Peter of Limoges on the Comet of 1299

Abstract

PETER OF LIMOGES, canon of Evreux, who refused two different bishoprics and twice declined a prebend in Paris,' is well known for his De oculo moraUi, of which there were several printed editions, for his collections of Parisian sermons,2 and for his donation of I 20 manuscripts to College de Sorbonne,3 of which he had once been a fellow. His death has been variously dated in I304 and I 3o6.4 HAUREAU B and DELISLE 6 disagreed as to whether this canon could be identified with a PETER OF LIMOGES whose name appears in records of university of Paris in I267 and I270 as dean of medical faculty.7 SARTON 8 and WICKERSHEIMER 9 agree with HAUREAU in answering this question in negative, but there seems to be still room for doubt. De oculo morali describes eye diseases and their treatment as well as eye itself. The library of canon, bequeathed to Sorbonne, included much medicine and astronomy and works by RAYMOND LULL.10 It was not an unheard of thing then for 1 Sorbonne necrology, as quoted by LEOPOLD DELISLE, Le Cabinet des Manuscrits, i868-i88I, 3 vols., II, I68: Obiit magister PETRUS DE LEMOVICIS quondam socius huius domus canonicus Ebroicensis qui refutavit duos episcopatus et bis prebendam Parisiensem, baccalarius in theologia, qui legavit domui plus quam VI volumina exceptis quibusdam caternis magne reputationis. 2HAUREAU describes them as including sermons of RoBERT DE SORBON of years I26o-I26I, and others of I26I -I263 and 12721274 which PETER went from church to church collecting: Histoire littiraire de la France, XXVI, 461-2, 467. See further G. CLiMENT-SIMON, Notices de quelques manuscrits d'une bibliotheque limousine. Les Sermons de Pierre de Limoges, Bull. soc. scient. Correze, xv (I893), 299-3I17, 467-70. 8DELISLE, op. cit., lists 57 odd now in Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris. The legend which they bear, Iste liber est pauperum magistorum de Sorbona ex legato magistri PETRI DE LEMOVICIs quondam socii domus huius, also appears in a thirteenth-century hand on verso of last leaf of a thirteenth-century manuscript of ALBERTANO DA BRESCIA, etc. offered for sale some time since by Chez Durtal, 12 rue Jacob, Paris (6'). 'DELISLE gave 1304 and CHEVALIER prefers it to I306, but HAUREAU, SARTON, and WICKERSHEIMER give latter. Histoire littiraire de la France, XXVI ( 1 8 73), 460-67. Le Cabinet des Manuscrits, II, I67-69. Chartularium universitatis Parisiensis, I, 468, 488. Introduction to History of Science, II. ( 1 9 3 I), 1029. Dictionnaire biographique des midecins en France au tnoyen age, II, 645. 10 DELISLE, Le Cabinet des Manuscrits, II, i 6 9; Histoire litt6raire XXVI, 463. an individual to study both medicine and theology, and while Sorbonne was founded for students of theology, it was also limited to those who had already taken degree of master of arts and to secular theologians as against members of religious orders. One of its earliest benefactors, aside from king Louis IX and ROBERT DE SORBON himself, was physicus, ROBERT OF DOUAI, canon of Senlis and physician to MARGUERITE OF PROVENCE, wife of Louis IX, who in I258 gave I500 livres for the new scholars studying in theology. Whether our canon of Evreux had once been dean of medical faculty or not, at any rate he enjoyed considerable repute in a field of learning which was then often closely related to medicine, namely, that of astronomy and astrology.12 The obituary of him in Sorbonne necrology called him magnus astronomus, 13 while CLAUDE HEMERE in his manuscript history of Sorbonne said that PETER was renowned as an astrologer.14 It is primary purpose of present note to call attention to a brief work by him in this field which seems not to have hitherto attracted notice, namely, a treatise on comet of I299 preserved in a Cambridge manuscript.5 This little tract is more important in that it appears to be only one known upon comet of that year. It has therefore seemed advisable to reproduce it here in full in both Latin text and English translation. Before doing so, a word may be said concerning a treatise on nativities by a PETRUS DE LEMOVICIS in an Oxford manuscriptt 1 which has already been