Cambridge, Peterhouse, MS 106
Medical treatises
Contents
Language(s): Latin
Text and gloss alternate, with the text written in a larger script
To stop excessive sweating. Written in the bottom margin by a 14th-century hand.
The first for an unstated purpose, the second for the stone.
Physical Description
20th-century foliation
1-174
Numbering in pencil in the upper right-hand corner of the rectos. f. 174 has been pasted on the rear cover.Collation
- Quires 1-1412 (ff. 1-168)
- Quire 1510-4 (ff. 169-180: 6th leaf, f. 174, is the pastedown on the rear cover, 7th-10th cancelled)
1-1412; 1510-4: 6th the rear pastedown; 7th-10th cancelled
Arabic numerals in crayon (?) written in the lower margins of the first halves of quires.
Catchwords in frames of brown ink in the lower right-hand corners of the last versos of quires.Layout
250 × 155 mm. Ruled in crayon, frame and line ruling. Double columns. 44 lines to the page, written below top line.
Hand(s)
Copied by a single scribe in a Northern Textualis script [Gothic Rotunda according to Thomson].
Decoration
Large (4-8 lines) puzzle initial in blue and red with red penwork decoration inside the letter featuring floral motifs and pen-flourishing in red (ff. 1r, 25r, 41r, 56r, 76v, 98r, 113v, 144r); except for one (f. 1r) which features a hybrid figure and a partial (1-sided) J-border in blue and red (ff. 1r)
Small (2 lines) initials in blue or red with penwork decoration and pen-flourishing in the opposite colour (but red initials also are flourised in blue-green)
Titles and subheadings in red ink.
Paraphs in blue or red ink.
Drawings of human faces in brown ink extending from the text space in to the margins (f. 3r)
Additions
Below the catchword on f. 96v is a pencilled calculation by a scribe or rubricator.
Table of contents added by a 17th-century hand (perhaps the same hand that inscribed the title inscriptions on the spine) in the upper margin of f. 1r: ‘Constantin[us] l[iber] v[iaticum] [...] 1536 cu[m] co[mmentarium] Girardi / Glosulae 4or Magistrorum in Chirurgiam’.
Quire numbers in the right-hand corners of the first rectos written in pencil by a 20th-century hand.
Binding
Vellum binding over pasteboards: the vellum consists of a reused lease from Peterhouse, dated to 1750 [? according to Thomson], with the reverse turned outward; three horizontal slits on vellum on the front cover may have been used for a seal. An unidentified early modern printed text has been pasted underneath the vellum. The spine is inscribed with a title inscription in brown ink: 'Constantinus - de curatione morborum', a former (?) classmark '1-1 1', and an unread transcription with the date '1700'; it also features a paper lable with the printed number '106'.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
Recorded in the catalogue of Peterhouse books on 24 December 1418 (see CBMLC10, UC48.294) and no. 218 in Thomas James' Ecloga Oxonio-Catabrigiensis (1600). Peterhouse's book stamp in the lower margins of ff. 1r and 93r.
Additional Information
Record Sources
Availability
Researchers should note that Peterhouse's western European medieval manuscripts are housed at Cambridge University Library. Scholars who wish to consult Peterhouse manuscripts should contact the Special Collections Reading Room to arrange their visit; all University Library admissions procedures will apply. For information on eligibility and admissions procedures, see Joining the Library. For further enquiries, and to confirm the availability of the manuscript, please contact the Special Collections Reading Room.
Bibliography
-
Collectio Salernitana ossia documenti inediti, e trattati di medicina appartenenti
alla scuola
medica Salernitana, Daremberg, Charles VictorDe Renzi, Salvatore, (Naples, Tipografia del Filiatre-Sebezio,
1852)
The university and college libraries of Cambridge, with an introduction by Roger Lovatt
Corpus of British medieval library catalogues, Clarke, Peter D. (London, British Library in Association with the British Academy,
2002)
A descriptive catalogue of the medieval manuscripts in the library of Peterhouse,
Cambridge, Thomson, R. M. (Cambridge, D.S. Brewer, 2016)
Funding of Cataloguing
Wellcome
Digital Images
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
