Medieval Manuscripts in Cambridge Libraries

A catalogue of Western manuscripts and papyri at Cambridge University Library, the Fitzwilliam Museum and selected Cambridge colleges

Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College, MS 98/50

Medical treatises

Contents

Introduction: This manuscript, like many others included in the Curious Cures in Cambridge Libraries project was once owned or used by Roger Marchall (c. 1417-1477) , a doctor and physician to Edward IV who wrote his name in this manuscript 'R. Marchall' on p. 6. In common with numerous other manuscripts that he used or owned, Marchall added a selective table of contents to the beginning of the manuscript (p. 6) as well as rubrics and running headings for some of the treatises in the volume (see e.g., the upper margins of p. 81, 'Galienus de morbo et accidente', and 215, 'Tabula librorum Galieni'). Marchall's ownership or use of manuscripts is very well-attested, with forty-five surviving books (including this one) bearing evidence to connect him to them in some way; six others may have been his or accessed by him, and a further twelve are recorded but not traced. As described by Linda Voigts, the present manuscript is one of eighteen (possibly nineteen) manuscripts at Gonville and Caius College that may be linked to Marchall, and which were probably donated by him to Gonville Hall (as Gonville and Caius then was); King's College and Peterhouse, where the study of medicine was also supported, received gifts of books from him too. Thirteen manuscripts owned or used by Marchall (and another with possible Marchall connections) have been digitised, catalogued and conserved as part of the Curious Cures in Cambridge Libraries project: Dr Sarah Gilbert| Project Cataloguer | Curious Cures in Cambridge Libraries References:
See L. Voigts, 'A doctor and his books: the manuscripts of Roger Marchall (d. 1477)', in R. Beadle and A. J. Piper (eds.), New science out of old books: studies in manuscripts and early printed books in honour of A.I. Doyle (Aldershot, 1995) pp. 249-314

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: Parchment
Extent: Codex: i + 1 | 3 | 62; 42 | 24 | 4 | 1 + i leaves.
Foliation:

19th or 20th-century pagination:

[i]-[ii] + [iii]-[iv] | 1-6 | 7-112, 115-132; 133-192, [192a]-[192b], 193-214 | 215-262 | 263-270 | 271-272 + [v]-[vi]

Numbering in ink in the upper right-hand corner of the rectos. The paginator has skipped the numbers '113' and '114'. The paginator has skipped the leaf between p. 192 and p. 193, the pages of that leaf have been assigned the designations [192a] and [192b]. pp. [i]-[ii] and pp. [v]-[vi] are two modern paper flyleaves; pp. [iii]-[iv] and pp. 271-272 are manuscript fragments that originate from the same manuscript and have been reused as flyleaves for this manuscript.

Collation

The collation formula given here differs from the modern quire signatures marked in the manuscript, which ignored pp. 1-6 and started the numbering at p. 7.

  • Quire 14-1 (pp. 1-6: 4th leaf missing) |
  • Quires 2-88 (pp. 7-120)
  • Quire 96 (pp. 121-132) ;
  • Quires 10-138 (pp. (133-192, [192a]-[192b], 193-194)
  • Quires 1410 (pp. 195-214)|
  • Quires 15-1612 (pp. 217-262) |
  • Quire 174 (pp. 263-270)

14-1 (4th leaf missing) | 2-88 96; 10-138 1410 | 15-1612 | 174

Additions

Quire signatures ('1-16') 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

(?)18th-century paneled brown calf consisting of an outer frame and central frame of triple blind-stamped lines with corner fleurons.

Binding height: 290mm; width: 200mm; depth: 40mm.

History

Provenance and Acquisition

Roger Marchall (fl. 1436-1477), doctor of medicine : his name 'R. Marchall' inscribed on p. 6. See L. Voigts, 'A doctor and his books: the manuscripts of Roger Marchall (d. 1477)', in R. Beadle and A. J. Piper (eds.), New science out of old books: studies in manuscripts and early printed books in honour of A.I. Doyle (Aldershot, 1995) pp. 249-314

Probably donated by Roger Marchall (fl. 1436-1477), doctor of medicine to Gonville and Caius College with other manuscripts, but certainly in the college's library by the year 1600, when it was recorded as no. 13b in the Ecloga Oxonio-Cantabrigiensis by Thomas James (1600). Also no. 955 (see p. 1) in Bernard, Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliæ et Hiberniæ (c. 1697); its armorial bookplate on a paper pastedown on the inside of the upper cover with the classmark number '50' written in red ink and '98' written in black ink.

Part 1 [Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College, MS 98/50, pp. [iii] recto-[iv] verso, 271-272 ]

Contents

Language(s): Latin

1. [iii]-[iv]
Office of St Cecilia (fragment)
Language(s): Latin
Incipit: || [iv] [...] v[ersiculus] Tunc Valerianus perrexit ad antistitem et signum quod acceperat [...]
Explicit: [iii] [...]||

Bound upside down

2. 271-272
Office for All Saints or part of the Commune Sanctorum
Language(s): Latin
Incipit: || 272 [...] vocem tonitrui magni
Explicit: 271 [...] Timete dominum ora [...]||

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: Parchment
Extent: Two parchment fragments that have been taken from the same manuscript and reused as flyleaves for this manuscript. 2 leaves. 270 × 190 mm.

Condition

The texts on pp. [ii] and 272 are much faded

Layout

Blind-ruled lines. The leaves have been heavily cropped, so it is not possible to give give accurate details about the dimensions of the text space or the number of lines to the page.

Hand(s)

Copied by a single hand in a Carolingian minuscule.

Decoration

Large brown initials.

Syllable hyphenations and abbreviations for 'versiculus' and 'responsorium' written in red ink.

Additions

Latin interlinear notes on p. 271 added in the (?) 13th century.

History

Origin: 10th or 11th century. ; Perhaps Southern France.

Part 2 [Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College, MS 98/50, pp. 1-6]

Contents

Language(s): Latin

1. 1
Medical tract on Menstruation
Language(s): Latin
Incipit: || 1 in aqua et fiat balneum
Explicit: 1 nam prouocat menstrua

The names of medical authorities are written in the margin ('Bartholomeus', 'Trotula' 'Galienus' 'Gaddisden') but these have been partially cropped off.

Jones (2011)
2. 2-3
Medical tract on the humour melencholia
Language(s): Latin
Incipit: || 2 [M]alencolia est humor frigidus et siccus
Explicit: 3 Potus pro malencolia||

The gathering of recipes is followed by one free-standing recipe

The names of medical authorities are written in the margin ('Gilbertus', 'Mesue', 'Lanfrancus', 'Rasis', 'Gaddisden') but these have been partially cropped off.

Jones (2011)
3. 4-6
Medical tract on laxatives
Language(s): Latin
Incipit: || 4 Laxatiuum dare conuenit dum luna est cancro uel pisce
Explicit: 6 sane et experte||

The names of medical authorities are written in the margin ('[W]aynflett', 'johannes de sancto amando' 'ypocras', 'pulius walteri', 'holme', 'gilbertus', 'Gaddesden', 'Ardern', ) but these have been partially cropped off.

eTK 0814D (t0156570000)
Jones (2011)

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: 3 et lapidem lazuli
Form: codex
Support: Parchment (disposition of hair/flesh-sides not determined)
Extent: Codex: 3 leaves. 275 × 185 mm.

Collation

  • Quire 14-1 (pp. 1-6: 4th leaf missing)

Condition

Cockled leaves with stains that affect the legibility of the text.

Layout

215 × 140 mm. Ruled in leadpoint, frame only. 47-50 lines to the page, written below top line.

Hand(s)

Copied by a single hand in a cursive script with both Anglicana and Secretary features.

Decoration

This part of the manuscript does not contain any form of decoration.

History

Origin: 15th century. ; England.

Part 3 [Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College, MS 98/50, pp. 7-214]

Contents

Language(s): Latin

1. 7-80
Megategni (tr. Constantinus Africanus) Galen
Language(s): Latin
Incipit: 7 Quamuis karissime fili Johannes
Explicit: 80 leui fuste suauiter percuciatur
Final rubric: 80 Explicit megategni Galieni
eTK 1163H (t0223110000)
2. 81-132
De morbo et accidenti Galen
Language(s): Latin
Rubric: 81 Galienus de morbo et accidente
Incipit: 81 In inicio huius libri diffinire morbum
Explicit: 132 que accidentia semper alia sequntur et que non
Final rubric: 132 Explicit liber .G. de morbo et accidenti

Rubric added by Roger Marchall.

eTK 0684I
3. 133-214
De interioribus (tr. Burgundio of Pisa) Galen
Language(s): Latin
Rubric: 133 Incipit liber eiusdem de Interioribus
Incipit: 133 Medicorum non solum moderni
Explicit: 214 et morbi que quidam in loco dicemus.
Final rubric: 214 Explicit liber G. de Interioribus et est magistri Helie de maioria Petragoricensis diocesis
eTK 0863A (t0166820000)

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: 9 et repugnauit
Form: codex
Support: Parchment (FHHF)
Extent: Codex: 104 leaves. 275 × 195 mm.

Collation

Minor differences in page preparation, scribal hand, placement of catchwords and decoration between Quires 2-9 and Quires 10-14, but the continuation across both of a single series of medieval leaf signatures, points to these groups of quires having been made contemporaneously as codicological units.

  • Quires 2-88 (pp. 7-120)
  • Quire 96 (pp. 121-132) ;
  • Quires 10-138 (pp. (133-192, [192a]-[192b], 193-194)
  • Quires 1410 (pp. 195-214)

Leaf signatures consisting of combinations of letters ('a'-'l') and Roman numerals in quires 3-13, none in quire 2 and only Roman numerals in quire 14.

 Catchwords in brown ink in the centre (Quires 2-8) and then the right-hand corner (Quires 10-13) of the bottom margin of the last verso of each quire.

Condition

Cockled leaves some of which have been much affected by damp in their upper margins. There are various stains on p. 7.

Layout

190 × 135 mm. Ruled in leadpoint, frame and line ruling. Double columns. 49 lines to the page, written below top line. Double vertical bounding lines in the outer margins in Quires 2-8 only.

Hand(s)

Copied by two scribes (1: pp. 7-132; 2: pp. 133-214) writing in a script influenced by Southern Textualis.

Decoration

Large (6-8 lines) puzzle initials in blue and red at the beginnings of new works (pp. 7, 81, 133).

Small (2 lines) blue initials at the beginnings of new chapters throughout.

Additions

A Latin description of this volume's contents has been added by a 14th-century hand to 214: ‘In isto volumine sunt libri sequentes Galieni: liber megategni | item de morbo et accidente | Item liber de interioribus’.

History

Origin: Second half of the 14th century. ; Italy.

Part 4 [Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College, MS 98/50, pp. 215-262]

Contents

Language(s): Latin

1. 215-217
Alphabetical index of medical subjects in the works of Galen
Language(s): Latin
Rubric: 215 Tabula librorum Galieni
Incipit: 215 Abstinencia
Explicit: 217 Ydromel
Final rubric: 217 Explicit

Rubric added by Roger Marchall. Both this item and the next item are part of the 'Concordantie Galieni' in a manuscript described in Valentin Rose, Verzeichniss der Lateinischen Handschriften der Königlichen Bibliothek zu Berlin, Zweiter Band: Die Handschriften der Kurfürstlichen Bibliothek und der Kurfürstlichen Lande, - Dritte Abteilung - (Die Handschriften-Verzeichnisse der Königlichen Bibliothek zu Berlin, Dreizehnter Band), Berlin: Asher, 1905: Berlin, Königliche Bibliothek, 902. lat. fol. 56 II, ff. 196r-293r.

eTK 0012L (t0002300000)
2. 217-262
Alphabetical lexicon for the works of Galen
Language(s): Latin
Incipit: 217 Abstinencia cibi nocet eis qui habent strictas uenas

Ends imperfectly in the letter 'G'

Both this item and the prevoius item are part of the 'Concordantie Galieni' in a manuscript described in Valentin Rose, Verzeichniss der Lateinischen Handschriften der Königlichen Bibliothek zu Berlin, Zweiter Band: Die Handschriften der Kurfürstlichen Bibliothek und der Kurfürstlichen Lande, - Dritte Abteilung - (Die Handschriften-Verzeichnisse der Königlichen Bibliothek zu Berlin, Dreizehnter Band), Berlin: Asher, 1905: Berlin, Königliche Bibliothek, 902. lat. fol. 56 II, ff. 196r-293r.

eTK 0012L (t0002300000)

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: 217 temperantia
Form: codex
Support: Parchment (FHHF)
Extent: Codex: 24 leaves. 280 × 190 mm.

Collation

  • Quires 15-1612 (pp. 217-262)

Leaf signatures only in quire 16 (Arabic numerals '1'-'6').

Condition

Cockled leaves with faded text on p. 215; the leaf that covers pp. 223-224 has a large horizontal tear in the middle that has been repaired with thread at the time of the manuscript's production. The leaves in this part feature many wormholes.

Layout

210 × 160 mm. Ruled in leadpoint, frame and line ruling. Double columns, except for pp. 215 and 217which have 4 columns and pp. 216 which has 6 columns. 49 lines to the page, written below top line.

Hand(s)

Copied by two scribes (1: 215-217; 2: 217-262) producing a Northern Textualis script.

Decoration

Small (2 lines) initials in blue or red ink.

Marginal headers written in red ink.

Paraphs in red ink.

Underlining in red ink.

History

Origin: 14th century. ; England.

Part 5 [Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College, MS 98/50 pp. 263-270]

Contents

Language(s): Latin

1. 263-270
Anonymous commentary on the Prognostica [Liber prognosticorum] of Hippocrates (fragment)
Language(s): Latin
Incipit: 263 [A]cute egritudines in quatuordecim diebus indicantur 4b. Acute egritudines magne sunt et uelocem habent motum
Explicit: 270 Et peryodis primus ex peryodis eorum ad||
eTK 0029E (t0005760000)
Kibre (1981), p. 281 (B.1.)

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: 265 Apostematum quedam
Form: codex
Support: Parchment (FHHF)
Extent: Codex: 4 leaves. 275 × 190 mm.

Collation

  • Quire 174 (pp. 263-270)

A catchword has been written in brown ink in the right-hand lower margin of p. 270.

Condition

The leaves in this part feature many wormholes.

Layout

215 × 145 mm. Ruled in leadpoint, frame nad line ruling. Single columns. 34-35 lines to the page, written above top line.

Hand(s)

Copied by a single hand in an Anglicana script.

Decoration

This part begins with a blank space that has been left for a decorated initial on p. 263 but does not feature any significant form of decoration.

History

Origin: 14th century. ; England.

Additional Information

Record Sources

This catalogue entry partly draws on M. R. James, A descriptive catalogue of the manuscripts in the library of Gonville and Caius College, vol. 1 (Cambridge, 1908), pp. 105-106.

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.

Bibliography

    Hippocrates Latinus: Repertorium of Hippocratic Writings in the Latin Middle Ages Traditio: Studies in Ancient and Medieval History, Thought, and Religion, Kibre, Pearl (37, 267-290, 1981) A List of the Latin Manuscripts Containing Medieval Versions of the <hi rend="italics">Methodus Medendi</hi> Galen's Method of Healing: proceedings of the 1982 Galen Symposium Studies in Ancient Medicine, Kibre, Pearl (1, 115-122, 1991) A doctor and his books: the manuscripts of Roger Marchall (d. 1477) New science out of old books: studies in manuscripts and early printed books in honour of A.I. Doyle, Voigts, Linda Ehrsam (Aldershot, 249-314, Scolar Press, 1995) Mediating Collective Experience: The <hi rend="italics">Tabula Medicine</hi> (1416-1425) as a Handbook for Medical Practice Between Text and Patient: The Medical Enterprise in Medieval & Early Modern Europe Micrologus Library, Jones, Peter Murray (Florence, 279-308, SISMEL. Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2011) The Medicine of the Friars in Medieval England Health and Healing in the Middle Ages, Jones, Peter Murray (Woodbridge, Boydell & Brewer, 2024, https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.5558126)

Funding of Cataloguing

Wellcome

Digital Images

Cambridge Digital Library

Abbreviations

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