Gregory Hays

The Library of Hélion Jouffroy: A Survey and Some Additional Identifications

One of the notable libraries of early sixteenth-century France was that of the Rodez lawyer and canon Helion Jouffroy (†1529), nephew of the better known cardinal Jean Jouffroy. The younger Jouffroy’s books, which included both printed volumes and manuscripts, were dispersed after his death. Our knowledge of his holdings depends on a 1530 inventory, first published in 2012 by Matthieu Desachy. This article briefly surveys Jouffroy’s intellectual interests as they emerge from his collection, and offers some new identifications of texts and editions listed in the inventory.

A Poem by Guarino on Leonello of Ferrara

This article revisits a set of sixteen hexameters by Guarino on the accession of Leonello d’Este in 1442. The poem was first published by Ian Thomson, whose text can be improved in several minor points as well as one major one. Thomson had already realized that Guarino’s lines are not transmitted in their original order and had proposed to move lines 4–6 to follow line 11. The displacement is in fact even more extensive than he realized but has a simple mechanical explanation and a simple solution. Once the lines are properly distributed, the piece emerges as a dialogue between an unnamed speaker and the city of Ferrara, perhaps intended to accompany a visual representation of some sort. Thomson’s theory that Guarino ghost-wrote the poem for an unnamed presbyter to present to Leonello is shown to be problematic.

John of Garland’s Clauis Compendii: Notes and Explications

This article contains comments on a number of passages in John of Garland’s Clauis Compendii, primarily cases where the recent editio princeps by Elsa Marguin-Hamon can be improved or amended. Marguin-Hamon’s decision to privilege C (Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College 385/605) as a “manuscrit de base” is shown to be misguided; since the stemma is tripartite, the agreement of any two witnesses should give the reading of the archetype. Marguin-Hamon’s text can often be improved by repunctuation and closer attention to metre. Many problems in the work can be solved by comparison with parallel passages in other authors, including Isidore, Fulgentius, Priscian, Eberhard of Bethune, and “Macer,” as well as in John’s other works.