Medieval Manuscripts in Cambridge Libraries: Cambridge, Trinity College, MS O.8.27

Medical Texts

Introduction: Cambridge, Trinity College MS O.8.27 (hereafter MS O.8.27) is a composite manuscript, with the major parts originating from Lucca in Italy in the late 14th century, and from France in the late 13th century. All of the Parts were together in England by the 15th century, when a list of the contents of the volume was added to f. [i] verso by an English hand. The contents of the manuscript primarily consist of medicinal recipes in Latin, but the final part includes an instructive medicinal poem in Anglo-Norman (the Physique rimee on ff. 3:1r-3:3r) and some medical recipes in medieval French. The multi-lingual context of medieval medicine in north-western Europe is further emphasised by the plant-name glosses added by two medieval scribes in Middle English to the margins of Platearius's De simplicibus medicinis ('Circa instans') on ff. 2:34r-2:107r. While the order of texts in the table of contents corresponds to the order in which they appear in the manuscript, it appears that at least one and possibly two of those listed may have been removed from the manuscript after the list was written, apparently before the end of the 16th century, when a second table of contents was added below. The texts listed in the first table of contents are as follows, with current folio references given where possible:

Primus liber seruitor serapionis (ff. 1:1r-1:50r)
Secundus liber Sinonoma latine Gallice et anglice
Tercius liber Tabule magistri Salerni (ff. 2:1r-2:34r)
Quartus liber platearium de simplicibus medicinis id est Circa instans (ff. 2:34r-2:107r)
Quintus liber
Sextus liber Tractatus de secretis secretorum aristotelis (ff. 3:3v-3:5r)
Septimus liber liber Medicinarum et incipit homo de humo fractus de quatuor Elementis Constat (ff. 3:6r-3:16r)

The absence of a title against 'Quintus liber' may suggest a mistake on the part of the scribe, an unfulfilled plan to add a fifth text to the volume, or uncertainty on the scribe's part as to the correct information to record. The latter may indeed be the case, since the text of the Physique rimee is acephalous, and a title was not provided in the closing rubric. The note 'Rhasis pag. 45' does not indicate an additional text, but is merely a repetition of the misattribution of the Liber servitoris to Razi in the scribal colophon on that page ('...magistri raxis seruitoris...'). This annotator did not record the Physique rimee either. MS O.8.27 was donated to Trinity College by Thomas Gale in 1738. The volume had been obtained from an unknown source by Thomas' father Roger, a fellow of Trinity College and a significant collector of rare books and manuscripts. Although we do not have a complete provenance for the manuscript, one former English owner of the book in the early 17th century was probably the London physician Daniel Sellin (d. 1615). A 'D Sellin' signed his name twice on f. 1:1r in a contemporary script, and a Daniel Sellin described himself as a 'doctor of physick' in his will (proved 21 April 1615). Sellin appears in a scurrilous poem about London physicians now preserved in Cambridge, University Library, MS Add. 4138 (ff. 16v-18v) and briefly discussed in Harkness (2008). The poem begins (f. 16v): 'Faire ladies all gladd yee , here com's Doctor Paddie | the best at womans Glister | What euer be her grief , he gaue her reliefe | If once he but kisse hir'.| The poem continues in a similar excorciation of the behaviours of a significant number of the professional doctors working in London in the early 17th century. The anonymous poet says of Sellin (f. 17v):| 'Doctor quinne you looke verie thinne | though you be of the Colledge | Yet Doctor Selinne in a Cup of good winne | Hath farre better knowledge | Is it with reading Greshams lectures ; or yet you are a great inventor ?| No no t'is not so well | Shall I tell you the cause , it is because | You love it too, too well.' Four copies of the poem survive (see also: London, British Library, MS Lansdowne 241, fol. 374v (John Sanderson's diary and commonplace book, 1560-1610); Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Rawl. Poet. 160, ff. 183v-185r; and Oxford, Corpus Christi College, MS 327, ff. 8v-10r), each with a similar opening and a similar group of physicians, but with occasional additions and subtractions of poorly behaved doctors (see Harness, esp. n. 23). Dr Sarah Gilbert| Project Cataloguer|Curious Cures in Cambridge Libraries References

D. Harkness, 'A View from the Streets: Women and Medical Work in Elizabethan London', Bulletin of the History of Medicine 82.1 - Special Issue: Women, Health, and Healing in Early Modern Europe (2008) pp. 52-85

Kew, The National Archives, PROB 11/125/336

Cambridge, University Library, MS Add. 4138, ff. 16v-18v

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: 2r: de modo decoccionis

Form: codex

Support: All medieval leaves parchment.

Extent: Codex: iii+ 2 | 50 | 107 | 19 + ii leaves. 200-205 × 145-150 mm.

Foliation:

20th-century foliation with later additions

[a]-[c] + [i]-[ii] | 1:1-50 | 2:1-107 | 3:1-19 |[d]

The core medieval leaves have been foliated in pencil in Hindu-Arabic numerals in the upper outer-corner of each recto, with the foliation sequence starting again in each medieval Part. The medieval and early-modern endleaves are unfoliated and so have been assigned the following designations: the medieval leaves have been assigned the designations ff. [i]-[iii] and the early-modern endleaves have been assigned the designations ff. [a]-[c] for the leaves at the front of the volume and f. [d] for the leaf at the rear of the volume.

Collation

A composite manuscript arranged as follows:

Three early-modern paper endleaves (ff. [a]-[c]) +
Two medieval parchment endleaves (ff. [i]-[ii]) |
Quires 1-5⁸ (ff. 1:1-1:40)
Quire 6¹⁰ (ff. 1:41-1:50) |
Quire 7^12-1 (ff. 2:1-2:11: 1st leaf cancelled )
Quires 8-16⁸ (ff. 2:12-2:83)
Quires 17-18¹² (ff. 2:84-2:107) |
Quire 19⁴ (ff. 3:1-3:4)
Quire 20⁸ (ff. 3:5r-3:12v)
Quire 21^8-1 (ff. 3:13-3:19: 8th leaf cancelled)
One early-modern paper endleaf (f. [d])

Three early-modern paper endleaves + two medieval parchment endleaves | 1-5⁸ 6¹⁰ | 7^12-1 (1st cancelled) 8-16⁸ 17-18¹² | 19⁴ 20⁸ 21^8-1 (8th cancelled)

No leaf signatures common to the entire volume.

No quire signatures common to the entire volume.

No catchwords common to the entire volume.

Additions

Quire signatures ('1-6 | 1-11 | 1-3') 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-century binding. Quarter-bound in white vellum with grey paper sides over paste- or mill-boards. Five raised bands on spine (not photographed).

Paper pastedowns pasted over the turn ins. The alpha-numeric components of the present shelfmark ('O.8.27') written in ink on the front pastedown. Rear pastedown blank. Three paper flyleaves at the front of the volume (ff. [a]-[c]) and one paper flyleaf at the rear of the volume (f. [d]), all blank and all probably contemporary with the current binding.

Folio [i] was used as the front pastedown in a former binding. Folio [i] recto has adhesive stains and tannin stains consistent with having been the front pastedown in a volume covered with tanned leather. Damage at the upper outer corner of the leaf and the centre of both the fore edge of and the gutter of the leaf is suggestive of metal book furniture on the former binding, perhaps a metal fastening and metal corner protectors or bosses.

History

Provenance and Acquisition

Probably once owned by London physician Daniel Sellin (d. 1615) . A 'D Sellin' signed his name twice on f. 1:1r in an early-modern hand, and a Daniel Sellin described himself as a 'doctor of physick' in his will (proved 21 April 1615). Sellin appears in a scurrilous poem about London physicians now preserved in Cambridge, University Library, MS Add. 4138 (ff. 16v-18v) and briefly discussed in Harkness (2008). The anonymous poet says of Sellin (f. 17v):

Four copies of the poem survive (see also, London, British Library, MS Lansdowne 241, fol. 374v (John Sanderson's diary and commonplace book, 1560-1610); Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Rawl. Poet. 160, ff. 183v-185r; and Oxford, Corpus Christi College, MS 327, ff. 8v-10r, each with a similar opening and a similar group of physicians with occasional additions and subtractions according to Harkness.

Kew, The National Archives, PROB 11/125/336

Cambridge, University Library, MS Add. 4138, ff. 16v-18v

One of the manuscripts of Thomas Gale (1635/6-1702) , dean of York, antiquary, and fellow of Trinity College Cambridge.

ODNB

One of the manuscripts of Roger Gale (1672-1744) , antiquary and scholar, son of Thomas Gale. Inherited from his father.

ODNB

Donated to Trinity College by Thomas Gale , son of Roger Gale, in 1738. The Gale donation is recorded in .

Part 1: Medieval endleaves [Cambridge, Trinity College, MS O.8.27, ff. [i]-[ii]]

Language(s): Latin

1. [i] verso

15th-century list of the contents of the volume

Language(s): Latin

Full transcription (with current folio references):

Primus liber seruitor serapionis (ff. 1:1r-1:50r)
Secundus liber Sinonoma latine Gallice et anglice
Tercius liber Tabule magistri Salerni (ff. 2:1r-2:34r)
Quartus liber platearium de simplicibus medicinis id est Circa instans (ff. 2:34r-2:107r)
Quintus liber
Sextus liber Tractatus de secretis secretorum aristotelis (ff. 3:3v-3:5r)
Septimus liber liber Medicinarum et incipit homo de humo fractus de quatuor Elementis Constat (ff. 3:6r-3:16r)

2. [i] verso

16th-century list of the contents of the volume

Language(s): Latin

3. [ii] recto

15th-century description of the volume

Language(s): Latin

Full transcription: | liber pharmacopolis necessarius et vtilis ad salutem . anthore didy(?)

Physical Description

Form: codex

Support: Parchment (HFFH).

Extent: Codex: 2 leaves. 200 × 145 mm.

Collation

Two medieval parchment endleaves (ff. [i]-[ii]

No leaf signatures particular to this Part.

No quire signatures particular to this Part.

No catchwords particular to this Part.

Condition

In fair condition. Lower outer quarter of f. [i] cut away. Small irregular holes in parchment probably from metal fittings on former binding.

Layout

Folios [i]-[ii] informally written.

Additions

Current and former shelfmarks in ink on f. [ii] recto: '~~C.35.~~¹⁶⁶', '~~O.14.35~~', 'O.8.27.'.

Trinity College armorial bookplate with motto 'Collegium S.S. et Individuae Trinitatis in Academia Cantabrigiensi' on f. [ii] verso.

History

Origin: 15th century. ; England.

Date and place of production based on palaeographical features.

Part 2: Liber servitoris [Cambridge, Trinity College, MS O.8.27, ff. 1:1-1:50]

Language(s): Latin

1. 1:1r-1:50r

Liber servitoris Serapion the Younger

Language(s): Latin

1.1. 1:1r

Preface to the Liber servitoris Serapion the Younger

Language(s): Latin

Incipit: 1:1r Liber uigesimus octauus libri seruitoris

Explicit: 1:1r bulcasin ben chelff ben abes azarui tranlatus[sic]a simone ianuensi interprete abraham iudeo tortuensi

1.2. 1:1r-1:5r

List of chapters of the Liber servitoris Serapion the Younger

Language(s): Latin

Incipit: 1:1r De ablutione litargiri et adustione eius et electione boni litargiri cap i

Explicit: 1:5r De modo faciendi saleni armoniacum 41

1.3. 1:5v

Prologue to the Liber servitoris Serapion the Younger

Language(s): Latin

Full transcription: | ⟨D⟩ixit agregator huis operis posquam[sic] ego collegi librum hunc magnum in medicinis componitis qui est liber mangni[sic] Iuuamenti(?) quem nominaui librum seruitorem et compleui libros suos . omnis secundum uoluntatem meam inueni in multis ex medicinis componitis libri huius medicinas multas simplices qui indigent preparatione animam(?) oram mangne[sic] necessitatis earum . quem ad modum sucos expremere et meas comburere et meas abluere et conficere aliquas medicinas et discernere medicinas bonas a medicinas malis Et preuidi alia seruitia preuidi ergo agregare . omne que necessarium est in hoc secudum rememorationem meam et ordinam hunc librum in tres tractatus

1.4. 1:5v-1:50r

Main text of the Liber servitoris Serapion the Younger

Language(s): Latin

Incipit: 1:5v Primus tractatus eorum de preperacionem lapidum et mineralium solum

Explicit: 1:50r que est in ea cum facilitate in serua

Final rubric: 1:50r Deo gracias Amen

Final rubric: 1:50r Completus est liber Vigesimus octauus magistri raxis seruitoris de preparatione medicinarum simplicium secundum necessitatem in componitis medicinis . quem scripsit Wiglelmus Palmer in ciuitate lucana . in tempore quo dominus noster . papa vrbanus . vj . fuit indicta ciuitate .a.n.d.m.ccc.lxxxvij . die xx may . in apotega Johannis sercambij . aromatarius meus tamquam comsanguineum[sic] . deo gracias . . amen

See Origin for discussion of scribal colophon.

Folio 1:50v blank.

Printed (not from this MS) Liber servitoris (Nicolaus Jenson, Venice, 1471)

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: 1:2r: de modo decoccionis

Form: codex

Support: Parchment (HFFH).

Extent: Codex: 50 leaves. 205 × 145 mm.

Collation

Quires 1-5⁸ (ff. 1:1-1:40)
Quire 6¹⁰ (ff. 1:41-1:50)

No leaf signatures particular to this Part.

Modern quire signatures in pencil in Hindu-Arabic numerals in the lower outer corner of the first recto of each quire. Medieval quire signatures in Roman numerals in the lower outer corner of Quires 2, 3, and 5, the others probably lost to trimming.

Catchwords in the centre of the lower margin of the last verso of each quire in red ink and enclosed in a simple partial frame, see e.g., f. 1:40v.

Condition

In good condition, some leaves stained and irregular, but legibility of the text is good throughout the Part.

Layout

145 × 100 mm. Ruled faintly in leadpoint, frame and lines; ruling not visible on every leaf but see e.g., f. 1:39r. Ruled in single-column format, typically 31 lines to the leaf and written below top line. Pricking visible along the outer edges of most leaves, see e.g., f. 8r.

Hand(s)

Folios 1:1r-1:50r written in anglicana formata by a single-scribe. Tall double-compartment minuscule a. Loops on ascenders of b, d, h, and l. Unusual tironian-et graph resembling the common abbreviation for com-/con- as a prefix or -us as a suffix. Mix of long- and short-s.

Decoration

Flourished initial 'L' with red pen flourishing on f. 1:1r

Plain initials in red ink at most of the major and minor divisions of the text, in a style combining 'Arabesque' and 'Lombardic' features, see e.g., f. 1:15v.

History

Origin: 1387. ; Lucca.

Date and place of production based on scribal colophon on f. 1:50r which states that the text was completed by a scribe 'Wiglelmus Palmer' in the city of Lucca ('Lucana') in Italy in the reign of Pope Urban VI on the 20th of May 1387 in the apothecary of John Sercambius, a relative of Palmer's.

Part 3: Tabula Salernitana (with commentary) and Mattheus Platearius De simplicibus medicinis ('Circa instans') [Cambridge, Trinity College, MS O.8.27, ff. 2:1-2:107]

Language(s): Latin

2:1r-2:34r

Tabula Salernitana cum commento Bernardi prouincialis

Language(s): Latin

Rubric: 2:1r Incipit tabula salernie cum commento berdardi prouinci

Incipit: 2:1r Primo pabulo salis medicinalis sapientie

Explicit: 2:33v-2:34r facimus feliciter hic stagrare

Final rubric: 2:34r Explicit commentum Bernardi proincialis super tabulas magistri salerni

Opening rubric at the top of column 'b' on f. 2:1r, rather than column 'a'.

After a prologue and list of chapters on ff. 2:1r-2:1v, the first treatment begins on f. 2:1v, 'Cassia fistula tribus flos in enuche(?) modis potest exhiberi potest enim simpliciter manducari'.

eTK 1109A (t0213310000)

2:34r-2:107r

De simplicibus medicinis ('Circa instans') Mattheus Platearius

Language(s): Latin with occasional plant names glossed in Middle English

Rubric: 2:34r Incipit liber platearii de simplicibus medicinis

Incipit: 2:34r Circa instans negocium in simplicibus medicinus nostrum versatur propositum

Explicit: 2:107r Ne uero presentis operis prolixitas in inmensum diffundatur . hic lecto fine illud concludimus hacrenus [sic for hactenus] archanum salerni diximus . littera iam(?) lasso . pollice sistit o...p...u...s

Final rubric: 2:107r Explicit liber platearii de singulari et simplic medicina

Final rubric: 2:107r Hic liber est scriptus qui scripsit sit benedictus . amen .

Several plant-name glosses (including some Latin-Middle English glosses) by a medieval hand, perhaps the same scribe responsible for adding significant portions of additional material to ff. 3:1r3:19v in an untidy hand:

Outer margin of f. 2:41v, 'Allium siluestris Anglice dicitur ramses' glossing 'de alliis'
Lower margin of f. 2:46v, 'Suthrenwode' glossing 'De abrotano'
Illegible annotation in faint crayon in the inner margin of f. 2:52v next to the section 'De cerusa'
Inner margin of f. 2:60v 'Anglice wete paplie' glossing 'De cantabro'.
Partially illegible gloss in faint crayon in the lower margin of f. 2:64r, 'dragant ... cuprose' glossing 'De draganto'
Outer margin of f. 2:75v, 'pigle', glossing 'de lingua'
Outer margin of f. 2:76v, 'luphache', glossing 'de leuistico'
Lower margin of f. 2:80v, 'swynesfenkyl', glossing 'de meu'
Inner margin of f. 2:92r, 'broþor wort', glossing 'de puleo'.

Plant-name glosses in a neat medieval hand (some common glosses omitted from this list):

Outer margin of f. 2:66r, 'liuer wort' glossing 'De epatica'
Inner margin of f. 2:68r, 'Wylde sawge' glossing 'De cupatorio'
Outer margin of f. 2:68r, 'sperwort' glossing 'De flamula' or 'De flaniula'. The plant name 'sperwort' in its various Old- and Middle English spellings glosses both 'inula helenium'/'elecampane' and also, rarely, 'ranunculus flamula' so more work is still needed to determine the relationship between these plant names.
Inner margin of f. 2:68v, 'fuintere' glossing 'De fuino tre'.
Inner margin of f. 2:69r, 'Waleriane', glossing 'fu ... alio nomine dicitur valeriana'.
Inner margin of f. 2:72r, 'ok appul', glossing 'de galla'.
Inner margin of f. 2:72v 'henebane(?)' glossing 'De iusquiamo'
Inner margin of f. 2:73r, 'Isope', glossing 'de ysopo'.
Inner margin of f. 2:73v, 'taddesto???(?)' glossing 'De ypoquistidos'
Outer margin of f. 2:74v, 'lykeris' glossing 'De liquiricia'
Inner margin of f. 2:75r, 'lilie', glossing 'de lilio'.
Outer margin of f. 2:75v, 'hundes tunge', glossing 'de lingua canis'
Inner margin of f. 2:75v, 'dok', glossing 'de lappacio'
Outer margin of f. 2:80r, 'caro balsomata' glossing 'De mummia'
Inner margin of f. 2:81v, 'wode crabbe', glossing 'de mala maci'
Outer margin of f. 2:82v, 'mugke', glossing 'de musco'
Inner margin of f. 2:85r, 'berie' glossing 'De mora celsi'
The gloss 'Neseblede' in the outer margin alongside the entry for 'nasturcium' on f. 2:85v
Inner margin of f. 2:85v, 'water lilie', glossing 'de nenufare'
Inner margin of f. 2:87v, 'barliche', glossing 'de ordeo'
Outer margin of f. 2:88r, 'franc en sense' glossing 'de olibano'
Inner margin of f. 2:101v, 'hellernes', glossing 'De sambuco'

eTK 0703A

See The Dictionary of Old English Plant Names: 'spere-wyrt' for the various glosses to that lemma.

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: 2:2r: stom ; da cassia fistulam cum aqua ca⟨?lida⟩

Form: codex

Support: Parchment (HFFH)

Extent: Codex: 107 leaves. 205 × 150 mm.

Collation

Quire 7^12-1 (2:1-2:11: 1st leaf missing)
Quires 8-16⁸ (ff. 2:12-2:83)
Quires 17-18¹² (ff. 2:84-2:107)

No leaf signatures particular to this Part.

Quires numbered in pencil (1-12) in modern Hindu-Arabic numerals in the lower outer corner of the first recto of each quire.

Catchwords in the lower margin of the last verso of each quire usually enclosed in a minimal red frame.

Condition

In good condition, but some marginal annotations lost to trimming, see e.g., outer margin of f. 2:57r.

Layout

145 × 105 mm. Ruled in leadpoint, frame and lines. Ruled in double-column format, typically 36 lines to the column and written below top line.

Hand(s)

The main text of folios 2:1r-2:107r written in a northern textualis libraria by a single scribe. Single-compartment a. No loops on ascenders of b, , h, and l, but a small wedge often present at the top of the ascender. Letter d is usually sloping-backed. Letters f and long-s typically sit on the baseline rather than dropping below. Small flicked feet on minims. Dotted y.

Occasional plant-name glosses added throughout folios 2:1r-2:107r by a scribe writing a northern textualis libraria with a fine pen and an elongated ductus with small finishing 'arcs' on the ascenders and descenders, see e.g., f. 2:82r 'horhunde' in the outer margin glossing 'de marrubio'.

Occasional plant-name glosses added throughout folios 2:1r-2:107r by a scribe writing a northern textualis libraria with a broad pen and a rather informal ductus, see e.g., f. 2:41v 'Allium siluestris anglce dicitur ramses' in the outer margin glossing 'De alliis'. The same scribe may also be responsible for some of the large plant-name glosses in faint crayon in the lower margin of some leaves, see e.g., f. 2:80v 'swynesfenkyl' glossing 'de meu'. This scribe may also be responsible for the final recipe on f. 3:5v and for the recipes added to the margins throughout ff. 3:1r-3:19v.

Decoration

Decorated initials on ff. 2:1r and 2:34r to mark the openings of each major text in the Part. On folio 2:1r an initial 'P' in blue and red segments with white and gold decorative designs in the body of the letter and decorative foliate flourishing in blue, pink, red-orange, yellow, and gold in the counterspace. The descender of the 'P' extends the full length of the text-column and terminates in a folate flourish in the lower margin. Similar decorative style and scope for the initial 'C' on f. 2:34r but with a 'grotesque' extending from the top of a decorative border running the length of the column from the top of the 'C' to the lower margin.

Flourished initials, typically a blue initial in the 'Lombardic' style with red fine-line pen-flourishing (or the reverse) at the minor divisions of the texts.

Rubrication in red-only throughout for chapter and section titles. Paraph marks in red throughout to divide minor syntax units within chapters.

History

Origin: Probably second-half of the 13th century. ; Probably France.

Date and place of production based on palaeographical features.

See also: T. Hunt, 'Recettes Médicales En Vers Français d’après Le Manuscrit O.8.27 de Trinity College, Cambridge', Romania, 106.421(1) (1985), pp. 57–83

Part 4: Physique Rimee, medical recipes in Anglo-Norman, French and Latin [Cambridge, Trinity College, MS O.8.27, ff. 3:1-3:19]

Language(s): Anglo-Norman and medieval French

1. 3:1r-3:3r

Physique rimee

Language(s): Anglo-Norman

Incipit: || 3:1r Flur de furment dunc ne pernez | E en bele ewe la me quisez | E tantet le facet buillir | Quil se uoille ensemble tenir | Sur un drap linge lemplastrez | Lemfle sen irra co verrez

Explicit: 3:3r Lauer ses temples e sun frunt | Les pouz les iointes cum il sunt | Pur la souur kom deit oster E les pores des estuper E faire la suur issir Ki einz ne poeit hors uenir ||

Final rubric: 3:3r Explicit

According to Dean and Boulton, no. 416, 'Beginning lost; 548 ll., the last corresponding to l. 1440 of [ed note: Cambridge, Trinity College, MS] O.1.20.'.

Printed and discussed in T. Hunt, 'Recettes Médicales En Vers Français d’après Le Manuscrit O.8.27 de Trinity College, Cambridge', Romania, 106.421(1) (1985), pp. 57–83

Tony Hunt, Popular Medicine in Thirteenth-Century England: Introduction and Texts (Cambridge: Brewer, 1990), pp. 142-216, esp. pp. 144-146

R.J. Dean and M.B.M. Boulton, Anglo-Norman Literature: A Guide to Texts and Manuscripts, Anglo-Norman Text Society Occasional Publications Series, 3 (London: Anglo-Norman Text Society, 1999), no. 416

On this text (but not this MS), see also P. Meyer, 'Les manuscrits Français de Cambridge', Romania 32.105(1), pp. 18-120, esp. pp. 75-95

2. 3:3r

Medical recipes and charms in Anglo-Norman and Latin

Recipes in Anglo-Norman added to the main text-block. Recipe in Latin written upside-down in the lower margin by a scribe who also added a recipe to the lower margins of 3:4r, 3:13v, 3:14v, 3:15r, 3:16v, 3:18r, the upper and lower margins of ff. 3:15v and 3:16r, and wrote the final recipe on f. 3:5v.

3. 3:3v-3:5r

Epistola Aristotelis ad Alexandrum de regimine sanitatis [Latin] Joannes Hispalensis

Language(s): Latin

Rubric: 3:3v Epistola aristotilis regi magno alexandro de obseruacione humani corporis directa quam Iohannis yspalensis inuentam . T yspaniarum transmisit . Domine .T. regine yspanorum(?) . Johannes yspalensia(?) salutem .

Incipit: 3:3v Cum de utilitate humani corporis olim tractaaremus[sic] et a me quasi essentiam(?) medicus uestra nobilitas quareret breuem librum de obseruacione diete uel de continencia corporis

Explicit: 3:5r Vulua eius siccata et cum uino bibita a uiro eta muliere concipi facit masculum . sed sola mulier biberit ; concipiet fem i n a

Medical recipe in the lower margin of f. 3:4r, in the same hand that added the recipes to the lower margins of ff. 3:3r, 3:13v, 3:14v, 3:15r, 3:16v, 3:18r, the upper and lower margins of ff. 3:15v and 3:16r, and the final recipe on f. 3:5v.

eTK 0291G

Discussed and partly printed (not this MS) in S.J. Williams The Secret of Secrets. The scholarly career of a pseudo-Aristotelian text in the Latin middle ages (MI:Ann Arbor, 2003)

Discussed in T. Hunt, 'Recettes Médicales En Vers Français d’après Le Manuscrit O.8.27 de Trinity College, Cambridge', Romania, 106.421(1) (1985), pp. 57–83

4. 3:5r

Charm in Latin

Language(s): Latin

Incipit: 3:5r Dixit scanctus[sic] Nazarenus eamus . Dixit sancta tecla eamus

Explicit: 3:5r et in mortat .iij. pater noster

5. 3:5v

Three recipes and charms in medieval French in three different hands

Language(s): Medieval French, with Middle English gloss

The word 'epatykis' at the beginning of the second recipe glossed in Middle English (?perhaps by the same scribe) as 'lyurewort'.

The scribe who copied the final recipe is also responsible for the recipes in the lower margins of ff. 3:3r, 3:4r, 3:13v, 3:14v, 3:15r, 3:16v, 3:18r, and the upper and lower margins of ff. 3:15v and 3:16r.

6. 3:6r-3:16r

Medical recipes

Language(s): Latin

Rubric: 3:6r Incipiunt medicine

Incipit: 3:6r Homo de humo fractus ex quatuor humoribus constat calido frigido sicco humido . Hoc est colera rubea colera nigra sanguis et fleuma

Explicit: 3:16r amplius impetigo non erit

Rubric in the upper margin of f. 3:6r

Text with similar opening in Cambridge, University Library, MS Dd.11.45, f. 92rv , but the texts diverge thereafter.

Recipe on ff. 3:14v to 3:15r beginning 'Calamenie uel calamintis' has extensive interlinear gloss giving more common names of the unusual plant names used in the main text of the recipe.

eTK 0635G (t0122700000)

7. 3:16rv

Several short passages on weights and measures

Language(s): Latin

7.1. 3:16r