Cambridge, Trinity College, MS R.14.52
Medical treatises and recipes
Contents
Language(s): Middle English and Latin
The notes include medicines for ‘ffleme’ and ‘stoma’ (? stomach). Added in the late 15th or early 16th century. Not recorded in Mooney (1995).
Full transcription largely following Mooney (1995), p. 53. Added in the late 15th or early 16th century.
Full transcription largely following Mooney (1995), p. 53. Added in the late 15th or early 16th century.
The second recipe is for improving appetite and attributed to ‘L. Darcy’. Added in the late 15th or early 16th century.
Full transcription largely following Mooney (1995), p. 53. Added in the late 15th or early 16th century.
Full transcription as in Mooney (1995), p. 53. Added in the 16th century.
A later hand has added ‘Friar Roger Bacon’ to the top of f. 1:1r. Other 15th-century hands have added marginal notes.
As Mooney (1995) notes, the upper margin of f. 2:1r features the monogram of John de Vale, secretary to Sir Thomas Cook, Mayor of London, 1462-1463. The work consists of a prologue, followed by sixteen chapters.
The title ‘Sperme of man’ has been added by a later hand in the outer margin of f. 2:28r.
In the outer margin of f. 2:28r is written the following note: ‘Þe sperme of man. hotter etcaetera Note J D .1573.’.
The title ‘Not burne’ has been added by a later hand to the outer margin of f. 2:44r.
Full transcription as in Mooney (1995), p. 54.
The title ‘Blode lattyng’ has been added by a later hand to the outer margin of f. 2:44v.
The title ‘Oyntmentes ffor highe coloure pustules’ has been added by a later hand to the outer margin of f. 2:46r.
The title ‘Liber Creatoris’ has been added by a later hand to the outer margin of f. 2:46v. The treatise appears to have been left unfinished.
The last recipe is for ‘Broek nbone in a mans hed’.
The recipes have been added by a late 15th- or early 16th-century hand. One recipe for ‘stoppyng of flowres’ on f. 2:52v is attributed to ‘M[agister] Lewis’, perhaps Kery Lewes [Lewis] (fl. c. 1472-1510), who was a student of medicine at Cambridge and fellow of King's Hall (1472-3). C.H. Talbot and E.A. Hammond The Medical Practitioners in Medieval England: A Biographical Register (London: WEllcome Historical Medicine LIbrary, 1965), p. 204 suggest that he is the "Master Lewes" who was physician to Mary, Princess of Castille; and 'Master Lewes the Queen's physician' who occurs in accounts of Henry VII. He also received a monetary reward from King Henry VIII in 1510. Other recipes attributed to a ‘Magister Lowes, doctor in medicines’ occur in London, British Library, Harley MS 1628. In Trinity College MS R.14.52, one other recipe occurs that has been attributed to him on f. 2:138v.
The title ‘fflowres’ has been added by the same hand that added the tract to the outer margin of f. 2:51v.
According to Mooney (1995), this is a "[h]eading for a treatise on the planets, for which no text follows". However, Mooney transcribes the number that concludes the number as ‘23us’, not realising that it is a reference to f. 2:239r where a treatise on the seven planets and their influence on mankind indeed begins.
A sermon on natural monotheism added in the 16th century.
A marginal note identifies this text as ‘acon libro vjo sententiarum in iijo gradu sapiencie’ in the outer margin of f. 2:53r.
The title ‘Pronosticaciones’ has been added by a later hand to the outer margin of f. 2:62r.
Medical treatise of 45 chapters covering a wide range of subjects, including dropsy, sleep, diagnosis by urine, vomit, and spittal, citing ‘Avicen’, ‘Bartholomeus’, ‘Galienus’, ‘Iprocras’.
Mooney (1995) suggests that the treatise may be corrupt and incomplete as indicated by the scribe's errors and their decision to leave the rest of f. 104r and the two subsequent leaves (ff. 105-106) blank. The final line is illegible.
The recipes are all medical except for the first one, which provides instructions for making a ‘sered clothe’, and the final one, which provides instructions ‘þo take byrdes’.
Added by a late 15th- or early 16th-century hand.
The title ‘Thonderynges’ has been added to the outer margin on f. 2:105r.
Added by a late 15th- or early 16th-century hand.
The title ‘iij perelous mondayes’ has been added to the margin of f. 205v.
Added by a late 15th- or early 16th-century hand.
Two later hands have added marginal notes.
Added in the late 15th or early 16th century. On f. 2:136v are two recipes that are said to have been proved or made by ‘Buknam’. On f. 2:138v is a recipe for treating sores that is attributed to ‘M[agister] Lewes’ [perhaps the Cambridge-trained physician Kery Lewes, see the note accompanying ff. 2:50r-2:51v].
Added in the late 15th or early 16th century.
Added in the late 15th or early 16th century.
Full transcription as in Mooney (1995), p. 58.
Full transription.
The title ‘The dispocission of Planettes’ has been added by a later hand to the outer margin of f. 2:140r.
This text was first identified as a (unique) translation of the Tractatus de septem planetis et de duodecim signis by Mooney (1995), p. 58.
The title ‘xij. signes’ has been written in the outer margin of f. 2:140v.
The title ‘Seknesse life and dethe’ was written by a later hand in the upper margin of f. 2:143r.
The title (or subheadings) ‘Digestvy signes - iiij Compleciouns’ has been added by a later hand to the outer margin of f. 2:145r.
The treatise contains fifteen sections. As Mooney (1995) points out, section 3-14 appear elsewhere as a separate work known as the Treatise on the Elections of Times. For the latter work, see Matheson and Shannon (1995).
Incomplete copy of the English Long Version of John of Burgundy's De epidemia with Astrological Prologue.
The title ‘Medicyns ffor pestlence’ was added by a later hand to the outer margin of f. 2:158r.
On ff. 2:173a verso-2:173d verso, the treatise features drawings of 20 urine flasks (jordans) decorated with gold and colours. Their accompanying instructions are written by a different hand, but the illustrations clearly belong to the treatise as they are introduced by the main hand on f. 2:172v: ‘Whan thow hast considered al this tofore declared I shal shewe the vrynes and the colours bi picture as hereafter folowith’.
This is an abbreviated rescension of the medical compendium that was translated by the cleric 'Austin' for Thomas Plouden (d. 1413), a London citizen and barber-surgeon of the parish of All Hallows the Great, and that can be found almost complete in Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College, MS 176/97 [see Voigts (1989)), p. 382; Mooney (1995), p. 60; Tavormina (2014), p. 96 (no. 17.0)].
This treatise contains several embedded uroscopic items: ff. 2:170r-2:170v contain the first half of chapter 1 of an abridged version of Henry Daniel's Liber Uricrisiarum [see Tavormina (2014), p. 91 (no. 15.3)]; ff. 2:170v-2:172v contain a list of the Twenty Colours of Urine [see Tavormina (2014), p. 47 (no. 6.2c)]; ff. 2:172v-2:173r contain an abbreviated version of the Cleansing of Blood [see Tavormina (2014), p. 34 (no. 3.3.2a)]; ff. 2:173r-2:173v contain the Practica Urinarum [see Tavormina (2014), p. 75 (no. 11.2)]; and ff. 2:173a verso-2:173d verso contain The Twenty-Jordan Series (Rufus incipit), [see Tavormina (2005), no. 38; Tavormina (2014), p. 19 (no. 1.3)].
Remedy for haemorrhoids, dropsy and menstrual flow on f. 2:173a verso, full transcription: This betokynneth the emerawdis . the dropsy and passyng of flouris. Medicina: Recipe hony and seth it til it be harde and put therto poudir of cene and gynger and make a plaster of dewte and wyn. And if it be the flouris ley it on her navyl. |Full translation:|This betokens haemorrhoids, dropsy and menstrual flow. Medicine: Take honey and boil it till it be hard and put thereto powder of senna and ginger and make a plaster of deute and wine; and if it be the [menstrual] flows, lay it on her navel. [Deute is an ointment typically containing marshmallow roots and other herbal and animal ingredients.]
Remedy for gout, a cramp in the kidneys, and an abscess in the heart or stomach on f. 2:173b verso, full transcription: |A gout a cramp in the reynes in the hert a postum a postum in the stomac. Medicina: Recipe the bone in the hert of an hert and make therof poudir and drynk it and take an electuari that is called diacameron and vse it. |Full translation:| A gout, a cramp in the kidneys, an abscess in the heart or stomach Take the bone in the heart of a male deer and make thereof powder and drink it. And take an electuary that is called Diacameron and use it. [Diacameron isone of two formulations mixed with honey, as described in the Antidotarium Nicholai.]
Added after the main text of the preceding treatise on the diagnosis and treatment of disease and before its illustrations of urine flasks.
The Six-Token List occurs on ff. 2:175r-2:175v [see Tavormina (2007), pp. 634, 636, 647, 651-65; Tavormina (2014), p. 37 (no. 4.1.3c)]. The text ends imperfectly.
The title ‘Names of Yerbis and Spicis’ has been written by a later hand to the outer margin of f. 2:201r.
The title ‘Collica passio’ has been added by a later hand to the outer margin of f. 2:213v.
The last recipe is an instruction for making a ‘Cered Clothe ffor a Brossure’.
The treatise contains excerpts from Geoffrey Chaucer's Treatise on the Astrolabe on ff. 2:231v-2:234r.
Blank spaces throughout the treatise indicate that drawings of the described scientific instruments were originally planned but never executed.
The title or subheading ‘Makyng of a speer etcaetera’ was added by a later hand to the outer margin of f. 2:215r.
The treatise's chapters end with reference to a certain Multon: ‘Quod Multon’ occurs on ff. 2:215r [with the date 1458], 2:217r, 2:219r, 2:222r. The signatures may refer to the London stationer John Multon (d. 1475). The latter may be the 'Hammond Scribe' [see Origin] but Mooney (1995) thinks this unlikely since his name only occurs in this text and not in any other texts in this or other manuscripts copied by the Hammond Scribe. Instead, Mooney suggests that Multon was the source of this work.
Full transcription as in Mooney (1995). Added by a late 15th- or 16th-century hand.
Added in the 16th century.
The treatise features additional notes and drawings by John Fortho who gives his name in his first annotation in which he comments on the ‘example’ described in the text: ‘The example wantinge: I thought good to adde it Joh: Fortho’. Two of Fortho's geometrical drawings have been added in the outer margin of f. 2:254r (one drawn on the page and the other on a paper pastedown). He added a third larger pastedown with a diagram that shows ‘The arche ye tree toppe makes in his fall’ on a blank space below the text on f. 254v. He signs his note below the diagram with his name: ‘John Fortho’. Subsequently, he adds notes with the heading: ‘So Friar Baon explained’. These notes spill over onto the lower margin of the next page, f. 2:255r.
The table consists of columns with the names of the month written above them and rows with numbers indicating the days of the months.
A full-page drawing of two palms of the left hand. On the left, a hand shows how musical notes correspond to solfège syllables; and, on the right, a hand shows how the notes on the hand on the left correspond with music notation (neumes). Below the hand is a banderol with a verse that may have been derived from Guido of Arezzo's Micrologusare. Below are two four-lines staves with neumes in red and black ink.
The text is presented in a triangular table.
A triangular table.
A triangular table showing the different neumes and their duration.
As Mooney (1995) notes, the introduction gives 1307 for the Almanak's translation (three times) but the final rubric gives 1347.
The titles ‘Nativite of man’ and ‘Planetes’ have been added by two early annotaters in the outer margin of f. 2:259r.
The title ‘Thonder’ has been added by a later hand to the outer margin of f. 2:260v.
The title ‘of þe erth’ is written in the outer margin of f. 2:261r.
The table consists of six columns with the following headings: ‘Coniunctio’, ‘Sextilis’, ‘Quartus’, ‘Trinus’, ‘Oppositus’. The colum has six rows with the following headings: ‘Saturnus’, ‘Jubiter’, ‘Mars’, ‘Sol’, ‘Venus’, and ‘Mercurius’.
The first recipe is incomplete due to the loss of f. 2:263. One recipe on f. 2:264r is attributed to a certain ‘Sutton’ (outer margin). Another recipe, entitled ‘A comfortatief Roiall’, on f. 2:265r is attributed to ‘Maister Rogier Necton Doctour’, referring to Roger Necton (d. 1484), who studied medicine at the University of Oxford and was a Doctor of Medicine by 1446. He was rector of St Mary Woolnoth, City of London, from 1464 until 1484. On f. 2:266r is a recipe for purging and on f. 2:266v is an ‘electuarie’ that are both attributed to a certain ‘Magister Mathew’.
Added by a 16th-century hand.
Unfinished and fragmentary (‘[Savenstom] and boiled with war and turputin’). Added by a 16th-century hand.
The recipes are headed ‘Pulius Triasandali’, ‘Pulius pro pectore’, ‘Pulius peregrini’. On the reverse of f. 2:[266a] verso is written the single title (vertically): ‘Triasaundala’ in reference to the first recipe.
The recipes were added in the late 15th or early 16th century. Several of them have been attributed to named medical pracitioners:
- a plaster for phlegm and swelling on f. 2:[266a] verso is attributed to a certain ‘Bagshawe’ [Mooney (1993), p. 1029 fn. 12 suggests that he may have been Robert Bekynsaw, fellow of Michaelhouse in the early 16th century, and president of Queen's College from 1508 to 1519 and chaplain and almoner to Queen Catherine by 1509]
- two recipes for treating aches on f. 2:267v are said to have been proved by ‘M Pollen’
- a recipe to heal a sore on f. 2:267v is said to have been proved by the ‘wif of þe georg’
- a recipe to cure farcy in a horse on f. 2:268r is attributed to a ‘Henry Shepard’
- a recipe to treat ‘shakyng aksis’ on f. 2:268r is attributed to a ‘J yevans’
- a recipe to treat pain in a woman's back on f. 2:268r is attributed to ‘Clawdius the wif de Cottyngham’ [Mooney (1993), p. 1029 fn. 12 suggests that this attribution refers to a local medical practitioner in Cottenham, Cambridgeshire]
- a water for ‘psalsy ffransy collyk grawyng at ones hert’on f. 2:268v is attributed to a ‘Magister fflemyng’ [Mooney (1993), p. 1029 fn. 12 thinks it probable that he is John Flemyng, fellow of Pembroke Hall in 1450-1457, treasurer of Pembroke Hall in 1451-1453, senior proctor of the University in 1453-54. From 1457, Flemyng served the future King Edward Iv and remained in royal service from his accession in 1461 until 1468, first as his clerk and chaplain and after that as his proctor at the Roman curia]
- a recipe for ‘a gret ache iche or scate and a gret kelere in manys leg’ on f. 2:268v is said to have been proved in death by ‘my lord Bornes’
- a recipe for a medicinal water on f. 2:269v is attributed to ‘Magister fflemyng’ [see above]
- a recipe for ‘to breke ffleme’ on f. 2:269v is attributed to ‘Henry Sheppard’
- a recipe for treating ‘awes in annus’ on f. 2:269v is said to have been ‘per B wif proved’
- a recipe for treating gout on f. 2:270r is attributed to ‘Dauid Rekamtsal’ [‘Recampstall’]
- a recipe on f. 2:270v is said to have been used by ‘magister Morys’ to heal the leg of ‘Richard Merwyn’
- a recipe for ‘Morffew’ on f. 2:272r is attributed to ‘Magister Arthur Darcy’
Full transcription. Added in the late 15th- or 16th century. The scribe appears to have left the legend about the balm of Mary Magdalene unfinished and potentially crossed the written text out.
Added in the late 15th- or 16th century.
List for the years 1519-1529 providing the dates of Easter for these years, their Golden Numbers and Dominical Letters; added in the early 16th century.
Full transcription; added by the hand of Henry Dyngley (b. c. 1515-d. 1589) of Charlton, Cropthorne, Worcestershire, probably after 1573.
Full transcription. Added by in the early 16th century.
Full transcription. Added in the late 15th- or 16th century.
Added in the late 15th- or 16th century.
Full transcription.
The recipe is signed by Thomas Sandy (‘Thomas S’) who seems to have copied it into this manuscript. The same hand also copied a plague recipe on f. 2:272r.
The recipe is signed by Thomas Sandy (‘Per Thomas Sandy’) who seems to have copied it into this manuscript. He also copied a recipe for ‘a gleyster for the Colyke’ on f. 2:270v.
Similar or identical recipes attributed to a ‘King’ can be found in other manuscripts, including: Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Ashmole 1444: ‘ A medisone for the plage which the Kinges grace sent my lord Mayer of London’; Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Ashmole 1447: ‘The Kinges medicine to defend from the pestilence’; Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Rawlinson C 816: ‘A soverayne good medycyne for the plague or pestilence whyche Kynge Henry the VIIth used’; and San Marino, Huntington Library, HM 144: ‘medesyn that the kyngis grace vsythe every day for the raynyng seknys’.
Full transcription. Added in the late 15th- or 16th century. Mooney (1995) misidentifies this text as a heraldic motto and transcribes the final words as a person's name: ‘Riro [Ricardo?] Roos’.
Full transcription. Added in the late 15th- or 16th century.
Full transcription. Added in the late 15th- or 16th century.
Physical Description
15th-century foliation in Arabic numerals; supplemented by modern foliation
[a]-[d] + [i] + 1:1-1:5 [continued below]
Arabic numerals in brown ink in the upper right-hand corners of the rectos of ff. 1:2, 1:3, and 1:4; with foliation added in pencil by a modern foliator to leaves 1:1 and 1:5. Folios [a] and [c] are blank paper flyleave; f. [b] is a cut leaf; and f. [d] is a torn leaf.15th-century foliation by the 'Hammond Scribe' [see Origin] in Roman numerals supplemented by modern foliation:
[continued from above] 2:1-2:173, 2:173a-2:173d, 2:174-2:256, 2:256a-2:256b, 2:257-2:262, 2:264-266, 2:[266a], 2:267-2:270, 2:272 + [e]-[h]
Roman numerals in dark ink in the upper right-hand corners of all rectos except for added leaves; the latter have Roman numerals added in pencil by a modern foliator: ‘2:173a’-‘2:173d’; ‘2:256a’-‘2:256b’.
Folio 2:[266a] is a smaller paper leaf (170 x 145 mm) that has been sewn with white thread to the verso of f. 2:266 at their lower ends.
This catalogue record follows this foliation and ignores older folio references that have been added to the supplemented leaves by later hands: the Arabic numeral ‘173’ (? 17th century) to f. 2:173a; and ‘CClvij’-‘CClvj’ (? late 15th/early 16th century) to ff. 2:256a-2:256b.
Folio [e] is a torn paper flyleaf; f. [f] a leaf from a printed book; f. [g] is a stub from the preceding leaf; f. [h] is a blank paper flyleaf. A blank paper stub between [g] and [h] has not been digitised.
For reference purposes in this electronic catalogue record, and in correspondence with scholarship on this manuscript, all Roman numerals have been converted to Arabic numerals.
In order to distinguish between overlapping numbering, the two foliation sequences are prefaced in this record by '1:' and '2:'.
Collation
- Quire 1five (ff. 1:1-1:5)
- Quires 2-712 (ff. 2:1-2:84)
- Quire 810 (ff. 2:85r-2:94v)
- Quires 9-1512 (ff. 2:95r-2:166v)
- Quire 1612+4 (ff. 2:167-2:178: 2 bifolia added between the 7th and 8th leaves)
- Quires 17-2212 (ff. 2:179-2:250)
- Quire 2312+2 (ff. 2:251-2:262: 1 bifolium added between the 6th and 7th leaves)
- Quire 248-1 (ff. 2:64-2:270: 1st leaf missing)
1five 2-712 810 9-1512 1612+4 (2 bifolia added between 7th and 8th) 17-2212 2312+2 (1 bifolium added between 6th and 7th) 248-1 (1st missing)
Catchwords in brown ink at the centres of the lower margins of the last versos of quires (except for Quires 1, 10, 13, 19, 21, 23, and 24).Layout
180-190 × 120-130 mm. Ruled in brown and purple ink, frame and line ruling. Mainly single columns (except ff. 2:201v-2:222r which have two columns). 35-40 lines to the page, written below top line.
Hand(s)
The original manuscript has been copied by a single scribe, the so-called 'Hammond Scribe' (see Origin), in a cursive script with both anglicana and secretary features.
The 'Hammond Scribe' used a display script for titles and introductions (e.g. 2:1r), opening words of texts (e.g. f. 2:3r), and Latin quotations (e.g. f. 2:5v), comprising a large module textualis script.
Folios 2:52r-2:52v are copied by a 16th-century hand in a cursive script with predominantly secretary features.
Folios 1:1r-1:1v, 2:50r-2:52r, 2:103r-2:106v, 2:135r-2:138v, 2:214r-2:214v, [2:265a] verso-[2:271] recto contain additional texts (mostly medical recipes) by late 15th- or early 16th-century hands writing in cursive scripts with both anglicana and secretary features.
Four recipes added to the lower half of f 2:265v were copied by a 16th-century hand in a cursive script with predominantly secretary features.
Two recipes added to the the bottom of f 2:270v and one recipe added to the lower half of f. 2:272r were copied by the 16th-century hand of Thomas Sandy in a script with both anglicana and secretary features.
Decoration
Two Guidonian hands in dark ink with text and music notation in black and red ink on f. 256a recto.
Twenty urine flasks (jordans) drawn in brown ink with different types of urine as highlighted by the use of colours and gold on ff. 2:173a verso-2:173d recto.
Decorative banderols in brown ink for the rubricated headings above drawings of twenty urine flasks (jordans) on ff. 2:173a verso-2:173d recto.
Large (2-lines) red initials in frameworks of blue penwork decoration with pen-flourishing in the same colour extending into the margins.
Small (1 line) plain initials in red ink.
Titles and sub-headings written in red ink.
Regular initials in brown ink highlighted in yellow throughout.
Paraphs in red ink; but those in the text that accompanies the drawings of twenty urine flasks (jordans) on ff. 2:173a recto-2:173d verso alternate between blue and red ink.
Binding
(?)17th-century binding consisting of brown leather blind-stamped with decorative frames over pasteboards; re-backed and the spine gold-stamped with the title inscription: ‘ROGER BACON ON THE ACCIDENTS OF OLD AGE.’. Red-speckled fore, head, and tail edges.
Binding height: 290 mm; width: 215 mm; depth: 70 mm.
The binding is accompanied by flyleaves (ff. [f]-[g]) and pastedowns taken from 1 Maccabees as published in The Cambridge Paragraph Bible of the Authorized English Version with the Text Revised by a Collation of Its Early and other Principal Editions, the Use of the Italic Type Made Uniform, the Marginal References Remodelled, and a Critical Introduction Prefixed, ed. by F. H. Scrivener (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1873).
Accompanying Material
A loose piece of paper is kept with the manuscript (see letter) that is inscribed in pencil (‘with R.14.52’) and contains an undated typed note on the will of John Furthoe of Cambridge, Doctor of Physicke, that was sent to ‘Mr Greg’, i.e. Sir Walter Wilson Greg (1875-1959), Librarian at Trinity College Library from 1907 until 1913.
History
Copied by the so-called 'Hammond Scribe' between 1458 and c. 1485. The anonymous scribe is named after the Chaucer-scholar Eleanor Prescott Hammond (1866–1933) who first identified their hand in five manuscripts (see Hammond (1905) and Hammond (1929)). Subsequently, scholars have identified ten more manuscripts that were copied by the scribe (see Doyle (1959) and Mooney (2006)). Aside from this manuscript, their hand occurs in the following manuscripts:
- Cambridge, Trinity College, MS R.3.21
- Cambridge, Trinity College, MS O.3.11
- London, British Library, Add MS 29901
- London, British Library, Add MS 34360
- London, British Library, Arundel MS 59
- London, British Library, Cotton MS Claudius A.viii
- London, British Library, Harley MS 78
- London, British Library, Harley MS 372
- London, British Library, Harley MS 2251
- London, British Library, Harley MS 4999
- London, British Library, Royal MS 17 D.xv
- London, Royal College of Physicians, MS 388
- Oxford, Bodleian Library, Rawlinson D.913
- Worcester, Cathedral Library, MS F.172
As Mooney (2006) notes, the Hammond Scribe appears to have worked as a clerk in the household of Sir Thomas Cook, member of the Drapers' Company and Mayor of London in 1462-63, possibly under the supervision of his secretary John Vale. The latter's initials occur in a blue and red monograms(‘QJVALe’ for ‘Quod John Vale’) at the top of f. 2:1r. As Matheson (2006), I: pp. 65-93, argues, the scribe's spellings suggest that they originated from West Essex although they also used spelling forms occuring in sources from the Central Midlands and London. The dating for the scribe's work is based on two works that they copied into this manuscript: 1. A treatise on making and using scientific instruments that refers to a certain ‘Multon’ (ff. 2:215r, 2:217r, 2:219r, 2:222r) with the date 1458 (f. 2:215r); 2. A medical recipe that is attributed to the physician Roger Necton who died in 1484. Although scholars have suggested that ‘Multon’ may refer to the Hammond Scribe's name, it is also possible that he was the author or translator of the treatise (see Mooney (2006), I: pp. 55-63).
Provenance and Acquisition
John Vale (fl. c. 1460-1480) , steward and secretary to Sir Thomas Cook, draper and Mayor of London in 1462-3: a monogram with his initials ‘QJVALe’ for ‘Quod John Vale’ at the top of f. 2:1r may indicate his ownership of this manuscript. There is some doubt since, as Mooney (2006) points out, ‘quod’ usually indicates an author, translator, or scribe. John Vale's monogram also occurs in London, British Library, Harley MS 2251 (f. 175r) and Worcester, Cathedral Library, MS F.172 (f. 169v). He identifies himself in signatures as the scribe of London, British Library, Add MS 48031 A.
John Brampton [Bampton] (fl. 1450-1550) : his (erased) ownership inscription in a heraldic coat of arms with a merchant's mark and motto on f. 2:272v: ‘Iste liber constat Johannis B[r]ampton’. Gross (1996), pp. 110-111 fn. 68 proposes that he must have been related to the family of fishmongers and wool merchants descended from the alderman William Brampton. A John Brampton held a tenement near Bishopsgate from the Hospital of St Bartholomew and was auditor of the accounts of the Wardens of London Bridget in arrear in 1467. The latter was MP for London in 1472-5, collector of the Petty Custom until 1483, and royal pensioner in 1485-6. Evidence for this identification can be found in Cambridge, Trinity College, O.3.11, another manuscript copied by the Hammond Scribe, which features a copy of a legal document with reference to a ‘John Brampton’ at ff. 101r-101v.
Janet Forster (fl. late 15th century) : her name written a late 15th-century hand in the outer margin of f. 2:140v: ‘Jenet fforster’. As Pahta (2006) notes, this may refer to the daughter of Sir Thomas Cook, Joan, who married John Forster.
Thomas Sandy [Sandye] (fl. 16th century) : his name occurs in the lower margin of f. 2:135r: ‘Thomas Sandye’; and below two recipes in his hand on f. 2:270v and f. 2:272r. The name ‘Thomas Sandy’ also occurs in Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Rawlinson B. 173 (ff. 144r, 200r).
Henry Dyngley (1515-1589) , of Cropthorne, Worcestershire, collector of medieval manuscripts: owned and annotated the manuscript. He added his initials: ‘HD 1573’ on f. 2:28r; his name ‘Henry Dyneley’ on f. 2:269r; the date of easter in the year 1573 to f. 2:269r. For his other notes see Pahta (2006), p. 12. For further details about Dyngley and his collection of manuscripts, see Old Books, New Science as part of the The Making and Knowing Project: Research and Teaching Companion.
William Haekins [Hawkins] (fl. c. 1560-1580) , vicar of Bridge Sollers, Herefordshire (1561-1586): owned or accessed the manuscript; copied a brief sermon about natural monotheism on blank spaces on ff. 2:52r-2:52v.
Margaret Capell (fl. 16th century) : her name, smudged or partially erased, occurs in a (?) 16th-century inscription on f. 2:139r: ‘per me Margaret Capell’ [also transcribed as ‘Capett’: see Pahta 2006]. She is unidentified but there was, for example, a Margaret Capell (1594-1667) of Little Hadham, Hertfordshire.
M.R. (fl. 1587) : their name inscribed in the lower margin of f. 2:139r: ‘God sau Elizabeth ouer Noble Queen may the 23th Ano Domini 1587 - MR’.
Edward Fortho [Furthoe] (fl. late 16th century): owned or accessed the manuscript. His name inscribed in a note on f. 2:244r (upper margin): ‘Per me Edward Furtho sonn to William Furtho grocer in the old chaindge in londoun at the roase and croune in the old chaindge’.
John Fortho [Furthoe] (d. 1633), M.A., M.D., Fellow and Senior Bursar of Trinity College: owned the manuscript, and added his name (‘Joh: Fortho’) and initials to geometrical drawings and notes he added to f. 2:254r-2:255r (lower margin); also added marginal notes and underlinings to ff. 2:156r, 2:157r-2:157v, 2:173c verso, and 2:242v (and other locations).
Bequeathed to Trinity College by John Fortho [Furthoe] (d. 1633), M.A., M.D., Fellow and Senior Bursar of Trinity College. In his will of 22 January 1633 (proved on 5 March of that year), Fortho stipulates that the Master and Fellows of Trinity College can select 'twenty of my best books whereof I shalbe possessed of at my death being such as then have not already in their Colledge Library to be delivered to them at their choyce within sixe moneths after my decease. And if they shall make choyce of Fryer Bacons manuscript for one of them, then my will and minde is that if at any time hereafter the trew owner of the same that can make true and lawfull challenge therevnto and proove it his owne, will not be contented or intreated to give the originall manuscript to the said Colledge Library then I desire the said Master and ffellowes at their owne charge to cause the same to be fayrely copied out and the same copy to be and remaine in the said Colledge library' [see Kew, The National Archives, PROB 11/163/269; cited in Pahta (1998), p. 141]. The manuscript is listed as no. 539 in the list of manuscripts in Bernard, Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliæ et Hiberniæ (1697), I, part 3. The alpha-numerical elements of its current classmark are printed on three labels pasted onto the spine (‘R.14.52’), inscribed in pencil on the inside of the front cover. Its printed ex libris featuring its armorial coat of arms and name (‘Collegium S.S. et Individuae Trinitatis in Academia Cantabrigiensi’) pasted on f. [i] verso. Its modern library stamp on ff. 1:1r, 2:270v, [ii] verso.
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Custodial History
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Funding of Cataloguing
Wellcome (cataloguing). All images provided by Trinity College, Cambridge.
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