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 Dd.6.9

Collection of medical, cosmetic, culinary and household recipes

Contents

Introduction: This manuscript contains a large collection of medical recipes, including ones for poultices, powders, decoctions, oils, waters, syrups, balms, plasters, ointments, and pills, interspersed by cosmetic and household recipes. Among the latter are recipes for conserving nuts and fruits, for making spiced wine ('Hippocras'), and for making ink and pigments. The headers of the medical recipes often feature words that have been written in Greek letters. At first, Greek letters were routinely used in rubrics in this manuscript, including medical terms for diseases and treatments, and for innocuous culinary recipes such as making white or red jelly or how to preserve walnuts. However, in later sections they appear to have been especially applied to taboo words: e.g. ‘Winchester geese’ (for venereal disease, f. 48v), ‘swelling in the testicles’ and ‘swelling of the yard’ (i.e. in the penis, f. 68r), and ‘neather partes’ (f. 71r). While the manuscript has been dated to the 15th century by the Catalogue of the Manuscripts preserved in the Library of the University of Cambridge, 5 vols (Cambridge, 1856-1867) and Margaret Connolly, Manuscripts in the University Library, Cambridge (Dd-Oo), The Index of Middle English Prose, 17 (Cambridge: Brewer, 2009), references to sources such as An antidotarie chyrurgicall containing great varietie and choice of all sorts of medicines that commonly fal into the chyrurgions use (London: Orwin, 1589) by the anatomist and surgeon John Banister (1533-1610) (see ff. 54v-55r) and A right profitable booke for all disseases Called The pathway to health (London: White, 1587) by the physician Peter Levens (fl. 1587) (see ff. 23r-24r) indicate that the manuscript was produced at the end of the sixteenth century with possible additions from the beginning of the seventeenth century. This much later date is also suggested by the contents of the recipes. Among these is a previously unnoticed selection of medical recipes (see ff. 67r-68r) that are attributed to King Henry VIII (r. 1509–1547) and his Royal physicians in London, British Library, Sloane MS 1047 (c. 1540-c. 1545). Although the manuscript's compilers and intended users are unknown, the earliest owner of the manuscript appears to have been a 'John Troutbeck' who has signed his name in a 17th-century hand on f. 55v. This may have been John Troutbeck (bap. 1612, d. 1683) , a physician and chemist, who probably fought for Parliament during the civil wars, serving as a surgeon in Yorkshire (on Troutbeck's life, see Peter Elmer, 'Troutbeck, John (bap. 1612, d. 1684)', in the Oxford Dictionary of National Bibliography (2016) [accessed 1 February 2023]). A clue for this identification may be a draft letter by the same John Troutbeck who has signed his name addressing a 'Captain John Daniell'. Moreover, it is possible that John Troubeck's father, Edmund Troutbeck (d. 1659) of Hope Hall, Bramham, Yorkshire, owned or accessed the manuscript as well. Edmund, who was known as a surgeon and physician in his lifetime, may have been responsible for signing various recipes in the manuscript with his initials 'E.T.', in order to indicate that he had used them: for example on f. 8r, ‘tried ET’ and ‘good ET’. Dr Clarck Drieshen| Project Cataloguer| Curious Cures in Cambridge Libraries

Language(s): English and Latin

1. 1v
?Moralising treatise
Language(s): English

The text is fragmentary, owing to the loss of most of the leaf. The opening lines mention the 'mynde', 'no griefe to lucklesse', 'no truthe, till tryale prooue'.

2. 6r-22v
Collection of medical, cosmetic, and culinary recipes
Language(s): English and Latin

The collection begins with a recipe for a powder called ‘Alexipharmacon’.

The collection mainly included medical recipes but there are also a few culinary recipes for conserving nuts and fruits and making spiced wine called ‘Hippocras’ (f. 19r).

The collection contains one recipe with a reference to an unidentified physician: ‘aprovide G.L.’ (f. 22v).

3. 23r-24r
Recipes extraced out of A right profitable booke for all disseases Called The pathway to health (London: White, 1587) Peter Levens
Language(s): English
Rubric: 23r Out of the Pathe waye to healthe
4. 26r-33v
Collection of medical recipes
Language(s): English and Latin

The collection contains various references to physicians or other medical practitioners: ‘Mr Andrews black salve’ (f. 26r) and ‘Mr Andrew’ (f. 26v) [not identified]; ‘Mr Frese his plaster’ (f. 27r) and ‘Mr freces his plaster’ (f. 28v) [possibly James Frise/Friis, royal physician to Edward IV]; ‘Mistris Comes [? Gomez] hirr sweete water’ (f. 31v) [not identified]; ‘Docter Steavnes [sic: Stevens] water’ (f. 31v) [not identified but this recipe occurs in various sixteenth- and seventeenth-century medical manuscripts and printed books].

5. 34r-34v
Syrups and waters for digesting phlegm
Language(s): English and Latin
Rubric: 34r Tabula Secunda: Off Syrupes and Waters appropriat vnto euerye member to digeste flegme

ff. 34r-37v have been copied by the same hand, and the items contained in them appear to belong together.

6. 35r-35v
Syrups and waters for digesting choleric
Language(s): English and Latin
Rubric: 35r Syrrupes and Waters appropriate vnto euery member to digeste Choler

ff. 34r-37v have been copied by the same hand, and the items contained in them appear to belong together.

7. 36r-36v
Liquids for purging humours
Language(s): English and Latin
Rubric: 36r Off medicines purging in Liquide forme euerye eche humoure

ff. 34r-37v have been copied by the same hand, and the items contained in them appear to belong together.

8. 36v-37v
Pills for purging humours
Language(s): English and Latin
Rubric: 36r Off purging medicines of solide substaunce, and made into forme of Pilles

ff. 34r-37v have been copied by the same hand, and the items contained in them appear to belong together.

9. 37v-38v
Collection of seven medical recipes
Language(s): English

The collection includes a references to a physician: ‘John Woodes method in curinge ould ulcers’ (f. 38r) [not identified].

10. 39r-46v
Formulary for medical prescriptions
Language(s): English
Rubric: 39r Dyuerse formes of prescribinge meanes of remedies

Collection of medical recipes copied by a single hand, including pills ('tabullas' or 'morsellos') and dietary instructions.

11. 43v-46v
Dietary
Language(s): English
Rubric: 43v Off such as engender good and evill Juice and proruith good and evill digestive
Incipit: 43v Theise meates followinge are easie of digestive and make good Juice
Explicit: 46v meates of evill digestione, sheep, in the day, and after supper, for, the space, of two howers, Travill of mynde, speaciallye after dynner as musinge readinge wryhtinge and such like
12. 47r-54r
Collection of medical recipes
Language(s): English

The collection includes ‘Oyle of Exeter’ and a references to a physicians: ‘John Brinser agaynst the same’ (f. 51r) [not identified].

13. 54v-55r
Four recipes extracted from An antidotarie chyrurgicall containing great varietie and choice of all sorts of medicines that commonly fal into the chyrurgions use (London: Orwin, 1589) John Banister
Language(s): English and Latin

With three additional recipes for poultices and powders in a differen hand that do not originate from Banister's work.

14. 55r
Draft letters and pen trails
Language(s): English

Draft letters addressed to ‘John Daniell Captain’ and ‘To his very loving son [?George] Elli[s] in Edenbourow’

Added by a 17th-century owner, probably John Troutbeck, who has signed his name three times on the page.

15. 56r
Notes based on a work on surgery by Hieronymus Brunschwig Hieronymus Brunschwig
Language(s): English
Rubric: 56r Principale notes gathered in redinge ouer Jherome of Brunswike
Incipit: 56r Imprimis never attempte to consolidate ane wounde befor all tofalles or symptomates be removede
Explicit: 56r ffor a splent of a horse legg [...] Take euphorbium and cantharides
16. 57r-57v
List of medical equipment required for treating penetration and gunshot wounds, contusions, and carrying out amputations
Language(s): English
Rubric: 57r The names of suche thinges as oughte to be had in redines abought curinge, woundes made by sharpe weapones, blunte called contuced woundes, and for woundes made with gunne shote yea and for the takinge of deplorate members
Incipit: 57r flaxe: Imprimis flax for smale woundes to applie
Explicit: 57v lynte to applye uppon reciptes in woundes
17. 58v-59r
Medical treatment for ruptures
Language(s): English
Rubric: 58v The order of dressinge Ruptures
Incipit: 58v In the firste three dayse or vntill the wounde be digested or yeldethe matter, Take of our Emplastrum Digestivum
Explicit: 59r warme weather greatlye profiteth to the digestione of the wound and for mittigatinge of sornes and payne and inflammationes etcaetera Aphoris lib 5 Apho. 22
18. 60r-60v
Table with dietary advice and treatments for a rupture
Language(s): English and Latin
Rubric: 60r The core of the rupture
Incipit: 60r Diete: Mutton of a yeare olde
Explicit: 60v Oft of the Cerote: Spreade it vppon leather, and tye it toe with a trusse chaunginge yt euerye weeke, Thuse procede every weecke, vntill fortie dayes be passsede, countinge the dayes afore sayde
19. 61r-61v
Medical recipe for rupture Richard Burrell
Language(s): English
Rubric: 61r ffor Rupture
Incipit: 61r ffirst laye the opartye [sic] on his backe in his bedd , and reduce his rupture
Explicit: 61v he muste lye vppon his backe xxj or thirtye dayes for this meate ingendereth a humoure moste agreable to the panicles and partlye of his owne substaunce
Final rubric: 61v Richard Burrell Magister in Chyrurgia

Richard Burrell has not been identified.

20. 62r-73r
Collection of medical recipes
Language(s): English and Latin

The collection contains references to various physicians or other medical practitioners: ‘Christopher Grayes his plaster’ (f. 62r) [not identified]; ‘Mr Nicholas plaster’ (f. 62r) and ‘Nicholas sweete oyntmente for mal morb.’ (f. 64v [not identified] ‘Jo. Bru.’ (f. 66r) [not identified].

The collection contains a cataplasm that is said to have been devised for King Henry VIII: ‘A Cataplasme or Pultas devised for the kinges Maiestie to mitigate payne and agaynste inflamationes and to resolue hardnes’ (f. 67r). The very same recipe occurs in London, British Library, Sloane MS 1047 , ff. 89v-90r, where it is attributed to Henry VIII himself, who is said to have devised it at Hampton Court. The untitled cataplasm on ff. 67r-67v also features in Sloane MS 1047, ff. 90r-90v (with a slight variation at the end), where it is said to have been devised by Henry VIII at St James's Palace. Another untitled cataplasm on ff. 67v-68r can be found in Sloane MS 1047, f. 91r, where it is said to have been devised by William Butts (c. 1486–1545), one of Henry VIII's physicians.

21. 73r-74r
Treatments for burning heat and putrefaction
Language(s): English
Rubric: 73r Receiptes to allaye the Burninge and raginge heate of choler in simple distemperat[um] and to resiste contagis or putrifaction in feuers, pestelente and other putrefacte feuers and affectes or deseases
Incipit: 73r In vehemente thirst cominge of a vehemente distemper minister good springe water beinge firste boyled with a peece of leavened breade in it
Explicit: 74r Recipe: honye a pynte, water a pynte, boyle them easelie on the fyer together vntill it be cleane from waxe and such other, and then boyle it to the highte of honye or more be it / yf the partie delighte
22. 74v-76r
Collection of medical recipes
Language(s): English and Latin
23. 76r-76v
Names and explanations of diseases
Language(s): Latin medical terms with explanations in English
Rubric: 76r The names of diseases
Incipit: 76r Allopice is the falling of heare, it is also a manner of leperye viz heate in the brewes and bearde
Explicit: 76v Dialetike passione is when one pisseth offten and of greate quantitie and as sone as he hath droncke he pisseth incontinente, and that cometh of heate of the raynes etcaetera
24. 77r
Fragment of a diagnostic text
Language(s): English
Incipit: || 77r principalle memberes, or other interioure partes (for if it be fluxible it will redilie yelde vnto medicine the other the contrarie)
Explicit: 77r 24: and whether he hath vsed much purginge or bledinge or bothe or little or none

A checklist with points for a physician to consider when examining patients: it begins imperfectly mid-sentence in point 17 and continues until point 24.

25. 77v-79r
Medical recipes
Language(s): English and Latin
26. 79v
A recipe
Language(s): Latin

A list of ingredients for a recipe with an unspecified purpose; it appears to have been added by a later (17th-century) hand.

27. 80r
Household recipes for washing
Language(s): English
Rubric: 80r An excellente receipte to make wash[ing ther]with

Three recipes for washing.

28. 80v
Recipes for making ink and pigments
Language(s): English

The recipes are for ‘Redd Incke the true Coppye’, ‘Blacke Incke a good Coppie’, ‘A verye good grene’ (and another recipe for the same), ‘An Emeraulde greene’, and ‘To make colour lyke gould’.

29. 83v
Treatment to cure gunshot wounds
Language(s): English
Rubric: 81r A Shorte methode or to cure woundes made with gunshote
Incipit: 81r Understande all woundes made with gunshott are contuside and are to be cured as contuside wowndes
Explicit: 83v after gyue a draught of aqua vite and dryncke mixede or such other to comforte the stomake agayne

ff. 81r-85v have been copied by the same hand.

30. 83v-85r
Treatment to cure contused wounds not caused by gunshot
Language(s): English
Rubric: 83v The Cure of other woundes contusid or nate made with guneshote
Incipit: 83v Understaunde yt that smale woundes made with cuttes and no substaunce joyne the lippes of the wounde together the bloude beinge staunchede
Explicit: 85r In steade of plantayne water yow maye take of the decoction of the mouthe water or such other

ff. 81r-85v have been copied by the same hand.

31. 85v
Treatment for pulled sinews
Language(s): English
Rubric: 85vThe Euer of wrestinges of sinewes or joyntes in anye parte of the bodye, especially in the legges
Incipit: 85v ffor the same cure presentlye applye this plaster: Recipe newe hogges dounge [ounce] iij, the yolkes and whites of eges in number iij, good viniger [ounce] ij , the fyne flower of barlye and beanes ana [ounce] ij, j Bole [dram] ij to alter the colloure mixe altogether and applye it warme
Explicit: 85v Recipe: the meales of fenogrecke, lynsede, and murtilles ana quantum satis Cromes of rye bread boyle them in water vntill it be thicke then add of viniger quantum satis and laste add of the powder of bole to colloure it well fiat Emplastum
Final rubric: 85v Finis

ff. 81r-85v have been copied by the same hand.

32. 86r
Charm (?)
Language(s): English and Latin

A partially faded text, largely written in Greek letters, referring to 'parchment' and apparently invoking holy names, ending: 'the power of the almightie and by his unspekable names as you shall answer at the latter day'.

33. 86r
Medical poem
Language(s): English
Incipit: 81r Wit from the minde / Speache from the tounge / Frome gale proceadith Ire / From milte is causide laughter / From the lyuer [ludes desier]

Full transcription.

34. 86r
Veterinary medical and craft recipes
Language(s): English and Latin

The first recipe is entitled: ‘ffor the scratches of a horsse foote’; the second is for pains. The third recipe is for red lead and good vinegar

35. 86v
Extracts from A Floorish vpon Fancie (London: Richard Jhones, 1577 and 1582) Nicholas Breton
Language(s): English
Incipit: 86v They liue and lacke, they lack and yet they haue / [And hauing] yet they lacke the thing they craue
Explicit: 86v An answere: [But as I judge] madam quoth I it seames appolloes sicknes sure

The page contains a couplet from Breton’s A dolorous Discourse, of one that was bewitched with love; stanzas from A Letter sent by a Gentlewoman, in verse, to her Husband, being ouer sea, the poem Two or three prety toyes given to a Gentilman, to set about his Counting-house (complete), and stanzas from A pretty toye, written vpon a Ladyes propounding of a Riddle to her friende.

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: 5r tan
Secundo Folio: 6r The makinge
Secundo Folio: 7r Another decoct
Form: codex
Support: Paper, folded in quarto. Folios 1r-86v: Pot ( 60 × 20 mm. ) in the centre of the folio, comparable to Heawood 3548 (but in this case inscribed with the initials 'P V') This example is dated to 1570.
Extent: Codex, comprising 80 leaves in 8 paper quires, including two torn leaves (ff. 1, 5) and excluding five paper stubs (ff. 2, 3, 4, 25, 78): 80 leaves. 200 × 150 mm.
Foliation:

20th-century foliation:

1, [1a]-[1b], 5-24, [24a], 26-77, [77a], 79-86

Numbering in pencil in the upper right-hand corner of the rectos, by an unidentified hand of the 20th century.

The torn leaf that has been foliated as '5' is actually the fourth leaf in the quire.

ff. [1a], [1b], [24a], and [77a] are paper stubs of missing leaves.

Folio numbers 2, 3, 4, 25, and 78 assigned to leaves no longer present in the volume (as per historic foliation practice at Cambridge University Library).

Collation

  • Quire 110-3 (ff. 1-10: 2nd, 3rd, and 5th leaves leaves missing)
  • Quire 212 (ff. 11-22)
  • Quire 310-1 (ff. 23-32: 3rd leaf missing)
  • Quire 412-1 or 10+1 (ff. 33-43: either a sexternion with the 2nd leaf missing or a quinternion with an additional single leaf after the 10th leaf)
  • Quire 512 (ff. 44-55)
  • Quire 610 (ff. 56-65)
  • Quire 712 (ff. 66-77)
  • Quire 810-2 or 8-1+1 (ff. 78-86: either a quinternion with the 1st and 2nd leaves missing or a quaternion with the first leaf missing and an additional single leaf after the 8th leaf)

110-3 (2nd, 3rd, 5th missing) 212 310-1 (3rd missing) 412-1/10+1 (2nd missing or 11th added) 512 610 712 810-2/8-1+1 (1st and 2nd missing or 1st missing and 9th added)

Catchwords in brown ink in the right corner of lower margins both at the end of quires and inside quires

Condition

Eight loose quires with conservation binding: ff. 1, 5 are torn leaves; ff. 2, 3, 4, 25, and 78 are paper stubs often with conservation paper attached. Torn corners and inner margins (at the folds) have been repaired with blank conservation paper. Water damage throughout the manuscript, affecting especially outer margins and corners. Possible ink stains in the final quire. The texts on f. 1v and f. 86v have become faded and are now difficult to read.

Layout

185-195 × 130 mm. No ruling. Single columns. 29-36 lines to the page, written above top line.

Hand(s)

Copied by various hands in Secretary scripts.

Decoration

The manuscript does not contain any significant forms of decoration.

Binding

Until 2022, the manuscript had been bound together with CUL MSS Dd.6.8, Dd.6.10, and Dd.6.11, in a brown half leather binding with paper sides. The manuscript was disbound at the time of photography and cataloguing (2023) but was bound in a conservation binding in 2024.

History

Origin: Between c. 1590 and c. 1600 ; England.

See Summary for further discussion.

Provenance and Acquisition

John Troutbeck (bap. 1612, d. 1683) , physician and chemist: perhaps owned the manuscript and signed his name on f. 55v: 'John Troutbeck' (2x) and 'John Trout'. If so, the 'E.T.' who has marked recipes with their initials throughout the manuscript may be John's father: Edmund Troutbeck, who was known as a surgeon and doctor.

A certain date of accession is not known, however the manuscript is first recorded among the collections of Cambridge University Library in a catalogue compiled in 1754-56 by Thomas Goodall (now Cambridge, University Library, MS Oo.7.53-55). MS Dd.6.8, with which MS Dd.6.9 was formerly bound, certainly belonged to John Moore (1646-1714) , bishop of Ely, since it is recorded as no. 771 in Bernard, Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliæ et Hiberniæ (c. 1697). The other volumes (MSS Dd.6.10 and MS Dd.6.11) are not recorded in Bernard, but are in Goodall's catalogue and MSS Dd.6.8 and MS Dd.6.10 both contain the donation bookplate engraved by John Pine (1690-1756) in 1736, in commemoration of the purchase and donation of Moore's library by George I (1660-1727) . However, these bookplates are not wholly reliable guides to a manuscript's provenance and acquisition.

D. McKitterick, Cambridge University Library: A History. The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), pp. 141, 215

Additional Information

Record Sources

This catalogue entry draws on Margaret Connolly, Manuscripts in the University Library, Cambridge (Dd-Oo) , The Index of Middle English Prose, 17 (Cambridge: Brewer, 2009)

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.

Bibliography

    Medical Manuscripts in Middle English Speculum, Robbins, Rossell Hope (45, 3, 393-415, 1970, http://www.jstor.org/stable/2853500) Manuscripts in the University Library, Cambridge (Dd-Oo) Index of Middle English prose, Connolly, Margaret (Woodbridge, D.S. Brewer, 2009)

Funding of Cataloguing

Wellcome

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Cambridge Digital Library

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