Cambridge, Trinity College, MS O.9.32
Collections of medical recipes
Contents
Language(s): Middle English and Latin
Collection of 51 medical recipes.
Collection of six medical recipes.
Collection of nine medical recipes, also inlcuding recipes for stomach ailments.
Recipe for a tisane for the cough (f. 12r, full transcription: | To mak a tysawnde for the cowghe. Tayke good ayll iij pynnttis gynger lyquoris sugure candye elina campana off eche a grottis waytte smayll reysoundis ℥ two lett all theys thyngis be payryd cleynne and brusyd in a morterre. |Full translation:| To make a tisane for the cough. Take good ale, three pints; ginger, liquorice, crystallised sugar, elecampane, of each a groat’s weight; small raisins, two ounces. Let all these things be pared clean and bruised in a mortar.
Collection of 34 medical recipes.
Collection of 9 medical recipes.
Collection of 8 medical recipes.
Full transcription; added by a 16th-century hand.
Collection of 17 medical recipes; including an attribution: ‘An oyntemente for all manere of akynge vlcers and specially for theym in the feytte secundum petrum’.
Collection of 12 medical recipes.
Collection of 13 medical recipes; containing a few attributions: a ‘diaquilon Rasis’ and ‘diaquilon þe whyche is wryten in þe antydottario off nycholas’.
Collection of 12 medical recipes; including one attribution to ‘Galien’ [Galen].
Collection of 18 medical recipes.
The treatise evidently begins imperfectly, with a reference to a preceding chapter on the formation of the embryo that is not present in the manuscript.
This material can also be found in London, Wellcome Collection, MS 567 , ff. 10v-128.
Collection of 62 medical recipes; contains attributed recipes called ‘Master Johannes plaster for Concucions in the hedde’, ‘M. Brownis plaster goode for dropsye and oþere dyssesys’, and ‘M. Robarte Tayllors plaster for Concussions and brussers’. These recipes may refer to William Brown, naval surgeon, temp. Henry VIII (c. 1535); and Robert Taylour, one of the four wardens of the Fellowship of Surgeons in late 15th century. See C. H. Talbot and E. A. Hammond, The medical practitioners in medieval England: a biographical register (London: Wellcome Historical Medical Library, 1965), pp. 389-390, and 354.
Collection of 8 medical recipes; the last recipe was apparently added at a later time but seemingly by the same hand.
Full transcription; apparently added later but seemingly by the main hand of the manuscript.
Full transcription; apparently added later but seemingly by the main hand of the manuscript.
Full transcription; added by a 16th-century hand.
Collection of 21 recipes; one recipe refers to the Liber Almensoris: ‘Vnguentum viride Almensoris’ the last recipe was apparently added at a later time but seemingly by the same hand.
Collection of 14 medical recipes; one recipe is attributed to a medical practitioner: ‘Gybsons Incarnatiue’ ‘Gybsons Incarnatiue’. This recipe may refer to Thomas Gibson [Gybson], master surgeon, London, early 16th century, and a promiment member of the Barber-Surgeons in London during the reigns of Henry VII and Henry VIII. See C. H. Talbot and E. A. Hammond, The medical practitioners in medieval England: a biographical register (London: Wellcome Historical Medical Library, 1965), p. 345. The last recipe in this collection was apparently added at a later time possibly by the same hand.
Collection of 13 medical recipes; containing two recipes that have been attributed to a certain 'Peter' (‘vnguentum dissicatiuum secundum Petrum’). The last recipe is attributed to the (?) Earl of Shrewsbury: ‘My lorde of schrowisseberys dissicatyue’ The last two recipes were apparently added at a later time but seemingly by the same hand.
Collection of 22 medical recipes.
Full transcription; added by a 16th-century hand.
Collection of 9 medical recipes; includes a recipe entitled: ‘Balsanum artificale secundum Johannem veyverye’; the last recipe is entitled: ‘The kynges bawme for woundes’.
Collection of 11 medical recipes.
Recipe for a precious oil for a bruise on f. 67r, full transcription:| To make a precius oylle for a Brussoure. Take fynne oyll olyff a pottell sowthernwoode buddis off rossys absinthij Bettaynne off eche ij handefull staympe theym smayll and put þem in to the oyll and put theym into an erthen poote and stoope it clowsse and sett it in the grounde the space off a monyght. |Full translation:| To make a precious oil for a bruise. Take fine olive oil, a bottle; southernwood, buds of roses, absinthe, betony, of each two handfuls. Stamp them small and put them into the oil, and put them in an earthen pot and stop it closed and set it in the ground [for] a month.
Collection of 10 medical recipes.
Collection of 14 medical recipes.
Full transcription; added by a 16th-century hand.
Collection of six medical recipes.
Full transcription; added by a 16th-century hand.
Collection of 11 medical recipes; containing two attributed recipe: ‘Vnguentum variolis secundum forestum’ and ‘Vnguentum pro morbo appolitano expertum et probabum vlceribus secundum petrum’.
Added in the 16th century.
Collection of eight medical recipes. The eight recipe may be incomplete and is crossed out.
Collection of eleven medical recipes.
The recipes are entitled ‘for brennyng’ and ‘for a member that ys brent with fyre or scalded wyth oyle’.
Added in the 16th century.
Collection of 14 medical recipes.
Three lines added to the final recipe of the collection of medicines for eye ailments and two new recipes by a 16th-century hand.
Four recipes added by a 16th-century hand.
Collection of 15 recipes; several, including the last three recipes, apparently written at a later time but seemingly by the same hand.
Collection of four recipes for treating morphew (no rubric).
Collection of three medical recipes.
Collection of four medical recipes.
Collection of six medical recipes; the sixth recipe written at a later time but by the same hand.
Full transcription.
Collection of seven medical recipes. Apparently written at a later time than the other recipe collections in the manusript but by the same hand.
Physical Description
19th or 20th-century foliation:
[i]-[iii] + 1-81 + [iv]
Numbering in pencil in the upper right-hand corner of the rectos. The unfoliated flyleaves have been allocated Roman numerals between brackets for the purpose of reference in this electronic catalogue record.Collation
- Quire 18 (ff. 1-16)
- Quire 28+1 (ff. 17-25: 2nd leaf added, after f. 17r)
- Quire 312 (ff. 26-37)
- Quire 412 (ff. 38-49)
- Quire 512 (ff. 50-61)
- Quire 68 (ff. 62-69)
- Quire 712 (ff. 70-81)
Condition
Layout
200-210 × 140-145 mm. Ruled in crayon, frame only. Double columns. 58 lines to the page, written above top line.
Hand(s)
The manuscript has been copied by a single scribe working in a late 15th- or early 16th-century hand with both anglicana and secretary features.
Various recipes have been added by a scribe with a 16th-century hand with both anglicana and secretary features on ff. 61v, 65v, 70v, 74v, 75v, 80v.
Various recipes have been added by one or two scribes with similar 16th-century hands with both anglicana and secretary features on ff. 17r, 71r, 72v, 75v.
Decoration
Display script with cadels in dark ink at the beginning of each new recipe collection.
Small (1 line) plain initials in red or blue at the beginning of new recipes.
Line-fillers consisting of diagonal tildes alternating between dark and red ink.
Rubricated headings for new collections and recipes throughout.
Paraphs in blue or red ink.
Regular initials occasionally highligthed with red ink.
Additions
Binding
18th- or 19th-century half white vellum binding with purple paper sides over pasteboards and five raised bands on the spine.
Binding height: 290 mm; width: 200 mm; depth: 20 mm.
History
Includes additions from the first half of the 16th century).
Provenance and Acquisition
Richard Corpson (fl. 16th century) : owned or accessed the manuscript and inscribed his name in a draft sentence in a 16th-century hand on f. 10v: ‘In the name of god amen I Richard Corpson’.
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.9.32’), and those of its current and previous classmarks inscribed in brown ink on the inside of the front cover (‘O.9.32’), ff. 1r (‘I.26’ [crossed out], ‘O.16.22’ [crossed out], and ‘O.9.32’), and 2r (‘O.16.22’ [crossed out]). Its printed ex libris featuring its armorial coat of arms and name (‘Collegium SS. et Individuae Trinitatis in Academia Cantabrigiensi’) pasted on f. 2r.
Additional Information
Record Sources
Availability
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Custodial History
Bibliography
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The western manuscripts in the library of Trinity College , Cambridge: a descriptive
catalogue, James, M. R. (Montague Rhodes) (Cambridge, 3, Cambridge University Press, 1902)
Manuscripts in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge Index of Middle English prose, Mooney, Linne R. (Woodbridge, D.S. Brewer, 1995)
Manuscript Evidence for the Use of Medieval English Scientific and Utilitarian Texts
Interstices: Studies in Middle English and Anglo-Latin Texts in Honour of A.G. Rigg, Mooney, Linne R. (Toronto, 184-202, University of Toronto Press, 2004)
Funding of Cataloguing
Wellcome (cataloguing). All images provided by Trinity College, Cambridge.
Digital Images
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
