Astronomy in medieval Latin manuscripts and old prints.
III. Master Pavel Zidek (Paulerinus)
Grant No. 405/03/0232 supported by
Grant Agency of the Czech Republic
in the years 2003-2005.
Principal Investigator: Alena Hadravova
Research Center for the History of Science and Humanities,
Legerova 61, 12000 Praha 2, Czech Republic
Co-investigator: Petr Hadrava
Astronomical Institute, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic,
251 65 Ondrejov, Czech Republic
Short characteristics of the project from the grant proposal:
The goal of the proposed project is to continue in the study of
the mediaeval Latin astronomical manuscripts and old prints especially
of the Czech origin and making them accessible in the form of editions
with critical apparatus, supplemented with translation, interpretation
and explicatory comments from the point of view of both the European
context of that time and the present knowledge of the astronomy. By
treating the astronomical passage of the encyclopedic work "Liber
viginti arcium" by Master Pavel Zidek (2nd half of 15th century)
this project should continue in the successful results of the previous
projects devoted to astronomical works of masters of the Prague University,
Cristannus de Prachaticz and Iohannes Schindel.
Basic facts about Pavel Zidek:
Basic biographical data on Master Pavel Zidek (called also Paulus, Paulus
de Praga, Paulerinus, Paulirinus, about 1413-1471) can be found in the
main works of Czech literary history. However, the existing secondary
literature is not extensive. Little has been written about Zidek's life
or his works; and, with the exception of a few modern studies treating
particular questions, the existing literature is mostly of an older date.
Accounts of Zidek's work deal mostly with analysis of his Czech
work Spravovna, made accessible in Tobolka's 1908 edition.
The present project deals with Zidek's Latin encyclopaedia
Liber viginti arcium (`The book of twenty arts'), the only manuscript of
which is kept in Bibliotheca Jagellonica (Cracow, BJ 257).
So far, the basic work treating this encyclopaedia remains the study
written by the Polish researcher J. Muczkowski (Pauli Paulirini olim
Paulus de Praga vocitati Viginti artium manuscriptum librum, cuius codex
membranaceus in bibliotheca universitatis Jagellonicae Cracoviae asservatus
Twardovio vulgo tribuitur, Cracoviae 1835), which, however, contains along
with a lot of important information also a number of inaccuracies, including
mistakes in the reading of extracts from the manuscript.
The principal applicant thus draws her present knowledge about this unique
encyclopaedia first of all from her own experience gained in the course
of work on the edition of the Latin exposition of artisans and
craftsmen, of their products and of the work tools of individual artisans
(Paulerinus (Pavel Zidek): Liber viginti arcium (ff.
185ra-190rb). Edition, preface, comments and indices by Alena Hadravova.
Old Czech glosses revised by Jiri Cejnar. Clavis monumentorum litterarum
(Regnum Bohemiae) 3, Fontes 2. Praha, KLP 1997).
This part of the text was chosen because its Latin text is supplemented
by interlinear translations and glosses in Old Czech and also in Old German.
If one compares the lexical richness of Zidek's text e.g. with the
material in the dictionaries of medieval Latin, of particular interest it
can be found that Zidek's text includes both a number of hapax legomena
and many expressions familiar only because they occur in the Claret
dictionaries Bohemar (before 1360) and Glosar (about 1365).
These
expressions, known only from Claret's dictionaries and now from Zidek's
encyclopaedia, constitute an interesting group. Moreover, in Zidek's text
there are hundreds of terms documented not only in Claret but also in at
least one other source, most often in the later dictionaries which depend
on Claret (even in such cases one cannot rule out a direct influence of
Claret, not mediated through other manuscripts). Correspondences between
Zidek's and Claret's texts are evident on various levels, e.g. in the
structure of the sections; correspondence also occurs on the higher level
of composition, that is, in the sequence of artisans. Zidek thus appears
decidedly as a representative of the Claret tradition.
As a by-product of the edition of Cristannus' astrolabe we have found
already that the astronomical parts of Zidek's encyclopaedia are strongly
influenced by Cristannus' text. Some parts are taken over verbally.
Astronomy (as part of septem artes liberales) is written on fols.
131ra-142vb, astronomical tables follow on fols. 143r-152v. The manuscript,
written on parchment, has 359 folios of considerable size: sixty by forty
centimeters. The part of astronomy is thus very extensive and it treats more
then 350 lemmata. The manuscript is preserved in original only, there are no
its copies. The nature of the editorial work is thus different from the case
when it is necessary to compare several manuscripts and to search for
archetype. In the case of a unique manuscript like the Zidek`s extensive
encyclopaedy is important also the fact that bysubsequent publication of
its parts the whole work can be saved for future. Despite the manuscript
is written calligraphically and its reading is hampered mainly by interlinear
comments, it is significantly faded on many places and thus partly or
completely unreadable. This is why all attempts for its reproduction
have failed up to now and there is no a good one (microfilm or a scan).
Up to now an attention was paid to Zidek in the field of explanations
on music only. In addition to the works of Ruzena Muzikova it was recently
studied by Jiri Matl with his muzicologist fellows in the framework of his
grant.
Goal and procedure of the project
Our intention is to prepare the edition of the passage on astronomy from
the Zidek's encyclopaedia. Owing to its purpose, Paulerinus' astronomy
offers in a sence a representative picture of the sum of knowledge on
the astronomy at 15th century. It could be used as a frame into which
the other treatises of other authors could be placed. The procedure of
the work will be simillar like in
the previous steps dealing with Cristannuu's astrolabe or Sindel's
Eclipse instrument. A difference follows from the uniqueness of the studied
manuscript and its wider topic.
It is necessary to verify all unclear places of the manuscripts in situ
directly in the Jagellonian library. In the course of her previous work the
principal investigator was helped by colleagues from the dept. of special
collection (A. Sobanska and M. Kowalczykowna) by yelding the UV-lamp.
Additional literature:
R. Muzikova, Miscellanea musicologica 18, 1965; AUC - PhH 2,
1965; Miscellanea musicologica 32, 1988.
Catalogus codicum manuscriptorum medii aevi Latinorum, qui in
bibliotheca Jagellonica Cracoviae asservantur, I. sv., compos. S. Wlodek,
G. Zathey, M. Zwiercan, Ossolineum, Wratislaviae etc. 1980, pp. 289-293.
Cf. A. Hadravova-Dohnalova, K remeslnicke terminologii v encyklopedii Pavla
Zidka Liber viginti arcium a jejimu vyuziti ve stredolatinske lexikografii
(To the artisans' terminolgy in the encyclopaedia in Paulerinus' Liber viginti
arcium and to its exploitation in medieval Latin lexicography), Listy
filologicke 113, 1990, pp. 135-143.
See also the previous grants on
Cristannus de Prachaticz and
Iohannes Sindel
Back to the Hadrava's private homepage
http://www.asu.cas.cz/~had/had.html
Petr Hadrava,
Astronomical Institute of the Academy of Sciences
of the Czech Republic,
Bocni II 1401
141 31 Praha 4,
Czech Republic
had@sunstel.asu.cas.cz,
tlf.: +420 267 103 040;
fax: +420 272 769 023.
Created 19. 1. 2002, last revised 13. 2. 2005