Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 388
Trilingual collections of medical recipes
Contents
Language(s): Anglo-Norman, Middle English [Ely/West Norfolk dialect] and Latin
The text features English glosses and recipes in Latin and Anglo-Norman.
This collection of c. 225 medical recipes, Hunt's 'First Corpus Compendium', contains groups of recipes that Hunt (2001) categories as recipes for the head, ears, eyes, mouth, throat, teeth, facial blemishes, staunching blood, limbs, and against poisons. The collection contains charms (see below) and prognostic texts that will tell whether a patient will be cured. These instructions involve a drink with the herb ‘mushere’ (f. 29r); a drink with the herb pimpernel (f. 31r); a drink with lettuce (f. 31r); a hen's egg laid on the first day of the patient's sickness that needs to be inscribed with magical characters (f. 34v); and bread or lard that needs to rubbed on the patient's chest and subsequently given to dogs (f. 34v).
Full transcription as in Hunt (2001), p. 151.
Full transcription as in Hunt (2001), p. 152.
The text ends abruptly due to the loss of the next folio. As Tavormina (2019), p. xxxiv notes, this is a Latin equivalent to the text in Linne R. Mooney, 'Diet and Bloodletting: A Monthly Regimen', in Practical and Popular Science of Medieval England, ed. by Lister M. Matheson (East Lansing, MI: Colleagues Press, 1994), pp. 245-262.
This collection of c. 185 medical recipes, Hunt's 'Second Corpus Compendium', features many different categories of recipes. Unlike the previous collection, this one does not contain any charms but it does feature three prognostic texts for determining whether patients will be cured or not on f. 48r. These texts involve analysis of the patient's physical features as well as treatment of their urine with breast milk.
This is the earliest known version of the Liber de Diversis Medicinis .
Full transcription.
Full transcription. The text ends abruptly due to the loss of the next folio.
The text probably begins imperfectly as other items from the glossare were probably contained on the preceding (missing) leaf.
Full transcription.
The location ‘Clouburnel’ refers to Clos Bruneau, Paris [see Tavormina (2019), p. xxxiv].
The collection ends with an Anglo-Norman charm (with Latin formula) to aid pregnant women in childbirth and another one for women to (?) become pregnant.
As Tavormina (2019), p. xxxv notes, this is the earliest version of a Middle English uroscopic text.
Full transcription; unfinished version of the verse: ‘Omnibus est notum quod multum diligo potum’ (for this verse, see Joanna Bellis and Venetia Bridges, '"What shalt thou do when thou hast an english to make into Latin?" The Proverb Collection of Cambridge, St John's College, MS F.26', Studies in Philology, 112:1 (2015), 68-92 (p. 75 fn. 26) [without this manuscript]). Added by a (?) late 14th-century or 15th-century hand.
Added in the (?) 15th century. The inscription has either been erased or damaged from having been glued onto the inside of the rear cover of the previous binding. It may be an owner's name, referring to a member of the ‘Falls’ family, but the inscription could be something else as well. Tavormina (2019), p. xxxv reads ‘ffa??S fflemyng’.
Physical Description
20th-century foliation:
i-iii + 1-35, 35a, 36-54 + iv-vi
Numbering in pencil in the upper right-hand corner of the rectos. f. 35a is a triangular remnant of a leaf, incorporated into a longer stub formed of modern parchment.Collation
This collation differs from that indicated by the later quire signatures in placing the beginning of Quire 8 at f. 50, not f. 52.
- Quires 1-48 (ff. 1-32)
- Quire 56-3 (ff. 33-35a verso: 4th, 5th and 6th leaves missing; only a small portion remains of the 6th leaf)
- Quire 68 (ff. 36r-43v)
- Quire 78-2 (ff. 44-49: 6th and 7th leaves missing, after f. 48)
- Quire 86-2+1 (ff. 50-54: 1st and 2nd leaves missing; 1 leaf inserted at the end, f. 54)
1-48 56-3 (3rd, 5th and 6th missing) 68 78-2 (6th-7th missing) 86-2+1 (1st-2nd missing; 1 added after 6th)
Roman numerals in red ink in the upper margins of the first halves of quires, but mostly cropped off.
Catchwords in brown ink in the right-hand lower corners of the last versos of quires.Layout
185 × 110 mm. Ruled in leadpoint, frame only. Double columns. 40 lines to the page, written below top line.
Hand(s)
Folios 1r-48v, 49r (upper left and right columns), 49v have been copied by a single scribe in an informal Gothic textura script.
Folios 49v (lower left column), 52r-54r have been copied by a (?) single scribe, perhaps the same scribe who copied ff. 1r-49v, in a script that can be identified as Anglicana.
Folios 50r-52r have been copied by a single hand, perhaps the same hand that copied ff. 1r-49v, in an informal Gothic textura script.
Decoration
Large (2-line) initials in blue with penwork decoration and pen-flourishing in red ink.
Headers written in red ink.
Line-fillers in red ink.
One-line capitals higlighted in red ink.
Paraphs in blue or red ink.
Underlining in red ink.
Long decorative ascenders on the top lines highlighted in red ink, but not the long decorative descenders on the lower lines.
Additions
Quire signatures ('1-8') in the bottom right-hand corner of the recto side of the first leaf of each quire, written in pencil by a hand of the 20th century (but see Collation).
Binding
20th-century white leather over wooden boards with the spine on 8 raised bands; the manuscript was disbound and restored in 1996 with a grant from SmithKline Beecham (according to a label on the front pastedown), by the book conservator Nicholas Hadgraft (1955-2004) (according to a label on therear pastedown).
Red-speckled fore-edge.
Current binding height: 246mm; width: 160mm; depth: 30mm.
The manuscript's previous binding is kept separately and comprises a (?) 17th-century half brown leather binding with white vellum over pasterboards. Inside the old binding are three unfoliated modern paper flyleaves, the first of which bears the College's stamp and is inscribed with the classmark: ‘MS 388’.
On the front cover of the old binding is a cropped (?) 17th-century inscription: ‘Wardall his’. This may be a title written on the reverse of an older legal document from Corpus Christi College with the text of that document pasted onto the outsides of the front and rear covers. (For example, a John Wardall of Cambridge, brewer, features in a copy of a bond to the Master and Fellows of Cambridge, Corpus Christi College dated 1485 [Cambridge, University Archives, GBR/0268/CCCC09/06/1Ka]; but members of the ‘Wardall’ family also feature in 16th-century legal documents from Corpus Christi College).
Binding height: 245mm; width: 15mm.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
Matthew Parker (1504-1575) , archbishop of Canterbury: the manuscript is recorded as ‘Medicinis in olde Englishe’ among the ‘Libri in minore Bibliotheca’ on f. 61r of his register of books, now Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 575 [see M.R. James (1912), I, p. xxxvi].
Bequeathed to Corpus Christi College by Matthew Parker (1504-1575) .
Additional Information
Record Sources
Availability
Visitors to Corpus Christi College who wish to consult Special Collections material are required to apply to the Parker Library in advance of their visit. For information on eligibility and admission procedures see: Parker Library: Information for Readers.
Custodial History
Bibliography
For a bibliography for this item maintained by Corpus Christi College Cambridge see: Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 388: Zotero Bibliography
Ecloga Oxonio-Cantabrigiensis, tributa in libros duos; quorum prior continet catalogum confusum librorum manuscriptorum in illustrissimis bibliothecis, duarum florentissimarum Academiarum, Oxoniae et Cantabrigiae. Posterior, catalogum eorundem distinctum et dispositum secundum quatuor facultates, obseruato tam in nominibus, quam in operibus ipsis, alphabetico literarum ordine, James, Thomas (London, George Bishop & John Norton, 1600) Catalogus librorum manuscriptorum in bibliotheca Collegii Corporis Christi in Cantabrigia: quos legavit Matthæus Parkerus Archiepiscopus Cantuariensis Catalogus librorum manuscriptorum in bibliotheca Collegii Corporis Christi in Cantabrigia, Stanley, W. (London, 1722) Catalogus librorum manuscriptorum quos Collegio Corporis Christi et B. Mariæ Virginis in Academia Cantabrigiensi legavit reverendissimus Matthæus Parker, archiepiscopus Cantuariensis, (Cambridge, Typis Academicis, 1777) The Sources of Archbishop Parker's Collection of MSS at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, with a Reprint of the Catalogue of Thomas Markaunt’s Library, James, Montague Rhodes (Cambridge, Cambridge Antiquarian Society, 1899) A Descriptive Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, vol. I, James, M. R. (Montague Rhodes) (Cambridge, 1, Cambridge University Press, 1912) A Descriptive Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Library of Corpus Christi College Cambridge, vol. II, James, M. R. (Cambridge, 2, Cambridge University Library, 1912) Anglo-Norman Language and Literature, Vising, Johan (London, Oxford University Press, 1923) A Catalogue of Incipits of Medieval Scientific Writings in Latin: Revised and Augmented Edition Mediaeval Academy of America Publication, Thorndike, LynnKibre, Pearl (London, The Mediaeval Academy of America, 1963) Popular Medicine in Thirteenth-Century England: Introduction and Texts, Hunt, Tony (Cambridge, Brewer, 1990) An Edition of the Anglo-Norman Content of Five Medical Manuscripts of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries, Valentine, Elizabeth Anne (Exeter, 1990) Catalogue des manuscrits français de la Bibliothèque Parker (Parker Library), Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, Wilkins, Nigel E (Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, 1993) Anglo-Norman Medicine. Vol. 2: Shorter Treatises., Hunt, Tony (Cambridge, Brewer, 1997) Anglo-Norman literature: A Guide to Texts and Manuscripts Anglo-Norman Text Society Occasional Publications Series, Dean, Ruth J.Boulton, Maureen Barry McCann (London, Anglo-Norman Text Society, 1999) Code-Switching in Medical Texts Multilingualism in Later Medieval Britain, Hunt, Tony (Cambridge, 131–147, Brewer, 2000) Three Receptaria from Medieval England: The Languages of Medicine in the Fourteenth Century Medium Ævum Monographs, Hunt, TonyBenskin, Michael (Oxford, The Society for the Study of Medieval Languages and Literature, 2001) Anglo-Norman: Past and Future The Dawn of the Written Vernacular in Western Europe Mediaevalia Lovaniensia, Hunt, Anthony (Leuven, 379-390, Leuven University Press, 2003) Scientific, Medical and Utilitarian Prose A Companion to Middle English Prose, Keiser, George R. (Woodbridge, 231–247, Brewer, 2004) The Middle English Letter of Ipocras English Studies, Tavormina, M. Teresa (88, 6, 632-652, 2007, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00138380701706526) The ’Novele cirurgerie’ in MS London, British Library HarIey 2558 Zeitschrift für Romanische Philologie, Hunt, Tony (103, 271-299, 2009) Manuscripts in the Library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge The Index of Middle English Prose, Rand, Kari Anne (Woodbridge, Brewer, 2009) Writing the Future: Prognostic Texts of Medieval England Textes littéraires du Moyen Âge / Divinatoria, Hunt, Tony (Paris, Classiques Garnier, 2013) Uroscopy in Middle English: A Guide to the Texts and Manuscripts Studies in medieval and renaissance history, Tavormina, M. Teresa ([Michigan?], 2014) Due manoscritti veneti inediti del XIV secolo di argomento medico. Analisi comparativa ed edizioni della Lettera di Ippocrate a Cesare e delle ricette del Thesaurus pauperum, Guidi, Flavia (Pisa, 2019) The Dome of Uryne: A Reading Edition of Nine Middle English Uroscopies Early English Text Society, Original Series, Tavormina, M. Teresa (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2019)Funding of Cataloguing
Wellcome (cataloguing).
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation (digital images).
Digital Images
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
