Bibliotheca Arnamagnæana - 01.06.1991, Síða 132

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If compared to the chapters on the milvus, the textual structure of
those on the accipiter in the Bestiaries is much more composite. The ma-
jority of the manuscripts I have analysed bear no direct resemblance
to the 01P gieda chapter. I shall refer here to some of the works and
authors whose influence is evident simply to anticipate how a single
chapter can stand as an example of the variety of texts and meanings to
be found in the Bestiary. I shall come back to the subject in a future
work where I intend to examine a sample of chapters from the
Bestiaries which, on the basis of my researches, will probably lead to a
revision ofjames’s and McCulloch’s classification into families54. The
following are the most recurrent sources I have found in thirty-three
manuscripts which, according to me, belong to nine different groups:
Hugo de Folieto, Peter of Cornwall, Bartholomaeus Anglicus, Isidore,
Ambrose, Hrabanus Maurus. There is a group I wish to consider
closely. It contains two manuscripts, London, British Library, Harley
4751 (ca A.D. 1230-1240, PSalisbury, henceforth la; ff. 48v-49r) and
the already mentioned Oxford, Bodley 764 (henceforth Ib; ff. 76v-7 7r)
which have a distincdve feature not shared with any of the other
manuscripts analysed. Their text, which is made up from Hrabanus
Maurus-Ambrose-Hrabanus Maurus and some chapters from the
Aviarium, is particularly relevant to us since it presents the sentence
which appears in the 01P. I shall quote only the first part of the chapter
leaving out the secdons from the Aviarium:
Accipiter auis animo plus armata quam ungulis, uirtutem maiorem in mino-
re55 corpore gestans. Hic ab accipiendo56, id est a capiendo nornen sumpsit.
Est autem auis rapiendis aliis auibus auida. Ideo uocatur accipiter hoc est rap-
tor. Unde et Paulus dicit: Sustineds enim, si quis accipit57. Fertur autem accipi-
ter circa pullos suos impius esse. Nam dum uiderit eos posse temptare
uolatus nullas58 eis prebet escas sed uerberat pennis et a nido precipitat atque a
54 For afurther subdivision ofthesecond family of Bestiaries, cf. Yapp, A New Look, pp.
4-19.
55 minorem la; minore (altered by underpointing from minorem) Ib.
56 ...ab accipiendo Ib; accipiendo la.
57 ...sustinetis enim, si quis accipit la; in Ib we find that the scribe has retumed to the
biblical source (2 Cor. 11,20), giving instead the following reading: Sustinetis enim si quis
vos in servitutem redigit si quis accipit ut enim diceret: Si quis rapit, dixit, si quis accipit.
58 nullas Ib; ullas la.