stand out
in the Berlin collection, e.g.: against the Latin ones (very well studied), because they are
very little known, and have not been adequately described and studied. They constitute
a separate area in this collection. Given their uniqueness, the lack of adequate academic
analysis, frequent errors in establishing the time and place of composition and the fact
that the manuscripts contain numerous unidentified texts – these were the problems
that Cracow’s Romance philologists wanted to resolve. This has been made possible due
to the support from Iceland, Norway and Lichtenstein under the EEA Financial Mecha-
nism and partial subsidy from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education. In 2007 the
author of the current article prepared an application and as a result of a year’s procedure
of multistage evaluation the support was granted to the Jagiellonian University. It is the
only philological project from Poland that has been qualified for financial support under
this program as far as the first and second editions of the competition are concerned.
The project originated as an aftermath of earlier research on manuscripts conduc-
ted by the Project Manager under a grant from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
among others. The research encompassed medieval French and Occitan manuscripts
from the Berlin collection and its result is a book published in Germany3 (this group of
manuscripts is excluded from the current research). It was during the work on that pro-
ject that it became evident that the aforementioned Lemm’s catalogue was extremely
poor in crucial information and that these manuscripts were poorly studied and the re-
search conducted under the project was in fact pioneering. From the preliminary analy-
ses conducted previously as well as the intensive research that has been conducted for
2 Mitteilungen aus der Königlichen Bibliothek, Herausgegeben von der Generalverwaltung, IV: Kurzes Verzeichnis der romanischen Handschriften, Weidmannsche Buchhandlung, Berlin 1918.
3 Les manuscrits médiévaux français et occitans de la Preussische Staatsbibliothek et de la Staatsbi-bliothek zu Berlin Preussischer Kulturbesitz, by Dominique Stutzmann and Piotr Tylus, Harras-sowitz Verlag, Wiesbaden 2007.
Piotr Tylus
Romance m
anuscripts in the Berlin collection in Cracow
– an international project
11
several months under the current project it follows that the study of the entire collection
of the manuscripts, both medieval and early modern, will be equally pioneering. That is
why this collection is particularly interesting.
It is worth emphasizing that such research is completely justified in Poland, especial-
ly in Cracow, a renowned centre for cataloguing Latin manuscripts that has witnessed
ongoing research on a catalogue, which has been published in successive installments
since 1980.4 The research on manuscripts written in Romance languages should not be
a surprise either, in view of the strong and enduring influence of the Romance culture
in Poland This influence was clearly seen in Lesser Poland, already in the Middle Ages,
when future professors of the Jagiellonian University received their education at the uni-
versities in Paris, Bologne or Padua, and strong relations existed between the Jagiellon
dynasty and Italy. This influence was strong more recently as well. Moreover, Romance
philology has a long tradition in Cracow. It was at the Jagiellonian University that the
first chair of Romance philology in Poland was founded in the late 19th century.
The aims of the project – the scholarly aspect
The project is going to be implemented in 36 months. In the case of each manu-
script a meticulous academic study will be conducted, according to an outline which
conforms to the generally accepted European norms:
Codicological, paleographic and iconographic analyses of all the manuscripts to identify:
the time of composition (on the basis of the watermarks, the script, the school of illu-
mination, colophons, the binding if it is original, etc), the place of composition (on the
basis of the dialectal features, the origin of the paper, the iconographic features, the
colophons, the original binding, etc.), the scribe and the place of his work (whenever
possible), the artist or at least the school of iconography (illuminated manuscripts).
Investigation into the history of the manuscripts (their ‘wanderings’ since their composi-
tion up to the present time): determining (if possible) the first and subsequent own-
ers on the basis of notes made in the manuscripts at different times (determining
when such notes were written), sometimes on the basis of coats of arms; the analy-
sis of the binding if it is not original (the workmanship, the ornaments, etc), which
makes it possible to determine the whereabouts of manuscript at the relevant time;
the analysis of old catalogue numbers and the German librarians’ notes.
4 Catalogus codicum manuscriptorum medii aevi Latinorum, qui in Bibliotheca Jagiellonica Craco-viae asservantur.
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Determining the place of each manuscript in the manuscript tradition, by comparing the
state (version) of the text with the critical editions of the same text; if no critical edi-
tions are available, locating manuscripts (in other libraries) that transmit the same text.
Documenting the current state of research concerning the texts in the manuscripts. In
the case of the texts hitherto unknown, preparing a brief description of their content.
The conditions for achieving positive academic results are ensured: a large number of
scholarships will be offered to the researchers, which will enable them to conduct research
in major European centres for manuscript research such as Bibliothèque Nationale de France
or Biblioteca Vaticana. The research will be conducted under international partnership and
gaps in the bibliographical resources will be filled by purchasing publications unavailable in
Poland: philological, paleographical and codicological ones, indispensable to our activity.
The team working on the project comprises a group of Romance philologists with in-
terdisciplinary interests, who specialize in the Romance written tradition and the history
of the Romance languages, as well as two specialists from the Manuscript Department
of the Jagiellonian Library. Most of the manuscripts feature 18th- and 19th-century library
notes in German (important for the investigation of certain stages of the history of these
manuscripts), which are going to be translated by a German philologist. The work will
be conducted at the Jagiellonian Library, where the manuscripts and bibliographical
resources indispensable for the research are stored. As mentioned above, some part of
the research will take place in libraries in Western Europe (the research that cannot be
conducted in Poland). Some manuscripts will be scanned for the research and for publi-
city, which will indirectly protect them against the effects of the flow of time.
The research will be of interdisciplinary character and its results will reach specialists
in history of the book, literature, the Romance languages, art, civilization, philosophy
and enthusiasts of old books in general. This will be possible due to the form in which
the results will be publicized: descriptions of the studied manuscripts (in English and in
individual Romance languages for individual groups of manuscripts) will be published
on the Jagiellonian University website, under the bookmark of the Interdisciplinary Re-
search Group FIBULA, which works on the project5, and their accessibility will be long-
term, free of charge and world-wide, wherever there is interest in Romance culture.
It should be emphasized that the project has as one of its goals the promotion of
young academic staff. Three young people participate in the project: two outstanding
PhD students and a promising MA student, who conduct research and gain experience
and are individually supervised by the Project Manager.
5 www. filg. uj. edu.pl/fibula
Piotr Tylus
Romance m
anuscripts in the Berlin collection in Cracow
– an international project
13
The aims of the project – the social aspect
The results of the research will also be available through other media at the regional
level: seminars and educational workshops will be offered to the residents of Lesser Po-
land (students of Cracow’s university-level schools, residents of Cracow and the whole
region of Lesser Poland) conducted by the researchers engaged in the project, who are
at the same time teachers at the Jagiellonian University. Our domestic partnering insti-
tution is Małopolski Institute for Culture. The aim of the partnership is to publicize the
results of the research conducted under the project and thus to promote the Romance
written culture in its broad sense, partially reflected in the subject area of the research.
The seminars and workshops will be conducted with the help of a multimedia projec-
tor – possibly series of meetings will be organized for a particular target group (e.g. in
the Art Library at the Małopolski Institute for Culture), which will present (in stages) the
cultural, scholarly and historical aspects of the manuscripts. The aims will be as follows:
1) to show the wealth of Romance culture, the significance of its heritage for the culture
in Europe and in Poland, and its contribution to the culture in Europe, in Poland and
especially in Lesser Poland; 2) to present the structure of a manuscript and the stages
of its composition; 3) to show what a manuscript ‘tells’ us about itself and what is im-
portant for investigating its history 4) to show what is unique to a manuscript, why it is
worthwhile to study a manuscript, what is its exceptional value in comparison to text
editions, how studying a manuscript contributes to our understanding of the text, what
is the role of the image (present in the manuscript) in the understanding of the text,
how significant for our understanding of the text is its division into narrative units im-
posed by the scribes (columns, ornamented initials), why it is worthwhile to study the
manuscripts when studying e.g. the Roman de la Rose, The Golden Legend or works by
Petrarch, Boccaccio or Calderon de la Barca and what new we can learn from the manu-
script and not from text editions, etc. These activities will contribute to revitalization of
the Romance culture and will introduce into the social consciousness the concept of
the manuscript as a work of art equal in terms of standard and value to other works of
art and introduce the concept of the manuscript as a broad and intricate transmitter of
culture and thought. At the same time, the mission of the Romance culture in the history
of Europe and Poland will be rescued from oblivion in the local and regional social con-
sciousness, its impact on Polish culture, very clear in Lesser Poland, will be emphasized.
Thus, a kind of ‘clasp’ (fibula) that fastens the East and the West of Europe will be shown,
which will enrich our awareness of mutual links. The society will be offered a chance
to understand more about the intellectual and cultural history of Europe and about its
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cultural commonwealth. Thanks to innovative ways of accessing them, the texts will be
‘liberated’ and introduced to the circulation in the social consciousness; the value that
the Romance manuscripts have today will be shown and the perception of both the
unity and the diversity of the European culture will be built.
Summary
The background of the project is based on the fact that the research complies with
the trend towards the preservation of the cultural heritage of Europe, cultural education
and the presentation of mutual blending of cultures. As it has already been strongly
emphasized, the project concerns manuscripts which are often unique and little known
or unknown. Its implementation will contribute in a significant way to our knowledge
of the Romance written tradition, and, hence, to our deeper understanding of the cul-
tural roots of Europe, in which Romance culture was of primary importance for a long
time. Moreover, the implementation of the project will contribute to revitalization of the
Romance culture among the residents of Lesser Poland. The manuscripts studied under
the current project constitute an international cultural treasure, shared by the nations
of Europe and also very important to Poland, which for centuries was a kind of march of
the West European culture. The project emphasizes the cultural unity and the common
cultural treasure of the nations of Europe.
Piotr Tylus
Romance m
anuscripts in the Berlin collection in Cracow
– an international project
15
Monika Jaglarz
Manager of the Manuscript Department of the JL
The Berlinka in the collection of the Manuscript Department
of the Jagiellonian Library
The collection of items from the former Prussian State Library in Berlin (Preussische
Staatstibliothek zu Berlin) known as the Berlinka collection has been stored in the
Jagiellonian University Library since the 1940s. Its chequered history has been described
repeatedly in the course of the last 20 years1; let us recount only the most important
facts. Beginning with 1941, due to the threat from the military activity the most valuable
items from the state library were gradually evacuated from the capital of the Third Reich.
They were stored in various places; they reached e.g. Fürstenstein (Książ) in Lower Silesia
and finally, in 1944 Grüssau – Krzeszów, near Kamienna Góra. After the war the Berlin
collection and other book collections stored in the territory of Silesia were taken care of
by the Representative of the Minister of Education for preservation of abandoned book
collections, Stanisław Sierotwiński, PhD. As a result of his activity the Berlin collection
was transferred in 1946–1947 to the Jagiellonian Library, where the Representation held
its offices. The collection, slightly altered, has remained here ever since as bailment of
the Polish government. By the decision of the Polish authorities, the collection was un-
available for access for years and its existence was long concealed. This changed in 1981
when the rector of the Jagiellonian University issued a directive in which researchers
were granted free access to these valuable materials.
The Berlin collection stored in the Jagiellonian Library encompass a large number of
books and periodicals from the 19th and 20th centuries, and, more importantly, special
collections of enormous cultural and material value, the majority of which are kept at
1 Publications about the Berlinka began to appear in the early 80s, but the history of the collec-tion was discussed rather marginally, mainly in the academic works that were a consequence of the fact that the collection was made available. Among the publications that discuss the history and the content of the collection in greater detail the following articles must be mentioned: J. Pirożyński, Berlinka, “Dziennik Polski”, 21.05.1993, p. 8.; Z. Pietrzyk, Book Collections from the For-mer Preussische Staatsbibliothek in the Jagiellonian Library, “Polish Libraries Today”, vol. 6, Warsaw 2005, pp. 83–87, and Z. Pietrzyk, Zbiory z Byłej Pruskiej Biblioteki Państwowej w BJ, “Alma Mater”, February 2008, pp. 15–19.
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the Manuscript Department of the Jagiellonian Library. The collections include: bound
manuscripts, loose autographs and legacies, as well as a large collection of Oriental
prints (mainly Chinese, also Korean and Tibetan).
The collection of around 1300 bound manuscripts is classified into the following
categories of manuscripts: American, French, Greek, Spanish, Latin, German, Oriental
(Arabic, Armenian, Chinese and Syriac), Portuguese, Rhaetian, slavica (Czech, Kashub-
ian, Polish, Russian, Old Church Slavonic) and Italian; a separate group includes: Stam-
mbücher, a collection of genealogical materials and six volumes of the dictionary by
Brothers Grimm: galley proofs with handmade notes. The manuscripts are marked with
old catalogue numbers. The loose autographs, stored in around 500 boxes, fall into two
large collections: the Collection of Autographs (unfortunately incomplete, encompas-
sing, with some exceptions, materials sorted alphabetically from A to Hu and from Kro
to Z) and the Collection of Karl Varnhagen. The polonica from these two collections are
stored separately.
Manuscript legacies (around 500 items in total) comprise personal documents, man-
uscripts of works and letters of Alexander and Wilhelm von Humboldt, J.R.M. Lenz, Hoff-
man von Fallersleben, Georg Freytag and Georg Schweinfurth.
For over 25 years the Berlin collection has been available for research purposes di-
rectly at the Manuscripts Reading Room and as microfilm copies and recently – as scans.
During that time the collection has become basis for numerous scholarly publications,
which include, most importantly, cataloguing studies2, and editions of sources3, also in-
2 Subject catalogues, that include the collections stored in Cracow: Wolfgang Klose, Corpus Alborum Amicorum. CAAC. Beschreibendes Verzeichnis der Stammbücher des 16. Jahrhunderts. Stuttgart 1988; Wilhelm von Humboldts Sprachwissenschaft. Ein kommentiertes Verzeichnis des sprachwissenschaftlichen Nachlasses von Kurt Mueller – Vollmer, Padeborn 1993; La correspon-dance de Jean Henri Samuel Formey (1711–1797) inventaire alphabétique, Jens Häseler (ed.), Paris 2003; Rękopisy cerkiewnosłowiańskie w Polsce. Katalog, Aleksander Naumow and Andrzej Kaszlej (eds.), 2nd edition, Cracow 2004, and the following catalogues dealing strictly with the Berlin manuscripts: Wolfgang Milde, Deutsche Handschriften in der Universitätsbibliotek Krakau, “Wolfenbütteler Barock-Nachichten” 11 (1984) pp. 76–80; Wolfgang Milde, Lateinische Hand-schriften der ehemaligen Preussischen Staatsbibliothek Berlin in der Biblioteka Jagiellońska Kraków, “Codices Manuscripti” R. 12: 1986 issue 2, pp. 85–89; Helga Döhn, Die Sammlung Autographa der ehemaligen preußischen Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, Wiesbaden 2005; Les manuscrits médiévaux français et occitans de la Preussische Staatsbibliothek et de la Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin Preussischer Kulturbesitz, by Dominique Stutzmann et Piotr Tylus, Wiesbaden 2007. The work on describing such a diverse collection still continues; apart from the project of the team Fibula, we should mention the work on Tibetan manuscripts and prints (Pander’s Collection) conducted by scho-lars in Warsaw and Toruń.
3 These are chiefly critical editions of works and letters by eminent figures of European culture of the Age of Reason and Romanticism; the work on editions of letters and texts by such people as Rahel and Karl Varnhagen, Heinrich von Kleist, Ludwig Achim and Bettina von Arnim, Clemens
Monika Jaglarz
The Berlinka in the collection of the Manuscript D
epartment
of the Jagiellonian Library
17
cluding facsimile editions4, which not only are the starting point for further research, but
also disseminate the knowledge about the collection itself. Perhaps this is the reason
why the interest in the Berlin collection does not seem to wane. The growing number of
readers has influence on the condition of the manuscripts; therefore, besides the cata-
loguing of the collection, it becomes more and more important to protect it – through
conservation, microfilming and digitization.
The Berlin manuscripts in the JL undergo mainly preventive conservation, which
aims at preserving an item against inevitable further deterioration, by cleaning, decon-
tamination and deacidification, small repairs and appropriate preparation for storing.
Despite limited resources, three items have undergone the full process of conservation
at the Library in the last five years: an Italian manuscript (Ms. ital. fol. 158), a Syriac one
(Ms. Sachau 197) and a file of documents by Lenz (Lenziana 1).
Currently the JL has over 900 microfilms of the items from the Berlin collection, and
some valuable collections have been microfilmed in their entirety: the collection of Latin
manuscripts (67 items), slavica (93 items), the majority of French and German manuscripts
(81 items), the legacies of both Humboldts (126 items), Wetzstein’s collection of Arabic
manuscripts (20 items); in cooperation with the Pückler Museum in Branitz, Pückler’s Ar-
chive has been microfilmed: boxes 148-200 of the Collection of Karl Varnhagen. The num-
ber is growing, because the valuable items are still being microfilmed, which preserves the
manuscripts, as the originals of the microfilmed works are not available for access except
in justified cases. This also makes researchers’ work easier, as they can use the microfilms
outside the Library through interlibrary loans. More and more manuscripts are also being
digitized in the Library (currently, around 200 items from the Berlin collection have been
scanned), and thus more and more often the reader may be offered copies in the highest
quality, while the original is protected and its existence prolonged.
Brentano, Jean Paul Richter, Jean H.S. Formey, brothers Grimm, and Alexander and Wilhelm Humboldt have continued for years.
4 Especially valuable are microfiché editions provided with a commentary published in the Codi-ces Illuminati Medii Aevi (CIMA) series: the Latin Lectionarium (Ms.theol.lat.qu.1), Munich 1993 and the Old German manuscript Driu liet von der maget (Ms. germ.oct.109), Munich 2001.
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Roman Sosnowski
A note concerning Italian medical and veterinary manuscripts
of the Berlin collection in the Jagiellonian Library
The Italian part of the Berlin collection is a very interesting one, e.g. because the numer-
ous medieval manuscripts (over 30)1. Among these manuscripts there are a number of
texts that deal with similar subjects, i.e. medical and veterinary texts. The way in which the
collection was supplemented (purchases made by the Royal Library from the Italian col-
lections of Giacomo Mazoni and Morbio) suggests that the group was deliberately singled
out and it was intended to be enlarged. At the current stage of the research it is difficult
to determine whether this was conscious from the beginning or only a coincidence. The
medieval medical and veterinary manuscripts include: Ital. fol. 158, Ital. qu. 62, Ital. qu. 63,
Ital. qu.64, Ital. qu. 65, Ital. qu. 66, Ital. qu. 67 and Ital. oct. 6, all from the 14th–15th centuries.
Interestingly, in some cases we are dealing with the same text(s) preserved in more than
one copy. This is the case with the translation of Thesaurus pauperum (Ital. fol. 158 and
Ital. qu. 52) preserved in a copy from Tuscany and one from Venice. Similar cases are Mulo-
medicina by Vegetius Renatus (Ital. qu. 66 i Ital. qu. 65) and equestrian-veterinary treatises
by Moses of Palermo preserved in Ital. qu. 65 and w Ital. qu. 66.
The veterinary manuscripts
The first division that should obviously be made within the aforementioned group
of manuscripts is into medical and veterinary texts. Both groups can be traced back
to ancient treatises, which were translated and modified and became the basis for the
texts found in these manuscripts. Within the group of veterinary texts three subgroups
can further be distinguished:
1 At the initial stage of the research the number of medieval manuscripts cannot be determined with all certainty – Lemm’s catalogue of 1918 contains a number of inaccuracies, e.g. Ital. Qu. 67 is dated back to the 16th century, although both the paper and the script point to the 14th century. It is only after the entire collection has been studied from the codicological point of view that it will be possible to determine the exact number of medieval manuscripts.
19
a) texts of the “mulomedicina” type
b) texts of the “mascalcia” type, concerning horses (these are most often translations
from Arabic)
c) treatises of heterogeneous origin.2
The first category encompasses classical works on veterinary medicine that offer guide-
lines on dealing with diseases of various domestic animals (this category is exemplified in our
collection by Vegetius Renatus’ Mulomedicina). The second category, i.e. the so-called “mascal-
cia”, encompasses texts devoted partly to animal diseases and partly to dealing with horses
(these texts are exemplified in our collection by two treatises ascribed to Moses of Palermo).
The “mascalcia” are translations of treatises in Arabic devoted to equestrianism, which in turn
may probably be traced back to some ancient (Greek) sources. However, not only direct volgar-
izzamenti from Arabic were popular. The most famous medieval texts of this category include
Latin treatises by Giordano Ruffo and Lorenzo Rusio translated repeatedly into vernacular lan-
guages; however, these texts are absent from the group of manuscripts available in Cracow.
Finally, the last group features treatises that are compilations of sorts of the previous two types.
Here belong works by Teodorico Borgognoni and Dino Dini3. Just as the previous one, this sub-
group has no representatives among the texts available at the Jagiellonian Library.
Obviously, the abovementioned categories were not perceived as such in the Middle
Ages. Their fluidity is evidenced by the fact that texts representing various categories
tend to be grouped in one manuscript – e.g. Ital. qu. 65 combines Mulomedicina (Digesta
artis mulomedicinae) by Vegetius and two treatises ascribed to Moses of Palermo (i.e.
as the translator from Arabic). As a matter of fact, the same combination is also present
in Ital. qu. 66, which comes from roughly the same period and the same region. At first
glance, the texts from individual manuscripts represent separate traditions (this is at
least the case with the treatise by Vegetius), and this makes the identical combination
even more appealing. Of course any potential relations and mutual connections be-
tween Ital. qu. 65 and Ital. qu. 66 call for further and more detailed research.
The medical manuscripts
If we take into account the codices available in the Jagiellonian Library, the division
of the manuscripts can roughly be made as follows:
2 The classification of veterinary treatises follows the suggestion made by M. Aprile: “La lingua della medicina animale”, in: R. Gualdo (ed.), Le parole della scienza. Scritture tecniche e scientifiche in volgare (secoli XIII-XV), Lecce 2001, pp. 49–76.
3 Ibidem, p. 58.
20
20
a) medical treatises
b) receptaria.
However, this classification is fluid and blurred to some extent as well. Thus, Thesaurus
pauperum may certainly be classified as a treatise, but structurally it is more of a receptarium.
Thesaurus pauperum represented by two volgarizzamenti in the manuscripts Ital. fol. 158 and
Ital. qu. 52 (quite late, from the second half of the 15th century) is one of the most well-
known medieval works of medical character. The author of the Latin work is most probably
Petrus Hispanus (c. 1210–1277) born in Lisbon, cardinal, elected pope (John XXI) in 1276. He
studied in Paris and Salerno and lived in Italy for a while (c. 1247–1252)4. According to a less
probable account, the equally influential and famous physician of the dynasty of Aragon,
Arnaldus de Villanova (c. 1238–1311) could also be the author.5 The work is an example of
the so-called practical medicine and contains brief instructions on how to deal with popular
diseases. It was aimed not at specialists in medicine, but at simple (but literate!) people, who,
by following the instructions from the Thesaurus, could avoid very expensive medical treat-
ments. The language of the work is as simple and direct as its recipients. The structure is sim-
ple as well; the instructions are presented in the sequence “from the head to the feet”. Listed
among the sources of the treatise, which is no different from receptaria in terms of structure,
are Dioscorides, Constantinus Africanus, founder of the medical school of Salerno, Gilbertus
Anglicus, author of the widely-read Compendium medicinae.6 Both manuscripts contain also
smaller works or prescription collections, but in each case these are different additions. Both
are translations of the Latin treatise, but mutually independent. The manuscript Ital. qu. 52
is a Tuscan volgarizzamento7, whereas the manuscript Ital. fol. 158 was copied in Venice (by
Rainaldo Barbiero) and contains linguistic features typical of this region.
Surgical treatises, definitely belonging to the first group, are exemplified in Ital. qu. 62
by Trattato della chirurgia by Bruno da Longoborgo written in Latin around the year 12528
and translated subsequently into vernacular languages. The version preserved in Ital. qu.
62 is a volgarizzamento with distinct Venetian dialectal features. Another example from
this category of treatises is Practica di medicina9 preserved in the manuscript Ital. qu. 67.
4 P. Prioreschi (ed.), A History of Medicine, t. V, Medieval Medicine, Omaha 2003, pp. 345–346.5 S. Rapisarda, Il «Thesaurus pauperum» in volgare siciliano, Palermo 2001, p. XXXIV. The Latin text
has been critically edited by M.H. Roch Pereiro, Obras médicas de Pedro Hispano, Coimbra 1973.6 P. Prioreschi, op. cit., p. 346.7 The place of this volgarizzamento in the stemma codicum remains to be determined. Seven different
Tuscan translations of the Thesaurus pauperum are generally known. Cf. S. Rapisarda, op. cit., passim.8 In S. De Renzi, Storia documentata della scuola medica di Salerno, Napoli 1857, p. 348, we find
the version of the name Bruno da Longobucco and the date 1250.9 Pratica di medicina in MS Ital. qu. 67 requires a more detailed identification, that has not been
possible so far.
Roman Sosnow
ski,
A note concerning Italian m
edical and veterinary manuscripts
of the Berlin collection in the Jagiellonian Library
21
The most famous receptarium, very popular, also known from numerous editions
printed in the 16th century, is Ricettario di Galeno. It is a collection of instructions concer-
ning diet, the choice of proper medications and their preparation. The text is represented
in our collection by an octavo manuscript (Ital. oct. 6), which is not very decorative and
exhibits traces of intensive use. Another classical receptarium, which is a compilation of
various works, is the manuscript Ital. qu. 64. It was originally supplemented with a very
useful alphabetical index, which makes it easy to find particular receipts. Apart from typ-
ically medical prescriptions the codex additionally features Tractatus herbarum. Again
there are traces of intensive use (pointing hands, later annotations, etc.).
One of the features of the described manuscripts – several works in one
An important feature of the medieval manuscripts, which is clearly seen in the manu-
scripts of practical character, but not only there, is the fact that they are compilations of
various works on similar subjects in one codex.10 A manuscript, most often made to order,
was supposed to present a kind of summa of knowledge on a given subject. Therefore, the
content is often repeated, especially in the case of collections of prescriptions and medical
instructions. We find repeated prescriptions on how to prepare a compress or an ointment
for a particular illness, often slightly different from one another, as well as lists of medications
for treating particular illnesses and, finally, the descriptions of the illnesses themselves.11
What was also characteristic was the mixing of Latin and volgari (exemplified in our col-
lection by Ital. qu. 67). Beside prescriptions in a vernacular language the texts often featured
Latin formulas or similar instructions in Latin. Occasionally we encounter a text mixed in a
special way, whenever the medical prescription contains a half-magical formula (in such a
case the formula is often in Latin, e.g. “fugie (sic!) dolor, peri dolor” (Ital. qu. 65, f. 100vo).
The geographical scope of the collection
The Italian medical and veterinary manuscripts are of varying origin. Beside the
codices composed in Tuscany, we find manuscripts from the Veneto region as well as
from central Italy. The lack of codices from the South is conspicuous.
10 The study of manuscripts as collections (often of texts on a variety of subjects) to explain the meaning of the individual texts in the context of the whole collection is currently a new path in medieval studies (cf. the Hyper-codex project lead by Olivier Collet and Yasmina Foehr-Janssens at the University of Geneva).
11 As far as these manuscripts are concerned this feature is evidenced especially in Ital. oct. 6 (Ricettario di Galeno).
22
Manuscript Ital.Fol.158 (leaf 2v) restored at the Jagiellonian Library
23
Ital.Qu.63 (leaf 2v), a 14th-century parchment manuscript, from the formercollection of Count Manzoni
24
24
Table of manuscripts (place and date of composition) and main texts. As already mentioned, many manuscripts include secondary, supplementary texts, not included in the table. The datation and remarks on the place of origin result from the preliminary analyses.
Summary
The collection of Italian manuscripts currently kept in the Jagiellonian Library is one
of the most poorly studied collections of this type in the world. Due to its chequered
history, the collection was absent from the academic circulation for a long time. In the
times of the growing interest in the accounts of medieval life, not only literary, the vet-
erinary and medical manuscripts described here may become a valuable element in the
reconstruction of the texts preserved in them (together with manuscripts from other
collections) and an important impulse for research into the history of language as well
as medicine and veterinary medicine in the Middle Ages.
No.Catalogue no. Text (main) Date Region Type
1 Ital. fol. 158 Tesoro dei poveri 1460 Venice medical
2 Ital. qu. 52 Tesoro dei poveri late 15th century Tuscany medical
3 Ital. qu. 62 Liber medicinarum (incl. Trattato della chirurgia by Bruno da Longoborgo)
1332 Veneto medical
4 Ital. qu. 63 Libro di mascalcia di Pseudo- -Aristotele.
early 15th century central Italy (Umbria?)
veterinary
5 Ital. qu. 64 Libro di ricetteTractatus herbarum
first half of 15th century Veneto medical
6 Ital. qu. 65 Mulomedicina di Vegezio Renato. Volgarizzamento toscano Il primo trattato di mascalcia di Mosé da PalermoIl secondo trattato di mascalcia di Mosé da Palermo
1415 Tuscany (Pistoia) veterinary
7 Ital. qu. 66 Mulomedicina di Vegezio Renato. Volgarizzamento toscanoIl primo trattato di mascalcia di Mosé da PalermoIl secondo trattato di mascalcia di Mosé da Palermo
early 15th century Tuscany veterinary
8 Ital. qu. 67 Pratica di medicina mid 15th century northern Italy (?) medical
9 Ital. oct. 6 Ricettario di Galeno 15th century northern Italy medical
Roman Sosnow
ski,
A note concerning Italian m
edical and veterinary manuscripts
of the Berlin collection in the Jagiellonian Library
25
Natalia Czopek
The Guarani language in the Manuscripts of the Berlin
collection of the Jagiellonian Library
The collection of Spanish manuscripts in the Berlin collection stored in the Jagiel-
lonian Library is rich in items that are extremely interesting from the point of view of
linguistics. In this article, we are going to present the description of a manuscript which
may provisionally be considered a Spanish-Guarani dictionary with elements of gram-
mar.1 We are going as well to sketch a brief historical background in order to single out
the linguistic goals that lay behind the creation of such works and to present the author,
whose missionary activity was strongly rooted in the reality of the described period.
The aforementioned manuscript, marked with the catalogue number Ms. hisp. Quart.
60 and entitled VOCABVLARIO de LENGVA GVARANI Compuesto por el P. Blas Pretovio De la
Compañía de IESUS Año de M.D. CC XXVIII, is one of the most interesting items in the col-
lection. Two separate sections may be distinguished here that differ significantly as far
as the scribal hand is concerned: leaves 1ro–252vo (the first hand), leaves 252vo–332ro
(the second hand). The first section was written by Padre Blas Pretovio. Unfortunately,
there is not enough data to determine who the continuator of his work was. The infor-
mation contained in the colophons at the end of each section (leaves 252vo and 323ro)
suggests that they differ as far as the date of composition: the first section is from 1729,
whereas the second one was composed between 1733 and 1737. Beginning with leaf
257 the variety of paper is changed as well. Nevertheless, both sections of the manu-
script are similar to each other in terms of design. They contain Spanish words together
with their Guarani equivalents. Throughout the manuscript two subcategories have
1 Guarani seems particularly interesting due to its strong position in comparison to other native languages of Latin America. Works in Guarani are extremely interesting linguistically, because it is the only native language of the Indians of Latin America that has the status of an official language. Guarani is a member of the Tupi-Guarani language family and is currently spoken by around 7 million people in Paraguay, Brazil, Bolivia and Argentina. Originally, it was only a spoken language. The written form was introduced by the Jesuit missionaries. The linguistic situation in Paraguay is often described as peculiaridad lingüística paraguaya. This name takes into account the peculiar blending of culture, ethnicity and language as well as the abovemen-tioned social status of Guarani.
26
26
been distinguished depending on the position of vowels and consonants in the words.
The second section additionally features texts in Guarani. Moreover, different layers of
corrections, made by different hands, can be clearly seen on the margins of both the
first and second sections. These corrections are frequently marked in the text with a
cross, whereas the numerous deleted words have been crossed out in ink of different
colour. Throughout the manuscript there are numerous false catchwords. Beginning
with leaf 61 the page design is changed. The underlines marking the entries are present
only until leaf 80.
The described manuscript is 230 x 180 mm in size and is comprised of two initial
flyleaves, 337 sheets of the manuscript and two final flyleaves. Its condition is poor:
beginning with leaf 247 we can see numerous traces of exposure to humidity, holes
(damage to the text) as well as fragments eaten out by worms. Tight binding makes it
impossible to study the gatherings thoroughly in order to determine potential missing
parts of the text. Erroneous foliation made in pencil later than the manuscript itself has
been amended.
The leaf format varies: larger format leaves contain between 29 and 34 lines of text,
whereas the smaller leaves between 28 and 31. Ruling, most probably made in pencil,
has been erased for aesthetic purposes.
The binding made of brown leather, extremely worn out, is most probably original.
The spaces between five raised bands visible on the spine are decorated with floral mo-
tifs in gold. At the bottom of the spine there is a piece of red leather with the current
catalogue number tooled in gold; the top of the spine features another piece of red
leather with the tooled title: VOCABULARIO DE LENGUA GUARANÍ. The initial cover is dec-
orated with golden thread. The inside covers are made of white paper. The initial inside
cover features the following signature written in pencil: Ms. Hispan. Quarto 60. An access
number, 9292, written in black ink has been placed underneath.
The title page features the title VOCABVLARIO de LENGVA GVARANI Compuesto por el
P. Blas Pretovio De la Compañía de IESUS Año de M.D. CC XXVIII, a note in German and the
date 1864. Leaf 1vo features the access number 9292 and the seal of the Königliche Bib-
liothek zu Berlin. The manuscript was trimmed when the binding was being prepared,
which is confirmed by the presence of smaller format leaves with trimmed margins (2,
280–337).
It will be very useful for our brief study of the manuscript to trace the process of the
cultural and linguistic Hispanicization of America in order to determine the reasons for
the growing interest in the languages of the native inhabitants of the continent, and,
consequently, the reasons why such manuscripts were being written.
Natalia C
zopek
The Guarani language
in the Manuscripts of the Berlin
collection of the Jagiellonian Library
27
The process of implantation of Spanish in America began in the second half of the
15th century.2 We learn from accounts by great travellers and explorers that one of their
greatest difficulties was to communicate efficiently with the inhabitants of the discov-
ered lands.3 The support from translators they took on board turned out insufficient due
to the enormous linguistic diversity, even over small areas. Moreover, the territories in
which the Spanish came had not earlier experienced presence of any Europeans, unlike
the territories in Asia, such as the Philippines, the languages of which were known to a
certain extent to the Portuguese.4 This true linguistic mosaic made it necessary to find
one common means of communication. As a natural consequence of Hispanicization
through political, economic and religious institutions, Spanish began to constitute an
integral part of the linguistic reality of the native inhabitants of America. However, its
implantation encountered many obstacles and was a difficult and prolonged process.
Missionaries, who learnt Indians’ native languages and mastered them at least well,
played an important part in the shaping of the linguistic reality in Paraguay. They initia-
ted a project to select several general languages to serve as vehicle languages. Eventually,
four languages were chosen: Quechua, Nahuatl, Chibcha and Tupi-Guarani, which were
characterized by strong similarity to other languages spoken in the individual areas, by
the largest number of speakers and by considerable social prestige.
However, the language policy was closely related to the policy of expansion and it
was as early as in the 18th century that Carlos III imposed the obligation to learn Spanish
and to use exclusively this language for the process of Christianization. Nevertheless, the
Church favoured Christianization by means of the general languages in order to isolate
the Indians from heterodox ideas popular in Europe and from the influence of the lay au-
2 Cf. A. Quilis, La lengua española en cuatro mundos, Editorial Mapfre, Madrid 1992, p. 21. Some linguists compare it to the expansion of Latin in Europe and emphasize at the same time that if we take into account the dynamic character of languages as well as the territories where Spanish in still unknown, the process has not yet been accomplished. It is often stressed in lin-guistic studies that the process of implantation of Spanish in Paraguay was of special character, because of lots of factors such as geographical situation inside the continent, isolation from the main sea routes, lack of deposits of noble metals, a poorly developed system of education, exceptionally low percentage of Spanish immigrants from the more developed parts of the continent or a notable fall in the number of the speakers of Castillian after the Jesuits have been driven away. These factors contributed to the relative linguistic conservatism and archaism and to Guarani retaining its position.
3 Ibidem, pp. 22–104. 4 Cf. ibidem, p. 31: “The tribes living in the American continent did not have any relations with the
outside world, apart from the neighbouring tribes, which had similar customs; Filipinos, unlike them, knew the Moors, the Chinese, the Japanese and the Portuguese, who ventured into their islands” (translation mine).
28
28
thorities. However, fear of idolatrous ideas, superstitions and magic transmitted in these
languages was still widespread. Therefore, the demand for dictionaries or textbooks of
various kinds that would enable communication with the monolingual Guarani speak-
ers was constantly growing.
The author of the first section of the described manuscript was one of those mis-
sionaries whose task was to teach the general languages and who wanted to put their
knowledge on paper. Let us take a brief glance at the figure of Blas Pretovio and his
missionary activity.
Blas Pretovio is an anagram of the name of an Italian Jesuit, Pablo Restovio, who
came from Sicily and lived between 1658 and 1741. He was sent to Paraguay in 1691
and for almost half a century was occupied with the evangelization and education of In-
dians. He was head of the university in Asunción and an oppositionist to the revolution,
the goals of which included driving the Jesuits out of Paraguay. He spent the last years
of his life engaged in missionary activity.
Pablo Restivo was a worthy successor of the great philologist and linguist Father Ruiz
de Montoya. The first work authored by Restivo, which he printed himself, was the text-
book Manuale ad usum Patrum Societatis Jesu qui in Reductionibus Paraquariae versatu-
aes, written in Latin, Castilian and Guarani. He also wrote other works on similar subjects,
including Arte de la lengua guarani por el P. Blas Pretovio de la Compañia de Jesus. En el
Uruguay. Año de 1696. The Guarani textbook mentioned above contained the earliest
published dictionary and the first description of the grammar of this language, which
were used by the majority of missionaries in Paraguay. Pablo Restivo also worked to-
gether with Nicolas Yapuguai, an author from Paraguay. As a result of this cooperation,
they published Sermones y Ejemplos and Explicaciones del catecismo en lengua guaraní.
The only unpublished work by the outstanding Jesuit, entitled Compendio de los vocab-
los más usados en la lengua española y guaraní, comes from 1729 and is kept at the Mitre
Museum in Buenos Aires.
Blas Pretovio devoted most of his time to teaching Written Guarani to missionaries
and the native inhabitants of Paraguay. The teaching process involved the necessity to
write textbooks and, consequently, to open printing houses in the New Continent. Para-
guay’s two largest printing houses were located in San Ignazio Guazú and Santa María
la Mayor.5 Unfortunately, only a small number of the printed works have survived to our
5 Cf. C.R. Centurion, Historia de las letras paraguayas: El aporte cultural de las misiones jesuiticas in: http://www.bvp.org.py/biblio_htm/centurion1/cent_vi_x.htm (26.08.2008). The author claims that the first printed copies of Vocabulario de lengua guarani were made in the Santa María la Mayor printing house. The book was subsequently reworked entirely by the author and pub-lished for the second time only after his death. One of the editions comes from 1893 and was
Natalia C
zopek
The Guarani language
in the Manuscripts of the Berlin
collection of the Jagiellonian Library
29
times. The humid climate of Paraguay contributed to the development of worms and
fungi and to the deterioration of paper. The surviving works have been preserved by
collectors.6
The unusual linguistic situation in Paraguay has been described in numerous linguis-
tic publications, whose authors claimed that the two linguistic systems, Spanish and
Guarani, coexisting in one territory, must permeate each other.7 Spanish is seen as the
formal variety, whereas Guarani is preferred for everyday colloquial conversations, which
is why the two languages complement each other perfectly and the percentage of bilin-
gual speakers is very high (over 50% of the population). Thus, borrowings are inevitable
and can be found in both languages: e.g. due to Guarani influence such words as toucan,
jaguar, agouti, piranha or cougar were borrowed into Spanish and, subsequently, into
European languages. However, mutual influence in the case of the two languages is not
as great as it may seems.
The historical and linguistic facts presented above make us appreciate the great val-
ue of the presented manuscript and emphasize the need for research on such treasures
of manuscript art.
published by order of the former Emperor of Brazil, Pedro II, under the title Léxico hispano-gua- ranítico. Vocabulario de la lengua guaraní. Inscriptum a R. P. jesuíta Pablo Restivo, edente Doctore Christiana Frederic Seybold, Sttugard 1893.
6 Cf. L.F. Aquilanti, El renacer de la imprenta en las misiones guaraníes in: www.t-convoca.com.ar/pdf/aquilanti.pdf (26.08.2008). The author lists the names of the collectors of works on Guarani or written in this language, e.g.: Coronel M. Dorrego, D. Pedro de Angelis or General Bartolomé Mitre.
7 Cf. M.B. Fontanella de Weinberg, La lengua española fuera de España, Editorial Paidos, Buenos Aires, 1976, pp. 18, 86–103. Bertil Malmberg, for example, claims that the typical features of Spanish in Latin America do not result from the influence of the native languages. At the same time, he stresses the special linguistic situation in Paraguay, where Guarani influence is evident, due to the long-lasting blingualism. Moreover, many linguists emphasize that this bilingualism is very stable. (Cf. G. de Granada, Español de América, español de África y hablas criollas hispáni-cas, Editorial Gredos, Madrid 1994, pp. 372–374.
30
30
Krzysztof Kotuła
Finances of the Kingdom of France in four Manuscripts
of the Berlin collection
In the Berlin collection there are four manuscripts in French which are marked with the
catalogue numbers Gall. Quart. 21–24. They contain detailed information on the financial
condition of the Kingdom of France in the 1740s and 1750s. The uniform subject matter
is only one of the reasons that allow us to consider them related. I will try in my article to
present briefly this group of manuscripts emphasizing the similarities between them.1
At first our attention is drawn to full calf bindings with identical ornamentation
in all the four cases. The front and back covers encircled with golden fillets feature
in the middle two super ex-libris tooled in gold, the contours of which are repro-
duced below (ill. 1 and 2); I have yet been unable to determine their origin2. The
edges of the pages are dyed red. The backs are richly adorned; five raised bands
as well as the spaces between them are decorated with floral motifs encircled with
fillets tooled in gold. Identical title labels provide information about the content
of each book. Flyleaves and pastedowns are made of 18th-century marbled paper.3
The clues about the origin and date of composition of the bindings may be sought
elsewhere as well: in the manuscript Gall. Qu. 22 the binder added two flyleaves of
white paper with a watermark reproduced below (ill. 3), as yet unidentified.4 De-
spite different sizes of the individual volumes (from 194 x 150 mm to 235 x 177
mm), it is beyond doubt that their bindings were made in the same period and by
one craftsman. However, they do not seem original to me. There are several argu-
ments to support this. First of all, the super ex-libris in the front cover features a
motif that resembles the Prussian eagle rather than a French symbol. Secondly, all
the pages in the four manuscripts have been trimmed, which is evidenced by the
1 It should be first pointed out that some of the facts presented below still require verification and this article presents only the results of my research at its current state.
2 These are the only elements beside the book-stamps of the Königliche Bibliothek in Berlin that enable us to identify the previous owners of the four manuscripts.
3 Cf. Roger Devauchelle, La reliure en France de ses origines à nos jours, J. Rousseau-Girard, Paris 1960, vol. 2, pl. III.
4 82 x 68 mm, space between chain-lines: 22 mm.
31
illustration 1
illustration 2
32
32
Krzysztof Kotuła
Finances of the Kingdom of France
in four Manuscripts of the Berlin collection
trimmed curlicues of the letters and notes on the margins5. Thirdly at last, in the
manuscripts Gall. Quart 21 and 22 the rectos of the first leaves feature notes made
by one of the readers. Interestingly, today they can be seen only against the light.
The reason behind this is simple: in both manuscripts, the first leaves of the initial
gatherings were tacked to the verso of the marbled paper flyleaf when the book
was being bound. Obviously, these notes must have been written when the leaves
were still separate from the flyleaves.
The date of composition of the texts can be determined quite precisely. Two of the
four manuscripts (Gall. Quart. 21 and 22) feature paper that carries the watermark: FIN
DE M IOHANNOT D’ANNONAY 1742. In the manuscript Gall. Quart 23 in turn I have
found the watermark MOYEN J SAUVADE FILS AUVERGNE, dated back by Raymond
Gaudriault6 to the 1740s. Only Gall. Quart. 24 features a watermark that I have yet been
unable to identify; it is a variant of the well-known motif PRO PATRIA7, which I have been
able to copy only partially (ill. 4), due to the book format (in-quarto). It may be assumed
that, in all likelihood, the date of composition of the last manuscript is similar to that of
the remaining three.
The nature of the texts transmitted in the four manuscripts points clearly to the
1740s. MS Gall. Quart. 22 contains data on the expenses on fortifications, artillery and
pensions in 1741–1743. In MS Gall. Quart. 23 we can in turn find information on the
King’s expenses on fleet and galleys, a detailed description of the financial situation of
Paris and a list of royal debts in 1742–1744. The smallest manuscript in this group, MS
Gall. Quart. 24, depicts the state of the French armed forces in 1743. MS Gall. Quart. 21,
the largest and the most complex of all four, will be discussed separately.
Apart from the subject matter, the individual manuscripts exhibit far-reaching similari-
ties in terms of page design. The title pages of all the four volumes have been made with
great care: the calligraphed titles have been encircled with crossing lines drawn in ink. Rul-
ing also looks identical: vertical lines drawn in pencil enabled the scribes to separate the
text from columns of numbers. It should be mentioned as well that the original foliation
and pagination in all the cases seems identical: the title and the contents pages are foliated
with Roman numerals, whereas the remaining ones are paginated with Arabic numerals.
It is obvious that such similarities cannot be a result of coincidence and that these manu-
scripts were composed in the same period and place, even if written by different hands.
5 They are very infrequent in all four manuscripts.6 Raymond Gaudriault, Filigranes et autres caractéristiques des papiers fabriqués en France aux XVIIe
et XVIIIe siècles, CNRS Editions, Paris 1995, pl. 139.7 Rough size: 100 x 100 mm, space between chain-lines: 25 mm.
33
illustration 3
illustration 4
34
34
The manuscript with the catalogue number Gall. Quart. 21 is interesting enough to
be discussed separately. In Lemm’s catalogue8 it has been divided into no less than elev-
en parts. The beginning of each part is marked in the manuscript – most probably by a
German librarian – with the successive letter of the alphabet. The division is as follows9:
f. 2ro–vo (a), f. 3ro–vo (b), ff. 6ro–15vo (c), ff. 16ro–24vo (d), ff. 25ro–49ro (e), ff. 49vo–68vo (f),
ff. 69ro–85vo (g), ff. 86ro–140vo (h), ff. 141ro–223vo (i), ff. 224ro–244vo (k), ff. 245ro–349ro (l).
It should be noted here that the division is unjustified from the codicological point of
view, not only because it does not observe the structure of the gatherings10, but also be-
cause it does not take into account the nature of the texts and the number of scribes.
The first two parts (a and b) are folios of 750 x 530 mm that have been laced inside
the first gathering. They feature an identical watermark: fleur-de-lis on a crowned shield,
which I have been unable to identify so far.11 The task is made difficult more so, because
a similar watermark was used by many generations of papermakers and because of the
lack of a countermark. The two aforementioned parts a and b contain detailed data on
the income and the expenses of Kings of France, which are presented in form of tables.
The first one is entitled Tableau des Revenus du Roi de France des années 1688. 1712. 1717.
1722. 1734 & 1739. ; the second one – Tableau des Depenses du Roi de France des années
1688. 1712. 1717. 1722. 1734 & 1739. If we take into account the last date listed in the
titles, we may determine the terminus post quem of the composition of these texts, i.e.
the turn of the 1730s, which is consistent with the date of composition assumed by me
for the remaining texts. I am forced to withhold the final conclusion and, especially, the
answer whether these leaves were originally an integral part of the manuscript. How-
ever, because both these texts have been written by one hand, their division into two
separate parts a and b imposed by the German librarian is unjustified.
In the manuscript proper we can distinguish only three hands, the first of which wrote
the texts in ff. 4ro–5vo and 67ro–137ro, the second one – those in ff. 6ro–66ro, and the third
one – those in ff. 138ro–349ro. Moreover, we find paper with the same watermark almost
8 Siegfried Lemm, Mitteilungen aus der Königlichen Bibliothek, Weidmannsche Buchhandlung, Berlin 1918, vol. IV, p. 16.
9 The numbers are given according to the current foliation in pencil.10 The structure is as follows: 1 (II+2)5 + 2 VI29 + 1 V39 + 2 VI63 + 1 II67 + 1 VI79 + 1(II+1)84 + 1 VII98 + 3
VI134 + 1 (I+1)137 + 1 V147 + 1 (VI+1)160 + 15 VI341 + 1 IV349 + I350. Thus, it can be seen that the begin-ning of parts d, e, f, i and k does not coincide with the beginning of a new gathering. I will deal with parts a and b in the next paragraph.
11 155 x 78 mm, the space between the chain-lines: 27 mm. A similar but not entirely identical watermark is found in the catalogue by William Algernon Churchill, Watermarks in paper in Holland, England, France, etc., in the XVII and XVIII centuries and their interconnection, M. Hertz-berger, Amsterdam 1935, no 410, dated back to the year 1760.
Krzysztof Kotuła
Finances of the Kingdom of France
in four Manuscripts of the Berlin collection
35
everywhere, and the individual parts are related in terms of subject matter. These are
additional arguments that force us to reject the division imposed by the librarian, who
treated the book as a collection of originally independent manuscripts that have been
combined in one binding.
A brief table of contents of the book (f. 4ro) and two longer texts entitled Recettes
& depenses du Roy annee 1704. (f. 68ro) and Affaires extraordinaires concernant la Guerre
Année 1740.1741.1742 Et 1743. (f. 85ro) have been written by the first hand. Thus the last
date ought to be treated as the terminus post quem of this part of the manuscript. The
text entitled Etat des Revenus du Roi, de l’année 1741., which begins on f. 6ro, has been
written by the second hand. Three texts, Observations Et Reflexions critiques et politiques
sur les affaires des Finances En l’année 1750. (f. 138ro); Arrangemens des Milices Du Roiaume
és années 1737, 1748 et 1750. (f. 224ro) and Etat General des appointemens fixes des Officiers
Generaux des Armées et des offrs. De L’Etat major des Places année 1740. (f. 245ro), have been
copied by the third and last hand.
As we can see, two out of the three texts quoted above point to the early fifties of the
18th century and the date 1750 given there must be treated as the terminus post quem
of their composition. It is, therefore, possible that the last part of the manuscript was
composed later than the first two. Such an interpretation cannot be ruled out, because,
as follows from the structure of the manuscript, a change of the scribal hand coincides
with the beginning of a new gathering (f. 138ro). A more detailed study of this copy is
needed, and the final answer has to be withheld.
However, it is beyond doubt that the four manuscripts from the Berlin collection that
are subject of this article are related to one another; it is evidenced both by the common
subject matter and the similarities in their external features and page design. Because
of all this, they are a very interesting object of study for all people with a passion for
codicology. Moreover, their content may prove a valuable source of information for a
historian concerned with France in the middle of the 18th century.
