Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College, MS 176/97
Medical treatises
Physical Description
19th- or 20th-century pagination:
[i]-[iv], 1-36 | 37-228, [v]-[viii]
Written in black ink in the upper right-hand corner of the recto of each leaf.
The manuscript opens and ends with two modern paper flyleaves. For the purposes of producing a functional electronic catalogue record for the volume as part of the Curious Cures project, these leaves have been assigned page numbers in square brackets: pp. [i]-[ii], [ii]-[iv], [v]-[vi], and [vii]-[viii].
Collation
- Quire 124-6 (pp. 1-36: 1st and 12th leaves replaced; 15th-19th leaves missing, and 1 other leaf missing in the second half of the quire, perhaps the 22nd leaf) |
- Quires 2-420 (pp. 37-156)
- Quire 520-1 (pp. 157-194: 1st leaf replaced; 1 leaf cancelled in the second half of the quire)
- Quire 620-3 (pp. 157-228: 1st, 9th, 10th leaves missing)
124-6 (1st and 12th leaves replaced; 15th-19th leaves missing, and 1 other leaf missing in the second half of the quire, perhaps the 22nd leaf) | 2-420 520-1 (1st leaf replaced; 1 leaf cancelled in the second half of the quire) 620-3 (1st, 9th, 10th leave missing)
Additions
Quire signatures ('1-6') 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.
Binding
17th- or 18th-century reverse brown calfskin with panel design (blind-stamped frames with floral motifs at the cornes of the central frame).
Binding height: 220mm; width: 150mm; depth: 30mm.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
Robert Matthius [Matthews] (fl. 16th century) : inscribed his first name in the lower margin of p. 1 ('Robert'); his ownership inscription in the lower margin of p. 11 ('Robert Matthius his Booke witnes Semuel [sic: Samuel] Salt'); and his full name in a jordan on p. 101 ('Robert Matthius').
William Moore (1590-1659) , BA, MA, fellow of and lecturer in rhetoric at Gonville and Caius College, and librarian of Cambridge University Library.
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 '176' and '97'; number 1075 in the catalogue of the College's manuscripts in Edward Bernard, Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliæ et Hiberniæ (c. 1697) and this number also inscribed on the inside of the upper cover; also recorded as no. 176 in the catalogue of J.J. Smith, A Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Library of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge (Cambridge: Deighton and Macmillan, 1849).
Part 1 [Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College, MS 176/97, pp. 1-36]
Contents
Language(s): Middle English and Latin
Transcribed in full (with some errors) by M.R. James.
Full transcription.
Full transcription.
The text is partially illegible due to cropping of the page.
The text is partially illegible due to cropping of the page.
Full transcription.
The text is partially illegible due to cropping of the page.
According to Voigts and McVaugh (p. 24) the list corresponds to the concepts and doctrines introduced in Galen's Tegni as explained in the Isagoge by Hunain ibn Ishaq [Johannitius].
Full transcription.
The text is partially illegible due to cropping of the page.
Full transcription.
The text is partially illegible due to cropping of the page.
The text is partially illegible due to cropping of the page.
The tract refers to Avicenna.
Full transcription.
The list enumerates the bones of 'Cepes', dogs, horses, (?) 'homo', deer, crows, eagles, and whales. Added by a different hand in the 16th century.
Three recipes added by a later (16th-century) hand, including unguents and a recipe for eye ailments.
Copied in a 15th-century hand.
A medical recipe in a later (16th-century) hand with two crossed out drafts written above it; the same hand added medical recipes to p. 24.
Physical Description
Collation
- Quire 124-6 (pp. 1-36: 1st and 12th leaves replaced; 15th-19th leaves missing, and 1 other leaf missing in the second half of the quire, perhaps the 22nd leaf)
Layout
165-175 × 120-130 mm. Ruled in ink, frame only. About 32 lines to the page, written below top line.
Hand(s)
A late 15th- or early 16th-century hand has replaced text for a missing leaf on pp. 1-2 in a Secretary script; the same hand has copied text to replace a missing leaf in the manuscript's second part on pp. 157-158
A single hand has copied medical texts on pp. 3-11, 13-21, 33-34 in a cursive Anglicana script.
One or two hands have copied verse texts on pp. 12-13, 23 in a Secretary script.
One hand has added medical texts to p. 35 in a script with both Secretary and Anglicana features.
A later (16th-century) hand has added Latin medical recipes to pp. 24 and 35 in a Secretary script.
Decoration
An astrological chart drawn in black in on p. 15.
Underlining in red ink on pp. 12-13 and 23
History
Part 2 [Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College, MS 176/97, pp. 37-228]
Contents
Language(s): Middle English
Ends imperfectly in chapter 45, which, according to the rubric, is the last. The compiler identifies himself as 'Aystyn' and states that he produces his work for his friend 'Thomas Plawdon'. Thomas Plouden (d. 1413) was a London citizen and barber-surgeon of the parish of All Hallows the Great A treatise on apostemes in Peterhouse 118, ff. 55v-65r, has also been translated for him.
The work compiles relies on many medical works, including (p. 120) the 'booke of feuerys of galterus' (i.e. Walter of Agilon [Galterius Agilus]), , and the ((p. 133) 'tretis of rasis [?]albulumnninon' (i.e. Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Zakariyyāʾ al-Rāzī [Rhazes]).
The shorter version of Henry Daniel's Liber uricrisiarum, illustrated with urine flasks (jordans), and incorporated into a large medical compendium (pp. 65-120).
For a plaster to aid sleep ('Dormitarie Emplastrum') (p. 142, left-hand margin), for an unstated purpose, but probably for swelling and inflammation of the liver (p. 155, right-hand margin).
Physical Description
Collation
- Quires 2-420 (pp. 37-156)
- Quire 520-1 (pp. 157-194: 1st leaf replaced; 1 leaf cancelled in the second half of the quire)
- Quire 620-3 (pp. 157-228: 1st, 9th, 10th leaves missing)
Layout
185 × 100 mm. Ruled in leadpoint, frame only. 30-31 lines to the page, written below top line.
Hand(s)
Copied almost entirely by a single scribe in a cursive Anglicana script.
A late 15th- or early 16th-century hand has replaced text for a missing leaf on pp. 157-158 in a Secretary script; the same hand has copied text to replace a missing leaf in the manuscript's first part on pp. 1-2.
Decoration
Drawings of urine flasks (jordans) on pp. 81-103. Initially, the jordans have been coloured in, but they are left unfinished (only outlined in brown ink) after from p. 88 onwards.
One large (3-line) dark grey initial 'O' with a human face drawn inside it with black in on p. 85; perhaps added at a later stage.
Headers rubricated in red ink throughout.
Small (1 line) capitals occasionally highlighted with red ink.
Paraphs in red ink when used in regular text and in black ink when used in rubricated text.
Underlining and strikethroughs in red ink.
Guide letters in blank spaces left for large coloured initials throughout.
History
Additional Information
Record Sources
Bibliography
-
A descriptive catalogue of the manuscripts in the library of Gonville and Caius College, James, M.R. (Cambridge, 1, University Press, 1907)
An Odd Text of Chaucer's Purse Modern Language Notes, MacCracken, H. N., (Henry Noble) (27, 228-229, 1912)
Four Unpublished Chaucer Manuscripts Modern Language Notes, Pace, George B. (63, 457-62, 1948)
The Text of Chaucer’s Purse Papers of the Bibliographical Society of the University
of Virginia, Pace, George B. (1, 105-121, 1948)
Cambridge Middle English lyrics, Person, Henry Axel (Seattle, University of Washington Press, 1962)
Selections from John Gower Clarendon medieval and Tudor series, (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1968)
Editing Middle English Texts: Needs and Issues Editing Texts in the History of Science
and Medicine: Papers Given at the Seventeenth Annual Conference on
Editorial Problems University of Toronto, 6-7 November 1981, Voigts, Linda EhrsamLevere, Trevor H. (New York, 39-68, Garland Publishing, 1982)
Latin and Middle English Proverbs in a Manuscript at St. George's Chapel, Windsor
Castle Mediaeval Studies, Horrall, Sarah M. (45, 343-384, 1983)
A Latin Phlebotomy and Its Middle English Translation, Voigts, Linda E.McVaugh, Michael R. (Philadelphia, American Philosophical Society,
1984)
Scientific and medical books Book production and publishing in Britain 1375-1475 Cambridge
studies in publishing and printing history, Voigts, Linda Ehrsam (Cambridge, 345-402, Cambridge University Press, 1989)
The Crafte of Nombrynge in Columbia University Library, Plimpton MS 259 Manuscripta, Acker, Paul (37, 71-83, 1993)
What’s the Word? Bilingualism in Late-Medieval England Speculum, Voigts, Linda Ehrsam (71, 4, 813-826, 1996)
Medicine and Science The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain, Jones, Peter MurrayHellinga, LotteTrapp, J. B. (Cambridge, 3, 433–48, Cambridge
University Press, 1999)
Manuscripts in the Library of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge Index of Middle
English prose, Rand Schmidt, Kari Anne (Woodbridge, D.S. Brewer, 2001)
Late Medieval English Scribes: Cambridge, Gonville & Caius College MS 176/97 Manuscript
Description: Cambridge, Gonville & Caius College MS 176/97, Mooney, LinneStubbs, Estelle (2011, http://www.medievalscribes.com/)
Uroscopy in Middle English: A Guide to the Texts and Manuscripts Studies in medieval
and renaissance history, Tavormina, M. Teresa ([Michigan?], 2014)
<hi rend="italics">Liber Uricrisiarum</hi>: A Reading Edition, Daniel, Henry (Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 2020)
Henry Daniel and the Rise of Middle English Medical Writing, Star, Sarah (Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 2022)
List of Manuscripts | The Henry Daniel Project The Henry Daniel Project, ([n.d.], https://henrydaniel.utoronto.ca/urines/manuscripts/list/)
Funding of Cataloguing
Wellcome
Digital Images
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
