Jean de Gagny / Martin Mesnart (B)
(1545)

There are two (four?) issues of this:

Adams T408, apud (excud.) Carolam Guillard.
Adams T409, apud Ioannem Roigny (excud. Carola Guillard).

1545 : GAGNY-MESNART : Adams T408/409. Paris, in folio, edited by Jean de Gagney (Gagnaeus), who added 11 works to those he copied from Rhenanus. Checked.  

Locations

Copies seen:  Cambridge University Library(Adams T408); Norwich Cathedral (Adams T409)
Copies listed but not checked at; London: British Library; Oxford: Balliol, Merton, University; Cambridge: (T408) Emmanuel, Peterhouse, CUL (defective) - (T409) Peterhouse.

Editor

Jean de Gagny (Gagneius) was Almoner Royal to His Most Christian Majesty, the King of France.  As such, he was probably far too grand to occupy himself with details of editing.  He had, however, a knack of locating manuscripts.  Some details about him are given in R.W.Hunt, The Need For A Guide to the Editors of Patristic Texts in the 16th Century.  He is also mentioned in P. Petitmengin, John Leland, Beatus Rhenanus ...(see bibliography).  His discoveries are discussed in A. Jammes, Un bibliophile à decouvrir, Jean de Gagny, Bulletin du Bibliophile 1996, pp.40-42 (Not checked: ref from Petitmengin CTC 97 p.315).  

The first text produced by his younger contemporary, Jean du Tillet (Joannes Tillius), an edition of Pacian in 1538, is dedicated to Gagny, whom, he states in the preface, 'exemplaria veteris illius theologiae corrogas ex omnibus prope Galliae bibliothecis, quae in tuum hoc Gymnasium Parisiense convehas, in exempla plurima transfusuras.'  Tillet himself owned some very rare manuscripts, including the Bodleian 5th century Ms. of Jerome's Chronicle.  J.A. de Thou (Thuanus), in Historiarum sui temporis, lib. xlvii (1570; Geneva ed. 1620, ii.663, 664) tells us that Tillet had a commission from Francis I to look for books also: Alter natu minor sacris addictus primum fani Brioci in Armorica et postea Meldorum episcopus fuit, qui a puero litteris instructior ad rerum nostrarum, qua frater eius excelluit, peritiam, etiam linguarum, iuris prisci Ro[mani] et ecclesiasticae antiquitatis exactam cognitionem adiunxit, perlustratis Francisci I permissu coenobiorum ac aliorum locorum toto regno celebrium, cum adhuc integrae essent, bibliothecis, atque inde peculiari sibi instructo librorum veluti penu copioso, ex quibus pleraque in utroque genere venerandae antiquitatis monumenta publico dedit, eoque nomine magnam a sui et posteri aevi hominibus gratiam ac laudem meruit.'  Tillet's Mss. come from central and northern France, including Corbie, and the publication of Pacian in 1738 suggests that the search had already commenced before then. (Not checked: details about Tillet from J.K. FOTHERINGHAM, The Bodleian Manuscript of Jerome's...Chronicle..., Oxford, 1905). 

A poem appears on the reverse of the title page (see below), which seems to be an acrostic and gives the name of Martin Mesnart.  Petitmengin in the same article describes him as 'advocat au Parlement de Paris' who was the author of many occasional poems like this, and best known for his work of 'improving'  the decretals of Gregory IX by introducing the vocabulary of the XII tables, and who lived at Paris aedibus Anglicis. (Petitmengin p. 54).  In CTC 1997 p.315 Petitmengin adds a few more details about him: he did similar poems for the Tractatus varii of P. Rebuffi (cf. Bibliographie lyonnaise, vol. 9, p. 466: not checked); and so the presence of this verse is not necessarily evidence of participation in the editing process of the edition.

The edition was produced by Charlotte Guillard, a remarkable businesswoman (cf. B. Beech, Renaissance Quarterly 36 (1983), pp.345-367: not checked).  The actual printing was split among herself (T408), Jean de Roigny (T409), Hugues and the 'héritiers d'Aymon de la Porte' (Petitmengin, CTC 97 - I have seen the first two only).

Notes

The 11 additional works come from an MS of which neither name nor description is given; just than 'ex vetustissimo codice'.  

• Dom Dekkers has shown (Notes sur les fragments ...) that this term conceals a complex collection of Mss., including at least one member of the Corpus Corbiense. 
• Pierre Petitmengin has reported that comparison of B with the collation of the Codex Masburensis found among Rhenanus' papers in Selestat reveals that the text of De Praescriptione Haereticorum is not that of Rhenanus, but rather that of the Masburensis.
• Quasten tells us that the text of De Baptismo in that MS is inferior to that of the Trecensis, but that some of the marginal readings are from the Trecensis. He also says that this edition also used the Agobardinus.  However:

In the Agobardinus, the last  few chapters of De Idololatria are missing, as are the first few of the next work, De Anima.  These missing chapters are present in Mesnart's edition, including the table of chapter titles for De Anima.  They are extant nowhere else.  The most natural explanation for their absence from the Agobardinus is that a few leaves had been lost from the Ms. from which the Agobardinus was copied.  (In this context, it is likewise noteworthy that the beginning of De Cultu Feminarum 1 is also missing.  Plainly the Ms. had shed leaves readily, which perhaps suggests either bad sewing or else a papyrus codex).  However, the Ms. used by Mesnart plainly was not the Agobardinus, since it had been copied from a manuscript in which these leaves were present, and the works in the same order.  But the unknown Ms, which we might label β, cannot have contained the lost texts at the end of the Agobardinus, nor Ad Nationes at the start, since neither are present in Mesnart.

In various works chapter titles appear and disappear.  For De Anima, a table of chapter titles is given -- plainly from the ancestor manuscript, since Mesnart does not introduce them elsewhere.  Likewise the titles may be presumed to be copied from the manuscript.  Otherwise, if they had been composed by Mesnart, surely he would have introduced them for every chapter.  Marginal variants are also present.  The impression given to me is that the printer was handed the manuscript, marked up for print, as was done by Rhenanus with the Codex Paterniacensis.  The Ms. β could well have been discarded after printing, if the edition was simply a copy of it.  Such a process would explain the lack of editorial matter, if in truth there was little editing done.  However this account does not adequately explain the marginal variants.

Note that J.H.Waszink, in the English introduction to his edition of De Anima, (1948), mentions that the readings given as those of B in CSEL20 (Reifferscheid and Wissowa) are often inaccurate.  He also remarks that the edition is very rare, which is certainly not the case in England!

There seems to be very little prefatory material in this edition, so I've digitised it all, and also turned it into text. I've tried to maintain the look and feel of the original pages - you can judge for yourselves how succesfully or otherwise!

Pages scanned in and online: Title Page, Reverse of Title Page, Folio 2r (i.e. page 3)

OPERA

Q.SEPTIMII FLOREN

TIS TERTVLLIANI CARTHAGINENSIS, INTER

Latinos Ecclesiae scriptores primi, sine quorum lectione nullum diem inter-
mittebat olim diuus Cyprianus, per B E A T V M . . R H E N A N V M
Seletstadiensem primum è tenebris eruta, atque a situ pro virili vindicata,
adiectis singulorum librorum argumentis, adnotationibusque. Nunc verò de-
nuo ad fidem veterú exemplarium manu descriptorú collata & restituta.

Accesserunt multa, quorum elenchum paginase-
quens complectur

Floruit sub C AE S S. Seuero Pertinace, & Antonio Caracalla, valde vicinus Aposto-
lorum temporibus, circa annum à Christo passo CLX.

[img]

Cum priuilegio

PARISIIS.

Apud Carolam Guillard, sub Sole aureo, uia ad diuum Iacobum

M. D. XLV

CATALOGVS OPERVM Q.SEPTIMII FLO
rentis Tertu1liani,quae primum diligentia B. Rhenani
in lucem edita sunt.

HAEC VERO SEQVENTIA OPVSCVLA NVNC
primùm eduntur in lucem beneficio Ioannis Gangneii Pari-
sini theologi, & Christianissimi Galliarum regis primi
eleemosynarii, ex vetustissimo codice desumpta.

AD LECTOREM IAMBICVM PRIMIS
versuum elementis authoris nomen praese gerens.

Multum dies haec ipsa (lector candide
Ardénsque lector) commodi tibi attulit,
Rursusque dico commodi multum attulit.
Tertullianum tandem habes tibi integrum,
Ipsumque cunctis expiatum sordibus;
Non dico ego authorem sed authoris opera,
Viris disertis habita summo in pondere,
Subtili ad vnguem Cypriano cognita.
Magnoque magna ex parte lapsa tempore
Et consepulta nunc reuiuiscunt tibi.
Si legeris, mirabero poteris interim
Notasse quanto caeteris theographis
Antestet & sententiis, & floribus,
Rerumque varietate quam gratissima.
Tu fruere lector munere, & faustus vale.

BEATVS RHENANVS THEOLO-
gis et piis omnibus.
S. D.

[Img of initial S]EPT I M I V M Tertullianú Aphrum apud Carthaginem pro-
[Img of initial] consulari gente natum, uetustissimum inter Theologos Latinos, quem
[Img of initial] EVSEBIVS Caesariensis omnium ecclesiarum sermone celebra-
[Img of initial] tum asserit, dum adhuc in humanis ageret, iterum damus uobis, sed
[Img of initial] emendatoriem quàm antehac. Cuius rei causa, quòd collationem eius
[Img of initial] codicis qui Gorziae in Mediomatricibus asservatur, diligentia ac
[Img of initial] dexteritate HVBERTI Custinei uiri pietate tum erudi-
tione excellentis, adiuuante DOMINICO Florentino sodali peractam, cura clariss.
Iurecósulti D. CLAVDII Cantiunculae FERDINANDI Caesaris à cósilio, tan-
dem nacti sumus. Nec uero tantum profuit illa, quanquam multum profuit, quantum mométi
attulit ad exactiorem castigationem, quòd deprehendimus subinde graecissare SEPTI-
MIVM figuris et constructionibus Graecis utentum, ut VICTORINI illius saepe
uenerit in mentem, quem diuus HIERONYMVS melius Graecè quàm Latinè scisse
scribit. Id quod et de IRENAEO sentiendum ipsa phrasis extátium librorum indicat.
Apparet sanè nostrum autorem in lectione Graecorum ueterum qui plurimi id temporis et
soli inter sacros interpretes habebantur assiduè uersatum, ut imbibitam et impressam me-
moriae Graecorum dialecton etiam latinè scribens interobliuisci nequiret. Nos huismodi
tropos indicanimus, et quidem saepe crassiùs, modo apertiùs. ná uoluimus adiuuare studio-
sos. Iam dedit retexédarum annotationum ansam collationis istius opportunitas, ubi lectio
posterior à priore nonnumquam euariat. Hoc quoniam erat indicandum, aliam etiam expo-
sitionem mutata uerba desiderabant. Non licuit adesse BASILEAE dum aeditur opus.
Verum SIGISMVNDVS Gelenius homo magni in literis iudicii, et eruditione sum-
ma praeditus, in recognoscendo opere uicariam operam in officina praestitit, qui merita lau
de sua non est fraudandus. Vestrum est nunc optimi uiri nostrum hunc laborem boni consu-
lere, et TERTVLLIANVM ardentem totum amore CHRISTI, cuius religio-
nem aduersum ueteres haereticos tum enixè propugnat, tametsi ipse quoque non perstitit,
sed secessit, quod est prorsum inexcusabile, uel ob hoc inquá diligéter euoluere, quo uideatis
quanti faciat ecclesiam Romanum, cui summam tribuit autoritatem, cuius etiam et omnium
rectè sentientum iudicio basce annotationum mearum quisquilias subiicio. Valete Selet-
stadii, sub Calendas Martias Anno M. D. XXXIX.

The edition commences on the next page.

The edition ends with the following words:

FINIS

INDEX QVATERIONVM

+ a b c d e f g h j k l m n o p q r s t v x y z
A B C D E F G H I K L M N O P Q R S.

Omnes sunt quanterniones praeter + ternionem.

PARISIIS.

Excudebat Carola Guillard, anno a partu
virgineo. M.D.XLV.

This page has been online since 11th December 1999.

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