Introduction:
The principal contents of this manuscript are the writings of the English surgeon
John Arderne
(1307/08-c. 1380). He wrote in Latin and the writings seem to date from c. 1370 to
1376. Four separate Middle English
translations of his works made in the 15th century are also extant but Latin manuscripts
are more commonly found (more
than 40) before 1500, making Arderne one of the most popular medieval medical authors
in England (see
Cambridge,
Gonville and Caius MS 190/223
, ff. 7r-, for another Arderne manuscript). Arderne's writings
usually take up the greater part of these Latin manuscripts, although not always in
the same order. The best known of
his works is the Practica of fistula in ano, a treatise on different forms of operation to
treat fistulae and similar ailments affecting the backside and male genitals. In Trinity
MS O.2.49 this work is found
on ff. 35r-59r. Another identifiable Arderne text is called Extracta emoroidarum ('Extracts on haemorrhoids', drawn from authors and texts listed at the start), and
in
this manuscript the text runs from f. 63r to f. 73r. Other texts are harder to identify clearly, though there are extended passages on
administering
enemas, on eye diseases, and on ailments of the womb, for example. It has been convenient
since the early 20th-century
studies of D'Arcy Power to characterise these as belonging to a Liber medicinarum sive receptorum
liber medicinalium ('Book of medicines or book of medical recipes'), though this is not a title found
in
Arderne's writings. Power's title does convey that most of what is found on ff. 1r-35r,
59r-63r, and 73r-82r consists
of the medicinal virtues of herbs, compound medicines and recipes for a variety of
ailments, not all of them surgical.
Many other recipes of the same kind are also to be found in the Practica and in the Extracta emoroidarum.
There are charms and rituals interspersed with Arderne's recipes, as for example on
f. 1r, where an experimentum to stop the flow of blood is a ritual using a
split hazel rod. Some recipes, probably not authored by Arderne, are written in Middle
English (see f. 1r again). Case
histories of treatment are found scattered amongst Arderne's recipes and sometimes
his patients are named
(particularly in the Practica). Arderne manuscripts are usually accompanied by a programme of
images in the margins of the text and this is true of Trinity MS O.2.49. In some deluxe
manuscripts these are
illuminated, but not here, where the images are hand drawn by the scribe. The subjects
include herbs, injuries,
bandages and instruments, and these images are often referred to by Arderne within
the text. There are also diagrams
of winds and humours, and a crude Zodiac Man preceded by a table of lunar days and
zodiac signs. These are inserted
within the text (on ff. 1r, 66r, 43v-44r respectively). There are also larger pictures of instruments and stages of the operation
for fistula in ano (f. 40r-40v).
The other principal text in Trinity MS O.2.49 is anonymous and is titled Salus pauperum
infirmorum vel adiutorium salutis ('Health of the sick poor or aid to health'). It begins with a liturgical
prayer invoking God who has given medicine for men's help, and proceeds with recipes
for ailments of the body from the
head downwards. It ends with remedies for wounds of the limbs. On f. 97r there is a
charm for spasm requiring names to be written on parchment and hung about the neck.
The same charm is found in Arderne
and the Salus pauperum has many remedies that might easily have come from his writings.
Following the Salus pauperum are miscellaneous remedies including several for pestilence. On f.
99r-99v, there is a brief text by Walter Agilon, De
pulsibus ('On pulses'), copied by the same scribe as before, who ends his text with 'Explicit
de pulsibus
quod Grene 1451'. In or about 1451 is therefore likely to be the date for the entire
manuscript up to this point, and
Grene seems to have been the main scribe. At the end of the manuscript is an incomplete
and disordered index to the
remedies in the text in a 17th-century hand.
On the flyleaves preceding the Arderne writings are various recipes, notes and diagrams,
which were added
to the manuscript by owners later in the 15th or early 16th centuries. Some are in
English. On f. [ii recto], there are instructions for masses and almsgiving during a
week for a soul in Purgatory by pseudo-Bernard of Clairvaux, followed by a later charm
for cramp. On fol. [iii verso] there is a branching diagram in Latin differentiating
kinds of disease, beginning with those affecting the whole body and ending with those
affecting distinct parts of the
body.
Peter Murray Jones|Fellow of King's College, Cambridge|
References
P.M. Jones, 'John of Arderne and the Mediterranean tradition of scholastic surgery',
in Practical medicine from Salerno to the Black Death, ed. by L. Garcia-Ballester, R. French, J.
Arrizabalaga and A. Cunningham (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), pp.
289-321
D'A. Power, Treatises of fistula in ono, haemorrhoids and clysters by John Arderne,
Early English Text Society, o.s. 139 (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, 1910)
Language(s): Latin with Middle English
1. [i] recto
Account notes
Language(s): English
Incipit:
[i] recto Item I payede for ij wel[.]es at þe furst
Explicit:
[i] recto bade for to by a linen clothe for [...] shyves and ijd
for wyn and jd for [...]
Added in the late 15th or early 16th century.
2. [i] verso
Collection of medical recipes
Language(s): Middle English
The second recipe is for treating St Anthony's Fire (‘antonys fyer’), also known as
ergotism.
Added in the late 15th or early 16th century.
eVK 5480.00
3. [ii] recto
Instructions for masses and almsgiving during a week for a soul in Purgatory
Pseudo-Bernard of Clairvaux
Language(s): Middle English
Incipit:
[ii] recto Seynt Bernard seyþe who so woll do in þ[is] [faded] a
soule passid ought of þis worlde yf he be in purgetor[y] he schall sone be delyueryd
Explicit:
[ii] recto Summa masses .vij. Summa of candill[es] .xlj. Summa
of porefolke .xlj. Summa of pens iiij s etcaetera
Added in the 15th century.
4. [ii] recto
Charm against cramp
Language(s): Latin charm with Middle English heading
Rubric:
[ii] recto for þe crampe
Incipit:
[ii] recto Anabal + abacule + cuth + tebuth _ Anahe + In nomine
patris + et filij + spirituas + sancti Amen
Full transcription; added in the 15th century.
5. [ii] recto-[iii] recto
Collection of medical recipes
Language(s): Middle English
The first recipe for treating gout requires the ingredients red nettles, brimstone
and turpentine to be placed in
the belly of a dehaired and disembowelled puppy (‘a younge whellpe’), which is then
roasted. The renderings from
this are collected and the grease applied to the affected area. Other remedies are
for colic, swelling of the 'coddes'
and the stone.
Added in the early 16th century.
6. [iii] recto
Memorandum
Language(s): Middle English
Incipit:
[iii] recto Ro[bert] John Rychardes dwellyng yn [...]
[?M]artyn [...].
Full transcription attempted; added by the same hand that added the account notes
to f. [iii] recto.
Added in the early 16th century.
7. [iii] verso
Medical diagrams
Language(s): Latin
Copied in the 15th century. The branching diagrams begins with the titles: ‘Ad omnes
partes corporis’, ‘de
(?)feda ciones(?) per humores adustos’, ‘Ad quisdam partes corporis’.
8. 1r-82v
Liber receptorum medicinalium
John Arderne
Language(s): Latin
Incipit:
1r Ad Cancrum in virga virili siue in alio loco
Explicit:
82v et cessabunt menstrua
A large collection of medical recipes and charms.
Remedy for scabies and itching on f. 39v, full transcription: | Nota quod
Bernardus de Gordon quod scabies in decrepitis difficilis aut impossibilis est curacionis
blandiri tamen potest boni
regiminis beneficio vigilate ergo etc. Sal commune etiam confert scabiei et similibi
quia resoluat et exsiccat cum
abstrosione secundum Iohannem de Sancto Amando. Nota quod urina hominis acerbia confert
pruritui quoniam abstergit.
|Full translation:| Note that Bernard de Gordon says scabies in old people is difficult
or impossible to cure,
yet it can be palliated through a good regimen, so provide for this, etc. Common salt
also heals scabies and similar
because it loosens and dries it out with rubbing, according to Johannes de Sancto
Amando. Note that the sour urine of
a man heals the itching because it washes it [the scabies] off.
Remedy for abscess in the anus on f. 41r: |Accipe ergo oleum rosaceum et cum
vitello unius oui crudi commisce equa porcione. Postea illud in una parte vesica pone
tunc accipe unum instrumentum
ligneum concauum per medium quod dicitur 'nastares ligneum', cuius forma depingitur
vbi instrumenta depinguntur, et in
vesica ponatur et cum filo forti circumligetur. Quo facto anterior pars nastaris cum
oleo rosaceo bene inuncta
suauiter in ano inpollatur et quod est in vesica cum digitis in anum inprimatur hoc
ii arsuram puncturam pruritum et
dolorem bene mitigat et mollificat et membrum confortat in vtraque causa scilicet
calidus et frigidus. |Full
translation: | Therefore take oil of roses and mix in equal quantities with a single
yolk of a raw egg.
Afterwards, put that in part of a bladder, then take a hollow wooden instrument that
is called ‘nastare ligneum’
[literally, wooden suppository], whose form is shown where the instruments are illustrated,
and it should be placed in
the bladder and bound together with it with a strong thread. When done, the front
part of the ‘nastare’ thoroughly
anointed with oil of roses, it should be gently inserted into the anus, and what is
in the bladder should be pressed
into the anus with the fingers. This effectively mitigates and mollifies any burning,
stinging, itching and pain and
comforts the stomach if the cause [i.e. the illness that has resulted in this] is
either hot or cold.
eTK 0030M
9. 65v
Medical recipes for haemorrhoids
Language(s): Latin and Middle English
Rubric:
65v For the Emorodes
Added to the lower margin by a 15th-century hand. The first recipe has a Middle English
rubric, but a Latin text;
the second is all in Middle English.
10. 66r
Medical recipe for 'a frensy and madmen'
Language(s): Middle English
Rubric:
66r For a frensy and madmen to hele hem anone
Added to the lower margin by a 15th-century hand.
11. 82v-83r
Medical treatment called 'the great salve' (I)
Language(s): Middle English
Rubric:
82v Thise beth the herbes þat schal be gaderid for þe grete saue at þe
begynnyng
Incipit:
82v Auance egremoyne herbe jon pigle bugle bugle sanatife herb robert herbes
watter wilde fiches sanicle þe grete dayse þe lyttal daysye pinprunelle medwort betoyne
þe whyȝtte croise þe yolou
croise archangel pollipodyy
Explicit:
83r first at morne fastynge and at eue last and lay on þe sore a brode brere
lef when þe wound is opun and þat is medicine prouyde
Final rubric:
83r explict þe grete saue
eVK 1214.00
Mooney (1995), pp. 103-104 [other copies]
12. 83r-83v
Medical treatment called 'the great salve' (II)
Language(s): Middle English
Rubric:
83r Ad idem
Incipit:
83r Tak betoyne bugle sanicle pimpernelle millefoyle streberwise orpin sauge
moushere ambrose tansey sothernwode herbe robert herb wauter egrimoyne plantayne solsicle
auence madur consoude confir
osmunde crop of þe red netul red cole red brere and of þe hemp ana
Explicit:
83v lay a red wort lef on the wounde and vse þis medycyne first at morne and
last at euen and beware lest he take to mekyl at onus let hit hele to swithe
eVK 5135.00
13. 83v
Verses on herbal medicine against the plague from the Regimen sanitatis
salernitanum
Language(s): Latin
Incipit:
83v Hec olus vrtica tribulus tenasia canabis que / has herbas circa baptiste
collige festum
Explicit:
83v hiis quoque temporibus oleris folio tege plagas / Nil appone maius
habitis in corpore plagis
14. 83v-84r
Collection of medical recipes
Language(s): Latin with some Middle English
Mooney (1995), p. 160 [other copies]
15. 84r
Recipe for making a medicinal water called Aqua Vitae
Language(s): Middle English recipe with a Latin title
Rubric:
84r Ad faciendum aqua vite
Incipit:
84r Tak þe rote of saxifrage and persil alisaundur fenel tyme ysope piliole
rale rosemarine lauandur primerose mynte origanum sauge calamynt auance betoyne and
saueyne ana
Explicit:
84r and let hem stande all a nyht and stepe and on þe morne distille in a
serpentyne or in a lymbike
eVK 6242.00
Mooney (1995), p. 104 [other copies]
16. 84r-84v
Tract on the virtues of Aqua Vitae
Language(s): Middle English text with a Latin title
Rubric:
84r Virtutes aquae vitae
Incipit:
84v Þis water is goude and has many fayre virtues it helpus a bodi fro all
colde maladies and whoso can vse hit kyndly it is a confortatiffe agayne all maner
of malady
Explicit:
84v and it be pourd in to þe heres leu it amendis stynkynge breþe and helus
of þe fallynge euel it helpus a man of þe palesye
eVK 6242.00
Mooney (1995), p. 104 [other copies]
17. 84v-85v
Collection of medical recipes
Language(s): Latin and Middle English
The collection contains a Middle English recipes for making ‘clarre orpyment’ and
‘bragot delicius and
medicinabull’.
eVK 64798.00
18. 85v-86r
Medical recipe for Aqua Vitae
Language(s): Latin
Incipit:
85v Aqua vite perfecta valet contra omnes infirmatiates cordis stomachi et
capitis pulmonis latere et vesice valet contra paralisium et contra omnem frigidam
materiam inter corpus
Explicit:
85r et sic vices itera et in dubie sanabitur
The text is accompanied by two drawings of interconnected vessels illustrating chemical
processes in the outer and
lower margins of f. 85v.
19. 86r-88v
Collection of medical recipes
Language(s): Latin with some Middle English
The collection includes a recipe for treating 'madness' or 'Insania' (‘ffor madnys
a remedy y proued’) on f.
87v. It also includes recipes for making red or green wax and ‘musk’ for
medicinal purposes on f. 88r.
eVK 3441.00
20. 89r-98v
Salus pauperum infirmorum (with medical recipes)
Language(s): Latin
Rubric:
89r Salus pauperum infirmorum vel adiutorium salutis
Incipit:
89r Ad honorem dei et domini ihesu Christi et sue matris marie virginis
dulcissime et [omnium] sanctorum et ad salutem pauperum infirmorum medicis cirurgie
et quasdam phisice a multis
doctoribus approbatur et a me licet indignum multociens die autoritate expertas vicissim
collegi et hic breuiter
secundum scienciam a domino medicum mihi datum compilaui
Explicit:
98v fumi terre vel absinthij
One recipe (f. 98v) explicitly refers to the treatise's title: ‘Medicinam pro
pauperibus sumatur omni ebdomada semel vel bis in quantitate nucis parue cum vino
albo at aqua rosarum vel
plantaginis’.
21. 99r-99v
Liber de pulsibus
Walter Agilon
Language(s): Latin
Rubric:
99r De pulsibus
Incipit:
99r Cum decem sunt genera pulsuum
Explicit:
99v at suffucacionem inspiracionis et respiracionis
Final rubric:
99v Explicit de pulsibus quod Grene 1451
22. 2:99v
Poem on weights and measures (6 lines)
Language(s): Latin
Incipit:
99v Collige triticeis medicinam pondere granis
Explicit:
99v vncia pars librae duodena dicitur esse
23. 99v
Note on the importance of pulses for uroscopy
Language(s): Latin
Incipit:
99v visa urina oportet quod pulsus tangatur quod urine iudicium per pulse
certificatur
Explicit:
99v si pulsus et vrina consenserint tunc est iudicium certum et aliter
non
24. 99v
Medical recipe
Language(s): Latin
Rubric:
99v Restaurativum optimum
Perhaps imperfect at the end.
25. 100r-105v
Alphabetical index
Language(s): Latin
An alphabetical index (A-V) of the medical recipes in the manuscript, added by a 17th-century
hand. The leaves are
now out of order, beginning D-E, E-F, A-B, C-C, G-H, etc.
Secundo Folio:
2r: Seynt Bernard
Secundo Folio:
4r: distemperentur
Form: codex
Support:
Three parchment flyleaves, followed by a manuscript consisting of paper
(ff. 1-99 is medieval and ff. 100-105 is early modern paper), folded in quarto.
Folios 1-105: various watermarks but none identified.
Extent:
Codex:
ii + 3 +
99 + 6 + ii leaves.
205-210 × 145 mm.
Foliation:
19th- or 20th-century foliation:
[a]-[b] + [i]-[iii] + 1-99 + 100-105 + [c]-[d]
Numbering in pencil at the centre (written next to the corresponding 16th-century
foliation) of the upper
margin of the recto of each leaf.
The unfoliated early modern flyleaves at the beginning and end have been allocated
alphabetical letters
between square brackets for reference purposes in this electronic catalogue record.
Foliation:
15th-century foliation:
'1'-'98' for ff. 1-98.
Written in dark brown ink at the centre of the upper margin of the recto of each leaf.
Collation
- Quire 1-118 (ff. 1-88)
- Quire 1212-1 (ff. 89-99: ?12th leaf
missing)
- Quire 136 (ff. 100-105)
1-118 1212-1 (?12th missing) 136
Catchwords in dark ink written in the lower inner corners of the last versos of
quires.
Condition
Many of the leaves at the beginning and end of the original manuscript (ff. 1-99)
have been damaged and
repaired with modern blank paper.
Layout
175 × 100 mm.
Ruled in hardpoint, frame only. Mainly single columns (except ff. 99r-105v which have two columns). 33-40 lines to the page, written above top line.
Hand(s)
ff. 1r-99v have been copied by one or two hands writing a cursive script with both
anglicana and secretary features.
The notes and medical texts added to the manuscript's original flyleaves (ff. [i]
recto-[iii] recto) have been
copied by a variety of 15th- and 16th-century hands in various cursive scripts with
anglicana and secretary features.
The text with an instruction for masses for souls in Purgatory on f. [ii]
recto is written by a cursive hand with mostly secretary features.
The diagrammatic text on f. [ii] verso is written by a hand
writing in a textualis script.
The notes and medical texts added to the manuscript's original flyleaves (ff. [i]
recto-[iii] recto) have been
copied by a variety of 15th- and 16th-century hands in various cursive scripts with
anglicana and secretary features.
ff. 99r-105v have been copied by a single hand in a humanistic cursive script.
Decoration
Marginal, intra-textual and half-page drawings (ff. 40r-40v) of medical patients,
ingredients, instruments in brown
ink, but sometimes with wounds and blood highlighted in red ink.
A square diagram divided into four smaller squares in which the names of the winds
are written and which are
organised on the outside according to the four elements and cardinal directions, drawn
in brown ink (f. 1r).
A simplified outline drawing of the Zodiac Man diagram, accompanied by labels (f.
44r).
A circular diagram divided into eight compartments by diametrical double lines with
the names of astronomical
events written inside them, drawn in brown ink. On the outside, it shows how the four
humours govern each other
during the year (f. 66r).
Underlining in brown ink.
Additions
A (?)17th-century hand has added the title ‘Tractatus Chyrurgicus a.d. 1451’ to the
manuscript on f. [i] recto.
Binding
Modern 20th-century half brown leather binding with marbled paper sides; 5 raised
bands on the spine.
Binding height: 220mm; width: 155mm; depth: 30mm.
Origin:
In or around 1451.
;
England.
For date of production, see Robinson, Catalogue of dated and datable manuscripts in Cambridge
libraries (1988), no. 370.
Provenance and Acquisition
Thomas Gale (1635/6-1702)
, dean of York, antiquary and fellow of
Trinity College Cambridge.
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 manuscript's old number and current classmarks inscribed
on f. [i] recto: ‘E.19.’, ‘No 206’ and ‘O.2.49’. The
alpha-numerical elements of its current classmark are printed on three three labels
pasted onto the spine (‘O.2.49’), and those of its current and previous classmarks are inscribed in the
manuscript: f. [i] recto (‘E.19’ [crossed out] and ‘O.2.49’ in
dark ink). Its printed ex libris featuring its armorial coat of arms and name (‘Collegium
S.S. et Individuae Trinitatis
in Academia Cantabrigiensis’) pasted on f. [ii] verso. The
college's library stamp can be found on ff. [i] recto, [iii] recto, and 105v.
