Cambridge, Trinity College, MS O.8.35
Medical treatises
Contents
Language(s): Middle English and Latin
Full transcription attempted.
Added in a late 15th- or early 16th-century hand; not recorded in DIMEV.
The text is signed: ‘Henri Dyngley: anno Christo :1554: Et anno Philippi et Marie: Primo et secundo vicessimo secundo die Marcij:’.
The king, in a royal robe and with and sceptre and crown, is accompanied by a banderol with the inscription: ‘henricus .vj. Rex anglie’.
Full transcription with UV light. This previously untranscribed text concerns a charm that invokes St Gertrude of Nivelles for protection against rats.
The title ‘Of all Maner of Infyrmytes’ has been added by a later hand.
See Mooney (1995), p. 133 for other copies.
See Mooney (1995), p. 134 for other copies.
See Mooney (1995), p. 134 for other copies.
This collection features an anatomical tract on ff. 85r-85v (eVK2 6894.00); and a regimen of health for the four seasons on ff. 86v-87v (eVK2 8173.00).
Five medical recipes for treating a bite wound from a dog, making a water for clearing the eyes, dropsy, a bloody nose, and sore eyes. These recipes immediately are seemingly continuous with the preceding collection of Latin medical recipes.
Full transcription; added by a late 15th- or early 16th-century hand.
Mooney (1995) transcribes ‘Scaldyng’ as ‘Scaleyng’, and translates it as ‘scaling’. However, this record assumes the gerund's fifth letter to be a ‘d’, which looks very similar to the scribe's round ‘e’.
Full transcription; added by a late 15th- or early 16th-century hand.
Full transcription; added by a late 15th- or early 16th-century hand.
Added by a late 15th- or early 16th-century hand (the same hand that copied the preceding recipe)
Full transcription: deviates slightly from that by Mooney (1995) (e.g. see ‘parbrak’ [probrak], ‘tanfe’ [cause], ‘lenthe’ [lerthe]).
Beginning of a recipe to treat consumption (left unfinished).
Full transcription attempted; added by a late 15th- or early 16th-century hand.
Full transcription attempted; added by a late 15th- or early 16th-century hand.
Full transcription attempted; added by a late 15th- or early 16th-century hand.
Physical Description
19th- or 20th-century foliation:
[a]-[c] + [i]-[iv] + 1-127 + [d]
Written in pencil in the upper right-hand corner of the recto of each leaf.
The unfoliated early modern paper flyleaves at the beginning and end of the manuscript have been allocated letters ([a]-[d]) and the unfoliated original parchment flyleaves at the beginning of the manuscript have been allocated numbers ([i]-[iv]) for reference purposes in this electronic catalogue record.
Collation
- Quires 1-108 (ff. 1-80)
- Quire 118-1 (ff. 81-87: 4th leaf missing)
- Quires 12-168 (ff. 88-127)
1-108 118-1 (4th leaf missing) 12-168
Leaf signatures in Roman numerals, usually cropped but sometimes still visible (see ff. 4r: ‘IIII’; f. 52r: [?]G IIII; f. 123r: ‘P IIII’.)
Catchwords in brown or red ink written in the lower right-hand corners of the last versos of quires; one in a decorative frame of brown ink (f. 8v).Condition
Layout
140 × 95 mm. Ruling in leadpoint, frames only. Single columns. 22-23 lines to the page, written above top line.
Hand(s)
The manuscript has been largely (ff. 1r-124r) written by a single hand working in a cursive script with both anglicana, secretary features, and Bastarda. This script may also be described as a combination of Gothica Hybrida and Gothica Semihybrida.
Added texts and colophons in the hand of Henry Dingley in 1553 and 1557 (ff. [i] verso, 126r, and 127r) are in a hand with predominantly secretary and some anglicana features.
Folio features a poem added by a late 15th- or early 16th-century hand working in a secretary script.
Folios [iii] recto and [iv] recto feature a charm and medical recipes in late 15th- or early 16th-century hands working in cursive anglicana scripts.
Folio 124v features two medical recipes added by different late 15th- or early 16th-century hands working in a secretary script.
Folio 125r features two medical recipes addded by a late 15th- or early 16th-century hand working in a script with both anglicana and secretary features.
Folio 125v features an added medical recipe in a late 15th- or early 16th-century hand working in a hand with predominantly secretary and some anglicana features (it is different from that of Henry Dyngley).
Decoration
A full-page drawing of King Henry VI in dark ink (no colours) on f. [ii] verso: the king stands dressed in royal robe, holding a sceptre and wearing a crown, with, above him, a banderol that reads: ‘henricus .vj. Rex anglie’.
Cadels on ascenders of letters (typically initials) on the first lines of pages.
Headings of texts and individual recipes are rubricated with red ink.
Regular initials are sometimes fainly highlighted with yellow ink.
Headings of recipes are sometimes been underlined in red ink.
Additions
Notes towards a table of contents addded by a 17th-century hand to f. [ii] recto: ‘Divers receits / De vrinis / De signis Zodiaci etcaetera / Anatomy . all perhaps by Henry Bingley’.
Quire signatures ('1-16') 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 white vellum binding with purple paper sides over pasteboards and 5 raised bands on the spine
Binding height: 225 mm; width: 160 mm; depth: 40 mm.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
Henry Madhowsse [Maddows] (fl. 1475-1550) : possible name of an owner or user whose first name is inscribed on f. 126v, ‘Henri Madhowsse’, in a late 15th- or early 16th-century hand. The same page and the next page (f. 127r) feature first names in similar hands: ‘Thomas’, ‘Henri’, and ‘Andrew’ (f. 126v); and ‘John S’ and ‘Wylliam’ (f. 127r).
The name ‘Burbage’ is inscribed in a late 15th- or early 16th-century hand on f. 127r and may be the family name of an owner or user of the manuscript. If so, then it may refer to the Burbage family of Leicestershire.
Henry Dingley (fl. 1553-1557) of Addington, Buckinghamshire: his full name inscribed by his own hand in colophons on f. [i] verso: ‘Henri Dyngley Anno Christo 1553 Et Anno Philippi et Marie: primo et secundo vicessimo secundo die Marcij’; f. 126r: ‘Henry Dyngley Anno Christo 1557 Wrytten the xxx daye of Maye’; and f. 127r: ‘Henry Dyngley Anno Christo 1557 xxxj Maij of Adyngton in buckingegam scheree’. Dingley added tracts on weights and measures (f. [i] verso) and a list of medicinal waters (f. 126r) to the manuscript.
John (?) Westall (fl. 17th century) : his full name inscribed by a 17th-century hand on f. 127r with their surname abbreviated as follows: ‘Weall’. A possible expansion is ‘Westall’. If correct, then he may have been John Westall, (c. 1585–1643) , bookbinder and -seller at Oxford who worked for the Bodleian Library from 1613 until 1641. However, this identification remains uncertain since no signature in his hand has been found for comparison with the name inscription in this manuscript.
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 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.8.35’), and those of its current and previous classmarks inscribed in brown ink on the inside of the front cover (‘O.8.35’), ff. [ii] recto (‘C.3.7’ [crossed out], ‘O.14.37’ [crossed out], and ‘O.8.35’), and its printed ex libris featuring its armorial coat of arms and name (‘Collegium SS. et Individuae Trinitatis in Academia Cantabrigiensi’) pasted on f. [iv] verso.
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. (Montague Rhodes) (Cambridge, 3, Cambridge University Press, 1902)
"A drynke þat men callen dwale to make a man to slepe whyle men kerven him": A Surgical
Anesthetic from Late Medieval England Health, Disease and Healing in Medieval Culture, Voigts, Linda EhrsamHudson, Robert P. (Basingstoke, 34-56, Macmillan, 1992)
Manuscripts in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge Index of Middle English prose, Mooney, Linne R. (Woodbridge, D.S. Brewer, 1995)
Entrances and exits in English medical vocabulary, 1400–1550 Medical and Scientific
Writing in Late Medieval English, Norri, Juhani (Cambridge, 100-143, Cambridge University Press, 2004)
Cults of Political Martyrs in Late Medieval England, Piroyansky, Dana (London, 2005)
Martyrs in the Making: Political Martyrdom in Late Medieval England, Piroyanski, Danna (Houndmills, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2008)
The Cultural Uses of Magic in Fifteenth-century England, Mitchell, Laura (Toronto, 2011)
Uroscopy in Middle English: A Guide to the Texts and Manuscripts Studies in medieval
and renaissance history, Tavormina, M. Teresa ([Michigan?], 2014)
Dictionary of Medical Vocabulary in English, 1375–1550: Body Parts, Sicknesses, Instruments,
and
Medical Preparations, Norri, Juhani (Abingdon, Routledge, 2016)
Translation from Latin and French as a Source of New Medical Terms in Late Medieval
England Romance Philology Romania Mediterranea IV: Medieval Medical Treatises: Transmission
of Language and
Practice, Norri, Juhani (71, 2, 563-622, 2017)
Dulce et Utile: The (Im)practicality of agricultural texts in middle english manuscripts
and
printed husbandry books, Kuipers, Nadine (Groningen, 2020)
Funding of Cataloguing
Wellcome (cataloguing). All images provided by Trinity College, Cambridge.
Digital Images
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
