Collection ID: 0002 | Metadata type: TEI | TEI XML | Data

Title

Naturae constantia

Authors

• Jonstonus, Joannes, 1603-1675

Other related names

• Nostitz, Christoph Wentzel, Graf von, 1648-1712, former owner
• Popschitz, Wolfgang von, scribe

Call number

Ms. Codex 1181
(Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania, Rare Book & Manuscript Library)

Alternate identifiers

• bibid: 4312481
• http://hdl.library.upenn.edu/1017/d/medren/4312481

Publisher

The University of Pennsylvania Libraries

Language

Latin; some words in Greek (as on f. 12r, 49r); French lines of verse (f. 47v)

Origin

Date

1663

Place

Germany

Summary

Manuscript copy of printed version published in Amsterdam in 1632; it was also translated into English in 1657 by J. Rowland under the title An history of the constancy of nature. Jonston argues against the idea of a decline in nature, drawing from many and varied sources. Marginalia include references to authors including Seneca, Tacitus, Pliny the Younger, Aristotle, Boethius, Suetonius, Cicero, Livy, Herodotus, Joannes Barclaius, Jean Bodin, and Erasmus, as well as various verses from the Bible, mostly from the Old Testament. Within the text itself, more famous names appear, such as Copernicus, Brahe, Kepler, Melanchthon, Euripides, Homer, Vergil, Epictetus, the Gracchi, Pompey the Great, Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, John the Evangelist, Cleopatra, Francis I of France, and the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. The work is introduced by two quotes, one from book of Pliny the Younger's letter to Caninius (6.21), the other from book 3.55 of Tacitus's Annals. Within the text are numerous quotes from Boethius, lines 585-591 of book six of Vergil's Aeneid, and a poem, Regiarum rationum apud Parisios patroni epigrammatum libro primo, by Stephanus Paschasius.

Notes

• Ms. codex.
   
• Title from title page (f. 1r).
   

Extent

167 leaves : 192 x 157 mm. bound to 198 x 163 mm

Collation

Paper, i + 166; modern pencil foliation, upper right recto, 1-116 (remaining leaves blank and unnumbered).

Support

Paper

Binding

Contemporary half parchment.

Layout

Written in 20 long lines; left margin on each page defined in drypoint and includes annotations.

Script

Written in a cursive script by Wolfgang von Popschitz.

Provenance

• Formerly owned by Christoph Wentzel Graf von Nostitz (armorial bookplate, inside upper cover, and reference number 22 on spine).
   
• Sold by Ludwig Rosenthal (Hilversum, Holland), 1959.
   

Subjects topical

• Science--Early works to 1800
• Literature and science--Germany

Genres

• Codices
• Annotations
• Treatises
• Manuscripts, Latin--17th century
• Manuscripts, European

Licenses

• Text

  This description is ©2016 University of Pennsylvania Libraries. It is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License version 4.0 (CC-BY-4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. For a description of the terms of use see the Creative Commons Deed https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

  URL

  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode

• Text

  All referenced images and their content are free of known copyright restrictions and in the public domain. See the Creative Commons Public Domain Mark page for usage details, http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/.

  URL

  http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

Decorations

• Inside front cover — Bookplate, Inside front cover