Cambridge, Trinity College, MS R.14.39
Medical recipes
Physical Description
- Part 1: 205 x 145 mm.
- Part 2: 205 x 150 mm.
- Part 3: 205 x 145 mm.
- Part 4: 205 x 145 mm.
17th-century foliation for Part 1:
[a-b] + [i], 1:15-1:126, [1:126a]-[1:126b], 1:127-1:136, [1:137-1:141] |
Numbering in brown ink at the centres of the the upper margins of the rectos. Several stubs bearing fragments of text follow f. 1:136. Images of the versos of these stubs have been numbered [1:137-1:141] for the purposes of this digital catalogue record. In this catalogue record, this sequence is followed for Part 1 only (i.e. up to 1:136 and the subsequent stubs). However, in the manuscript, the sequence continues beyond that point, throughout Part 2 and ending abruptly in Part 3, as follows: 1:149-1:216, 1:217α, 1:217β, 1:217γ, 1:217δ, 1:217ε (for Part 2, ff. 2:1-73) | 1:230-1:231 (for Part 3: ff. 2:74-75).17th- plus 20th-century foliation in Parts 2, 3, and 4:
2:1-2:4, [2:4a], 2:5-2:15, [2:15a], 2:16-2:32, [2:32a], 2:33-2:73 (for Part 2) | 2:74-2:105, 2:105a, 2:106-2:112 (for Part 3) | 2:113-2:145, 2:145a, 2:146-2:160 (for Part 4) + [c-d]
Numbering in brown ink or pencil in the upper right-hand corner of the rectos. In this catalogue record, this foliation sequence is followed for Parts 2, 3, and 4. It was originally added only to Part 2 in the 17th-century and was later cropped and crossed out in many places. However, a modern hand has subsequently restored the sequence and continued it into Parts 3 and 4.16th- or 17th-century foliation in Parts 3 and 4:
'11'-'118' (for ff. 2:74-2:147)
Numbering in brown ink at the centes of the upper margins of the rectos. This foliation has been crossed out and is not followed here.16th- or 17th-century foliation in Parts 3 and 4:
'1'-'85' (for ff. 2:74-2:154)
Numbering in brown ink at the right upper corners rectos. This foliation has not been crossed out and is not followed here.16th- or 17th-century foliation in Parts 3 and 4:
'1'-'33' (for ff. 2:75-2:106)
Numbering in brown ink at the right upper corners rectos. This foliation has not been crossed out and is not followed here.16th- or 17th-century foliation in Parts 3 and 4:
'32'-'33' and '34'-'46' for ff. 2:144-2:145, 2:146-2:157
Numbering in brown ink at the right upper corners rectos. This foliation has been crossed out and is not followed here.Collation
The collation has not been established for any of the four parts.
Additions
Binding
17th- or 18th-century brown speckled leather over pasteboards. The spine with five raised bands, gold-tooled filets, a red leather label with the gold-stamped inscription: ‘LIBER MEDICAMENTORUM’ with, below, the gold-stamped inscription ‘MS’.
Binding height: 210mm; width: 145mm; depth: 40mm.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
Thomas Whalley (c. 1584-1637) , Vice-Master of Trinity College, cleric, priest, and bibliophile: his ownership inscription in the lower margin of f. 2:157v: ‘Th. Wh[a]lley possidet’.
Probably bequeathed to Cambridge, Trinity College, by Whalley in 1637. The College's current classmark (‘R.14.39’) is inscribed in pencil on the front pastedown, in brown ink on f. [i] recto, and on f. 15r. The alpha-numerical elements are printed separately onto three paper labels pasted onto the spine (not photographed). The manuscript's former classmark ‘R.8.16’ is inscribed in brown ink on f. [i] verso (crossed out). Its ex libris, featuring an engraving of its heraldic arms, motto (‘Virtus Vera Nobilitas’), and name (‘Coll: Trin: Cant:’) by William Stephens, fl. c. 1740-c. 1760 (‘W. Stephens sculp.’) pasted onto f. [i] recto. Its library stamps on ff. 1:15r, 1:136v, 2:1r, 2:16r, 2:73v, 2:74r, 2:105a recto, 2:106r, and 2:160v.
Part 1 [Cambridge, Trinity College, MS R.14.39, ff. [a], 1:15-1:126, [1:126a]-[1:126b], 1:127-1:136]
Contents
Language(s): Latin, Middle French, Italian
Contains recipes in Middle French on f. 27r.
The poem is accompanied by a table showing the twelve months and their constellations.
The date ‘1525’ is written above one recipe on f. 35v.
Several recipes are attributed to the Italian papal physician and surgeon John de Vigo [Giovanni da Vigo]: ff. 1:74r, 1:79r, 1:83v, 1:84r, and 1:102v.
Five stubs bearing fragmentary text. Only the versos of each stub have been photographed.
Physical Description
Collation
Layout
175-190 × 105-115 mm. Unruled. Single columns. c. 20-30 lines to the page.
Hand(s)
Copied by various hands working in humanistic cursive scripts.
Decoration
A small drawing of a furnace with a vessel in dark ink on f. [1:126b] recto.
History
It is possible that this part comprises further smaller codicological units of separate production, including ff. [1:126a]-[1:126b], which has texts written in French on paper with no watermarks and with the (?)16th-century folio numbers ‘112’ and ‘113’ written on them. However, it appears that these parts were joined together soon after their production.
Part 2 [Cambridge, Trinity College, MS R.14.39, ff. 2:1-2:73]
Contents
Language(s): Middle English
Added to the lower margin of the page by a late 15th or early 16th-century hand.
This collection includes a prose charm, entitled: ‘ffor þe fallyng evyll a medyson +’. It concerns a well-known charm against the Falling Sickness (epilepsy) that instructs a medical practitioner to draw blood from the patient's little finger and use it to write the names of the Three Magi (‘Jasper, Melchesar, Baltisar’) on the patient's forehead. Subsequently, the following ‘versys’ need to be written on parchment and worn around the patient's neck: ‘Jasper se it Aurum . thus Melchior Attropa mirram hic quicumque trium fert secum nomina regum soluitur a morbo dum pietate caduco’
Not recorded in the Digital Index of Middle English Verse (DIMEV) but evidently belongs to the previous collection of Middle English recipes in prose and verse.
Contains recipes for to make a patient ‘make watyr for þe ston’, ‘ffor þe kolyke’ [2 recipes], and ‘An esy medsyn and a good for a woman that travellyth for after throwys’. All have been copied by the same hand that copied the previous collection of recipes in Middle English prose and verse.
The collection has been copied by a single hand. Among remedies, it features a diagnostic recipe that is entitled ‘ffor to knowe yf a man be smyttyn in þe þe [sic] hede with a stafe yf þe panne be brokyn or natt and þe flesch hole a bovyn and not brokyn’ (f. 2:7v). Another recipe provides a remedy for a blow from a staff: ‘A good medsyne for a man þat is blastyd with a spryte to doo awey þe ache and þe swellyng’ (f. 2:8v).
The recipes are ‘for werkyngh off the Sydys’, ‘ffor the fote þat is owte of Joynte’, ‘ffor hym þat hase lost hyse speche’, ‘for werkyngh of þe hede’, ‘ffor clensyngh of the hede’, ‘for Bolnyng of þe Ere’.
Contains 17 medical recipes.
Contains 77 medical recipes.
Contains 254 medical recipes; those on ff. 2:27v and 2:28r are written in the margins of the recipe collection on ff. 19r-28r. The collection includes a number of charms (listed separately) and prognostic texts, including ‘ffor to know when a man is smetyn on þe hede with a staffe if þe pan be broeken or noght and þe flesch be bolnede and noght broken’ (f. 2:42r); ‘To wytte whedyr a man sall lyfe or dyen þat is wondyd’ (ff. 2:43r-2:43v); ‘To whyte whedyr a man lyfe or dye þat is seike and noght wondede’ (f. 2:76v); ‘ffor to whytten wheder þe dropsye ben curabyl or non’ (f. 2:44v-2:45r; ‘To knowe if a woman be wiht chyld’ (f. 2:55r); The collection includes a few female healthcare recipes, including one that is addressed to midwives: ‘Medicyn to þe þat arn a mydewyffe’ (f. 2:52v).
Full transcription.
Full transcription.
The text specifically refers to pigs, cows, and horses.
Full transcription; this charm has been crossed out.
Full transcription.
Full transcription; this charm has been crossed out.
Full transcription; this charm has been crossed out.
Full transcription; this charm has been crossed out.
Full transcription.
Full transcription attempted; partially cropped off.
Portions of the text are missing due to damage to ff. 2:71-2:73.
Physical Description
Collation
Collation unestablished.
Layout
160-175 × 110-120 mm. Ruled in ink, frame only, with occasional line ruling. Single columns. 24-30 lines to the page, written above top line.
Hand(s)
Copied by various hands working in cursive scripts with both anglicana and secretary features.
Decoration
This part of the manuscript does not contain any significant forms of decoration.
History
Part 3 [Cambridge, Trinity College, MS R.14.39, ff. 2:74-2:105, 2:105a, 2:106-2:112]
Contents
Language(s): English and Latin
Full transcription.
This is a compilation of various uroscopic works, including:
- Twenty Colors by Digestion Groups on f. 91r [see Tavormina (2014), p. 31 (no. 3.1.1c) where she notes that this copy has been "expanded to twenty-one colors by adding Subviridis after Viridis; no digestion groups named in this late copy, but the colors still follow those groupings].
- De Urinis Egrorum features on ff. 91r–98v [see Tavormina (2014), p. 96 (no. 16.5)].
- De Urinis Sanorum [The Four Complexions] on f. 91r [see Tavormina (2014), p. 67 (no. 8.3)].
- Six-Token List on f. 91v [see Tavormina (2014), p. 38 (no. 4.1.3c)].
- Cleansing of Blood on ff. 98v-99r [see Tavormina (2014), p. 35 (no. 3.3.3)].
- The Contents on ff. 99r-101r [see Tavormina (2014), p. 69 (no. 8.6)].
- Urines of Man, Woman, and Beast on ff. 101r-101v [see Tavormina (2014), p. 56 (no.7.3.4)].
- The Doom of Urine hou Shalt Cast in Four on ff. 101r-101v [see Tavormina (2014), p. 58 (no. 7.4)].
- Urine White and Brown on ff. 101v, 104v-105r [see Tavormina (2014), p. 44 (no. 5.2.1)].
- Urina Rufa on ff. 103r-104v [see Tavormina (2014), p. 33 (no. 3.2)].
- Urina Mortis Tam Hominum Quam Mulierum on f. 105r [see Tavormina (2014), p. 28 (no. 2.5b)].
- Colours of urine and their Digestions on f. 104v [see Tavormina (2014), p. 50 (no. 6.6)].
The list is accompanied by the notes: ‘Qui pro valdijs suis per diem:’, ‘habet per annum:’ and ‘Qui cap[it] per diem:’.
Not transcribed.
Added by a 16th-century hand.
Physical Description
Collation
Collation unestablished.
Layout
170-175 × 115-130 mm. Ruled in ink, vertical line of frame ruled in ink only (ff. 2:74r-2:105a). Single columns, except for ff. 2:109r-2:110v which have 2 columns. 41-43 lines to the page, written below top line (see f. 2:74r).
Hand(s)
This part of the manuscript features several hands writing in humanistic cursive scripts.
This part of the manuscript features several hands writing in cursive scripts with both anglicana and secretary features.
Decoration
This part of the manuscript does not contain any significant forms of decoration.
Additions
Dried plant material (a straw) is located in the gutter between ff. 2:114 and 2:115.
History
Provenance
Symon Newell (fl. 1526-1541) of Shipdham, Norfolk: owned the manuscript as indicated by a previously unrecorded 16th-century ownership inscription on f. 2:89r: ‘Symon Newell me possidet - Symon Newell de Shypdham in Com. Norffolk’. He may be the same Symon Newell/Nevell who in Cambridge, Trinity College, MS O.8.17 is stated to have translated it into English and copied an astrological-medical work that fills the entire manuscript (ff. 1r-119v). The prologue to this unidentified work (f. 1v) reads: ‘[crossed out: Translated and] vryten by me Symon newell in the yere of oure lorde .1535. begon þe 28 daye of marche’. A comparison of the scripts in MS O.8.17 and the ownership inscription in MS R.14.39 suggests that they may have been copied by one and the same person. He may also be the very same Symon Newell who is recorded in the for a 'debt of grace' to practice medicine in the early 16th-century accounts of the University of Cambridge (see Grace Book B: Containing the Accounts of the Proctors of the University of Cambridge, 1511-1533, Part 2, ed. by Mary Bateson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1905), p. 218 and Venn:NVL526 S).
Part 4 [Cambridge, Trinity College, MS R.14.39, ff. 2:113-2:145, 2:145a, 2:146-2:160]
Contents
Language(s): English and Latin
Added in the early 16th century. The text was later crossed out.
The collection contains a recipe, entitled the ‘flower of oyntmentes’, that is introduced as a curall for wounds and a method to draw out shards, splinters, and thorns (f. 2:155r).
Added in the 16th century.
Added by a 16th-century hand.
Added by a 16th-century hand.
Physical Description
Collation
Unestablished.
Layout
160-180 × 120-130 mm. Ruled in ink, vertical outer line of frame only (ff. 2:150r-2:157v). Single columns. 23-35 lines to the page.
Hand(s)
Copied by various cursive hands scripts with both anglicana and secretary features.
Decoration
This part of the manuscript does not contain any significant forms of decoration.
History
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. (Cambridge, 2, Cambridge University Press, 1901)
Manuscripts in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge Index of Middle English prose, Mooney, Linne R. (Woodbridge, D.S. Brewer, 1995)
Uroscopy in Middle English: A Guide to the Texts and Manuscripts Studies in medieval
and renaissance history, Tavormina, M. Teresa ([Michigan?], 2014)
Middle English Medical Recipes and Literary Play, 1375-1500, Bower, Hannah (Oxford University Press, 2022)
Funding of Cataloguing
Wellcome (cataloguing). All images provided by Trinity College, Cambridge.
Digital Images
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
