The text on f. i recto is much faded an only partly legible.

The text on f. i recto is much faded an only partly legible.

While the text of this section of the Sententiarum Libri IV ends on f. 2v, the 'marginal' gloss continues as regular text on ff. 3r-3v. The gloss has not been identified.

Written upside-down on the page.

Added to the upper and outer margins of f. 3v by a later (?) 14th-century hand.

Added by a (?) 15th-century hand.

Added to the upper margin by a (?) 16th-century hand.

The treatise discusses Scientia practica and Scientia speculativa.

A later (?) 17th-century hand has added the title: ‘philosophia’ to the upper margin of f. 4r.

Another (?) 15th-century hand has added the word ‘Amen’ to the rubric.

Full transcription.

A (?) 16th-century hand has added titles for recipes in the margins of ff. 14v-15v.

Both this text and the next item have been tentatively identified as copies of the Commentarium super Tabulas Salerni. Comparison of this text with the edition of the Commentarium super Tabulas Salerni by Salvatore de Renzi, Collectio salernitana: ossia documenti inedit e trattati di medicina appartenenti scuola medica salernitana, V, pp. 269-328 leaves great doubt about whether this is a copy of that work.

The final rubric appears to be a later addition. Both this text and the previous item have been tentatively identified as copies of the Commentarium super Tabulas Salerni. Comparison of this text with the edition of the Commentarium super Tabulas Salerni by Salvatore de Renzi, Collectio salernitana: ossia documenti inedit e trattati di medicina appartenenti scuola medica salernitana, V, pp. 269-328 leaves great doubt about whether this is a copy of that work.

The treatise discusses different types of urine and ends with a section on women's urine (‘De vrinis mulieris’).

Added by a 15th-century hand.

The verses contain five sections with the headings: ‘dia Cameron’, ‘dia penidion’ ,‘dia benedicta’, ‘dia Cimini’, ‘dia galanga in plate’. The verses largely match with those of the following sections of the Regimen sanitas salernitanum: ‘De diacameron’, ‘De diapenideon’, ‘De benedicta’, ‘De diacimino’, and ‘De athanasia’ (for comparision, see Virginia De Frutos González, 'Critical edition of the medieval medical latin poem Regimen sanitatis salernitanum (manuscripts Add. 12190 and Sloane 351, British Library, London)', Minerva, 23 (2010), pp. 143-195 pp. 174-175).

Full transcription; the first line(s) are missing due to cropping of the page. The verses largely match with the following sections of the Regimen sanitas salernitanum: ‘De medicinis valentibus principalibus membris’, and ‘Contra obscuritatem oculorum’ (for comparison, see Virginia De Frutos González, 'Critical edition of the medieval medical latin poem Regimen sanitatis salernitanum (manuscripts Add. 12190 and Sloane 351, British Library, London)', Minerva, 23 (2010), p. 186).

The treatise is accompanied by a drawing of a urine flask (jordan) in brown ink in which the four regions of urine are indicated (see f. 36r (outer margin)).

Added by a 15th-century hand; the same exhortation can be found in the upper margin of f. 62r; the words ‘ihesu mercy’ can also be found in the upper margins of ff. 50v, 51v; ‘ihesu maria’ in the upper margin of f. 53r

The recipes have been added by two or three 15th-century hands. The second one ‘ffor the parallasy’ is attributed to Gilbert Kymer (d. 1463), physician in the household of Humphrey of Lancaster, 1st Duke of Gloucester: ‘medicina domini Gilberti Kymer quam dedit illustri principi duci gloucester’.

The treatise features sections beginning: ‘Iste est modus iudicandi vrinas’ and ‘In vrina mulierum spermaticum contentum admixtum rubedini’.

The treatise is followed by uroscopic diagrams on ‘Circulus’ and ‘Spuma’.

The work is accompanied by a circular diagram in brown ink (see f. 72v (lower half)).

A 17th-century hand has added the title ‘Gerard Cremon’ to the upper margin of the page.

The diagram consists of six concentric circles that have been divided into 12 sections. At the centre of the diagram are the words: ‘mundus / tempus / homo / Elementum’.

The final rubric attributes the treatise to Richardus Anglicus (fl. c. 1180). The latter was considered to be the most learned and experienced physician in England by Gilbertus Anglicus (d. c. 1250), who must be the 'Magister Gilbert' to whom the rubric refers. This probably is a copy of the Signa by Richardus Anglicus (for this work, see H. H. Beusing, 'Leben und Werke des Richardus Anglicus, samt einem erstmaligen Abdruck seiner Schrift Signa' (unpublished doctoral dissertation, Universität Leipzig, ?1922).

Below the treatise is a note about the differences between the urine of humans and animals; and a verse from the Regiminen sanitatis Salernitatum: ‘De prope spissa magis hominis minctura uidetur / Non liquor est alius cui talis regula detur’.

A 15th-century hand has added the title: ‘ Contra distemperanciam omnium membrorum in primo ?compendio’ to the upper margin of f. 77r.

The first section after the introduction begins: ‘Hee sunt herbe contra discrasiam capitis’. Other copies of this treatise seem to occur in Continental manuscripts: Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS Lat. 6891 , ff. 80v-82r (‘Tractatus medicinarum omnium membrorum distemperatorum’); Vatican City, Vatican Library, Pal. Lat. MS 1183 , ff. g recto-k recto (untitled, begins: ‘Herbe contra discrasiam frigidam capitis’) [partly corresponds with the treatise in Cambridge, Trinity College, MS O.8.2]; and Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Cod. 2531 , ff. 77r-79r (‘Tractatus brevis et utiliis medicinarum omnium membrorum, tam in calliditate, quam in frigiditate’).

The collection begins imperfectly due to the loss of preceding folios. Aside from medical recipes, it also contains a section of chemical recipes for making pigments on ff. 86v-87r: scarlet (‘Si vis facere vermiculum’), white lead (‘Si vis facere cerusam plumbi’), and red lead (‘Si uis facere plumbum rubeum’). F. 87r contains a Middle English recipe for making gingerbread: ‘ffor to make gingerbred’; a method for writing on iron: ‘Scribere in ferro’; and an explanation of apothecary weights and symbols, beginning: ‘Nota quod libra medicinalis diuiditur in .12. uncias’.

A number of recipes are attributed to medical practitioners: One recipe on f. 88r is attributed to a Peter, chancellor of Montpellier (‘Item secundum magistrum petrum cancellarium in monte pess[ulane]’). One recipe is said to be taken from the "Book [of] Wynteby" (‘In libro Wynteby’) on f. 89r. One recipe is attributed to Platearius on f. 89r. Two recipes on f. 89v are said to have been proved by (‘probatur secundum eundem William barbitousorem parisiensis’).

Richard Tenet has added various recipes to the margins of the collection. One recipe in the outer margin of f. 83v is said to have been proved by ‘Platearius’. Among the added recipes are a few charms. One is a charm against poison in humans or animals on f. 83r (lower margin)): ‘Experimentum probatum contra omnem venenum . Scribe hec tria nomina in pane cum stilo . max . nax . pax. et da .3. diebus. primo die primum . postea aliud . 3^o 3^m. Si sit homo da in nomine patris et filii et spiritus sancti amen . Si sit aliquod animal . da in nomine salvatoris sui’ [see Jones (2024), p. 68, fn. 103 for an English translation and transcription]. Another on f. 83v (upper margin) gives a method of gaining protection against toothache (an example of folk magic / ritual medicine) associated with a certain John Lynnyngton, who learned it from an old woman: ‘Who so parith þe naylis of all his toys . and all his feyngrys sayungge at euery nayle paryn[g] a pater noster and an aue and att euery fyfte pater . aue. and credo and close þe parynges in a fyre lynne cloth and make an hole in an elder tre and put all hem to þer inne he schall neuer haue þe toþe ache after . John Lynnyngton of an olde woman leryd þis medicyn for trewthe’ (full transcription). This may be the John Lynnyngton/Lymyngton/Lymyton recorded as a Carmelite friar (fl. 1432-1452), who may have known Tenet at Oxford (see Richard Copsey, Biographical Register of Carmelites in England and Wales, 1240-1540 (Faversham: Saint Albert's Press, 2020)).

A third charm to staunch blood is on f. 86r: ‘Ad stringendum sanguinem in omni parte corporis mira medicina mille^es [sic: probably ‘millefoiles’ since milfoil or yarrow has long been used to stop nosebleeds] et experta a quod cirurgico in vasconia: Accede ad locum vbi crescit sanguis et flexis genibus dic pater noster et aue . et hic uersus . Te ergo quaesumus tuis fa[mulis] subueni quos precioso sanguine redemisti . tunc accipitur herba et ponitur in panno lineo ut fine panno fricetur ne patiens sciat qualis herba sit . et apponatur loco cruentanti . et si plures colliges pro qualibet et pater et aue et uer[sus] dicas’. Among the additions, as Jones (2024) points out is also a magical method for finding the body of a drowned person by anointing a stick with the blood of their nearest relative and using it as a divining rod (see f. 85r).

Remedy for infertility on f. 87v (full transcription):| Medicina uera et sepius approbata, ut mulier concipiat quamcumque sterilis fuerit. Recipe testiculos trium uel quartum mustelarum et semiplenum manum de mowsere iuniore et combure in olla rudi omnia pariter. Postea pulueriza et pasta cum succo herbe predicte, et fac inde pillas mollis ad modum nuclei auellane, et, per locum secretum tam profunde imponatur quae matricem attingat, et iaceat ibi per tres dies, in quibus omnio abstineat a coitu, post hos autem cum viro coiat et sine mora concipiat. |Full translation:| A true medicine, and often proven, so that a woman may conceive however sterile she may be. Take three or four weasel testicles and half a handful of young mouse-ear [a plant] and burn it all equally in an earthenware pot. Afterwards, grind and combine with the juice of the aforementioned herb, and thus make soft pills in the manner of a hazelnut kernel, and place them so deeply in the private parts that they touch the uterus, and leave there for three days, during which she should abstain entirely from sex. After these three days, however, she should have intercourse with a man and she should conceive without delay.