Medieval Manuscripts in Cambridge Libraries

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

Cambridge, King's College, MS 16

Tabula medicine, and an anonymous medical text

Contents

Introduction: This composite manuscript contains two parts that were copied in the 15th century. The first part (ff. 1:1r-1:145r) contains the so-called Tabula medicine, a Latin handbook of alphabetically arranged medicinal simples that was compiled by English friars between 1411 and 1425 and that may be attributed specifically to the friar William Holme (fl. 1380–1415) (see Jones (1996), p. 154, and Jones (2008)). The collection shows a particular concern for the healthcare of women. For example, it includes an instruction for making an amulet to aid women in giving birth (see f. 1:93v) that invokes St Celina, the daughter of the Bishop of Soissons, who was known for miraculously giving birth to a son, St Remigius of Rheims, at a significantly advanced age (see Olsan and Jones (2011), p. 114; and Jones and Olsan (2015), p. 424 fn. 46). The second part contains an anonymous medical work that includes lectures by John Cokkys [Cokkes], a clerk and physician of Oxford, who was dead by 1475; on f. 2:7r the text reads: 'I, John Cokkys, with true charity, offer my secrets, an abundance of first sustenance, to students' ('ego Johannes Cokkis caritate non ficta primi alimenti copiam alumpnis offero archana mei'). One owner of the manuscript appears to have attributed the entire work to Cokkys and wrote his name on the manuscript's fore-edge: 'Io. Cokis' (On Cokkys, see Talbot and Hammond (1965), pp. 134-136; and Getz (1990), p. 265). However, in the cataloguing of this manuscript, the larger part of this medical work has been identified as a copy of the Commentarium super Tabulas Salerni by the twelfth-century author Bernardus Provincialis of Arles (ff. 2:9r-2:32r). The manuscript features numerous marginal annotations and added leaves with additions to the Tabula medicine, as well as separate texts describing medical observations and treatments copied and devised by the astrologer and medical practitioner Simon Forman (1552–1611) (on Forman, see Kassell (2004) [ODNB entry]). The latter clearly owned the manuscript for several decades: he acquired the manuscript when he was a student in Oxford on 2 February 1574 (see Edmond (1977), 44-60 ); he entered his name and date on f. [iii] verso but also added: a medical recipe for headache dated 1576 to f. 1:10d recto; a scribal note on f. [2:32c] verso with the date 1576; a medicine for coughs and congestion on f. 1:146a recto dated to 1575; tracts on urine that he signed with the date 1576 on f. 141c recto ('Quod Simon fforman / .1576 march 31. Saturda[i]'); an astrological chart on f. 1:146k verso with the date 1579; a medicine for the 'King's Evil' on ff. 130b recto-130b verso with accounts dated to 1580 and 1596 and a medical note to the outer margin of f. 1:71v with the date 13 May 1600. Forman copied out passages from Andrew Boorde's The breviary of helth (1547) (see e.g.: f. 1:141a recto-1:141a recto) and Philip Barrough's The methode of physicke (1583) on ff. 1:79v-1:80v (for dates and sources in the manuscript, see Traister (2001), pp. 32-39). Forman evidently used the manuscript as a textbook while practising medicine in London. When he was examined for quackery by the Censors of the College of Physcians on 7 November 1595, he boasted to practise medicine by astrology only and stated 'that he had never read any writer in medicine except one of a certain Cockis' (see Kassell (2005), p. 78). Forman, whose work focused on female reproduction, was especially interested in the medicines for women that are described in the aforementioned Tabula medicine; e.g. see his notes on ff. 1:78v-1:80v and 1:84v (see Kassell (2005), pp. 160-170). In the cataloguing of this manuscript, an added German fragmentary text (f. 1:52c) has been identified as a sixteenth-century copy of the anonymous Middle German alchemical poem Von der alchemischen Kunst [On the Art of Alchemy]. It is possible that this fragment belonged to and was added to the manuscript by Forman. He may have acquired the work or received it from connections established in the late 1560s, when he travelled through the Low Countries and Germany (see Kassell (2005), p. 107]). Forman may have acquired the copy in the 1570s when he developed a strong interest in alchemy and making the Philosopher's Stone as can be witnessed from his notebooks and copies and translations of major alchemical works (see Kassell (2005), pp. 171-225). It is possible that King's College acquired this manuscript through William Ward, regius professor of physic at King's College in c. 1591, with whose support Forman obtained a licence to practice physic and astronomy from the University of Cambridge in 1603 (see Kassell (2005), pp. 97-98). Dr Clarck Drieshen| Project Cataloguer| Curious Cures in Cambridge Libraries

Physical Description

Form: codex
Extent: Codex: ii + 3 + 146 (+ 45 added paper leaves) | 32 (+ 8 added paper leaves) + 2 + ii leaves. Paper leaves have been added at intervals throughout the first and second parts of the manuscript. Rather than count and list each group of parchment or paper leaves separately and in the sequence in which they appear in the manuscript, they have been described in this statement of extent as separate totals.
Foliation:

Late 16th- or early 17th-century pagination

'3'-'251' for ff. 1:2r-1:120r, excluding added paper leaves

Written in brown ink in the upper right-hand corner of the recto of each leaf by Simon Forman (1552–1611) : alongside numbers for the columns '17'-'688' for ff. 3r-146f verso (including added paper leaves).

Foliation:

20th-century foliation:

[i]-[ii] + [iii]-[v] + 1:1-1:8, 1:8a-1:8b, 1:9-1:10, 1:10a-1:10c, 1:10e, 1:10d, 1:11-1:22, 1:22a-1:22d, 1:23-1:29, 1:29a-1:29b, 1:30-1:46, 1:46a-1:46b, 1:47-1:52, 1:52a-1:52c, 1:53-1:84, 1:84a-1:84b, 1:85-1:90, 1:90a-1:90b, 1:91-1:94, 1:94a-1:94b, 1:95-1:100, 1:100a, 1:101-1:130, 1:130a-1:130d, 1:131-1:138, 1:138a-1:138b, 1:139-1:141, 1:141a-1:141d, 1:142-1:146, 1:146a-1:146i, 1:146k-1:146l | 2:1-2:32, 2:32a, 2:[32b]-2:[32h] + [vi]-[vii] + [viii]-[ix]

Written in pencil in the upper right-hand corner of the recto of each leaf.

Folios 1:10e and 1:22d are paper stubs.

Collation

Note that this collation omits the added paper leaves with notes and tracts by Simon Forman.

  • Quires 1-178 (ff. 1:1-1:136)
  • Quire 1810 (ff. 1:137-1:146) |
  • Quires 19-228 (ff. 1-2:32)

1-178 1810 | 19-228

Condition

The right half of the lower half of f. 1:146 has been cut out.

Additions

Simon Forman has added a table of contents for the manuscript to ff. [iii] verso-[v] verso, an index to ff. [vi] recto-[vi] verso, and perhaps also the list of the authors cited in the anonymous medical work in the manuscript's third part (ff. 2:1r-2:32v) on f. [vii] recto.

A late 16th-century or early 17th-century hand has added a prognostic to f. [vii] recto: 'yff the ☾ goeth slowly that is yf he be 3 dayes in a sign then the gref shall be grevouse / Yff yt be quick .1. 2 dayes then the sick shall be ease'.

A late 16th-century or early 17th-century hand has added a poem to [vii] recto: 'Trust neuer to hes Rede that benethe / ?ij tonges in on hon hede / for many man that so doos / etythe somtyme no more brede'.

Quire numbers on first rectos and crosses to mark in pencil added in the 20th century.

Binding

20th-century binding of full brown leather, title and classmark tooled in gold (the former on green leather panels) on the spine.

Binding height: 290mm; width: 200mm; depth: 55mm.

History

Provenance and Acquisition

John Bartlatt, fl. 16th century : his ownership inscription on f. [iii] verso: 'Iste liber pertinett ad Ihohannes Bartlatt testantibues est domini Iohannes Gobbe et multi alii'; an erased inscription at the top of f. [v] recto may have been written by a relative or his wife: 'Memorandum that I ?ales Bartlat [...] Johannes Gobbe [...] Wylliam [...]'.

Simon Forman (1552–1611) : his ownership inscription on f. [iii] verso: 'Anno domini 1574 Simonn Formann februari 2. day'; and his name 'Simon' inscribed with decorative motifs on f. 1:128r.

Possibly acquired by King's College via William Ward , Regius professor of Physic at King's College in c. 1591, with whose support Simon Forman obtained a licence to practice physic and astronomy from the University of Cambridge in 1603 (see Kassell (2005), pp. 97-98). The manuscript was certainly at King's College by the end of the 17th century or early 18th century: its early modern classmark '16' inscribed in black ink on f. [iii] recto; its early modern armorial bookplate with the title 'Collegium Regale in Universitate Cantabrigiensi' pasted on f. [iv] recto; and its modern bookstamp ('King's Coll. Libr. Camb.') on the inside of the upper cover.

Part 1 [Cambridge, King's College, MS 16, ff. 1r-52b, 53-146l]

Contents

Language(s): Latin and English

1. [v] recto-[v] verso
Added medical entries and recipes to the Tabula medicine
Language(s): English

Additional entries by Simon Forman on an inserted parchment leaves (ff. [v] recto-[v] verso, 1:145v-1:146v) and paper leaves (ff. 1:8a, 1:8b, 1:10a-1:10d, 1:22a-1:22c, 1:29a-1:29b, 1:46a-1:46b, 1:52a-1:52b, 1:84a-84b, 1:90a-1:90b, 1:96a-1:96b, 1:100a, 1:130a-1:130d, 1:138a-1:138b, 1:141a-1:141d, 1:146a recto-1:146f verso; perhaps with a few additions in another hand on f. 1:10d recto and f. 1:103d recto.

Copied by Simon Forman.

2. 1:1r-1:145r
Tabula medicine [Alphabetical handbook of medicinal simples from 'Abhominacio' to 'Vulua']
Language(s): Latin
Incipit: 1r Abhominacio contra abhominacionem et fastidium
Explicit: 1:145r Item oua perdicis invncta super vulvam elargant eam secundum gaddesden
Final rubric: 1:145r Deo gracias Amen

Folio 1:93v contains a common example of instructions for preparing a textual amulet in order to facilitate a woman's labour. | Full transcription: Vt partus facilicetur scribe istud et liga super ventrem illius . Maria peperit christum + anna mariam + elizabeth Iohannem + Selina remigium + sator + arepo + tenet + opera + rotas et bibat folium diptani. | Full translation: In order to facilitate labour, write this and lay it upon the belly. 'Maria bore Jesus + Anna [bore] Maria + Elizabeth [bore] John + Celine [bore] Remigius + sator + arepo + tenet + opera + rotas'. And she should drink dittany leaf.

Folio 1:100r contains a recipe for preparing a electuary for a pregnant woman and her foetus. |Full transcription: Electuariam de cardamomo sic fit. Recipe galangus aromaticus zinziber cinnamoni piperis longa ana drachma ij, masticis drachm semis, cardamoni drachma semis, macis drachma, affarani ana drachma ij . Condiantur cum sirupo ex decoccione rosis et zuccar. Stomachum confortat digestionem et appetitum confortat et excitat opilationes apparit. Colorem reddit. Prodest pregnantibus et confortat fetum.|Full translation: A cardamom electuary is made thus. Take aromatic galangal, ginger, cinnamon, long pepper, of each alike two drachms; resin, half a drachm; cardamom, half a drachm; mace, a drachm; hazelnut, two drachms. They should be preserved in the syrup from a decoction of roses and sugar. It comforts the stomach, strengthens and excites the digestion and appetite, and opens up blockages. It restores colour [to the patient]. It is beneficial for the pregnant and strengthens the foetus.

Jones (2008)
3. 1:145v-1:146f verso
Medical recipes
Language(s): English
Incipit: 1:145v To knowe whether a mann be possessed with and evill spirit and how he may be holpen / Of raging: Insania in lattin signifieth madnese
Explicit: 1:146f verso and giue sum to eat sugar of roses

Copied by Simon Forman.

4. 1:146g recto
Poem on bloodletting extracted from Regimen sanitatis Salernitanum
Language(s): Latin
Rubric: 1:146g recto ffor blud letting
Incipit: 1:146g recto Denus septenus vix phlebotomum petit annus / Spiritus vberior exit per phlebotomiam: spiritus ex potu vini mox multiplicatur
Explicit: 1:146g recto purgat epar : splenum : pectus precordia : vocem / Innaturalem tollit de corde dolorem.

Copied by Simon Forman, with an added marginal note in English: 'none may be let blud except he or she be 17 years off age or 14 at the leste . yet I Simon Forman the Ooter of this bocke haue let children blode of 5 years old and lesse' (f. 146g recto).

5. 1:146g verso
Observations concerning bloodletting Simon Forman (1552–1611)
Language(s): English
Rubric: Certain Observations Concerning blud lettinge
Incipit: 1:146g verso When the weather is extrem hote, or exceading cold . hit is not then good to let blud vnlesse that sum great necessyty do requier hyt
Explicit: 1:146g verso that he vse moderat dyet, both in meat and dri[nk] and to avoyd much abstinence, over much slepe, late syttinge vpe and such lyke, which bringeth great inconvenience vnto the body.
6. 1:146g verso
Tract on the four humours and four ages of mankind
Language(s): English
Rubric: 1:146g verso The 4 Ages
Incipit: 1:146g verso Youth is lykned vnto prime time which is hot and moyst vntill he com to 25 years old
Explicit: 1:146g verso Old ages is lykned to winter cold and moist . from .56. to the end of lyf . Decemb. Janua. ffebruar. and is natur of water and of Complaxion flflegmatick

Copied by Simon Forman.

7. 1:146h recto
Astrological tract on bloodletting
Language(s): English
Incipit: 1:146h recto The Chirurgion must take heed as learning doth him will: / That he observe what doth procead, for doing any yll / That he touch not with Instrument, the body of a mane wherein the moon hath government and raigneth as lady then . Nor when the lord ascendent is in governing that parle / you shal not Joces lest that you mise the true knowledg of ast[rology]

Full transcription; Copied by Simon Forman.

8. 1:146h recto-1:146i recto
Diagram of and tract on the 'Vein Man'
Language(s): English
Incipit: 1:146h verso The names off the places wher the vaynes be ar showed by the letters set in the margent at the beginninge of the matter after the sorce of the picture
Incipit: 1:146h verso A: The vayne in the mids of the fforehead wold be letten blud ffor the ach and payne of the head
Explicit: 1:146i recto And avayleth greatly to women for to restrayne menstruossytys when they haue to great habundaunce

The diagram of the Vein Man is accompanied by two marginal notes.

The tract is followed by a note in another hand, beginning: 'Ther is also a vaine in the bottom of the foot the with is the principalle vaine that is to be letten blod for all dizeases of the bodye and especiali for the hart'.

Copied by Simon Forman.

9. 1:146i verso
Dietary advice for the months of the year
Language(s): English
Rubric: 1:146i verso What meats ar beste to eat in prime time - Marche, Arpyll and Maye
Incipit: 1:146i verso In thes monthes let a man not cloth him to hote nor to cold
Explicit: 1:146i verso then a man ought to kepe him warme and manly ffor to lyue in helth

Copied by Simon Forman.

10. 1:146k recto
Diseases associated with the months of the year
Language(s): English
Rubric: 1:146k recto Sickneses which ar wonte to happen in particular times of the year and according to the diuversiti of ages
Incipit: 1:146k recto The maladyes which most commonly h[...] in the springe time
Explicit: 1:146k recto ptisis . that is consumption and shortnes of breth

Copied by Simon Forman.

11. 1:146k verso
Astrological chart for bloodletting
Language(s): English
Incipit: 1:146k verso Set .1579. on .☾. ante meridium beinge the .19. of Januarie . beginning my year at christmas . at what time that I did let John Waller of Wickhams blood in the right arme on the vaine of the Lyuer for certaine diseases . and I toke from him of blod in quantitie of a Pint or more

Full transcription.

Copied by Simon Forman.

12. 1:146k verso
Order of bloodletting Simon Forman
Language(s): English
Rubric: 1:146k verso The Order that I vsed in Letting him Blood
Incipit: 1:146k verso Item I bound his arme about the albo with a garter hard
Explicit: 1:146k verso sugar is verie good to put on it to stays the blood and wet clouts vpon [..]

Fully transcribed in Traister (2001).

13. 1:146l verso
Tract on the four degrees of heat and cold
Language(s): Latin and English
Rubric: 1:146l verso De gradidbus siccitatis et calidatis sciendum est
Incipit: 1:146l verso 1. Primum gradus of hotnes and coldnes et cum aliqua res habeat vnam portionem frigitatis et duas calidatis. Then that thing is sayd to be hot in the first degre
Explicit: 1:146l verso 4. Quartus gradus est quando habet vnuam portionem frigiditatis et sex decem caliditatis. tunc dicitur esse calida in quat[r]o gradu

Copied by Simon Forman.

14. 1:146l verso
Tract on the properties of the four degrees of heat and cold
Language(s): English
Rubric: 1:146l verso The properties off degres and what effect is contained in everie degre
Incipit: 1:146l verso 1. The first degre doth alter and chaunge sensiblelye
Explicit: 1:146l verso 4. The ffowrth degree banisheth and putteth forth the sence by his exceadinge temperature.

Copied by Simon Forman.

15. 1:146l verso
Tract on hot and cold medicines
Language(s): English
Rubric: 1:146l verso Of medisons temperat and vntemperat
Incipit: 1:146l verso Temperat medisons be such taht do nether manifestly heat, cold, moisten, nor drye
Explicit: 1:146l verso Thes be vntemperat medisons, which ar plainly to be called hote or cold / And chiefly such as be of the first second third or fowrth degre

Copied by Simon Forman.

16. 1:146l verso
Tract on the four phases of the moon
Language(s): Latin
Rubric: 1:146l verso De etate lunae qunado et sicca vel calida
Incipit: 1:146l verso 1. Prima etas lune calida est et humida
Explicit: 1:146l verso [4.] Quarta humida et sicca

Copied by Simon Forman.

17. 1:146l verso
Tract on the four elements
Language(s): Latin
Rubric: 1:146l verso Quatuor Elementa
Incipit: 1:146l verso Ignis est callidus et siccus
Explicit: 1:146l verso Terra frigida et sicca, Artumnus . melencholia.

Copied by Simon Forman.

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: 1:3r ponatur in aceto
Form: codex
Support: Parchment (FHHF) and Paper, folded in folio. Folios 1:8a-1:8b, 1:10a-1:10d, 1:22a-1:22c, 1:29a-1:29b, 1:46a-1:46b, 1:52a-1:52b, 1:84a-1:84b, 1:90a-1:90b, 1:96a-1:96b, 1:100a, 1:130a-1:130d, 1:138a-1:138b and 1:141a-1:141d: Jug ( 55 × 25 mm. ) in the centre of the folio.
Extent: Codex: 146 leaves (+ 45 added paper leaves). Paper leaves have been added at intervals throughout the first and second parts of the manuscript. Rather than count and list each group of parchment or paper leaves separately and in the sequence in which they appear in the manuscript, they have been described in this statement of extent as separate totals. 275 × 190 mm.

Collation

  • Quires 1-178 (ff. 1:1-1:136)
  • Quire 1810 (ff. 1:137-1:146)

There are leaf signatures consisting of combinations of letters and Roman numerals in brown ink but most have been cropped.

catchwords in black ink in the lower right-hand corners of the last versos of quires.

Condition

This part of the manuscript is in a good condition.

Layout

205 × 135 mm. Ruled in leadpoint, frame only. Double columns (except Simon Forman's additions on ff. 1:22a verso-1:22c verso, 1:52b verso, 1:52c recto-1:52c verso, 1:94b verso, 1:130d verso, 1:141a recto-1:141c recto and 1:146g recto-1:146l verso , which have single columns). 30 lines to the page, written below top line.

Hand(s)

The medical compendium has been copied by a single hand in a Northern Textualis.

Simon Forman added texts throughout this part of the manuscript, both on added leaves and in margins, in a Secretary script.

Decoration

Vein Man diagram (f. 1:146h recto).

One large (4 lines) gold initial in a frame of blue and white ('champ' initial) with pen-flourishing ingreen and gold (f. 1:1r).

Large (2 lines) blue initial in frames of red penwork decoration and with pen-flourishing in the same colour.

large (2 lines) blue initials.

Paraphs in blue or red ink.

History

Origin: Between the 2nd quarter and 4th quarter of the 15th century. ; England.

Part 2 [Cambridge, King's College, MS 16, ff. 1:52c recto-1:52c verso]

Contents

Language(s): German

1. 1:52c recto-1:52c verso
Von der alchemischen Kunst [fragment of alchemical poem]
Language(s): German
Incipit: || 1:52c recto auff einem cleinen feur / so muss im sein leken [vergen]
Explicit: 1:52c verso Wel tu in meren so geb im sein gl[ich] / Got well uns erneren ewiglich

A fragmentary paper pasted on a blank paper leaf containing a previously unidentified late 16th-century copy of the anonymous Middle German poem 'Von der alchemischen Kunst' [On the Art of Alchemy].

Telle, Kahn, and Kühlmann (2013), 212-215 [extant copies] and 216-221 [edition] (without this manuscript)

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: Paper, without a watermark.
Extent: Fragment 1 fragment.

Condition

The leaf is heavily torn on all sides - causing loss of text at the top and bottom - and has been mounted on a blank paper leaf. It has not been measured for this catalogue record since it is not possible to determine its original dimensions.

Layout

No ruling. Single columns. About 33 lines to the page on the remaining fragment.

Hand(s)

Copied by a single hand in a cursive script.

Decoration

The fragment does not contain any form of decoration.

History

Origin: Probably 2nd half of the 16th century. ; Germany.

Part 3 [Cambridge, King's College, MS 16, ff. 2:1r-2:[32h] verso]

Contents

Language(s): Latin and English

1. 2:1r-2:8v
Medical lectures John Cokkys
Language(s): Latin
Incipit: 2:1r Cum in quacumque sciencia oportet scire quid est et quia et secundum philosophum Medicina igitur cum sit sciencia oportet eam diffinire
Explicit: 2:8v et hoc medicinam generaliter a phisicis vocatur emagoga quia purgans sanguinem vel ducens in puritatem et hec per ordinem ponam et quid sit breviter describam vt vos pro medicatores practicos redditu

On f. 2:8r is the following reference to John Cokys: 'Quia ego Johannes Cokkis caritate non ficta primi alimenti copiam alumpnis offero archana mei poris domesticis perfero digitis'.

2. 2:9r-2:32r
Commentarium super Tabulas Salerni Bernardus Provincialis
Language(s): Latin
Incipit: 2:9r Cassia fistula
Explicit: 2:32r Receptum etiam per os ualet contra venenum frigidum
Final rubric: 2:32r Explicit

Previously unidentified copy, lacking the Prologue and joined together with the preceding medical lectures: for other Latin copies of this work, see eTK (references below).

eTK 0982I
eTK 1001A
eTK 1369A
3. 2:32r
Verse prayer for England
Language(s): Middle English
Incipit: 2:32r God that made bothe see and sond / Save the Reme off mery in lond and / Sped ryght well the plov for and / the plov sped a rayth both the / Kyng and yche the knyȝht and all / so all the Reme full and houll are bond / to pray for them all may sped day / and euer off thayr dylygyns boȝthe

Full transcription; added in the late 15th or early 16th century [not recorded in IMEV, NIMEV, or DIMEV].

4. 2:32a recto-2:[32d] verso
Regimen sanitatis Salernitanum [Extracts]
Language(s): Latin
Incipit: 2:32a recto Ex scola salernis
Explicit: 2:[32d] verso Quatuor humores in humano corpore constant /Sanguine cum colera fleuma melancolia / Terra . melan . aqua . fleg . et aer sanguis . colerit . ignis

Copied by Simon Forman.

5. 2:[32e] recto-2:[32h] verso
Treatise on the conservation of the human body Simon Forman (1552–1611)
Language(s): English
Rubric: 2:[32e] recto To the conseruation of the body of mankind within the limitation of health which as gallen saith is the state of the body, wherin we be neither greued with pain nor let from doing our nessessary busynes . doth be longe the dilegent consideration of that sorts of things that is to saye
Incipit: 2:[32e] recto Things 1. natural 2. not naturall and 3. against nature
Explicit: 2:[32h] verso But most of all other things mirth and conpany gladnes moderat exercyse with moderat feeding etcaetera
Final rubric: 2:[32h] verso finis

Possibly copied by Simon Forman.

6. 2:[32h] verso
Epistola ad Antigonum regem [Dietic rules for the months of the year] Diocles of Carystus
Language(s): English
Rubric: A Diet concerning Diuers times off the yere . writen by the Old phisisian Diocles to King Antigonus
Incipit: 2:[32h] verso From the .12. daye of Decembar at the which time the Day is at shortteste / vntil the .9. day of March which do contain 90 dayes Rennis and moisturs do encres
Explicit: 2:[32h] verso let him eat fine meats and being once [...] returne lyttle and lyttle to his old custome

Possibly copied by Simon Forman.

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: 2:2r cituatus et qualiter
Form: codex
Support: Parchment (FHHF)
Extent: Codex: 32 leaves (+ 8 added paper leaves). Paper leaves have been added at intervals throughout the first and second parts of the manuscript. Rather than count and list each group of parchment or paper leaves separately and in the sequence in which they appear in the manuscript, they have been described in this statement of extent as separate totals. 28 × 29 mm.

Collation

  • Quires 19-228 (ff. 1-2:32)

There are leaf signatures consisting of combinations of letters and Roman numerals in brown ink but most have been cropped off.

 Catchwords in black ink in the lower right-hand corners of the last versos of quires.

Condition

This part of the manuscript is in good condition.

Layout

205 × 135 mm. Ruled in leadpoint, frame only. Double columns. 51 lines to the page, written below top line.

Hand(s)

The medical compendium has been copied by a single hand in a Northern Textualis.

Simon Forman added texts throughout this part of the manuscript, both on added leaves and in margins, in a Secretary script.

Decoration

One large (3 lines) gold initial in a frame of blue and white ('champ' initial) with pen-flourishing ingreen and gold (f. 2:1r).

Lare (2 lines) blue initial in frames of red penwork decoration and with pen-flourishing in the same colour.

large (2 lines) blue initials.

Capitals (1 line) highlighted in red ink.

Paraphs in blue or red ink.

History

Origin: Between the 2nd quarter and 4th quarter of the 15th century. ; England.

Additional Information

Record Sources

This catalogue entry draws on M.R. James, A descriptive catalogue of the manuscripts other than Oriental in the library of King's College, Cambridge (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1895)

Availability

Visitors to King's College who wish to consult Special Collections material are required to apply to the Library in advance of their visit. For information on eligibility and admission procedures see: King's College Library.

Custodial History

The manuscript was displayed as part of the exhibition Curious Cures: Medicine in the Medieval World (Cambridge University Library, 29 March-6 December 2025) (ff. 1:93v-1:94r and 1:99v-1:100r).

Bibliography

    A descriptive catalogue of the manuscripts other than Oriental in the library of King's College, Cambridge, James, M. R. (Cambridge, University Press, 1895) Medical illustrations in medieval manuscripts Publications of the Wellcome Historical Medical Library. New series, MacKinney, Loren (London, Wellcome Historical Medical Library, 1965) The medical practitioners in medieval England : a biographical register, Talbot, C.H.Hammond, E.A. (London, Wellcome Historical Medical Library, 1965) Medical Practitioners in Medieval England Social History of Medicine, Getz, Faye (3, 1990) Simon Forman, “Matrix and the Pain Thereof": A Sixteenth-Century Gynaecological Essay Medical History, Traister, Barbara Howard (35, 436-451, 1991) Reading Medicine in Tudor Cambridge The History of Medical Education in Britain, Jones, Peter Murray (Amsterdam, 153-183, Rodopi, 1996) The Notorious Astrological Physician of London: Works and Days of Simon Forman, Traister, Barbara Howard (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2001) Forman, Simon (1552–1611) Oxford Dictionary of National Bibliography Online, Kassell, Lauren (2004, https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/9884>) Medicine and Magic in Elizabethan London. Simon Forman: Astrologer, Alchemist and Physician, Kassell, Lauren (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 2005) The <hi rend="italics">Tabula medicine</hi>: an evolving encyclopedia English Manuscript Studies: 1100-1700, Jones, Peter Murray (14, 60-85, 2008) Charms and Amulets for Conception and Childbirth Oral Charms in Structural and Comparative Light: Proceedings of the Conference of the International Society for Folk Narrative Research’s (ISFNR) Committee on Charms, Charmers and Charming. 27–29th October 2011, Moscow, Olsan, Lea T.Jones, Peter Murray (Moscow, 110-121, PROBEL-2000, 2011) Alchemie und Poesie: Deutsche Alchemikerdichtungen des 15. bis 17. Jahrhunderts - Untersuchungen und Texte, Band 1, Telle, JoachimKahn, DidierKühlmann, Wilhelm (Berlin, De Gruyter, 2013) Performative Rituals for Conception and Childbirth in England, 900–1500 Bulletin of the History of Medicine, Jones, Peter MurrayOlsan, Lea T. (89, 3, 406-433, 2015, https://muse.jhu.edu/article/596616) Distilling and Deflowering, Jones, Peter Murray (2017, https://recipes.hypotheses.org/9489) 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)

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Wellcome

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Cambridge Digital Library

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