Biographia Britannica literaria; or, biography of literary characters of Great Britain and Ireland. Anglo-Saxon period / arranged in chronological order.
- Thomas Wright
- Date:
- 1842
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Biographia Britannica literaria; or, biography of literary characters of Great Britain and Ireland. Anglo-Saxon period / arranged in chronological order. Source: Wellcome Collection.
82/582 page 70
![The printed text, evidently formed from the nomen- clature above mentioned, which is found at the end of the book, arranges the seven sciences thus,—arithmetic, geome- try, music, astronomy, astrology, mechanics, medicine.* Of five manuscripts in the old Royal Library in the British Museum, one only, apparently of the eighth century,t agrees with this printed text. In all the others the list begins with the grammatical studies, and two of them, one of the eighth century,{ the other of the ninth,$ give the list mentioned above, namely, grammar, rhetoric, dialectics (or logic), arithmetic, music, geometry, astronomy. Of the remaining two manuscripts, one, written in the ninth century,|| combines the two lists together, and the other, probably of the end of this same century, adds medicine to them all, and makes ten sciences instead of seven. A similar list, entered sepa- rately in a manuscript of the ninth century, agrees with Aldhelm’s printed text.** From these variations we are led to conclude, in the first place, that the division into seven branches was not very popular among the Anglo-Saxons, ft * Tgitur consummatis grammaticorum studiis et philosophorum disciplinis, quee septem speciebus dirimuntur, id est, Arithmetica, Geometrica, Musica, Astronomia, Astrologia, Mechanica, Medicina. Aldhelm. de L. V. ed. Delrio, p. 41. Tt MS. Reg. 5 F. IIT., fol. 24 v°. t MS. Reg. 7 D. XXIV, fol. 126 v°. § MS. Reg. 5 E. XI. fol. 69 v°. ]| MS. Reg. 6 A. VI. fol. 64 ve. q MS. Reg. 6 B. VIII. fol. 30 v°. Grammatica, rhetorica, dialectica, arithmetica, musica, geometrica, astronomia, astrologia, mechanica, medicina. ** MS. Cotton. Domitian, A. 1. fol. 1 r®. To this list is added the term mathematici, steor-wigleras. Tr Itis easy to see that the foundation of all these variations lies in the ambi- guity of the sentence, ‘‘ consummatis grammaticorum studiis et philosophorum disciplinis, que septem speciebus dirimuntur,’’ where gue and septem might be construed as referring to the whole, or only to the phil. disciplinis, but the persons with whom the numerous variations originated can have had no know- ledge of the septenary division, or they would never haye had any doubt on the subject.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b33096740_0082.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
