Ms. XXX of the Gayangos Collection, Biblioteca de la Real Academia de la
Historia de Madrid (E. Terés, 1975: 24)
Miscellaneous
Miscellaneous
As described by M. Asín Palacios “It has the ownership inscriptions of Sulaymān b. Aḥmad al-Qashtānī, ‘āmm 1160 (all in arabic script), and José Banqueri. It is not dated. It comprises 143 pages of text, numbered with pencil, in a thick paper of 18 x 12 cm, each with 13 lines of maghrebi script in black ink with red headings. It is bound in black morocco leather” (García Gómez, E., 1945. ‘Sobre la agricultura arábigoandaluza: Cuestiones bibliográficas’. Al‑Andalus 10, p. 142).
Millás also discusses this miscellaneous manuscript (Millás Vallicrosa, J.M., 1948. ‘La traducción castellana del ‘Tratado de Agricultura’ de Ibn Baṣṣāl’. Al‑Andalus 13, p. 352).
It is made up of three agricultural treatises, the last two of which are Andalusian. The first is a compilation of agricultural rules and practices attributed to the sage Balinas (Apolonio)1, edited and translated by C. Vázquez who has identified it as an Arabic translation of the work of Vindanio Anatolio of Berytos, Kitāb Filāḥat al-arḍ (Balīnās al-Ḥakīm, 1973 and 1974. ‘Kitāb al-Filāḥa. El manuscrito No. XXX de la colección Gayangos (fols. 1–98)’. Concepción Vázquez de Benito. Boletín de la Asociación Española de Orientalistas 9 (1973), pp. 73–124; 10 (1974), pp. 215–304).
The second one (fols. 100v-141r) is a small treatise about the planting, grafting and sowing of various plants and trees: Taqyīd min diwān al-filāḥa li-Ibn Faḍḍāl.
This part of the manuscript, as well as the third one, is written in a rustic maghrebi script with 15 lines per page. It has some smudges. The headings are made with thicker strokes than the rest of the text. Orthographic signs like vowels, sukūn, etc. are rare. There are some marginal notes.
This text seems to be a summary of Ibn Baṣṣāl’s Kitāb al-qaṣd wa’l-bayān, and has, in relation to the Arabic edition of the text published by J. Millás and M. ‘Azīmān (Ibn Baṣṣāl, 1955. Kitāb al-qaṣd wa’l-bayān. Libro de Agricultura. Edition with Spanish translation and notes by J. M. Millás Vallicrosa & M. Aziman. Tetuan: Instituto Muley El Hassan) and the rest of the manuscripts that will be discussed here, the following differences:
Chapters I, II, III, IV, XIII, XIV, XVI are missing.
Chapter V is almost complete, even though some headings (epígrafes) are shortened and two are missing. It includes a text that is not in the edition (fol.119v, l. 13-fol. 120r. l. 4)
Chapter VI has just two headings.
Chapter VII has just one heading.
Some of the headings in chapters VIII and IX are shortened considerably.
Chapter X has just one heading.
Chapter XI has just 4 headings.
Chapter XII has just 3 headings and the one dedicated to black pepper is completely different.
The third treatise in this miscellany is entitled Taqyīd ājar min gayr kitāb Ibn Faḍḍāl (Ibn Faḍḍāl being a variant of Ibn Baṣṣāl, as in the previous text), in which the months and days for planting various species of trees are given as well as some advice on obtaining better fruit (García Gómez, E., 1945. ‘Sobre la agricultura arábigoandaluza: Cuestiones bibliográficas’. Al‑Andalus 10, pp. 145-46).
(translated from Carabaza Bravo, J. M., García Sánchez, E. & Llavero Ruiz, E. (1991). ‘Obras manuscritas de los geoponos andalusies (siglos X-XII)’, pp. 1115-17. In: Emilio Molina et al. (eds.). Homenaje al Profesor Jacinto Bosch Vila, vol. 2, pp. 1115-1132. Granada: Universidad de Granada. Additional notes from Carabaza Bravo, J. M., & García Sánchez, E. (1998). ‘Códices Misceláneos de Agronomía Andalusí’. Al‑Qantara 19, pp. 404-5)
Notes
| 1 | M. Asín reads ‘Balyās’; cf. García Gómez, E., 1945. ‘Sobre la agricultura arábigoandaluza: Cuestiones bibliográficas’. Al‑Andalus 10, p. 142; the headings of this treatise are listed from this page to p. 144. |