Cambridge, Trinity College, MS O.7.23
Recipes for medicines, pigments, inks, and astrological tracts
Contents
Language(s): Middle English and Latin
The rubric is partly missing due to damage to the page.
The treatise includes sections on cypher, invisible writing, and making illuminated letters.
Full transcription: the English text is written in Greek script; added to the margins by a later (16th-century) hand.
The treatise includes a section on verbal tricks which is accompanied by the drawing of a cross, illustrating a particular example.
The collection includes a variety of experiments, e.g. how to make a white rose red (and vice versa), how to make a silver coin appear like copper, to make ravens flee, to make fire with a mirror, to make a candle burn on water, and to remove the seal of a sealed letter.
The prologue introduces four sections on (1) herbs (2) stones (3) fish and (4) land animals, but the text ends abruptly in the second section, in discussing the Swallow Stone.
This treatise is similar to a section from the ‘De notitia kalendarum mensium’ in the Liber Particularis of Michael Scot.
The list includes an entry referring to the parson of Dover.
For other copies, see Mooney (1995), p. 128.
Contains a tract on the virtues of betony (ff. 64v-65v); for other copies, see Mooney (1995), p. 161.
Despite the inclusion of plant names in English, this text is not included in Mooney (1995).
Full decryption of the first line that has been encrypted in three different ways, using numbers and dots for vowels, and Greek letters; a fourth encrypted line using (?) mensural notation has not yet been decrypted.
This page is a palimpsest with the erased undertext still partially visible. It consists of a list of words but has not yet been identified; not read with the help of UV light.
The text ends abruptly in the 20th day of the lunar month because the next leaf has been cut out.
Full transcription.
The collection is described as dedicated to metallic inks in Mooney (1995), p. 161. It indeed opens with such recipes, including one for writing with gold or silver that is said to have been proved by a certain 'faskin' (‘probat est per faskin’). However, the collection actually covers a much wider range, including recipes to make spirit ('aqua ardens'), red wax, and gunpowder; to capture fish with your hands; to make someone fall asleep; to cure the 'stone'; to make yourself invisible by placing the heart of a toad on your foot; to prevent dogs from barking at you; and to stop someone from talking in their sleep. The collection also features a charm for finding stolen goods (‘Pro furto inueniendo’) on f. 77v. The latter requires the victim to place a piece of virgin wax inscribed with the names of the Three Magi, Dismas and Gestas, under their head when they go to sleep. After nine nights they will see the location of their goods in a dream.
Added in a 17th-century hand.
This text is continued on ff. 80r-80v.
This is a continuation of the text on f. 79r.
The recipes are for treating bleedings in the head, clearing sight, and healing cramp and gout. The latter recipe involves a charm that instructs one to make a ring, write the name of St Bernard (presumably on the ring), and daily worship the saint.
Copied by the same hand that copied the recipes on f. 47v.
The recipes refer to Alsace, Rhenish, and mountain (‘bergh wyn’) wine.
Below the recipe is the name of ‘H Hodykyns’; added in the 16th century.
The text consists of three lines, referring to ‘Adreas flagellator’.
Physical Description
19th or 20th-century foliation:
[i]-[ii] + 1-14, 14a, 15, 17-83 + [iii]
Numbering in pencil in the upper right-hand corner of the rectos. '16' omitted by mistake.Collation
M.R. James (1902) suggests that Quire 9 is a sexternion (adding a question mark) but the fact that the thread tackets are visible between f. 81 and a subsequent unfoliated paper stub suggests a larger quire: originally there were at least 7 leaves after f. 81, but 4 leaves have been torn out and remain as unfoliated stubs today.
- Quire 18 (ff. 1-8)
- Quire 212 (ff. 9-20)
- Quire 38 (ff. 21-28)
- Quire 410 (ff. 29-38)
- Quire 512-3 (ff. 39-47: 10th-12th leaves missing)
- Quire 68 (ff. 48-55)
- Quire 712 (ff. 56-67)
- Quire 86-3 (ff. 68-70: 3rd 5th and 6th leaves missing)
- Quire 9thirteen (ff. 71-83: one leaf missing after f. 80, three leaves missing after f. 82)
18 212 38 410 512-3 (10th-12th missing) 68 712 86-3 (3rd, 5th, 6th missing) 9thirteen (four leaves missing)
Layout
95-100 × 70 mm. Ruled in ink, frame only (most pages have vertical lines only but some also have horizontal lines). Single columns. 19-23 lines to the page, written below top line.
Hand(s)
Folios 1r-43v, 48r-67v, 68v-77v, 79r, 80r-80v, have been copied by one or two very similar cursive hand with both secretary and anglicana features.
Folios 44v-46v have been copied by the same cursive hand with both secretary and anglicana features.
The medical recipes on f. 47v, and 81v have been added by the same cursive hand with anglicana features.
The memorandum on f. 47r-47v; medical recipes on ff. 79v, 81v, and 83r; wine recipes on ff. 82r-82v; and proverbs on 83v have been added by different cursive hands with both secretary and anglicana features.
The recipes on f. 78r have been added by a 17th-century Italic hand.
Decoration
Marginal drawings in brown ink, illustrating experiments and arguments: a mirror with a sword (f. 14a verso) a tun (f. 15v) and a cross (f. 21v).
One large (3-line) plain red initial on (f. 1r).
One rubricated sub-heading on on (f. 1r).
Paraphs in red ink on on (f. 1r) only.
Plain initials highlighted in red ink on on (f. 1r) only.
Additions
Quire signatures ('1-9') 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
18th- or 19th-century half vellum binding with purple paper sides.
Binding height: 160 mm; width: 110mm; depth: 25mm
History
Provenance and Acquisition
One of the manuscripts of John Dee (1527–1608) , mathematician, astrologer, and antiquary: identified with an item (MS 34) in the 1583 catalogue of Dee's library (see M.R. James, Catalogue, III (1902), p. 361; Roberts and Watson, John Dee's Library Catalogue (1990), p. 115]. M.R. James also suggests that the English recipe encrypted with Greek letters in the margins of f. 10r was written by Dee (see James, III, p. 362).
One of the manuscripts of George Carew (1555-1629) , Baron Carew of Clopton and Earl of Totnes: his signature (‘G: Carew’) inscribed in dark ink in the lower margin of f. 1r. Carew is principally known for the collection of books on Irish history that he amassed as an administrator in Ireland between 1574 and 1592. He bequeathed this collection to Sir Thomas Stafford (d. 1655), from whom they passed to William Laud (1573–1645), Archbishop of Canterbury. The latter placed forty-two volumes at Lambeth Library while four reached the Bodleian Library as part of the Laudian collection [see M.R. James, 'The Carew Manuscripts', The English Historical Review, 42:166 (1927), 261-267; James H. Todd, 'Account of an Ancient Irish Manuscript, in the Bodleian Library, Oxford', Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, 2 (1936-1869), 336-346; and Ute Lotz-Heumann, 'Carew, George, earl of Totnes (1555–1629)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004)[accessed 23 February 2024]]. About Carew's possession of medieval manuscripts from England much less is known, but these appear to have travelled different routes after they left his collection. His signature (‘G: Carew’) can be found in at least six such medieval manuscripts (besides the present volume):
- Cambridge, Trinity College, MS O.1.57 (f. 1:3v) [previously unidentified as a Carew manuscript] (James, III, pp. 54-58)
- Cambridge, Trinity College, MS O.2.21 (f. 1v) (James, III, p. 115)
- Edinburgh, University Library, MS 107 (f. 1r) (identified in the online record: 'MS 107: Composite manuscript including twenty-four texts, 13th-14th century')
- London, British Library, Harley MS 204 (f. 1r)
- London, British library, Harley MS 223 (f. 7r)
- London, British Library, Harley MS 234 (f. 1r) (see Andrew G. Watson, The Library of Sir Simonds D'Ewes (London: British Museum, 1966), pp. 210-211 (no. 926); Cyril Ernest Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts Preserved in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), p. 96)
It is possible that Carew received all these manuscripts from John Dee. Five of the seven aforementioned manuscripts have ownership marks associated with John Dee: while Harley MSS 204, 223, 234, and Trinity College MS O.2.21 all contain his Jupiter-marks, Trinity College MS O.7.23 – which may have featured the Jupiter-mark in the torn off upper margin of f. 1r – has been identified with an item ('M35') in the 1583 catalogue of Dee's library (see Roberts and Watson, John Dee's Library Catalogue (1990), p. 115)].
One of the manuscripts of Thomas Gale (1635/6-1702) , dean of York, antiquary and fellow of Trinity College Cambridge. The manuscript is listed 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 Thomas Gale , son of Roger Gale (1672-1744), in 1738. The alpha-numerical elements of its current classmark ‘O.7.23’ are printed separately on three labels pasted on the spine; its current classmark can also be found written on the inside of the front cover (‘O.7.23’), together with the College's printed ex libris featuring its armorial coat of arms, motto (‘Virtus Vera Nobilitas’ and name (‘Coll: Trin: Cant:’) engraved by William Stephens, fl. c. 1740-c. 1760 (‘W. Stephens sculp.’); its previous classmarks written on f. 1r: ‘I.2.’ and ‘346’.
Additional Information
Record Sources
Availability
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Bibliography
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The western manuscripts in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge: a descriptive
catalogue, James, M.R. (Cambridge, 3, Cambridge University Press, 1902)
Manuscripts Associated with Kirby Bellars Priory Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical
Society Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society, Britton, Derek (6, 2, 267-284, 1976)
John Dee's Library Catalogue, Roberts, Julian R.Watson, Andrew G. (London, Bibliographical Society, 1990)
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Book of Daniel and the Apocryphal Daniel Literature Studia in Veteris Testamenti Pseudepigrapha, DiTommaso, Lorenzo (Leiden, Brill, 2005)
Le «Liber de virtutibus herbarum, lapidum et animalium (Liber aggregationis)». Un
texte à succès
attribué à Albert le Grand Micrologus Library, Draelants, Isabelle (Florence, SISMEL. Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2007)
The Cultural Uses of Magic in Fifteenth-century England, Mitchell, Laura (Toronto, 2011)
<hi rend="italics">The crafte of lymmyng</hi> and <hi rend="italics">The maner
of steynyng</hi>: Middle English recipes for painters, stainers, scribes and illuminators
Early English Text Society (Series). Original series, (Oxford, Published for the Early English Text Society by the Oxford University
Press, 2016)
'How to make a ring jump in the manner of a locust': recipes to animate small objects
in late
medieval European manuscripts Historical Research, Da Silva Baptista, Vanessa da (20, 1-15, 2023)
Playing with the Mind: Magic Tricks in Late Medieval Europe Open Library of Humanities, Da Silva Baptista, Vanessa (9, 2, 1-22, 2023)
Plants and Planets: Linking the Vegetable with the Celestial in Late Medieval Texts
Health and Healing from the Medieval Garden, Voigts, Linda Ehrsam (Woodbridge, 29-46, Boydell and Brewer, 2023)
Handlist of Dream Divination and Lunar Prognostication in Western Manuscripts and
Early Printed
Books (updated 1 June 2023), Chardonnens, László Sándor (2023)
Funding of Cataloguing
Wellcome (cataloguing). All images provided by Trinity College, Cambridge.
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