Cambridge, Trinity College, MS O.2.13
Medical treatises and recipes
Physical Description
- Part 1: 205-210 x 155-160mm.
- Part 2: 210 x 145mm.
- Part 3: 210 x 145mm.
- Part 4: 225 x 150mm.
- Part 5: 215 x 145mm.
- Part 6: 215 x 130mm [but leaves are mounted onto paper guards to extend their width to 145mm].
- Part 7: 210 x 135mm.
- Part 8: 215 x 145mm.
- Part 9: 235 x 165mm.
- Part 10: 210 x 160mm.
Late 16th- or early 17-century pagination and 17th-century foliation: a late 16th- or early 17th-century pagination sequence (pp. 1-70) that is is supplemented by a 17th-century foliation sequence.
The latter sequence is first introduced on p. 65, where the 17th-century foliator starts with the number ‘62’. They have then adapted the page numbers on the rectos of the next two pages to turn them into folio numbers: p. ‘67’ has become f. ‘63’ and p. ‘69’ has become f. ‘64’. However, a modern librarian has rejected these changes and re-written the original page numbers in pencil below the adapted page numbers on p. 67 and p. 69 and confirmed that this page sequence should be followed until p. 70 by duplicating the existing page number on that page. Because of this modern preference and the fact that this is where the original page number sequence ends (there is no pagination on ff. 65r-68r; pagination re-starts at '1' on f. 68v), this catalogue record follows the manuscript's pagination up to page 70 and then follows the added early modern foliation which begins with f. 65 and ends with f. 253. Subsequently, the foliation is continued by a modern librarian's hand in pencil until f. 265.
[a]-[b] + PART 1: ff. [i]-[ii] and pp. 1-70, ff. 65-78 | PART 2: ff. 79-92 | PART 3: ff. 93-95, 95a, 96-99 | PART 4: ff. 100-115 | PART 5: ff. 116-147, 147a, 148 | PART 6: ff. 149-152 | [152a] | PART 7: ff. 155-166 | PART 8: ff. 167-181 | PART 9: ff. 182-235, [235a] | PART 10: ff. 236-265, [265a], [265b] + [c]-[d]
The pagination on pp. 1-70 is written in brown ink in the upper outer corners of both the rectos and versos. The foliation on ff. 65-253 is written both on the inner and outer corners of the upper margins of the rectos.
This pagination and foliation sequence is followed for reference purposes throughout this record. All other historical pagination and foliation sequences (described below) are ignored. For reference purposes in this electronic catalogue record, the manuscript's unfoliated modern flyleaves at the beginning and end ([a]-[b] and [c]-[d]), as well as original blank flyleaves attached to the first part ([i]-[ii]), an unfoliated modern leaf between parts 6 and 7 ([152a]), a stub ([235a]) and original blank leaves (possibly flyleaves) attached to the final part ([265a], [265b]) have all been allocated folio references in square brackets.15th- or 16th-century foliation sequence:
'1'-'22' (on ff. 79-99), and continued by a later early modern hand with the numbers '23'-'102' (on ff. 100-182.
Written in dark ink in the inner corners of the upper margins of the rectos.
15th- or 16th-century foliation sequence:
'i'-'xxxj' (on ff. 119-148)
Written in brown ink at the centres of the upper margins of the rectos.
15th- or 16th-century foliation sequence:
'1'-'33' (on ff. 183-215)
Written in brown ink to the outer upper corners of the rectos.
Collation
- Quires 1-38 (pp. 1-48)
- Quire 48-1+1 (pp. 49-64: 1st leaf missing and replaced with blank leaf)
- Quire 5three (pp. 65-70: probably a quaternion with 4th-8th leaves missing)
- Three flyleaves (ff. 65-67)
- Quire 68 (ff. 68-75)
- Quire 7three (ff. 76-78: probably a quaternion with 3rd-7th leaves missing) |
- Quire 88 (ff. 79-86)
- Quire 9six (ff. 87-92) |
- Quire 104-1 (ff. 93r-95v: 4th leaf missing)
- Quire 116-1 (ff. 95a recto-99r: 6th leaf missing) |
- Quire 1216 (ff. 100-115) |
- Quire 1316+?one (ff. 116-132: ?one leaf added after the 16th leaf)
- Quire 1418-2 (ff. 132-148: 1st and 17th leaves missing) |
- Quire 154 (ff. 149-152) |
- Quire 1612 (ff. 155-166) |
- Quire 1714+1 or 16-1 (ff. 167-181: one leaf added to the 2nd half of the quire or one leaf missing from the first half of the quire) |
- Collation not established for Part 9
- Collation not established for Part 10
1-38 48-1+1 (1st missing and replaced with a modern leaf) 5three [Three flyleaves] 68 7two | 88 9six | 104-1 (4th missing) 116-1 (6th missing) | 1216 | 1316+?one (?one added after 16) 1418-2 (1st and 17th missing) | 154 | 1612 | 1714+1 or 16-1 (one added to the second half or one missing from the first half of the quire | Collation not established for Part 9 | Collation not established for Part 10
Additions
The manuscript contains a curatorial note on f. [152a] recto about folios 153 and 154, which contain a fragment of a printed version of the Seven Sages of Rome (Pynson, 1493). These leaves were removed from the manuscript and bound separately in May 1913 (now Cambridge, Trinity College, VI.18.19).
Binding
18th- or 19th-century half vellum (white) binding with marbled paper sides.
Binding height: 250mm; width: 175mm; depth: 50mm.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
One of the manuscripts of Thomas Gale (1635/6-1702) , dean of York, antiquary and fellow of Trinity College Cambridge. The manuscript is listed as no. 120 (this number inscribed on f. [i] recto) in the list of Gale's manuscripts in Bernard, Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliæ et Hiberniæ (1697).
One of the manuscripts of Roger Gale (1672-1744) , antiquary and scholar, son of Thomas Gale. Inherited from his father.
Donated to Trinity College by Roger Gale (1672-1744) , son of Thomas Gale (1635/6-1702), in 1738. The alpha-numerical elements of its current classmark are printed on three labels pasted onto the spine (‘O.2.13’), inscribed in pencil on the inside of the front cover, and in brown ink on f. [i] recto. Previous classmarks (‘B.54’ [crossed out] and ‘O.15.37’ [crossed out]) are inscribed in brown ink on f. [i] recto. its printed ex libris featuring its armorial coat of arms and name (‘Collegium SS. et Individuae Trinitatis in Academia Cantabrigiensi’) pasted in the lower margin of f. 1r. The College's library stamp occurs on ff. 1r and 252v.
Part 1 [Cambridge, Trinity College MS O.2.13, ff. [i]-[ii], pp. 1-70, ff. 65-78]
Contents
Added in a 17th-century script and partly illegible due to damage to the page.
Consists of two parts: Part 1 has 10 chapters and Part 2 has 4 chapters.
This text perhaps is a copy of a lost printed work, published in London in 1542.
This text perhaps is a copy of a lost printed work, published in London in 1542.
Not transcribed. Added by a (?) 16th- or 17th-century hand.
Not transcribed. Added by (?) 16th- or 17th-century hands.
Written upside down on the page by a (?) 16th- or 17th-century hand.
Physical Description
Collation
- Quires 1-38 (pp. 1-48)
- Quire 48-1+1 (pp. 49-64: 1st leaf missing and replaced with blank leaf)
- Quire 5three (pp. 65-70: probably a quaternion with 4th-8th leaves missing)
- Three flyleaves (ff. 65-67)
- Quire 68 (ff. 68-75)
- Quire 7three (ff. 76-78: probably a quaternion with 3rd-7th leaves missing) |
Leaf signatures written in brown ink at the centres of the lower margins of the rectos of the first halves of quires plus the first rectos of the second halves. These consist of combinations of letters from the Roman alphabet and Roman numerals: Quires 1-5: ‘A’ to ‘E’; and Quires 6-7: ‘A’ to ‘B’.
Layout
170-180 × 110-120 mm. Ruled in hardpoint, frame only. 28-30 lines to the page, written below top line.
Hand(s)
The main text is copied by (?)1 hand working in an italic script.
The texts on p. 1, and ff. 65r, 66v-67v, 78r-78v were added by different hands working in a mixture of cursive scripts.
Decoration
This part of the manuscript does not contain any significant forms of decoration.
History
Pages 1-70 and folios 68r-77v may have been copied separately, as is suggested by the two different paperstocks and the re-start of the letter sequence of the leaf signatures at f. 68r, but they were pobably produced by the same scribe and joined or kept together from an early stage onwards.
Part 2 [Cambridge, Trinity College, MS O.2.13, ff. 79-92]
Contents
The poem is followed by a table of roman numerals. The same poem has been added to the so-called Holyrood Ordinal Edinburgh, Palace of Holyroodhouse, RCIN 1018778) .
The text is accompanied by a table with Arabic numerals.
Copied in the (?) 16th century.
The collection includes a medical recipe to treat scabies (‘Pro Scabie’); culinary recipes, including instructions for preserving fruit to serve fresh at Christmas (‘ffor to kepe Cheries or bolas or plumbes ffresh vnto Christmasse’) and to make ale that has gone sour drinkable again (‘ffor to make ale that is sower to turne into his own kende ayen’); horticultural recipes, including instructions for making roses grow throughout the year (‘Ad custodiendas rosas per totum annum’) and to make them grow faster (‘vt roras cicius habere possis’);. a chemical recipe to carry fire by hand without hurting oneself (‘Ad portandum ignem in manibus tuis sine lesura’; magical recipes, including instructions for making a herbal amulet invoking the names of the Archangels against enemies (‘Vt inimicus fugiet te’); for making an amulet with celandine collected in the morning of the feast of St Peter ad Vincula (1 August) in order to enable its user to escape any prison; to secretly open a wax seal (‘Ad aperiendum ceram’) by placing violet roots under an altar for nine days and then blowing its powder onto the seal [this recipe also occurs in the so-called Cambridge Book of Magic; see Paul Foreman (attributed) The Cambridge Book of Magic: A Tudor's Necromancer's Manual, ed. by Francis Young (Cambridge: Texts in Early Modern Magic, 2015), p. 59]; to make an amulet from hart's tongue in order to learn the art of jesting (‘Ad sciendum qualiter ioculatores faciunt’); to make a drink from chamomille to determine whether a woman is a virgin (‘Ad sciendum an mulier sit virgo vel ne’); Ink and pingment recipes:, to soften steel (‘Ad mollificandum calibem’), to harden steel (‘Ad indurandum calibem’), to make coloured gilded or silvered letters ‘Ad colorandum litteras sculptas in metallo quocumque colore’ and a recipe for catching fish (‘Ad capdiendum pisces’).
Full transcription.
The collection largely includes medical recipes in Latin, e.g. treatments for haemorrhoids (‘ffor the emrodes’) and the pestilence (‘Conra Pestem’), and an instruction to make Aqua Vitae (‘Ad faciendum Aquam Vite’). It also includes a Middle English recipe for catching rabbits with one's hands by coating gloves with an ointment (‘To take Conys with thy handes’) and another Middle English recipe for gilding.
The collection includes recipes to stop someone from sleep-talking (‘Pro loquentibus in sompnis’); whiten teeth (‘Ad dentes dealbandum’); grow hair (‘Ad faciendum caput habere crines carens crinibus’); depilate (‘Ad tollendum glabram’); make it seem that one's house is filled with wild beasts (‘Vt aliqua domus appareat plena feris’); make prunes fall from a tree without touching the tree or fruit (‘Vt pruna cadant de arbore et non appropiabunt arborem nec fructum manus nec lapis nec lignum’); give a black horse a white colour (‘Ad faciendum nigrum equum . album’); carry fire by hand without hurting oneself (‘Si vis ferre ignem in manibus tuis’); make a non-extinguishable candle (‘Vt candela non extingeatur propter ventum nec per pluviam’); make headless persons appear in a house (‘Vt homines existentes in domo appareant sine capitibus’); clear one's voice (‘Ad vocem clarificandum’); turn vinegar into wine (‘Vt acetum in vinum redeat’); turn wine into vinegar (‘Vt vinum acetum fiat’); shoot an arrow or thorn (‘Ad sagittam vel spinam eiciendum’); learn whether or not a disease will kill a patient (‘Si vitam vel mortem alius aegri inuestigare volueris’); turn a red rose into a white one (‘Ad rosa rubea deueniant alba’; pull teeth (‘Ad depondendum dentes’; whiten one's face or hands (‘Ad faciem vel manus dealbandum’); stop a 'harlot' from lusting (‘Ad faciendum meretricem cessare de luxuria’); make someone dream (‘Ad faciendum ipnkmsn semetipsum tppnkbsf’, which can be decrypted as: ‘Ad faciendum hominum semetipsum somniara’); make a donkey follow you (‘Si vis quod as sequitur te’); make oneself invisible (‘Si vis esse invisibilis’); and catch birds (‘Ad aues recoligendum similiter’).
The recipes are for treating the pestilence and gall or bladder stones.
Full transcription.
The recipes are for treating ulcers, entitled: ‘ffor the Canker’ and ‘A water to washe the canker withall or he wys thys medicyn’).
Added in the (?) 16th century.
A later hand has added entries for the reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, and Mary I but has not noted the duration of the latter's reign. A second later hand has simply added the name of Queen Elizabeth I (‘Elizabeth regina’).
Full transcription.
Full transcription.
Full transcription, as in Mooney (1995), p. 86 who states that this Middle English prognostic is preceded by a 'Latin version of the same'. However, the two items are very different and provide prognostications for different days of the year.
Full transcription.
Full transcription.
Full transcription.
Full transcription.
Added in the (?) 16th century.
Physical Description
Collation
- Quire 88 (ff. 79-86)
- Quire 9six (ff. 87-92)
Layout
150-160 × 110-115 mm. No ruling. Single colums. The original texts of this quire contain c. 35-c. 45 lines to the page.
Hand(s)
Various cursive scripts added by 15th- and 16th-century hand, typically contianing both anglicana and secretary features.
Decoration
This part of the manuscript does not contain any significant forms of decoration.
History
For a likely terminus ante quem non, see the list of monarchs on f. 90r. Added to by various hands in the 15th century and/or in the first half of the 16th century.
Part 3 [Cambridge, Trinity College, MS O.2.13, ff. 93-95, [95a], 96-99]
Contents
The form as given by Cecily, mother of Edward IV, dated to the 20th year of his reign (1480-1).
The form as given to Thomas Hert, keeper of the park at Wyverston, in the fifth year of King Henry VII (1490-1).
Full transcription, as in Mooney (1995), p. 87.
Full transcription, as in Mooney (1995), p. 87.
The forms are entitled: ‘fforma littere atornat.’, ‘fforma littere acquietanc.’, ‘fforma Obligacionis’, ‘Condicio’, and ‘Alia Acquietancia’.
Full transcription, as in Mooney (1995), p. 87.
Full transcription, as in Mooney (1995), p. 87.
The text is accompanied by music staves and neumes. The same verse, accompanied by an explanation, can also be found in the tonary (tonarium) of Jacobus Twinger de Königshofen (1346-1420).
Full transcription.
Full transcription.
Added by a late 15th- or early 16th-century hand.
Added by a late 16th-century hand.
Physical Description
Collation
- Quire 104-1 (ff. 93r-95v: 4th leaf missing)
- Quire 116-1 (ff. 95a recto-99r: 6th leaf missing)
Layout
150 × 115 mm. No ruling. Single colums. The original texts of this quire contain c. 30 lines to the page.
Hand(s)
Various cursive scripts added by 15th- and 16th-century hands, typically containing both anglicana and secretary features.
Decoration
This part of the manuscript does not contain any significant forms of decoration.
History
Part 4 [Cambridge, Trinity College, MS O.2.13, ff. 100-115]
Contents
Language(s): Middle English and Latin
The collection includes various charms: One charm, entitled ‘A good medycyn for the ffeueres’ (f. 100r) invokes seven types of fevers that are named after their durations, starting with a one-day fever (‘cotidianas’) and going up to a seven-day fever (‘septanas’). Another charm, entitled ‘Another for þeo same’ (ff. 100r-100v) instructs one to write holy names of God on three oblates and feed them to a patient over the course of three consecutive days. One for curing a morbid growth in the eye, entitled ‘Coniuracyoun for þe hawe in þe ye a souereyn medycyn’ (f. 101v) involves a formula that needs to be recited over the eye and yellow juice of celandine that needs to be applied with a goose feather (‘þe fether of a gos wynge þat þis goldesmythe vses to soude with’) that needs to be bound over the eye all night for a duration of ten days. There is also a charm for curing toothache, entitled ‘A nobell charm for tothache’ (f. 102v) that recounts the apocryphal tale of Christ on a marble stone healing St Peter from the tootache. A charm against dysentery, entitled ‘A good charme for þe menysoun’ (f. 104r), conjures the ailment with the apocryphal story about how the River Jordan stopped flowing at Christ's baptism.
Under a heading, entitled ‘A good charme to staunche blode of man or woman’ (f. 105r six charms for bloodstaunching are given: the first one invokes the apocryphal story of Longinus piercing Christ's side; the second to fifth charms involve liturgical formula and prayers often in combination with herbs; and the sixth charm involves two strips of parchment inscribed with magical characters that need to be bound between the patient's shins (including a test to prove the efficacy of these charaters by writing them on a knife and subsequently cutting a swine with it). It also contains a magical method for determining whether a patient shall live or die, entitled ‘ȝef þy gode frend be seke and þou wylt wyte wheþer he schal lyue oþer dye’ (ff. 107r), in which one needs to recite five Pater Nosters over five shoots of vervain in honour of the Five Wounds and then conjure the shoots that the patient shall tel them truthly whether they will live or die, place the herb in one's right hand and then hold the patient's right hand with the herb in between the joint hands. The medical practitioner should then ask the patient wheter they will live or die and ‘he schal say þe sothe’. A charm, entitled ‘ffor þe ffalyng euell’ (f. 110r), instructs one to take blood from the patient's little finger and use it to write the names of the Three Magi either on a parchment amulet or, for a child below the age of seven, in a drinking cup. Another charm to help patient's sleep, entitled ‘ffor hym þat not slepe for sykenus wryte þes wordes on a lorere leeff’ (f. 112r), involves an amulet inscribed with the words: ‘+ Ymael + Ysmahet + Adiuro te per angelum dei vt soporet homo iste’ that needs to be placed secretly under the patient's head.
Two childbirth charms, one is an instruction for making an amulet (unspecified material) inscribed with ‘Maria peperit christum’ formula, including reference to St Celine [Cecilia] and St Remigius, and the formula ‘Sator Arepo Tenet Opera Rotas’, that needs to be bound to the pregnant woman's belly. The other involves inscribed the Pater noster in a drinking bowl and making the pregnant woman drink ale or wine from it. A charm for the toothache, entitled ‘A charm for þe totake or for what worme þat be in þe hed or in any place of þe body’ (f. 113r), an amulet inscribed with a charm that invokes ‘vermin’ by the Virgin Mary and St Cassian; and a charm to heal fever, entitled ‘ffor þe feuerez a good medycyne’ (f. 113r) that invokes the names of God.
Two recipes are attributed to a certain John Norton: one (f. 113r). was initially attributed to ‘J. Weston’ but this name has been crossed out and replaced for: ‘9.13’, which has been decrypted to ‘J. Norton’ to the right. Another recipe on f. 100r has also been attributed to him: ‘Quod ix. xiij’.
Full transcription.
Full transcription.
Full transcription.
The recipe is said to have been attested by "Richard Sherdych" [?Shoreditch]: ‘Per Ricardum Sherdych probatum’.
The recipe is said to have been attested by the 'hermit of Sherwood'.
Full transcription; not included in Mooney (1995).
Full transcription.
Without heading and apparently incomplete at the beginning; written upside down on the page and crossed out with thin lines of light brown ink.
Full transcription.
Full transcription.
The recipe is attributed to ‘W. Schrossbury’ [Shrewsbury].
The text gives the distances between Merton, historically in Surrey (now Greater London) to the village of Lamberhurst in Kent via Croydon, Farnborough (Kent, now Greater London), Chipstead (Kent), and Tonbridge (Kent).
Full trancsription.
Attributed to a 'J.C.': ‘.9.3.’, using the same substitution cipher as found in attributions to John Norton (see f. 115r and Part 4: Provenance).
This text can be decrypted as follows: ‘Recipe ueruenam ante urtum [sic: ‘ortum’] solis in assumpcionis beate marie sicca et puluerisa et poni [sic: ‘pone’] puluerem in ore tuo et fla in seram et statim aperiet’.
The text instructs practitioners to collect vervain before sunrise on the Feast of the Assumption of Mary (15 August), dry and pulverise the herb and its powder into their mouths, and then blow the powder into a lock. This instruction is comparable to an instruction in a collection of necromantic experiments compiled by Paul Foreman in the 1530s (now Cambridge, University Library, MS Add. 3544, the so-called Cambridge Book of Magic). Although the latter instruction, does not involve vervain but the root of violet, it similarly instructs the user to blow powder of the herb on wax in order to secretly open sealed letters: ‘cum ceram aperire vis pone in ore tuo et fla super ceram et stati aperietur’ (see Paul Foreman, The Cambridge Book of Magic: A Tudor Necromancer's Manual, ed. and trans. by Francis Young (Cambridge: Texts in Early Modern Magic, 2015), p. 59 [no. 28]). Interestingly, this very same magical instruction for opening wax seals can be found among a collection of recipes on ff. 83r-84r in Part 2 of O.2.13.
Attributed to a 'J.C.': ‘.9.3.’, , using the same substitution cipher as found in attributions to John Norton (see f. 115r and Part 4: Provenance).
This text comprises a previously unknown copy of a text on a type of sundial that is know as the navicula. This copy is not recorded in Catherine Eagleton, Monks, Manuscripts and Sudials: The Navicula in Medieval England, Medieval and Early Modern Philosophy and Science Series, 11 (Brill: Leiden, 2010). Eagleton lists and identifies sixteen manuscript copies of five different texts on the navicula (including copies in Cambridge, Trinity College, MS O.5.26 and Cambridge, Trinity College MS O.8.16 ). The newly discovered copy belongs to Eagleton's ‘Group A’ of Navicula manuscripts, which survives in ten manuscripts (including Cambridge, Trinity College, MS O.5.26 and Cambridge, University Library, MS Gg.6.3 [diagrams only] ). The newly identified copy opening is comparable to two ‘Group A’ manuscripts: London, Royal College of Physicians, MS 384 and Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Wood D.8 .
John Norton (d. 1459) is recorded as vicar of Mitcham in the modern London Borough of Merton, Southwest London. See Owen Manning and William Bray, The History and Antiquities of the County of Surrey, II (London: Nichols, 1809; repr. East Ardsley, Wakefield: EP Publishing, 1974), p. 504.
Next to the header is written the note or comment: ‘ffare wel fourty pans’.
The previously unstudied recipe can be decrypted as follows: ‘Ad faciendum de una pekka salis .3. pekkes’ and ‘Recipe vnam peccam salis et primus pone grossa olla \vel patella/ super ignem aqua currente impleta cum bene coquiuerit: Recipe salem inter manus tuas fricando salem minutim in aquam et bene inuicem conquitur et per pannum lineum stringantur iterum strictum coquitur bene et totum fiet optimum sal. Probatum est Ro. [?] Geuui’.
The Latin instruction includes a reference to ‘whyt sope’.
Full transcription.
The instruction is attributed to the 'hermit of Sherwood': ‘heremita de Schyrewode’.
The recipe has been attributed to a certain Thomas Smyth.
Full transcription.
Full transcription.
The recipes are entitled: ‘Pro fluxu medicina probata vt sequitur’ and ‘Item pro rubeo fluxu vt sequitur’.
Added by a later (?) 16th-century hand.
Physical Description
Collation
- Quire 1216 (ff. 100-115)
Leaf signatures in brown ink at the centres of the lower margins of the rectos of the first half of the quire. These consist of a Roman numeral (‘[i]’-‘viij’) followed by the letter ‘A’.
Layout
190 × 110 mm. Ruled in ink, frame only. Single columns. 41-43 lines to the page, written below top line.
Hand(s)
The larger part of the recipes are copied by one 15th-century hand working in a cursive script with both anglicana and secretary features (additions on ff. 115r-115v were made by comprable cursive hands).
Decoration
One large (4 lines) green initial on f. 100r.
Large (2 to 3 lines) plain initials in red ink throughout.
Headings for recipes written in red ink.
Linefillers consiting of horizontal wavy lines in red ink.
Regular initial in brown ink occasionally highlighted with red ink.
Underlining in red ink.
Paraphs in red ink.
Crosses in charms drawn in red ink.
History
Provenance
John Norton (d. 1459) , vicar of Mitcham, Merton, London: perhaps copied the larger portion and owned this part of the manuscript. Three medical recipes attributed to him on ff. 100r and 113r. His note about a total solar eclipse on Sunday 17 June 1433 on f. 115r. Signed the copy of ‘De navicula’ on ff. 114v-115r with his initials encoded as numbers (9.13). For Norton, see Owen Manning and William Bray, The History and Antiquities of the County of Surrey, II (London: Nichols, 1809; repr. East Ardsley, Wakefield: EP Publishing, 1974), p. 504.
Part 5 [Cambridge, Trinity College, MS O.2.13, ff. 116-147, [147a], 148]
Contents
Language(s): Latin
A later title is added in a (?) 17th-century hand below the original title: ‘Morbi Equorum’.
Full transcription.
Added by a (?) 16th-century hand.
Full transcription.
Added by a (?) 16th-century hand.
See Mooney (1995), p. 88 for other copies.
The text ends with 4 lines of verse, beginning: ‘Sit timor in despibus benediccio leccio tempus’.
Full transcription. According to Mooney (1995), ‘stavyakyre’ is 'not identifiable' but the herb undoubtedly is Stavesacre, also known as licebane (Delphinium staphisagria).
The collection contains 115 recipes.
Added by a later (?) 15th-century hand.
Added by a later (?) 15th-century hand.
Full transcription.
Full transcription.
DIMEV suggests that the text should be read from the top of f. 132v to the bottom of f. 132r but the the manuscript certainly presents this copy as beginning on f. 132r, adding a title and reserving an opening for a decorative initial at the top of the page.
Full transcription. Added by a 15th-century hand.
Physical Description
Collation
- Quire 1316+?one (ff. 116-132: ?one leaf added after the 16th leaf)
- Quire 1418-2 (ff. 132-148: 1st and 17th leaves missing)
Layout
165 × 110-115 mm. Ruled in hardpoint, frame only. Single columns. c. 30-c. 36 lines to the page.
Hand(s)
Folios 116r-131r were copied by a single 15th-century hand working in a cursive script with both anglicana and secretary features.
Folios 133r-148v were copied by a single 15th-century hand working in a cursive script with both anglicana and secretary features.
The recipes and poems added to ff. 118v, 131r-132v and 148v were copied by multiple 15th- or early 16th-century hands working in cursive scripts with both anglicana and secretary features.
Decoration
One large (3 lines) plain red initial on f. 117r.
Regular initials in brown ink highlighted with red ink throughout.
Underlining in red ink.
History
Date of production indicated by the different paperstocks used for the two quires that make up this part of the manuscript. Given that the two main hands are responsible for exactly one quire each, the two quires were probably produced separately from one another. However, they were joined together shortly after their original production, as is suggested by the 15th- or early 16th-century foliation sequence that has been added to the centres of the upper margins of the rectos of ff. 119-148: ‘[i]’-‘xxxj’.
Part 6 [Cambridge, Trinity College, MS O.2.13, ff. 149-152]
Contents
Language(s): Middle English (dialectal features suggest East Anglia)
Physical Description
Collation
- Quire 154 (ff. 149-152)
Layout
185-195 × 80 mm. No ruling. Single columns. 36-41 lines to the page.
Hand(s)
Bevis of Hampton is copied by a single 15th-century hand in a cursive script with both anglicana and secretary features.
The French letter on f. 152v is copied by a single 15th-century hand in a cursive script with both anglicana and secretary features.
Decoration
This part of the manuscript does not contain any significant forms of decoration.
History
Part 7 [Cambridge, Trinity College, MS O.2.13, ff. 155-166]
Contents
Language(s): Middle English and Latin
This may a translation of the preceding Latin text with formulae and rules of stewards on ff. 155r-157v.
Physical Description
Collation
- Quire 1612 (ff. 155-166)
Layout
150-160 × 100-110 mm. Ruled in (?)leadpoint, frame only. Single columns. 26 28 lines to the page.
Hand(s)
Copied by a scribe working in a cursive script with both anglicana and secretary features.
Decoration
This part of the manuscript does not contain any significant forms of decoration.
History
Part 8 [Cambridge, Trinity College, MS O.2.13, ff. 167-181]
Contents
Language(s): Middle English and Latin
For other copies, see Mooney (1995), p. 89.
Contains 68 recipes, interrupted on ff. 169v-170r by a short Latin text on distilled waters.
The poem contains three headings: ‘Beton’; ‘Centory’, and ‘Egremonye’.
Fully transcribed by Mooney (1995).
Some portion of text lost because the lower outer corner of the folio is torn away.
Fully transcribed by Mooney (1995).
Fully transcribed by Mooney (1995).
Fully transcribed by Mooney (1995).
Fully transcribed by Mooney (1995).
Physical Description
Collation
- Quire 1714+1 or 16-1 (ff. 167-181: one leaf added to the 2nd half of the quire or one leaf missing from the first half of the quire)
Layout
175-180 × 120 mm. No ruling visible. Single columns. 34-36 lines to the page.
Hand(s)
Folios 167r-181r were copied by a single hand working in a cursive script with both anglicana and secretary features.
Folio 181v was copied by a single hand working in a cursive script with both anglicana and secretary features.
Decoration
This part of the manuscript does not contain any significant forms of decoration.
History
Part 9 [Cambridge, Trinity College, MS O.2.13, ff. 182-235]
Contents
Language(s): Latin
Published in 1493.
Beginning with ‘Herba Ptsilon’ and ending with ‘Aranea’.
Written upside down on the page.
Written upside down on the page.
One recipe has been crossed out.
Physical Description
Collation
Not established due to the tight binding, but identifiable tackets between ff. 225 and 226 and ff. 232 and 233 suggest that both ff. 222-229 and ff. 230-235 are quaternions. The presence of stubs between ff. 231-232 and after f. 235 indicate that the latter quire is 8-2 (missing the 3rd and 8th leaves).
Layout
195 × 125 mm. Ruled in ink, frame only. Single columns. 30-35 lines to the page, written below top line.
Hand(s)
Copied by a single hand in a humanistic cursive script.
Decoration
This part of the manuscript does not contain any signficant forms of decoration.
History
Part 10 [Cambridge, Trinity College, MS O.2.13, ff. 236-265, [265a], [265b]]
Contents
Language(s): English and Latin
The diagrams appear to provide information for a nativity chart.
This form of theft divination involves a well-known method whereby the name of a suspected thief is placed on a key and the key is then placed inside a Psalter at psalm 49.
The recipes are headed: ‘Aqua Solle’ and ‘Aqua luna’. Above the first recipe is a drawing of a furnace with alchemical vessels. The word ‘Glas’ is written next to the drawing.
Full transcription.
The text is accompanied bya drawing of an eye in the upper margin in brown ink. This is an illustration of the eye that one needs to draw with the albumen of an egg and salt as part of the magical method to find stolen goods and identify a thief.
Medical recipes are for treating ‘wynd in a mans body’,‘ffor hym þat is poysonyd’, ‘stynkyng breth’, ‘To make swete and clene teth’, ‘ffor hym þat is costyfe’, ‘ffor falyng of here’, ‘To do away wertes’, ‘To stope a flyx’.
The recipes are entitled: ‘To take ffysshe with þi handes’, ‘To make ffyshes gather to in one place by daye’, ‘To take byrd quicke with þi handes’
The recipes are entitled: ‘ffor to make gold water’ and ‘ffor to make silver water’.
The recipes are entitled: ‘To take oyle out of clothes’, ‘ffor fattnes in clothes’, and ‘ffor fattnes in whyte clothes’.
Full transcription; below the text are written two magical seals that need to be drawn inside the hunter's left armpit. Each has the word ‘State’ written four times around its edge.
Full transcription.
Full transcription.
Full transcription and decryption of words that have been substituted for numbers.
Added in the late 16th century.
Left unfinished; the text ends abruptly in the section of herbs with Latin names starting with 'L'.
Physical Description
Collation
Not established (although tackets are visible between ff. 239-240 and ff. 252-253).
Layout
185-190 × 140-145 mm. No ruling visible. Single columns. lines to the page.
Hand(s)
Folios 236r-249r were copied by a single hand working in a very cursive anglicana script.
Folios 249v-252r were copied by a single hand working in a cursive script with both anglicana and secretary features.
Folios 264v-265r were copied by a single hand working in a cursive script with both anglicana and secretary features.
Decoration
An illustration of the ‘Eye of Abraham’, drawn ink dark ink in the upper outer corner of f. 240v.
An illustation of alchemical vessels connected to a furnace, drawn ink dark ink in the upper inner corner of f. 240r.
Two magical (circular) seals, drawn in dark ink below and illustrating the magical on f. 248r.
Astrological diagrams drawn ink in dark ink on ff. 239r-239v.
Decorative banderols inscribed with text in dark ink (e.g. ff. 240v, 246r, 246v, etc.).
History
Provenance
Simon Forman (1552–1611) , astrologer and medical practitioner: the name ‘Si. Forman’ is inscribed in brown ink in the upper margin of f. 236r. Comparison with name inscriptions by Simon Forman (1552-1611) in Cambridge, King's College, MS 16 suggests that this part of MS O.2.13 was owned by him.
Additional Information
Record Sources
Availability
Visitors to Trinity 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: Trinity College: Information for Readers.
Bibliography
-
The western manuscripts in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge: a descriptive
catalogue, James, M.R. (Cambridge, 3, Cambridge University Press, 1902)
Aus der alten Musiktheorie, V, Zur Instrumentenkunde Acta musicologica, Handschin, Jacques (16-17, 1-10, 1944)
The History and Antiquities of the County of Surrey, Manning, OwenBray, William (East Ardsley, 2, EP Publishing, 1974)
The Fifteenth-Century Lute: New and Neglected Sources Early Music, Page, Christopher (9, 11-21, 1981)
Manuscripts in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge Index of Middle English prose, Mooney, Linne R. (Woodbridge, D.S. Brewer, 1995)
Middeleeuwse witte en zwarte magie in het Nederlands taalgebied: gecommentarieerd
compendium van
incantamenta tot einde 16de eeuw, Braekman, Willy Louis (Ghent, Koninklijke Academie voor Nederlandse Taal- en Letterkunde,
1997)
Meter Change as a Relic of Performance in the Middle English Romance Sir Beues Quidditas:
Journal of the Rocky Mountain Medieval and Renaissance Association, Zaerr, Linda Marie (21, 105-128, 2000)
Between Herbals et alia: Intertextuality in Medieval English Herbals, Mäkinen, Martti (Helsinki, 2006)
The Early Tudor Court and International Musical Relations, Dumitrescu, Theodor (Aldershot, Ashgate, 2007)
The Middle English and Renaissance Bevis: A Textual Survey Sir Bevis of Hampton in
literary tradition, Fellows, Jennifer (Woodbridge, 80-100, Brewer, 2008)
A Norfolk Gentlewoman and Lydgatian Patronage: Lady Sibylle Boys and Her Cultural
Environment Medium Ævum, Bale, Anthony (78, 2, 261-280, 2009)
Lute Lessons for Fifteenth-Century Amateurs The Lute: Journal of the Lute Society, Minamino, Hiroyuki (49, 1-5, 2009)
The Cultural Uses of Magic in Fifteenth-century England, Mitchell, Laura (Toronto, 2011)
Bevis of Hampton Database of Middle English Romance, McDonald, Nicola (2012, https://www.middleenglishromance.org.uk/mer/11)
Thornton’s Remedies and the Practices of Medical Reading Robert Thornton and His Books:
Essays on the Lincoln and London Thornton Manuscripts, Orlemanski, Julie (Woodbridge, 235-255, York Medieval Press in association with
Boydell, 2014)
Cambridge, Trinity College Library MS O.2.13 (1117) Late Medieval English Magic: English
Manuscripts Containing 15th-Century Magical Texts, Mitchell, Laura (2014, https://magicalmedieval.wordpress.com/2014/04/12/tcc1117/)
A medicine for the vanity in the head SELIM: Journal of the Spanish Society for Mediaeval
English Language and Literature, Cruz Cabanillas, Isabel de la (21, 157-166, 2015)
The Cambridge Book of Magic: A Tudor's Necormancer's Manual Texts in Early Modern
Magic, Foreman, Paul (Cambridge, Francis Young, 2015)
The 'Eye of Abraham' Charm for Thieves. Versions in Middle and Early Modern English
Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft, Stallcup, Stephen (10, 1, 25-40, 2015)
Sir Bevis of Hampton, edited from Naples, Biblioteca Nazionale, MS XIII.B.29 and Cambridge,
University Library, MS Ff.2.38 Early English Text Society (Series). Original series, (Oxford, Published for the Early English Text Society by the Oxford University
Press, 2017)
The Idea of Disinheritance in Middle English Romances, Timperley, Grace A. (Manchester, 2019)
Dulce et Utile: The (Im)practicality of agricultural texts in middle english manuscripts
and
printed husbandry books, Kuipers, Nadine (Groningen, 2020)
Middle English Medical Recipes and Literary Play, 1375-1500, Bower, Hannah (Oxford University Press, 2022)
Tracing the Early Modern John of Burgundy Genre in English Medical Writing, 1500–1820:
Sociocultural Contexts of Production and Use Studies in English Language, Honkapohja, Alpo (Cambridge, 68-88, Cambridge University Press, 2022)
Playing with the Mind: Magic Tricks in Late Medieval Europe Open Library of Humanities, Da Silva Baptista, Vanessa (9, 2, 1-22, 2023)
Monks, Manuscripts and Sudials: The Navicula in Medieval England Medieval and Early
Modern Philosophy and Science Series, Eagleton, Catherine (Leiden, Brill, 210)
Funding of Cataloguing
Wellcome (cataloguing). All images provided by Trinity College, Cambridge.
Digital Images
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
