Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College, MS 84/166
Medical treatises and recipes
Contents
- Part 1 (pp. [i]-[vi] and pp. [vii]-[x])
- Part 2 (pp. 1-172)
- Part 3 (pp. 173-210, 213-226, 353-354)
- Part 4 (pp. 211-212)
- Part 5 (pp. 227-242
- Part 6 (pp. 243-352, 355-412)
Physical Description
19th- or 20th-century pagination:
[i]-[vi] | 1-170, 169[bis]-170[bis], 171-172 | 173-192, [192a]-[192b], 193-210 | 211-212 | 213-226 | 227-242 | 243-352 | 353-354 | 355-412 | [vii]-[x]
Written in ink in the upper right-hand corner of the recto of each leaf.
pp. 169[bis]-170[bis] are part of a parchment strip that has been erroneously paginated with the number '169' on its recto. pp. [192a]-[192b] are part of a paper stub after p. 192.
Collation
The collation formula for this volume begins with Part 2 (i.e. it excludes the leaves in Part 1 formed from a recycled account roll). It deviates from that provided by James (1908) in two respects. First, it identifies quire 13 as a sexternion instead of a septernion with only one instead of two leaves missing, namely the 4th leaf, and with an inserted leaf at the end. Although there is a parchment stub at the beginning of the first quire, suggesting that the inserted leaf at the end originally was part of a bifolium, the quire numbers, which start with '1' on p. 243, indicate that there is no leaf missing at the beginning and that the quire's final leaf, paginated as pp. 267-268, was added. Secondly, in quire 17, this collation identifies the 7th and 10th leaves as missing while James identifies the 7th and 9th leaves as missing; and in quire 19 it identifies leaves 10-11 as missing while James identifies leaves 10-12 as missing: based on leaf numbers, this record's collation considers the leaf that is paginated as pp. 397-398 to be part of quire 19 whereas James considers it part of quire 20.
- Quire 112-1 (pp. 1-22: 6th leaf missing)
- Quires 2-412 (pp. 23-94)
- Quire 512-2 (pp. 95-114: 9th-10th leaves missing)
- Quires 6-712 (pp. 115-162)
- Quire 8five (pp. 163-172) |
- Quire 98-3+(6-1) (pp. 173-192: 6th-8th leaves missing of main quire of 8 leaves; gathering of 6 leaves inserted after 4th leaf, from which the final leaf is missing)
- Quire 108-1 (pp. 193-206: 1st leaf missing)
- Quire 1110-1+1 (pp. 207-226: 1st leaf cancelled; 1 parchment leaf [Part 4] inserted after 3rd leaf) |
- Quire 128 (pp. 227-242) |
- Quire 1312-1+1 (pp. 243-266: 3rd leaf missing; 1 leaf inserted after 12) [M.R. James: 14-2 with 1 and 2 missing]
- Quires 14-1612 (pp. 267-338)
- Quire 1710-2+1 (pp. 339-356: 7th and 10th leaves missing [James: 7 and 9]; a paper leaf inserted after 8th leaf [part of Part 3])
- Quire 1812-1 (pp. 357-378: 12th leaf missing)
- Quire 1912-2 (pp. 379-398: 10th-11th leaves missing [James: 10-12 missing])
- Quire 208-1 (pp. 399-412: 3rd leaf missing and 8th leaf perhaps added from another quire)
112-1 (6th leaf missing) 2-412 512-2 (9th and 10th leaves missing) 6-712 8five | 98-3+(6-1) (6th-8th leaves missing of main quire of 8 leaves; gathering of 6 leaves inserted after 4th leaf, from which the final leaf is missing) 108-1 (1st leaf missing) 1110-1+1 (1st leaf cancelled; 1 parchment leaf [Part 4] inserted after 3rd leaf) | 128 | 1312-1+1 (3rd leaf missing; 1 leaf inserted after 12) [M.R. James: 14-2 with 1 and 2 missing] 14-1612 1710-2+1 (7th and 10th leaves missing [James: 7 and 9]; a paper leaf inserted after 8th leaf [part of Part 3]) 1812-1 (12th leaf missing) 1912-2 (10th-11th leaves missing) [James: 10-12 missing] 208-1 (3rd leaf missing and 8th leaf perhaps added from another quire)
Condition
Additions
Quire signatures ('1-20') 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 19th/20th century (no longer indicative; see Collation).
Binding
Old 14th- or 15th-century binding of skin over wooden boards with the remains of a clasp and pin at the front and rear covers
History
Provenance and Acquisition
John Argentine (d. 1507) , royal physician and provost of King's College, Cambridge: MS 84/166 possibly used by or belonged to him, as indicated by Italian inscriptions in a hand that apparently resembles his (see Rhodes (1956), p. 212). Rhodes suggests that the inscription in Italian on p. 1 (francisco e segnior et patrono ill⟨ustrio⟩ mio Rollestono - 'Francis - my master and illustrious patron - Rolleston') may be in Argentine's hand due to the palaeographical similarity to other known Argentine inscriptions, and due to Argentine's habit of recording ownership information in Italian in his books.
Francis Rolleston : perhaps the same Francis Rolleston of Lea Manor, Staffordshire, who was convicted and imprisoned for a plot for the liberation of Queen Mary in 1571. His ownership marks on and p. 243 ('Liber F.R.'). His 'F.R.' monogram in the upper margins of pp. 173, 243 (x4: once as part of an ownership inscription, once with the motto: 'in meglio spero', once as an independent monogram, and once written inside a large initial 'O'), 271, 285 (with the motto: 'Ainsi et mieulx poyet estre') and [iv].
One or more members of the Minors family of Lichfield, Staffordshire , owned in the (?) first half of the 17th century: the name of 'Richard Minors' inscribed in the upper margin of p. 331; the names of 'Margerry Minors / Thomas Minors / Nicholas Minors / Raphe Minors / Walter Minors / Robert Minors / Richard Minors / William Minors' inscribed in the lower margin of p. 262; 'Thomas' [2x] inscribed in the outer margin of p. 376 'Nicholas Minors' inscribed in the outer margin of p. 404; previously unidentified but their names match with those of the childeren of Richard Minors of Uttoxeter and Margerie Allington, who had sons named Robert, Walter, Richard, William, Raphe, Nicholas, and a daughter named Margerie. Two of the previous had sons named 'Thomas'. Several of them were recorded as alive in 1663 in Collections for a History of Staffordshire Volume 5, Part 2 (1885), p. 214.
William Moore (1590-1659) , BA, MA, fellow of and lecturer in rhetoric at Gonville and Caius College, and librarian of Cambridge University Library (see Pouzet (2017), p. 54).
Given or bequeathed by William Moore to Gonville and Caius College in 1659: its armorial bookplate pasted on the inside of the upper cover, inscribed with the classmark numbers '84' and '166'; number 1172 in the catalogue of the College's manuscripts in Edward Bernard, Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliæ et Hiberniæ (c. 1697).
Part 1 [Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College, MS 84/166, pp. [i]-[vi], [vii]-[x]]
Contents
Language(s): Latin
M.R. James identified the origin of this account role as 'a monastery in or near Derby', but Ker (1964), p. 56 securely identified the monastery as Darley Abbey: two of the persons named in the rubric can be positively identified as, respectively, Roger de Newton, abbot of Darley Abbey between 1432-35, and his successor Henry de Killingsworth, who was abbot between 1453 and 1477.
Six recipes, entitled: ‘A plaster for costyfnes’, ‘A powdir for the same’, ‘To make a esey laxe’, ‘A gud oynement for the palsee’, ‘contra frigiditatem in febribus’, and ‘contra sciaticam vel dolorem in iuncturis’. The collection also contains a (?) charm: ‘Ad missam falces .C. mis. bene fle feodum lex’.
The medical recipes on p. [v] are in same hand as scribe who copied recipes onto pp. 224-226 and pp. 353-354.
This page contains the offset of a text that was once pasted on a leaf on the inside of the rear cover but is poorly legible due to heavy damage and the fact that the offset text is now displayed in reverse; however the script suggests that it may concern another portion of the account roll of the Augustinian monastery of Darley Abbey in Derbyshire, of which another fragment survives at pp. [ii]-[vi].
Physical Description
Layout
375 × 270 mm. Ruled in ink, frame only. Single columns. Text is written below the top line.
Hand(s)
The account roll on pp. [ii], [iii], and [vi] is copied copied by a single hand in a cursive script with both Anglicana and Secretary features.
The medical recipes on p. [iv] are copied by a single hand in a in a cursive script with both Anglicana and Secretary features.
Decoration
This part of the manuscript does not contain any significant forms of decoration.
History
The account roll is dated 23 Henry VI, i.e. 1444-1445.
Provenance
Written in Darley Abbey in Derby, Derbyshire, as the account roll concerns this monastery; also listed as ‘Medica, etc. (partly in English)’ in MLGB3 [accessed 29 June 2023]
Part 2 [Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College, MS 84/166, pp. 1-172]
Contents
Language(s): Latin
Physical Description
Collation
- Quire 112-1 (pp. 1-22: 6th leaf missing)
- Quires 2-412 (pp. 23-94)
- Quire 512-2 (pp. 95-114: 9th-10th leaves missing)
- Quires 6-712 (pp. 115-162)
- Quire 8five (pp. 163-172)
Leaf signatures comprising Arabic numerals or combinations of letters and Roman numerals in brown ink.
Catchwords written in brown ink in the lower right-hand corners of the last versos of quires.Condition
Layout
220 × 130 mm. Ruled in leadpoint, frame and line ruling. Double columns. 28 lines to the page, written below top line.
Hand(s)
Copied by a single hand writing in Northern Textualis.
Decoration
Large (2- or 5-/6- line) initials in red ink.
Headings in red ink.
Small (1 line) initials highlighted in red ink.
Paraphs in red ink.
Underlining in brown ink.
History
Part 3 [Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College, MS 84/166, pp. 173-210, 213-226, 353-354]
Contents
Language(s): Middle English and Latin
Incomplete, the text continuous on p. 191.
Calendar with liturgical feasts and astronomical tables for January until October.
Incomplete, the text begins on p. 180.
For an unstated purpose.
Lists of the names of various kinds of electuary: warming (including some that are 'contra melancoliam', i.e. against black bile), cooling, for restoring moisture, for phthisis/consumption, for disorders of the spleen, for disorders of the liver arising from heating, for the stone, sweet tasting electuaries, for hot and dry cough, for restoring moisture. Followed by names of opiate: common opiates for ailments arising from cold and from heating, for restraining dryness. Followed by names of purgatives: for removing cold humours and for removing hot humours
Full transcription; added in a late 15th- or 16th-century hand.
This is the second part of the tract on the urine of women on p. 329; the first part of that text also appears separately on p. 194.
This is the first part of the tract on the urine of women on p. 329; the second part of that text also appears separately on p. 193.
Another copy of this text occurs on pp. 328-329
The text refers to astronomical tables on pp. 215-217 with calculations for the years 1444-1481; it attributes calculations to a certain 'Richar clerke of .G.'.
The text includes a table and is followed by circular diagram on p. 198, headed: 'The propurte of þe planytes and þe tabull of hem'.
The tract refers to ‘Ptolemy’, ‘Haly’ and ‘Campanus’.
Full transcription; the text accompanies a multiplication table.
This text accompanies the table on p. 213.
Full transcription.
The text is accompanied by two tables on p. 215 and p. 216 entiteld: ‘Eclypsis solaris pro primo ciclo’ and ‘Eclypsis solis pro .2.o ciclo’.
Full transcription.
The text accompanies a table on p. 219.
The text accompanies a table of days of the moon and zodiacal signs with the heading 'This tabull ys for to know in what syne and what degre of the syne of the mone is in euery day' on p. 219.
Full transcription; added by a 16th-century hand.
The table consists of a grid with numbers '1' to '30' in red ink at the top row followed by 5 more rows of numbers in brown ink.
Thirty medical recipes, of which sixteen are in English and the rest in Latin; one is an instruction for making an amulet on parchment to staunch blood.
Collection of fourteen Middle English and fourteen Latin medical recipes; seven are attributed to Gilbert Kymer (d. 1463), Dean of Salisbury Cathedral, Chancellor of Oxford University, and a physician; one to ‘Magister Thyworth’; one to ‘Magister John Payn’; and one to ‘Rogerus Ecton’ (but see Rand Schmidt (2001), p. 13: 'Roger Bacon').
Physical Description
Collation
- Quire 98-3+(6-1) (pp. 173-192: 6th-8th leaves missing of main quire of 8 leaves; gathering of 6 leaves inserted after 4th leaf, from which the final leaf is missing)
- Quire 108-1 (pp. 193-206: 1st leaf missing)
- Quire 1110-1+1 (pp. 207-226: 1st leaf cancelled; 1 parchment leaf [Part 4] inserted after 3rd leaf)
Layout
250-255 × 150-180 mm. No ruling. Single columns, except for pp. 173-179 which have double columns. 32-46 lines to the page.
Hand(s)
Copied by different hands writing in a cursive script with both Anglicana and Secretary features.
Decoration
Headers for texts and tables in red ink.
Paraphs in red ink.
History
Provenance
Thomas Grevys [Groves] (fl. c. 1524 , Abbot of the Augustinian monastery of Darley Abbey in Derby, Derbyshire, owned or accessed this part of the manuscript. His name and title (‘Thomas grevis abbas de derley’) inscribed on p. 217.
Part 4 [Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College, MS 84/166, pp. 211-212]
Contents
Physical Description
Layout
165 × 145 mm. Ruled in ink, frame and line ruling. The table consists of 24 columns and 28 rows.
Hand(s)
Copied by a single scribe in a Northern Textualis script.
Decoration
Small (1 line) inititials in red ink.
Headings for columns and letters in rows and columns alternately in black and red ink.
History
Part 5 [Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College, MS 84/166, pp. 227-242]
Contents
Language(s): Latin
Classified by Green (1996), no. 12 as the "intermediate ensemble".
Physical Description
Collation
- Quire 128 (pp. 227-242)
Layout
200 × 140 mm. Ruled in crayon (?), frame and line ruling. Double columns. 50-57 lines to the page, written above (?) top line
Hand(s)
Copied by a single scribe in a Northern Gothica Textualis Currens script.
Decoration
Large (2 lines) initials in red ink.
Headings in red ink.
Capitals (1 line) occasionally higlighted in red ink.
Underlining in red ink.
History
Dated to c. 1215-c. 1235 by Green (2000), no. 12.
Provenance
Bradley Shwo[...] (fl. 16th century) , accessed or owned this part of the manuscript: his name (‘Bradley Shwo[...]d’) inscribed in a 16th-century script in green ink in the lower margin of p. 235
Part 6 [Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College, MS 84/166, pp. 243-352, 355-412]
Contents
Added by the same (? late) 16th-century hand that added the English words to the same page.
Added by the same 16th-century hand that added the excerpt from the Recommendationes medicinae below.
This is a partial copy of the definition of medicine on p. 308; the original source of this excerpt has not been identified but the same text features in the Recommendationes medicinae in Erfurt, University Library, Dep. Erf. CA 4° 205 .
Added by the same 16th-century hand that added the excerpt from Isidore's Etymologiae above.
Comparable with the 'Liber de compendio Salerni' in Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College, MS 379/599.
This text is partially copied on p. 284; the original source of this excerpt has not been identified but the same text features in the Recommendationes medicinae in Erfurt, University Library, Dep. Erf. CA 4° 205 .
Added by the same 16th-century hand that added the excerpt from Isidore's Etymologiae above.
Full transcription; added in the late 15th or early 16th century.
The same text occurs on pp. 194-195.
The first part of this text also occurs in the tract on pp. 194; the second part occurs on p. 193.
The same text also occurs on p. 193.
Another copy occurs on pp. 193-194.
Full transcription; added in the 16th century.
Opening lines of the Trotula; copied in the 16th century.
Physical Description
Collation
- Quire 1312-1+1 (pp. 243-266: 3rd leaf missing; 1 leaf inserted after 12) [M.R. James: 14-2 with 1 and 2 missing]
- Quires 14-1612 (pp. 267-338)
- Quire 1710-2+1 (pp. 339-356: 7th and 10th leaves missing [James: 7 and 9]; a paper leaf inserted after 8th leaf [part of Part 3])
- Quire 1812-1 (pp. 357-378: 12th leaf missing)
- Quire 1912-2 (pp. 379-398: 10th-11th leaves missing [James: 10-12 missing])
- Quire 208-1 (pp. 399-412: 3rd leaf missing and 8th leaf perhaps added from another quire)
Leaf signatures in Roman numerals.
Occasional catchwords in the lower right-hand corners of the last versos of quires.Layout
195-200 × 140 mm. Ruled in ink, frame and line ruling. Single columns. 34 lines to the page, written below top line.
Hand(s)
Copied by various scribes in cursive scripts with both Anglicana and Secretary features; the hand that has copied pp. 243-250 may also have copied the account roll of Darley Abbey.
Decoration
Large (2 or 3 lines) red initials.
Headers in red ink.
Capitals (1 line) occasionally highlighted in red ink.
Paraphs in red ink.
History
Additional Information
Record Sources
Availability
Visitors to Gonville and Caius College who wish to consult Lower Library material are required to apply to the Library in advance of their visit. For information on eligibility and admission procedures see: Gonville and Caius College: Library Information.
Custodial History
Bibliography
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in 17th-c. Cambridge Bulletin des Anglicistes Médiévistes / Etudes Médiévales Anglaises, Pouzet, Jean-Pascal (91, 1, 55-70, 2017, https://www.persee.fr/doc/bamed_0240-8805_2017_num_91_1_1189)
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Funding of Cataloguing
Wellcome
Digital Images
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
