Note 19 — Chapter XXXV
Reading edition
BN nouv. acq. 1429, 12th century, fols. iv-23, and CLM 2572, written between 1182 and 1199; both end with the thirteenth chapter of Book VI, or at col. 809 in Migne. St. John’s 98, 14th century, fol. 145v, also ends at this point. Jesus College 35, 12th century, is mutilated at the close.
Other early MSS, however, include the passage on magic in the Didascalicon, and end the sixth book with the closing words of the account of magic, “Hydromancy first came from the Persians”: see Vitry-le-François 19, 12th century, fols. 1-46; Mazarine 717, 13th century, #9, closing at fol. 97v.
The passage on magic is also cited as Hugh’s by Robert Kilwardby, archbishop of Canterbury 1272-1279, in his work on the division of the sciences, cap. 67: MSS are Balliol 3; Merton 261.
In Cortona 35, 15th century, fol. 203, the Didascalicon in six books is first followed by a brief passage, Divisio philosophie continentium, which is perhaps simply the fourteenth chapter of the sixth book as printed in Migne, and then at fol. 224 by the passage concerning magic and its subdivisions.
The account of magic also occurs in MSS which do not contain the Didascalicon, for instance, Vatic. Palat. Lat. 841, 13th century, fol. 139r, “Magice artis quinque sunt species....”