ÉVRARD DE BÉTHUNE (Eberhardus Bethuniensis) Lot n° 2

GRAECISMUS Extract from a manuscript (4 quires) In Latin, with some glosses or annotations in French manuscript on parchment France, second half of the 13th century 172 x 234 mm Four quires (quire I, 8 ff.; quire II, 8 ff.; quire III, 8 ff.; quire IV, 10 ff.), 35 ff. unbound, fine rounded gothic script, contemporary annotations and glosses of smaller module, quires copied by two hands, numerous marginal and interlinear annotations, some initials painted in red two lines high marking the major divisions into chapters, parchment ruled with drypoint. A few penciled essays in the ("On April 12, 1831 I was at the wedding of Zacharie Chavarox"). Some soiling or torn parchment, without affecting the text. Good general state of conservation. Bibliography Edition of the Graecismus: Wrobel (I.) Eberhardi Bethuniensis Graecismus, Breslau, 1887. Bursill-Hall, G.L. "Teaching Grammars of the Middle Ages", in Historiographia Linguistica, IV, 1977, pp. 1-29. Grondeux, Anne. Le Graecismus d "Evrard de Béthune à travers ses gloses. Entre grammaire positive et grammaire spéculative du XIIIe au XVe siècle, Turnhout, Brepols, 2000. Hunt, R.W. " Vernacular Glosses in Medieval Manuscripts," in Cultura Neolatina 39, pp. 9-37. A rare record of the teaching of grammar in the schools of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, with a layout that allowed for marginal and interlinear glosses and annotations for grammar students and teachers. In particular, the spacing between the verses is increased so that the student or master can add his comments or synonyms. The text of Evrard de Béthune is here annotated and glossed by contemporaries (or close contemporaries) in Latin but also in French, a testimony to bilingualism and to the propagation of the vernacular language in schools and universities. For example, we find several annotations in French: fol. 15: "Facit testamentum suum. Fait ses lais"; fol. 15: "hoc Gall. lais"; fol. 15: "Prevaricari est changier sa lai"; fol. 17: "saler la char", and passim. We could multiply the examples, the French passages being sometimes introduced by the term "Gall" for "Gallica". We also note among the interlinear annotations the name of Jean de Garlande (c. 1190-after 1252), a grammarian who taught in Paris from 1220. A clergyman, Évrard de Béthune was born in Bethune and died in the same city around 1212, but little is known about him. In his Graecismus, the author advocates teaching based on the meaning of words and not exclusively on their grammatical properties. The Graecismus (also known as the Grecimus) was an astonishing versified manual and a reference work for medieval grammar teachers. It was widely commented and glossed, quoted and used in schools and universities (the mention "versus glossati" by a more recent but nevertheless ancient hand confirms this). The number of surviving manuscripts (some 250 witnesses and a dozen incunabula editions) attests to its popularity and great success since its composition at the turn of the 12th-12th centuries. The Graecismus is complete in 27 chapters [4579 verses]. The quires presented here contain chapters that belong to the "secunda pars Grecismi". Text These quires are extracted from a dismembered manuscript but of which we have the chance to preserve nevertheless three coherent quires which follow one another. Book I (ff. 1-8v), Eberhardus Bethuniensis, Graecismus, chapter IX, De nominibus latinis masculinis, incipit, "Rusticus a rure quoniam rus est sibi curae...", lacks the first part of the chapter [towards 165-350]; chapter X, De nominis feminis, incipit, "Sed tamen Evita ne te fallat calamita..", the end of the chapter is missing [c. 1-250]; Book II (ff. 9-16v), Eberhardus Bethuniensis, Graecismus, chapter XIII, De nominibus adjectivis, incipit, "Spissum de toto solido dicetur ad illud..", the first part of the chapter is missing [verses 240-265]; chapter XIV, De pronominibus, incipit, "Donati nostri vestigia prima secutus...", complete chapter [verses 1-139]; chapter XV, De verbis primae conjugationis, incipit, "Verbum quadruplici sensu credo variari" [verses 1-111]; Book III (ff. 17-24v), Eberhardus Bethuniensis, Graecismus, chapter XV [continuation of book II], De verbis primae conjugationis, complete chapter [verses 112-226]; chapter XVI, De verbis secundae conjugationis, incipit, "Dicit ave veniens tibi iure valeque recedens", complete chapter [verses 1-120]; chapter XVII, De verbis tertiae conjugationis, incipit, "Verto facit cum re deponens verto revertor" [verses 1-154]; chapter XVIII, De verbis quartae conjugationis, incipit, "Conveniunt partier me convenient ut oportet", complete chapter [verses 1-71]; Notebook IV (ff. 25-35), Eberhardus Bethuniensis, Graecismus, chapter XVIII, De verbis quartae conjugationis, [cont