Cambridge, St John's College, MS E.29
Medical treatises (Ars medicine)
Contents
Physical Description
Late 19th- or early 20th-century foliation
[i], [ii]-[iv] | 1-110
Numbering in pencil in the upper right-hand corner of the rectos.Collation
Please note that the collation in this manuscript counts ff. [i] recto-[iv] verso as Quire 1 (thus the numbering differs to that written in the manuscript - see Additions).
- Quire 1four (ff. [i]-[iv]) |
- Quires 2-128 (ff. 1-88)
- Quire 138-1 (ff. 89-95: 7th leaf cancelled)
- Quire 148 (ff. 96-103)
- Quire 158-1 (ff. 104-110: 8th leaf cancelled)
1four | 2-128 138-1 (7th leaf cancelled) 148 158-1 (8th leaf cancelled)
Additions
Quire signatures ('1-14' for Quires 2-15) 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
Medieval vellum binding with three blind-stamped panels with floral motifs, zoomorphic figures and hybrids. Those on the front cover are much faded, but on the rear cover a monkey and bird (outer panel) and a centaur and dragon (central panel) can be seen. The rear cover is inscribed with the letters 'de f. v.' in a (?) 15th-century script. Spine sewn on two raised bands, insribed, in brown ink, with the number '29', with, an old paper label with the same number written on it above it and two modern paper pastedown with the classmark references 'E' and '29'
Binding height: 210mm; width: 170mm; depth: 40mm.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
?The Benedictine Priory of West Mersea, Essex (founded 1046; dissolved 1542): perhaps its ownership inscription on f. [i] verso: 'Iste liber pertinet domi de mersay' (crossed out) (see 'Medica — Mersea, Essex. Benedictine alien priory of St Peter; cell of St Ouen, Rouen', in MLGB3 [accessed 1 March 2023]).
'John Bote': 16th-century ownership inscription in the upper margin of f. 80v: 'Iste lyber pertenet [sic] ad me John [?]Bote'.
Purchased at an unknown time before 1624 by William Crashaw , a lawyer, book collector, and former Johnian. In his lifetime Crashaw's collection numbered around 200 manuscripts and 1000 printed books.
Purchased from William Crashaw by Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton at some time before his death in 1624 with the intention to present the volumes as a gift to the Library of St John's College. The library was still partly under construction at the time of the purchase resulting in the Wriothesley family storing Crashaw's collection and delivering it piecemeal to the College over a number of years. Upon Henry Wriothesley's death in 1624, this duty passed to his son Thomas Wriothesley, 4th Earl of Southampton .
Given to St John’s College in 1635 by Thomas Wriothesley, 4th Earl of Southampton on behalf of William Crashaw and Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton . The initials ‘Tho. C. S.’ in ink (for Thomas Comes Southamptoniensis) are present on f. inside of the front cover. William Crashaw's bookplate recording the donation is present on inside of the front cover; St John's College's (?) 17th-century armorial bookplate pasted on the inside of the front cover and its classmark 'E.29' written in a (?) 17th-century script.
Part 1 [Cambridge, St John's College, MS E.29, ff. [i]-[iv]]
Contents
Language(s): Latin
Altough the second part of this manuscript contains a full copy of the Quaestiones on Iohannitius, Isagoge, this fragmentary leaf has been copied by a different scribe. Perhaps it was taken from the exemplar for this manuscript or is a cancelled leaf from a copy that was made from this manuscript.
E.g.: ‘Tisis est consumptio tocius humiditatis corporis ex ulcere pulmonis proveniens’.
Added by a 13th-century hand.
Added by a 13th-century hand.
Not all of the contents have been identified. The point at which one verse ends and another begins is often unclear. Those recorded in eTK are noted as follows.
Because the text is heavily abbreviated, its incipit and explicit have not been transcribed in this record.
One of the verses has been copied out by a later hand below: 'In sene uel iuuene si uene sanguine plene / Quo uis mense bene fiat de cisio uene'. See also Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College, MS 190/223, f. 46r.
Physical Description
Collation
- Quire 1four (ff. [i]-[iv])
Layout
[i] recto-[i] verso: 100 × 150 mm. Ruled in crayon, frame and line, single columns, 33 lines to the page, written above top line.
[ii] recto-[iv] verso: × mm. Ruled in crayon, frame and line, ruled for two columns but written on three on f. [ii] recto, up to 57 lines to the page, written above top line.
Hand(s)
Folio [i] copied by a single hand in an 13th-century Northern Gothica Textualis Libraria script.
Additions to ff. [ii]-[iv] copied by various hands in cursive Gothic scripts.
Decoration
This part of the manuscript does not contain any signficant form of decoration.
History
Part 2 [Cambridge, St John's College, MS E.29, ff. 1r-110v]
Contents
Language(s): Latin
Copied by the same 13th-century hand that added the tract on ff. [iii] verso-[iv] recto.
Because the text is heavily abbreviated, its incipit and explicit have not been transcribed in this record.
Full transcription.
Added by 13th-century hands. The remedies address the following:
- f. 109r: a collyrium (for the eyes), a pill to be taken before food
- f. 109v: a pill for clarifying one's sight, improving one's hearing, strengthen one's breathing, and conserving one's health; a remedy for various ailments ('ad diuersas [...] distemperancias') of the body, ears and eyes, as well as problems of the liver, spleen, teeth, kidneys and bladder; an electuary for restoring 'humiditate'; for acute fever; for pleurisy and acute fever; and another for an uncertain purpose
Full transcription.
Added by a 13th-century hand.
Physical Description
Collation
- Quires 2-128 (ff. 1-88)
- Quire 138-1 (ff. 89-95: 7th leaf cancelled)
- Quire 148 (ff. 96-103)
- Quire 158-1 (ff. 104-110: 8th leaf cancelled)
Quire numbers in Roman numerals ('i'-'xiii' [with 'xiii' occuring twice]) and letters ('a'-'o') in the lower margins of the last versos of quires.
Condition
Layout
120-135 × 75-80 mm. Ruled in leadpoint, frame and line ruling. Single columns, 24-26 lines to the page, written above top line.
Hand(s)
Copied by at least two and perhaps three hands in Northern Gothica Textualis Libraria:
- Hand 1: ff. 1r-71v
- Hand 2: ff. 73r-81r
- Hand 3 (or 2): ff. 82v-110v
Decoration
Two-line initials in blue or red with penwork decoration and pen-flourishing in the opposite colour throughout.
Titles and headings have been written in red ink.
Paraphs in blue or red ink.
Additions
Numerous marginal notes and recipes added by 13th-century hands to the medical texts throughout this part of the manuscript
Note of the manuscript's contents, by an early-modern hand (f. [i] verso).History
Additional Information
Record Sources
Availability
Visitors to St John'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: St John's College: Old Library and Special Collections)
Custodial History
Bibliography
-
A descriptive catalogue of the manuscripts in the library of St. John's College,
Cambridge, James, M.R. (Cambridge, University Press, 1913)
Medieval libraries of Great Britain: a list of surviving books Royal Historical Society
guides and handbooks, Ker, N.R. (London, Offices of the Royal Historical Society, 1964)
Thirteenth- and fourteenth-century copies of the Ars medicine: a checklist and contents
descriptions of the manuscripts Articella studies, O'Boyle, Cornelius (Cambridge, Cambridge Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine,
1998)
The Medical Role of Monasteries in the Latin West, c. 1050–1300 The Long Twelfth Century
The Cambridge History of Medieval Monasticism in the Latin West, Brenner, Elma (Cambridge, 3, 865-881, Cambridge University Press, 2020)
Funding of Cataloguing
Wellcome
Digital Images
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
