Scholarly Markings: Notes, Diagrams and ‘Active Reading’
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Author: Leonhart Fuchs
Title: De historia stirpium commentarii insignes (Lyon, 1549)
Shelfmark: H.19.5 (catalogue record)
16th century17th centuryH.19.5Richard BryanWilliam Bedwellinscriptionsprinter's devicesprovenancetitle pages
![This publication by the German physician Leonhart Fuchs is nowadays recognised as a masterpiece in Renaissance botany, not least on account of its ground-breaking naturalist woodcut illustrations. Published in numerous editions and languages in the sixteenth century, Fuchs’ <i>De historia stirpium</i> achieved a hugely influential standing amongst contemporary botanists across Europe. <br><br>
This edition, printed in Lyon, bears extensive scholarly annotations. On this page we see inscribed in an early hand the English name of a plant (‘daffadyll’) next to its printed illustration. A later hand, that of the Cambridge orientalist William Bedwell, corrects both author and previous annotator, stating that the picture shown ‘is the wilde lily hemerocallis & not Asphodelus’. Bedwell supports his assertion with a cross reference (including volume and page number) to the Latin edition of another botanical work by the Flemish botanist Rembert Dodoens. In other parts of this volume Bedwell refers to an English edition of the same Dodoens work published in 1578.
<br><br><b>Author:</b> Leonhart Fuchs <br>
<b>Title:</b><i> De historia stirpium commentarii insignes </i> [Notable commentaries on the history of plants] (Lyon, 1549)<br>
<b>Shelfmark:</b> H.19.5 <a href="http://idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=44CAM_ALMA21420910460003606&context=L&vid=44CAM_PROD&search_scope=SCOP_QUE&tab=cam_lib_coll&lang=en_US"> (catalogue record)</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Exhibitions/Not-A-Day-exhibition/Scholarly-Gallery/i-97QFNwf/0/5c1a3736/Ti/H-019-005-005-Ti.jpg)
![Published in 1503, the poems in this collection by the Roman poet Horace are surrounded by printed commentaries by the Flemish scholar, Josse Badius, and the highly regarded Italian educationalist, Antonio Mancinelli. His comments at the beginnings of each ode - indicated by 'ANT' or 'ANTO' - analyse the patterns of meters and refer to other technical aspects of the verse. <br><br>
On this page, an industrious Renaissance reader seems to have been particularly interested in the 'Saphicum metrum' (Sapphic stanza), a form of verse originally used by Sappho of Lesbos (c. 630-c. 570 BC). The reader has drawn a diagram of a hand that represents the first verse of the ode 'Jam satis terris nivis atque dirae'. The verse is broken down into syllables, with each one ascribed to a joint or tip of a finger. As a mnemonic and calculating device, hand diagrams such as this date back to ancient times, one of the most celebrated practitioners having been the medieval music theorist Guido of Arezzo, whose 'Guidonian hand' was widely used as a means to teach and remember musical intervals and melodies.
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<b>Author:</b> Horace<br>
<b>Title:</b><i> Odae </i>[Odes] (Paris, 1503)<br>
<b>Shelfmark:</b> I.6.29 <a href="http://idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=44CAM_ALMA21415610750003606&context=L&vid=44CAM_PROD&search_scope=SCOP_QUE&tab=cam_lib_coll&lang=en_US"> (catalogue record)</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Exhibitions/Not-A-Day-exhibition/Scholarly-Gallery/i-7Sm5wKw/0/060d0bfb/Ti/I-006-029-010-Ti.jpg)
![Detail, showing the hand diagram.
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<b>Author:</b> Horace<br>
<b>Title:</b><i> Odae </i>[Odes] (Paris, 1503)<br>
<b>Shelfmark:</b> I.6.29 <a href="http://idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=44CAM_ALMA21415610750003606&context=L&vid=44CAM_PROD&search_scope=SCOP_QUE&tab=cam_lib_coll&lang=en_US"> (catalogue record)</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Exhibitions/Not-A-Day-exhibition/Scholarly-Gallery/i-gtTJVQW/0/422e86de/Ti/I-006-029-006-Ti.jpg)
![An early modern reader, John Sturgeon, MP for London in 1542 and 1545, has transcribed from the printed text a list of Middle English words together with their Early Modern equivalents and the following instruction: ‘These worde[s] were interpreted by John Sturgeon late chambleyn of the Cytye of London, he being then of the age of lxxxvj [86] yeres'.
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<b>Author:</b> Geoffrey Chaucer<br>
<b>Title:<b><i> The workes of Geffray Chaucer newly printed </i> (London, 1550?)<br>
<b>Shelfmark: E.2.10</b><a href="http://idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=44CAM_ALMA21420880740003606&context=L&vid=44CAM_PROD&search_scope=SCOP_QUE&tab=cam_lib_coll&lang=en_US"> </a></b></b>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Exhibitions/Not-A-Day-exhibition/Scholarly-Gallery/i-z2BG964/0/a469f4fa/Ti/E-002-010-013-Ti.jpg)
![This book of poems by the Roman poet, Horace, was edited by Marc-Antoine Muret, a French humanist famous for having revived Ciceronian Latin style and highly praised for his pedagogic skills. The Queens’ copy has been used as a workbook, possibly by a student. <br><br>
This image shows the blank side of the title page where the reader has inscribed notes on Latin scansion (the visual analysis of a poem’s meter). The first lines refer to ‘Pherecratean’ and ‘Glyconius’ meters – both of which are characteristic verse forms used by two poets from Lesbos, Sappho and Alcaeus, in the sixth century BC. All are accompanied by classical notation which determines the stressed (-) and unstressed (˘) syllables of the meters.<br><br>
<b>Author:</b> Horace<br>
<b>Title:</b><i> Horatius M. Antonii Mureti in eundem annotationes</i> [Horace with the annotations of M. Antoine Muret] (Lyon, 1573)<br>
<b>Shelfmark:</b> I.8.26 <a href="http://idiscover.lib.cam.ac.uk/primo-explore/fulldisplay?docid=44CAM_ALMA21420948910003606&context=L&vid=44CAM_PROD&search_scope=SCOP_QUE&tab=cam_lib_coll&lang=en_US"> (catalogue record)</a>](https://photos.smugmug.com/Exhibitions/Not-A-Day-exhibition/Scholarly-Gallery/i-8GGtTmf/0/4f678e7a/Ti/I-008-026-079-Ti.jpg)