Medieval Manuscripts in Cambridge Libraries

A catalogue of Western manuscripts and papyri at Cambridge University Library, the Fitzwilliam Museum and selected Cambridge colleges

Cambridge, University Library, MS Add. 9308

Medical recipes and charms

Contents

Introduction: Compilations of recipes - often referred to as 'receptaria' - survive in great numbers from the late medieval period. This is one of several examples among the manuscript collections of Cambridge University Library. It was made around the late 14th or early 15th century and contains over two hundred separate medical recipes, as well as several performative rituals or charms that were likewise designed to heal the sick or aid someone at a time of distress. Each recipe begins with a rubric or title, which describes the illness that it will treat. They are almost all written in Middle English, bearing witness to the circulation of medical knowledge in the vernacular language of the day. Some of the charms, and the occasional rubric, are written in Latin, suggesting that some degree of literacy in that language was expected as well. Recipes in such compilations are commonly arranged in approximate head-to-toe order. The first in this manuscript deal with headache, cleansing of the head, 'vanity' of the head (i.e. dizziness), 'evil hearing' (i.e. deafness), clearing the sight or red eyes, watering eyes and so forth (f. 1v onwards). They continue down through the body, addressing aching or swelling in the legs and feet, shingles and 'wildefer' (i.e. erysipelas) (ff. 8v-9r). However, there then follows a series of miscellaneous recipes, covering everything from fevers and snake-bites to gout and sores, before starting again with problems of the head: 'þe web in þe ye' (i.e. a film or cataract on the eye), head ache, swelling or scalding of the head and so on, before moving on to other parts of the body (f. 17r onwards). Treatments for specifically female ailments are common throughout and are not placed separately. They include cures for aching in the womb and the 'menisoun' (period pain and bleeding, ff. 6r-6v), soreness in the breasts (ff. 42v, 46r) and swelling in the womb (f. 46v). There is also a charm 'for womman þat trauaileth of child' (i.e. having a difficult labour), which invokes the names of important female saints and their saintly children: St Mary, who bore Christ; St Anna, who bore Mary; St Elizabeth, who bore St John the Baptist; St Cecilia, who bore St Remigius, and so on (ff. 49r-50r). These are known as 'peperit' charms, from the third person past tense form of the Latin verb 'parere', 'to give birth to'. As many of these examples show, a large part of the contents of this manuscript is concerned with mundane ailments. Some of the remedies are also cosmetic, attesting to a desire to improve one's appearance: how to get rid of freckles (which could be misinterpreted as signs of a disease) (f. 17v), to whiten one's teeth (f. 26r) or face (f. 13v), or solve bad breath (ff. 26r-26v). The recipes mention common household ingredients such as milk, honey, wine or vinegar and animal fats, herbs such as rue, tansy, fennel, sage or rosemary, and plants such as speedwell, hollyhock or betony. The preparatory techniques are simple, often involving stamping, beating, mixing, tempering and boiling the ingredients together, which processes would require the same basic household equipment used for cooking food. More serious illnesses or injuries are also mentioned, with treatments for rankled wounds (ff. 44v, 81v), canker on a woman's breast (f. 46r), bleeding (f. 86v), dysentery (f. 32v) and broken bones (f. 73r) providing vivid, sometimes visceral, reminders of the pain and precarity of medieval life. There are also a few diagnostic guides, to determine whether a skull has been fractured or not (f. 41r), to find out where canker breeds (f. 51r), or to know whether a wounded or a sick man shall live or die (ff. 43r-43v). The recipes often conclude with claims as to their efficacy, with formulaic statements such as 'Thou schalt be hool' (i.e. whole / well; ff. 2r, 4r, 6r, etc), 'on warantise' (i.e. guaranteed; ff. 17r, 78r, 82v), 'probatum est' (i.e. proven; f. 37v). Occasionally, medical authorities are cited: 'a drink for al maner feueres or postumes (i.e. abscesses) or what siknesse is within þe body' is attributed to 'ypocras philosophus' (i.e. Hippocrates; ff. 28r-29r). Towards the end, there are clustered together three recipes for 'gracia dei' that come with endorsements by more recent figures: 'lady behamp þe erles wif of warwik' (f. 78v), 'þe good Erl of herford...þat was holde a noble surgien' (f. 79v), and 'obkyn fermory of knesworth' (f. 80v). Kneesworth is a village north of Royston in Hertfordshire. Comprison with other, similar compilations indicates that the copyist of this manuscript misread his exemplar (or was working from a faulty one): in Cambridge, Trinity College, MS O.1.13, f. 58v , the rubric instead attributes the recipe to 'hopkyn of þe fermorye of kenelworth' (i.e. someone called 'Hopkyn' at the infirmary in Kenilworth, a town in Warwickshire). As other examples from the Curious Cures in Cambridge Libraries project illustrate, receptaria manuscripts often bear the signs of home-made production, suggesting copying and compilation by medical practitioners themselves (see, for example, Cambridge, University Library, MS Add. 9309 ). MS Add. 9308, meanwhile, offers a noteworthy contrast. Its layout is uniform, with a writing frame and sixteen lines ruled neatly on each page; the text is written by a practised hand in a consistent semi-formal Anglicana formata script; and the rubrics are neatly underlined in red ink. There are decorative flourishes too: initials painted in blue at the beginning of each recipe, including two larger ones at the start that are accompanied by marginal pen-flourishing and infill in red ink of a sort typical in late medieval manuscripts. All in all, the material evidence points to this manuscript being a professional production. Textual evidence may be adduced to suggest further that it was made not necessarily in response to a specific commission, but was one of multiple copies made speculatively for sale to potential customers, as a compendium of all of the useful household medical knowledge that one could need. Before the recipes begin, the scribe has copied a short poem (f. 1r), which introduces the contents of the book to its reader and explains its usefulness, much like a modern-day publisher's 'blurb': |Þe man þat wele of lechecraft lere| Rede ouer þis bok and he may here| Many a medicyn boþ good and trewe| to hele sores boþ olde and newe| Heryn arn medicines withoute fable| To hele alle sores þat arn curable| Of swerd knif and of arue| Be þe wounde wyd or narue| Of spere of quarel of dagger of dart| to make him hol in eche part...| MS Add. 9308 is one of a group containing a similar collection of recipes (for example comparisons and further discussion, see the introduction to Cambridge, Emmanuel College, MS 95 ). Nothing is known of the origins of the manuscript, however, and the date of its production can only be an estimate based on the style of handwriting. At a very early stage, perhaps before the manuscript was first bound, a quire of six leaves was added to the beginning, onto to which another, less neat hand began to insert of a table of contents. This scribe copied out the rubrics for each recipe, bracketing them together where they occurred on the same leaf, and keying these to the folio numbers he added to the leaves in the main part of the manuscript. Such apparatus initially developed in earlier centuries and primarily in texts for formal academic study. This addition to MS Add. 9308 illustrates not only that they had spread by the fifteenth century to manuscripts produced for wider consumption, but also that their function and use was intuitive to late-medieval readers who desired ready-reference access to the contents of their books. The manuscript also points not only to widening literacy in lay society, but also to a growing appetite for access to medical knowledge: a demand mediated by the commercial production of small, portable, affordable (though not necessarily cheap) books, whose contents were written primarily in the vernacular, and aimed at readers without formal medical training, who were nevertheless aware of and wished to understand and treat illness. The leaves that were left blank at the time of production were nonetheless ruled and ready for copying, whether for the completion of a table of contents at the beginning or perhaps the addition of further remedies at the end. Many of these were were later filled with scribbles and pen-trials, among which is an inscription by a 16th-century hand that attests to the early ownership of the manuscript: 'Thys ys thomas hullis boke of stebbyng' (f. i recto; the same name is repeated on f. iv recto). Stebbing is a village in Essex, and the Hull family was a longstanding presence there during the 15th and 16th centuries, with numerous Thomas Hulls recorded in manorial and other documents. One is mentioned in a court record of 1538 as the owner of property in the village's main street, with further occurrences in the records in subsequent years. A will in the name of Thomas Hull, mercer, is dated 1558, and also mentions a son by the same name. The son may be the Thomas recorded in court records of 1584 as 'recently deceased'; again, his son is named Thomas. One or other of these may have been the owner, however it may be that the 'Thomas Hull of Stebbing' who inscribed MS Add. 9308 is also the signatory of an indenture of a lease from 1553 (now Essex Record Office, D/DVx/6 ). Not only is the style of handwriting in both closely similar, but also Thomas Hull is styled in the lease as 'Thomas Hull the elder, barbour' - a title commonly applied at this time to healers and practitioners of minor surgery. (My thanks to Professor Lawrence Poos of the Catholic University of America and to Graham Jolliffe of Stebbing Local History Society for this information). Dr James Freeman|Medieval Manuscripts Specialist|Cambridge University Library

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: Parchment
Extent: Codex: 6 + 90 leaves. 105 × 85 mm.
Foliation:

Early 21st-century foliation:

i-vi + 1-90

Numbering in pencil in the upper right-hand corner of the rectos, by J.S. Ringrose . This sequence is followed in this description.
Foliation:

15th-century foliation (incomplete):

i-xx (for ff. 1-20)

Numbering in ink in the upper right-hand corner of the rectos, by a 15th-century hand.
Foliation:

16th-century foliation (incomplete):

21-27, xxviii-lxi (for ff. 21-61)

Numbering in ink in the upper right-hand corner of the rectos, by a 16th-century hand.

Collation

The manuscript comprises 13 quires, mainly of 8 leaves. The first quire is of separate though near-contemporary production. Disruption to the text suggests the loss of a quire after Quire 12, though it is unclear whether or not Quire 13 was of separate production or merely reflect a change in scribal hand.

  • Quire 16 (ff. i-vi) |
  • Quires 2-118 (ff. 1-80)
  • Quire 124 (ff. 81-84)
  • Quire 136 (ff. 85-90)

Additions

Quire signatures ('†, a-m') in the bottom right-hand corner of the recto side of the first leaf of each quire, and '+' in the same position on the first leaf after the centre of the quire, written in pencil by J.S. Ringrose , as part of the cataloguing of the manuscript, c. 2019.

Binding

Conserved and rebound at Cambridge University Library by Shaun Thompson in 2023. Alum-tawed goatskin over quarter-sawn beech boards. Sewn in herringbone with best common unbleached linen thread on four single flat alum-tawed supports, with integral primary endbands. A loose alum-tawed goatskin liner (bonnet) was slit at the sewing stations. A tertiary endband in alternating doubles of white and green silk was sewn under the secondary and through the bonnet and cover. New endleaves of two parchment bifolia, with linen and alum-tawed hinges, sewn all along.

17th- or 18th-century pasteboards, covered in brown leather. Blind-tooled panel in double fillet on both.

Accompanying Material

A piece of paper pasted inside the front cover: 'Written in the reign of Henry VI that is, at the beginning of the 15th century. Compare Astle origin of Writing Tab. XXVII.14'. Upside down at the foot of this: 'This was the Lady Bechamp the Erles wife of Warwick [...] and 77 when she lived'.

History

Provenance and Acquisition

'Thys ys thomas hullis boke of stebbyng' (f. i recto; repeated in part on f. iv recto): Stebbing is a village in Essex and numerous Thomas Hulls are attested in manorial and other records relating to it. One or other of these may have been the owner, however it may be that the 'Thomas Hull of Stebbing' who inscribed MS Add. 9308 is also the signatory ' Thomas Hull the elder ' of an indenture of a lease from 1553 (now Essex Record Office, D/DVx/6 ). Not only is the style of handwriting in both closely similar, but also Thomas Hull is styled in the lease as 'Thomas Hull the elder, barbour', a title commonly applied at this time to practitioners of medicine and minor surgery.

'5.5.0': unidentified ?pressmark (probably not a price, if £5 5s, perhaps if 5s 5d), though it is possible the annotation may be unrelated to the manuscript.

Acquired by Cambridge University Library at Bonham's, 23 May 1995, lot 202.

Part 1: Table of contents [Cambridge, University Library, MS Add. 9308, ff. i-vi]

Contents

Language(s): Middle English

1. i verso-iii recto
Table of contents (incomplete)
Rubric: i verso This is þe calender of þe medecynes in þis book wreten
Incipit: i verso For þe heued ache
Explicit: iii recto For to make þe face whiȝt

Added on a separate quire and copied by a different but closely contemporary hand to the main text. Recipes are grouped together by numbered braces, which relate to contemporary foliation in the main text.

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: ii recto To stroye thoth ache
Form: codex
Support: Parchment (HFFH)
Extent: Codex: 6 leaves. 105 × 85 mm.

Collation

A single quire of six leaves, apparently added to the volume after the initial phase of copying of the recipes in Part 2.

  • Quire 16 (ff. i-vi)

No medieval leaf signatures.

No medieval quire signatures.

 No medieval catchwords.

Condition

Stains to ff. i recto-ii recto. Offset on f. ii verso from scribbles/pen-trials on f. iii recto. Scribbles/pen-trials and much smudging on the rest of the leaves.

Layout

70 × 50 mm. Ruled in ink, frame and line, single column (occasionally with one line running over to the next, or two headings written on one line). 16 lines to the page, written below top line.

Hand(s)

Written in Anglicana formata, perhaps by two hands (changing over on f. ii verso, at 'For to do a norsche haue melk').

Additions

Correction of text through erasure and overwriting on last line of f. ii recto.

History

Origin: Late 14th/early 15th century. ; England.

Part 2: Compilation of medical recipes and charms [Cambridge, University Library, MS Add. 9308, ff. 1-90]

Contents

Language(s): Middle English, with some Latin

2. 1r-1v
The man that will of leechcraft lere
Incipit: 1r Þe man þat wele of lechecraft lere / Read ouer þis bok and he may here
Explicit: 1v He schal be hol boþ flesch and bon

Attested in 24 manuscript witnesses, including this one, though not always presented as an introduction at the beginning of a head-to-toe compilation of medical recipes and charms.

DIMEV 5390
NIMEV 3422
IMEV 3422
eVK2 6904.00 (v0060460000)
3. 1v-89r
Collection of c. 265 medical recipes and charms

Written principally in Middle English, but with some rubrics and charms written in Latin.

Includes a charm written in Middle English verse (not in DIMEV).

eVK2 4520.00 (v0060470000)
eVK2 4520.00 (v0060480000)
eVK2 2476.00 (v0060490000) [ME verse charm, ff. 68r-68v]
4. 89v-90r
Craft and veterinary recipes

'To make vergres' (i.e. verdigris) and a cure for farsy in a horse. Added by two separate, later hands, of the 16th and 17th centuries.

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: 2r and do þus thries
Form: codex
Support: Parchment (FHHF)
Extent: Codex: 90 leaves. 105 × 85 mm.

Collation

Twelve quires of mostly eight leaves, ending with two quires comprising four and six leaves each. Disruption to the text suggests the loss of a quire after Quire 12, though it is unclear whether or not Quire 13 was of separate production or merely reflect a change in scribal hand.

  • Quires 2-118 (ff. 1-80)
  • Quire 124 (ff. 81-84)
  • Quire 136 (ff. 85-90)

Leaf signatures in the usual late medieval form, beginning a i-iiii but most cropped partly or entirely.

No quire signatures.

 Catchwords.

Condition

Smudging of text on f. 9r. Staining to varying degrees on leaves throughout the volume. Scribbles/pen-trials on the closing leaves and especially heavy staining on f. 90v

Layout

70 × 45-50 mm. Ruled in ink, frame and line, single column. 16 lines to the page, written below top line.

Hand(s)

Written in Anglicana formata, for the most part by a single hand, with a change of hands apparently occurring on f. 85r and again on f. 88r.

Additions

Deletion of text by strikethrough: see, for example, ff. 3v, 7r, 12v. Marginal or interlinear insertion of missing words by medieval hands: see, for example, ff. 14r, 21r, 22r, 28r. Correction of text by erasure and over-writing by a later hand on f. 13v. Correction by expunction and insertion on f. 17v.

History

Origin: Late 14th/early 15th century. ; England.

Additional Information

Availability

Entry to read in the Library is permitted only on presentation of a valid reader's card. For information on eligibility and admissions procedures, see Joining the Library). For further enquiries, and to confirm the availability of the manuscript, please contact the Special Collections Reading Room.

Custodial History

The manuscript was rebound in 2024 by Shaun Thompson of Cambridge University Library.
The manuscript was displayed as part of the exhibition Curious Cures: Medicine in the Medieval World (Cambridge University Library, 29 March-6 December 2025) (ff. i verso-ii recto and vi verso-1r).

Bibliography

    Charms and Prayers in Medieval Medical Theory and Practice Social History of Medicine, Olsan, Lea T. (16, 3, 343-366, 2003, http://shm.oxfordjournals.org/content/16/3/343) Charms in Medieval Memory Charms and charming in Europe, Olsan, Lea T. (Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire ; New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2004) The language of charms in a Middle English recipe collection American Notes & Queries, Olsan, Lea T. (18, 3, 31-37, 2005) The Corpus of Charms in the Middle English Leechcraft Remedy Books Charms, Charmers and Charming: International Research on Verbal Magic Palgrave Historical Studies in Witchcraft and Magic, Olsan, Lea T. (Basingstoke, 214-237, Palgrave Macmillan, 2008, https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230583535_15) A Late Middle English remedy-book: (MS Wellcome 542, ff. 1r-20v): a scholarly edition Late Middle English texts, (Bern, Peter Lang, 2013, https://doi.org/10.3726/978-3-0351-0541-4) Writing on the Hand in Ink: A Late Medieval Innovation in Fever Charms in England Incantatio, Olsan, Lea (7, 2018, https://ojs.folklore.ee/incantatio/article/view/68)

Funding of Cataloguing

Wellcome

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Cambridge Digital Library

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