De Machometo

De Machometo ('On Muḥammad')[1] is a brief anonymous Latin tract on the life of Muḥammad from a Christian point of view. It begins in the reign of Pope Boniface IV (608–615).[2] Its account is cobbled together from a variety of sources, including the fifth dialogue of Petrus Alphonsi's Dialogi in quibus impiae Judaeorum confutantur, the Corozan legend and possibly the Libellus in partibus transmarinis de Machometi fallaciis from Vincent of Beauvais's Speculum historiale.[3][4] The composite account is very similar to the account of Muḥammad found in the Golden Legend.[5]

The end of the tract in the Copenhagen manuscript. The text set apart at the end of the second column is the explicit and repeats the title.

It is known from at least four manuscripts:

  • Copenhagen, Royal Danish Library, Acc. 2011/5, ff. 193r–194r (pp. 379–381), from the late 14th century[6]
  • Cambridge, University Library, MS Dd.1.17, ff. 79rb–79rv (incomplete), from c. 1400[5][7]
  • London, British Library, MS Royal 13.E.IX, ff. 93r–94r,[4][5] from c. 1395–1425[8]
  • London, British Library, MS Sloane 289, ff. 92v–95v,[4] from the mid-15th century[9]

De Machometo follows William of Tripoli's De statu Sarracenorum in both the Copenhagen and Cambridge manuscripts.[10] The text has never been edited.[11]

The title as it appears in the Copenhagen manuscript.

Notes
  1. This is the short title used in Bolton 2009 and Wood 2022, p. 122. The full title in the Copenhagen manuscript is Tractatus quomodo Machometus decepit Saracenos secundum diuersas opiniones ('a treatise about how Muḥammad deceived the Saracens according to different opinions'), which appears at the beginning and in the explicit.
  2. Whitelock 2005, p. xxiii n45: the incipit is Tempore Bonifacie pape iiii Romani pontificis.
  3. Daniel 1980, p. 232.
  4. Whitelock 2005, p. xxiii n45.
  5. Daniel 1980, p. 377 n10.
  6. Bolton 2009, pp. 207, 211.
  7. Whitelock 2005, pp. xxiii, lvii.
  8. Detailed record for Royal 13 E IX
  9. Arnold 1964, p. 196.
  10. Wood 2022, p. 122.
  11. Bolton 2009, p. 211.

Bibliography
  • Arnold, F. E. A. (1964). "The Source of the Alexander History in B.M. MS Sloane 289". Medium Ævum. 33 (3): 195–199. JSTOR 43627115.
  • Bolton, Timothy (2009). "A Newly Emergent Mediaeval Manuscript Containing Encomium Emmae reginae with the Only Known Complete Text of the Recension Prepared for King Edward the Confessor". Mediaeval Scandinavia. 19: 205–221.
  • Daniel, Norman (1980). Islam and the West: The Making of an Image. Edinburgh University Press.
  • Whitelock, Jill, ed. (2005). The Seven Sages of Rome (Midland Version). Oxford University Press.
  • Wood, Sarah (2022). Piers Plowman and Its Manuscript Tradition. York Medieval Press.
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