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.10.44

Medical treatises and recipes

Contents

Introduction: This fifteenth-century medical manuscript appears to have been made in two stages, with a clear distinction between the scripts used on ff. 1r-103v (Part 1) and ff. 104r-149v (Part 2). In the first part of the manuscript, the handwriting seems to be from a slightly earlier period in the fifteenth century compared to that of the second part. It is written almost entirely in Middle English, suggesting that the scribe or compiler participated in what Linda E. Voigts has called a 'groundswell of Englishing' in the fifteenth century: a sudden rush to translate medical texts from Latin into English (Voights 1995: 184). The first part of this manuscript contains the only known complete copy of a Middle English translation of the Practica brevis, a Latin collection of advice for a wide range of medical ailments and recipes for medicines, compiled by Johannes Platearius II in the first half of the twelfth century at the medical school of Salerno (the only other known Middle English version of the Practica brevis is incomplete, surviving in a sixteenth-century manuscript - now London, British Library, Sloane MS 14 - of only 24 folios). The English version contains sixty-eight chapters, comprising remedies for different types of fever, headaches, aches of the eyes, ears, nose and teeth, mouth ulcers, digestive issues, dropsy, diabetes, unexpected bleeding from various orifices, leprosy, 'wormys in þe wombe', and many more. As Tony Hunt has argued, the English version shows the difficulty of translating medical vocabulary into the vernacular, as many specialised terms are left in the original Latin, then sometimes followed by English clarifications (Hunt 1994: 158). In addition to this translation into English, the Practica brevis was also translated into Anglo-Norman, as discussed by Hunt and Monica Green (Hunt 1994; Green 2009). The Practica brevis may have been studied and translated at late medieval Oxford, which was a developing centre for the study of medicine; students and scholars often studied medical texts from the established school in Salerno, and the Practica brevis was among them (Getz 1992: 377; Hunt 1994: 149). Faye Getz has noted that, while in Oxford a statute from 1350 prohibiting the practice of medicine by those who had not studied at the university was renewed in 1400, university physicians themselves were concerned that medical information might be used fraudulently but were not against its transmission in general terms. Getz also suggests that the translators of medieval English medical texts may have imagined an audience beyond their own scholarly community (Getz 1992: 396-400; Getz 1990: 2, 9-10). Although there is no concrete evidence linking MS Dd.10.44 to Oxford, it is possible that the manuscript was made with similar motivations to bring the text to a wider and perhaps non-academic audience. The second part of MS Dd.10.44 contains a variety of recipes for medicines (for example, for making pills and 'electuaries' - medicines made with honey) and herbal texts, listing a range of herbs and their medicinal properties. It also contains several texts concerned with uroscopy - the study of urine for the purpose of medical diagnosis. In the fifteenth-century movement of the 'Englishing' of medical literature, there was a particular interest in making uroscopic medicine more accessible in the vernacular (Jasin 1993). The manuscript not only contains the only complete English version of the Practica brevis, but, as Teresa Tavormina has pointed out, also the only Middle English version of the Letter of Ypocras - an adaptation of a French original with an expanded version of the section on women's urines (2007: 639). The English version of the Practica brevis must have been joined together with this uroscopic material since a very early stage: both parts contain marginal annotations by the same sixteenth-century hand, and William Thorowgood, who recorded the birth of his daughter in 1561 in the first part (f. 102v), also added his ownership inscription in the second part (f. 149r). There seems to have been a tradition of compiling herbal and uroscopy texts together: such combinations also occur in in Cambridge University Library, MSS Dd.6.29 and Ee.1.13 . The latter manuscript includes another Middle English version of a text from Salerno: the Circa instans, a compilation of medical recipes that was written by Matthaeus Platearius, a relative of Johannes Platearius. Thus, these manuscripts suggest a strong interest in the knowledge of the Salernitan school among audiences who were reading medical texts in the vernacular. While the Practica brevis in MS Dd.10.44 is combined with many shorter texts on uroscopy, other manuscripts too suggest that the work was often read within the context of uroscopic medical literature. Uroscopy texts also appear alongside the Latin text of the Practica brevis in other Cambridge manuscripts, including Gonville and Caius MSS 159/209 and 401/623 , and Corpus Christi MS 511 . But there is also evidence that suggests that the Practica brevis was considered an important source for uroscopic information in its own right: in the incomplete translation in Sloane MS 14, 'vryne' and 'vryna' appear written in the margins 27 times, highlighting the text in the manner of manicules - a medieval annotation technique of drawing pointing hands in the margins to emphasise important sections. The compiler of MS Dd.10.44 therefore is likely to have been aware of the uroscopic context in which the Practica brevis was disseminated, and sought to recreate this context for the English translation as well. Margaret Connolly has argued that the survival of non-decorated volumes of medical texts suggests that the information they contained was highly valued well beyond the centuries of their production (2016). The numerous annotations in early-modern scripts and appearance of manicules (drawings of pointing fingers, functioning like the modern bookmark) throughout MS Dd.10.44 indicate that this manuscript was used well into the sixteenth century and perhaps beyond. The combination of a Middle English text from Salerno and additional vernacular adaptations of uroscopic texts may have made this manuscript a desirable source of medical learning that contributed to its longevity and survival. Dr Hope Doherty-Harrison| Teaching Fellow in Medieval Art History| University of Edinburgh Further reading:
Vern Bullough, 'Medical Study at Mediaeval Oxford', Speculum, 36 (1961), 600–612.
Faye Getz, 'Charity, Translation, and the Language of Medical Learning in Medieval England', Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 64 (1990), 1–17 (pp. 2, 9-10, and notes 4, 8).
Ralph Hanna, 'Henry Daniel’s Liber Uricrisiarum', in Popular and Practical Science of Medieval England, ed. by Lister Matheson (East Lansing: Colleagues Press, 1994), pp. 185-219 (p. 188); see also Getz, 'The Faculty of Medicine before 1500', p. 392.
Linda Voigts, 'Multitudes of Middle English Medical Manuscripts, or the Englishing of Science and Medicine', in Manuscript Sources of Medieval Medicine: A Book of Essays, ed. by Margaret Schleissner, Garland Reference Library of the Humanities, v. 1576 (New York: Garland, 1995), pp. 183-197 (p. 184).
Margaret Connolly, 'Evidence for the Continued Use of Medieval Medical Prescriptions in the Sixteenth Century: A Fifteenth-Century Remedy Book and Its Later Owner', Medical History, 60 (2016), 133–54.

Physical Description

Form: codex
Extent: Codex: iii + 103 | 46 + iii leaves.
Foliation:

Late 19th- or early 20th-century foliation

i-iii + 1-103 | 104-149 + iv-vi

Numbering in pencil in the upper right-hand corner of the recto side of each leaf.

Collation

  • Quires 1-410 (ff. 1-40)
  • Quire 58 (ff. 41-48)
  • Quires 6-1010 (ff. 49-98)
  • Quire 116-1 (ff. 99-103: 4th leaf excised, probably blank) |
  • Quire 1210 (ff. 104-113)
  • Quire 138 (ff. 114-121)
  • Quires 14-1510 (ff. 122-141)
  • Quire 168 (ff. 142-149)

1-410 58 6-1010 116-1 (4th leaf excised, probably blank) | 1210 138 14-1510 168

Quire signatures ('1-16') in the bottom right-hand corner of the recto side of the first leaf of each quire (some cropped), written in red ink (Part 1) or brown ink (Part 2) by one or two hands of the 15th century.

Additions

Quire signatures ('1-16') in the bottom right-hand corner of the recto side of the first leaf of each quire, written in pencil by a hand of the 19th/20th century.

Binding

19th-century (?) brown paper over pasteboard with a brown leather spine.

Binding height: 235mm; width: 170mm; depth: 40mm.

History

Provenance and Acquisition

William Parker (fl. 16th century) : owned or accessed the book; his name inscribed on f. 149r: 'By me William Parker'.

Francis Slater (fl. 16th century : owned or accessed the book; his name inscribed on f. 149r: 'By me ffrauncis Slater'.

John Young (fl. 16th century) : owned or accessed the book; his name inscribed on f. 149v: 'By me John Yowng'.

John Tyghte (fl. 16th century) : owned or accessed the book; his name inscribed on f. 149v: 'John Tyghte'.

William Thorowgood (fl. 16th century) : his ownership inscription on f. 149v: 'But I belonge to William Thorowgood only / for to all these he lent me [added:] and nowe was supervisour to Thomas Judwyn his Executour'. Inscribed an entry on the birth of his daughter in 1561 on f. 102v.

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). M.R. James suggested that the manuscript may have belonged to John Moore (1646-1714) , bishop of Ely, and it contains 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) (front pastedown). However, it has not been possible to identify this manuscript among Moore's collections as recorded in Bernard, Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliæ et Hiberniæ (c. 1697) or in the handwritten supplementary list of Moore's manuscripts (now MS Oo.7.50(2)) compiled by Thomas Tanner (1674-1735) after its publication, and 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

Part 1 [Cambridge, University Library, MS Dd.10.44, ff. 1-103]

Contents

Language(s): Middle English and Latin

1. 1r
Prologue to the Practica brevis of Johannes Platearius Johannes Platearius
Language(s): Middle English and Latin
Incipit: 1r Amicum induit qui iustis amicorum precibus condescendit I plateary for loue of my dyre frendis in þis treteys I am purposid for to shewyn the causes cures ans ignes of sykenes
Explicit: 1r and wyche I was wont most stedefastly to usyn and of wyche I hade most spede for to werk wiþ and ferst I begynne at the feuerys
eVK2 2502.00 (v0058390000)
2. 1r-2v
Table of contents for the Practica brevis of Johannes Platearius
Language(s): Middle English and Latin
Rubric: 1r Hic sequuntur capittula
Incipit: 1r Capitulum primum of the feuere the wyche is callyd effimera and where of it is gendrd [sic] and the cure of hym
Explicit: 2v Capitulum .68.m of the wertys and the curee
3. 2v-100v
Practica brevis (Middle English translation) Johannes Platearius
Language(s): Middle English and Latin
Incipit: 2v Capitulum primum de febre effimera: Effimera is a fe. that is gendrid of principall dystemperyng of the spiritys and it is causid of trauyl of of [sic] wraythe and of meche vsyng of hotte mette and drynk and som tyme it commythe of coldnes of þe eyr and som tym of sorowe and many other
Explicit: 100v and þat dothe hym away item þe iouce of titunas helpith ȝyf yt be cut ferst abowt Item lat [?] resturporcun dothe that same

The work is divided into sixty-eight chapters.

eVK2 1536.00 (v0058400000)
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4. 100v
Two medical recipes for clearing eyesight
Language(s): Middle English

Added by the same 15th-century hand responsible for copying the next item.

eVK2 5048.00 (v0058430000)
5. 100v
Dietary advice for the month of May
Language(s): Middle English
Rubric: 100v A goode diete for the monyth of may
Incipit: 100v In may aryse erly and vse hote metes and ete no hede nor fete of no beste
Explicit: 100v and ageyne to vse but lytill carnall synne wyth any woman for this is the ordour of maij

Added by the same 15th-century hand responsible for copying the previous item.

eVK2 2836.00 (v0058440000)
Connolly (2009), pp. 42-43 [other copies]
6. 102v
Entry on the birth of Anne Thorowgood (1561)
Language(s): English
Incipit: 102v An thorowgood my fyrst daughter was born the 6 day of august the year that Pouls Stepil was a f[r]yar anno 1561 beyeng weddensday betwen 9 and 10 of the Clok at nyght in the oner of venvs and in the syn of Cansar god mak her his sarvant amen - Quoth william thorowgood

Full transcription.

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: 3r And when
Form: codex
Support: Parchment (FHHF)
Extent: Codex: 103 leaves. 230 × 165 mm.

Collation

  • Quires 1-410 (ff. 1-40)
  • Quire 58 (ff. 41-48)
  • Quires 6-1010 (ff. 49-98)
  • Quire 116-1 (ff. 99-103: 4th leaf excised, probably blank)

Catchwords in brown ink in the lower margins of the last versos of quires.

Layout

170 × 120 mm. Ruled in leadpoint, frame only. Single columns. 25-31 lines to the page, written above top line.

Hand(s)

Copied by a single scribe in an Anglicana script.

Medical recipes and dietary information on f. 100v by a scribe in a predominantly Secretary script but also with Anglicana features.

Decoration

Large (2- or 5-line) initials in blue or red ink.

Line fillers in red ink.

Headings in red ink.

Initials highlighted in red ink.

Paraphs in red ink.

History

Origin: 15th century. ; England.

Part 2 [Cambridge, University Library, MS Dd.10.44, ff. 104-149]

Contents

Language(s): Middle English and Latin

1. 104r-112r
Synonyma (alphabetical list of herbs)
Language(s): Latin and Middle English
Incipit: 104r Alleluya panis cuculi / Payn de cockyll / Wodsoure / Stubwort
Explicit: 112r zizannia nigella gyth lollium cockill
Final rubric: 112r Explicit cinomorum
eTK 0083G (t0015870000)
eTK 0083G (t0015880000)
Connolly (2009), p. 357 [other copies]
2. 112r
Note on the use of a herb for escaping chains
Language(s): Latin
Incipit: 112r vt vincula euades accipe herbam fulliuariam [?] quod si vinculat tangas cathene compedis non obstent

Full transcription.

3. 112v-113v
Collection of fourteen medical recipes
Language(s): Middle English and Latin

The collection includes recipes for medical pills and electuaries. They address the following:

  • f. 112v: a pill to be taken before food for an unspecified purpose; a 'principall' pill to be taken before food for purging phlegm; a pill of 'mastik and aloen...' for an unspecified purpose; a sweet smelling pill to be taken before food for stimulating digestion, purging sickness, inducing urination, comforting/strengthening the stomach, sharpening the wits, keeping one's health and restoring the aged; an electuary called 'diapentem' for asthma and coughs in the breast and lungs; an electuary called 'stomaticio calidum' for comforting/strengthening the stomach, aiding digestion, and for aches in the mouth and stomach (continuing on f. 113r)
  • f. 113r: an electuary called 'diabutirum' for cough, rheum in the breast, constipation, for those with 'splenatyk' tendency and for the suppuration and purging of rheum; an electuary called 'diagalanga' for comforting/strenghtening the stomach and heart; an electuary for strangury and dissury, 'dia olibanum' for watering eyes, migraine and quinsy; and 'Benedicta' for coldness, gout, artetica and the kidneys and bladder (continuing on f. 113v)
  • f. 113v: 'Yera ruffini' for saucefleme, elephancy (a severe form of leprosy / severe swelling of the legs) and morphea; 'Diamoron' for ailments of the throat and roof of the mouth and quinsy

eVK2 5884.00 (v0058450000)
4. 114r-117v
Letter of Ipocras
Language(s): Middle English and Latin
Rubric: 114r This booke did Ipocrase send vn to Sezar for a gret tresour And therfor kepe it well as your owyn lyfe ffor the made it for help and helth of his body for all maner of yuyles for to exchew
Incipit: 114r ffyrst euery man beste and birde þat hath body hath .4. humoris and namely humoris of mannys body
Explicit: 117v And take of þat powdyr and strawe it on the wounde .3. dayes and than make a tent of lynyn cloth and wete in chyldys pysse or in eysyll and o thus .9. dayes and it shall hele
Final rubric: 117v Explicit liber de ypocrase

This is a Middle English version of the Lettre d'Hippocrate (see Dean and Boulton (1999), no. 406), including four sections: a prologue, humoural tract, uroscopy, and a collection of thirty-five recipes that begins with the rubric: ‘ Here begynnyth at the hed and so forth to oþer membires’. The French version's section on women's urines is not translated but an expanded version of the latter can be found on ff. 144v-145v.

eVK2 7823.00 (v0058510000)
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eVK2 7346.00 (v0058460000)
eVK2 1556.00 (v0058470000)
eVK2 2555.00 (v0058480000)
eVK2 5852.00 (v0058490000)
Tavormina (2007), 632-52 [edition of the uroscopic section]
Connolly (2009), pp. 43-44 [other copies]
Tavormina (2014), pp. 37 (no. 4.1.2b), 39 (no. 4.2.2)
5. 117v-119v
Thesaurus pauperum (Middle English translation) Petrus Hispanus
Language(s): Middle English and Latin
Rubric: 117v Here begynnyth the tresour of pore men
Incipit: 117v A gode medicine for the stone and ache of the reynys in the bakke: Take the blode of a fox and anoynte thy yerd þerwyth and it shall breke the stone for why yf thow puttst a stone þerin wyth in .3. daies it shall breke
Explicit: 119v Item a nother: Take a thynne shyuer of bred or tweyne and toste hem well at the fyer and ete theym all hote drye in the morenyng and at evyne but drinke not þerto nor þer aftyr
Final rubric: 119v Explicit thezaurus pauperum

Recipes and cures for seventeen conditions.

eVK2 6052.00 (v0058520000)
eVK2 6052.00 (v0058530000)
Da Rocha Pereira (1973), pp. 77-301
6. 119v
Two medical recipes to cure the pestilence and urinary incontinence
Language(s): Middle English and Latin
eVK2 5274.00 (v0058540000)
7. 120r-123r
Liber Edmundi
Language(s): Middle English recipes with one recipe in French and another one in Latin
Rubric: 120r Here beynnyth other medicines at the hede and so forth to other membris of the body etcetera
Incipit: 120r First is for yvyll heryng take eche daye .3. dropis of his owyn pyssyng and o it in his erys in the moreneyng euery day and he shalbe holpyn
Explicit: 123r et calamine pone super morbum et franget et debet sanare vt probatum est a me ipso
Final rubric: 123r Explicit liber Edmundi

A collection of fifty-eight medical recipes in Middle English. One recipe is in French (f. 122v) and one is in Latin (f. 123r).

eVK2 5283.00 (v0058550000)
8. 123r
Collection of medical recipes
Language(s): Latin
Rubric: 123r Item de regimine Sanitatis
Incipit: 123r Si autem materia fuerit grossa aut subtilis vtatur isto medicamine quod valet ad ad omnia quesita ita que aliquis si vel aliud sciret posset honorifice viuere in hoc mundo
Explicit: 123r et confice cum puluere aloes et camfore

The introduction and first recipe are taken from Bernard de Gordon's Liber de conservatione vitae humanae. The recipes are as follows:

  • a powder to restore the sight, bring one's appetite back, for the lungs, liver, and spleen, and to rid the body of the stone and wind
  • a powder to purge the stomach and to prevent wind
  • a powder to restore one's sight in old age

eTK 1443B (t0276110000)
9. 123v-128r
Tretys of diverse herbis
Language(s): Middle English
Rubric: 123v Off herbys now I wyll yow tell by and by as I fynde wrytyn in a boke that in borowng I betoke Of a gret Ladyes preste that of a gret name was in hyest
Incipit: 128r At betonye now I wylle begynne that many virtues hath wyth inne
Explicit: 128r It distroyeth the morfew and dispoyling to þe lepyr

This item is not listed in Connolly (2009).

eVK2 3878.00 (v0058560000)
10. 128v-131v
Collection of fifty-three medical recipes
Language(s): Middle English
Rubric: 128v Here begynnyth other dyuers medicinis the whiche muste be myxyd wyth Aqua vite as here folowyth
Incipit: 128v fyrst for the feuyr tercian drinke aqua vite wyth the ious of planteyn and sowthystyll
Explicit: 131v ffor a man þat pyssyth ageynst his wylle: take a gotes bladder or a shepys or a netes and brenne it to powdyr þat is to say scoweryd for to pouder it and let him drinke it wyth venegyr or water when he goth to slepe
eVK2 1511.00 (v0058570000)
Bower (2022), p. 187 (n. 30)
11. 132r
Medical recipe for bowel disorders 'Maister Paulyne' [? Paulinus of Leeds]
Language(s): Middle English
Rubric: 132r A goode medicine of maister Paulyne for all maner of yvylles. ffor ydropisi discentorie that is flux that whanne of guttes rasyng and blode comyn to gedyr out at atones. ffo þe meneson for chafyng of the boel in a flux. for the bowellys thrylled. for the mydryf for þe lyver. for the cowghe . for colour. or for handys or the lendys. and the iontes. for them þat lykyth nor ther mete. and for all euylles in the hed and in þe body. ffor pissyng. for wodnes. for euyl ende. for whyte of þe yen for felon and for to warisshen woundys. And euery tyme men may it take. And this is þe receyte of þe medicine
Incipit: 132r Take aloes .6. parte of þe receyte .Mirre gumme armoniak pollipodie coste Irios turbentyne gallanum .3. partes
Explicit: 132r And whan thow hast nede make the pelettes hereof of þe gretnes of a pese and gyf the sik man euery day .7. to swalow in fastyng and he shall be holpyn . this medicine men callyth paulines drink

This may be an extract from the 'tretys of Meyster Pawlyn' in San Marino (CA), Huntington Library, MS 1051 .

eVK2 1838.00 (v0058580000)
eVK2 4927.00 (v0058590000)
Connolly (2009), p.45
12. 132r-133r
De quatuor infirmitatibus corporum [Four Parts Where the Sicknesses of the Body Begin]
Language(s): Middle English
Rubric: 132r Here beth þe .4. partes of man in which euery man comonly is moste and rathest agreuyd wyth euyll þat is to wyt other in the hed or in the brest or in the wombe or in þe bladder and be these tokyns aftyr wryttyn þou shalt knowin which euyll of all these .4. the man is moste agreuyd in
Incipit: 132r ffyrst for þe euyll of þe hed a man may wyt begynnyth when his browes begyn to falle and fawten and myst is in his hed and in his yen
Explicit: 133r And who so vsyth not this medycyne other he shalbe dropyke or chaufyd on the lyuer or the entrayle stoppyd or he shall haue the stone
eVK2 2311.00 (v0058600000)
Tavormina (2007), p. 639
Connolly (2009), p. 45 [other copies]
Tavormina (2014), p. 109 (A.3)
13. 133r-133v
Medical recipe
Language(s): Middle English
Rubric: 133r Diasaturion is callyd of þe rotes of Saturion
Incipit: 133r That is to say the vprysyng of þe ters propirly to theym þat suffyr febylnes of þe reynes for it prouokyth lechory thorow what hap it euyr be for lore wythowtyn eny drechyng it restoryth the ballokys of saturiones all new pastinac notes of ynde
Explicit: 133r-133v and aftyr þat put in thy pouderes aboue said and at þe laste put in mustes wiþ watur of rosez and be it gevyn wyth swete wyne a sponefull attones when þey nede

For kidney ailments ('febylnes of þe reynys').

eVK2 1474.00 (v0058610000)
14. 133v
Medical recipe
Language(s): Middle English
Rubric: 133v [...] -ggra[?] galieni
Incipit: 133v It is goode for dyuers passions of the hed and for dystemperaunce of the yen and of the erys
Explicit: 133v colloquintida mastik epithium of eche ij scripul aleos the weyght of all þe todyr and hony as moche as suffysyth

The rubric is faded or rubbed and cannot be read with UV light. For ailments of the head, eyes and ears, for purging the stomach, ailments of the liver, hardness of the spleen, for the kidneys and bladder, and for ailments of the womb.

15. 133v-134v
De urinis
Language(s): Middle English and Latin
Rubric: 133v Nota de vrinis: ffor to know þe vryne of syke man and of hole
Incipit: 133v Also here is wrytyn yf the vryne of the syk man be troble and it haue holdyn cloddes fletyng a bouen þat singnifieth þat the deth is prolongyd
Explicit: 134v Vryne of what colour so it be and wanne abouen and sprynkelyng it is signe of lesynge of þe euyll þat is in þe man
eVK2 2681.00 (v0058620000)
Connolly (2009), p. 46 [other copies]
Tavormina (2014), p. 51 (no. 7.1.2)
16. 134v
The Twenty-Jordans (the circles and contents section)
Language(s): Middle English
Incipit: 134v Take hede vn to the Serkyll and yf it be grene it betokenyth gret ache in the ryght syde and yf þe serkyll be whyte it betokenyth ache in þe hynd parte of þe hed
Explicit: 134v Smalle þredes in the water betokenyth drerynes of complexion and a postym in the ryght syde squamus of fysshis stoppyng of flowyres and skabbys and the modyr
Tavormina (2005), p. 44
Tavormina (2014), p. 19 (no. 1.4)
17. 135r-136r
Collection of twenty-two medical recipes and one charm
Language(s): Middle English and Latin

The charm on f. 135r reads: ‘ffor þe crampe: Wryte thes wordys in a strowe . Porro Poca [...] zabata . zay . zezay’.

The recipes are as follows:

  • f. 135r: to clear the sight, for cramp, to break an aposteme / abscess, for canker, for dropsy, for the stomach, three for the haemorrhoids, for wind in a man's stomach, for all evils in the stomach
  • f. 135v: for sore wounds, for saucefleme, for hoarseness or losing one's voice, four for watering or running eyes, to decongest the windpipes and purge them of phlegm, two for the stone, for blood in one's urine
  • f. 136r: for sleeplessness, for counteracting any poison that has been eaten or drunk and getting rid of vermin, for making oneself attractive to women, for too much menstrual flow and for toothache

eVK2 5047.00 (v0058630000)
18. 136r
Notes on four medicinal waters and recipes for the stomach and digestion
Language(s): Middle English
Rubric: 136r Here shall folow dyuers wateres goode and prophetabyll for many thynges
Incipit: 136r Water of isope is hote and dry and it is goode to distrow the cowghe that commyth of cold
Explicit: 136r for hym þat may not ete take centory weybred and pepyr and seth it in wyne and drinke it kewke warme to bedward
eVK2 7890.00 (v0058640000)
19. 136v-137v
List of 18 medicinal waters and their properties
Language(s): Middle English
Incipit: 136v Water of centory is gode for the apetyte for the lyuer for the mylte for wormys and ofr the sawsefleme
Explicit: 137v Water of centory: watyr of centory clensys the syght and helyth and doth away the palsey

On ff. 136v-137r is a synonyma list of waters with Latin names and their English ingredients.

eVK2 7888.00 (v0058650000)
20. 138r-139v
Collection of twenty-eight medical recipes
Language(s): Middle English and Latin

The last two recipes are in Latin. The recipes are as follows:

  • f. 138r: to get rid of worms, for headache, for the uterus ('the modyr rysyng'), for dropsy, to get rid of worms, for the stomach, for gout ('boneache')
  • f. 138v: two for blood in one's urine, for an internal aposteme / abscess, two for stiffness in the knees and pain in the knees and kidneys, an ointment for aches and the 'boneshaw' (?sciatica / ?gout), for aching or swelling in the knees, and for aches
  • f. 139r: three to staunch blood, to purge phlegm, for headache, for 'febylnes' of the head, for a sore that swells or aches and two for laxatives
  • f. 139v: for indigestion and five for scabs

eVK2 6143.00 (v0058660000)
21. 139v
A note on the quantities, tastes, and substances of urine
Language(s): Middle English
Incipit: 139v It is to be knowyn þat there be .3. quantites in vrine
Explicit: 139v medelyd substaunce betokenth temperaunce

Incomplete fragment of the 'Ten Cold Ten Hot' compendium identified by Tess Tavormina.

eVK2 3169.00 (v0058670000)
Tavormina (2014), p. 49 (no. 6.3)
22. 140r-143r
The Twenty-Jordan Series [Albus/Lacteus incipit]
Language(s): Middle English and Latin
Incipit: 140r Color albus vt aqua purissima significat indigestionum This colour is lyke watyr and the colour of glasse in capitulo .4.
Explicit: 143r Make a drinke of þe Juse of selendyn and þe juse of moleyn and tryakell wyth white wyne and vse it erly and late
eVK2 7387.00 (v0058680000)
Tavormina (2005)
Connolly (2009), pp. 48-48 [other copies]
Tavormina (2014), p. 19 (no. 1.4)
23. 143r (right column)
Note on the four humours
Language(s): Middle English
Incipit: 143r Nota þat euery mannys body is made of .4. humores
Explicit: 143r Malencoly reynyth in all þe lymmes frome þe reynys downwarde and þerfore take hede to thes .4. thynges that is the substance þe quantite the colour and the contentis.
Tavormina (2014), p. 69 (no. 8.6)
24. 143v
A list of the Aegidian contents of urine
Language(s): Middle English
Incipit: 143v In vryne bene these contentes .Cerkyll. Ampull. Greynys. Clowdes. Scome. Attyr. ffatnes. Humor. Blode. Gravell. Herys. Scalis. Crinodes. Sperme. Duste. Ashes. Sedimen. or Ipostacis
Explicit: 143v Sedimen id est clowdys in þe grownde of the vryne or brokyn vprward toward the cerkyll is callyd Ipostaces id est grownd and it hath moste signyficacions and namely of the lower partes

This is the '18 Contents' section of the Ten Cold Ten Hot compendium.

Connolly (2009), p. 49 [other copies]
Tavormina (2014), p. 49 (6.3)
25. 143v
Tract on the regions of the 'urinal'
Language(s): Middle English
Incipit: 143v Thow shalt vndyrstond þat in þe vrinall þer bene .3. regyons the ffyrst the secunde and þe thyrde. The thyrde begynnyth at the botom of the vrinall and lastyth .2. fyngyrs brede vpward. The secunde region begynnyth ther the thyrde endyth and lastyth vp to the cerkyll and in eueryche of thes regyons aryn dyuers contentes as is before more playnly rehersyd

Full transcription. This is the 'Three Regions' text from the Doom of Urines compendium.

Connolly (2009), p. 49 [other copies]
Tavormina (2014), p. 27 (no. 2.5a)
26. 144r
'The Complexions of Urine' and 'Where the Complexions are Generated'
Language(s): Middle English
Rubric: 144r To know þe .4. complexions of man by the vrine at euery tyme
Incipit: 144r Beholde yf the vryne be thyke and rede thanne hyt betokenyth blode
Explicit: 144r Malencoly is engendyrd in the lyuyr and his propyr dwellyng is in þe splene and malencoly and fflewme coueryth the botome of the vryne

These tracts are segments of the Doom of Urines compendium.

eVK2 1243.00 (v0058690000)
Connolly (2009), p. 50 [other copies]
Tavormina (2014), p. 27 (no. 2.5a)
27. 144r-144v
Extract from The Dome of Uryne Compendium
Language(s): Middle English
Rubric: De Ipostacis
Incipit: 144r Also þer is a content þat is callyd Ipostaces in latyn and þat stondyth in þe botome brode beneth and sharpe vpward above
Explicit: 144v And yf it be blake it betokenyth destruccion of kynde and deth
Connolly (2009), p. 50 [other copies]
Tavormina (2014), p. 27 (no 2.5)
28. 144v-145v
The Content of Woman's Urines
Language(s): Middle English
Rubric: 144v The content of womans vrynys
Incipit: 144v Womans vryne þat is raye and clere and schynyth as it were syluyr and the woman castytth at morne and aftyr calmys and brakyth and wexyth blo vndyr þe yen is sygne þat she is wyth chylde
Explicit: 145v and qwyche humouris being of cold takyng

A list of the 20 contents of women's urine that appears to be an expanded version of the section on women's urine in the French Lettre d'Hippocrate.

Connolly (2009), p. 50 [other copies]
Tavormina (2014), p. 54 (no. 7.2.6)
29. 145v-148r
List of contents of urine
Language(s): Middle English
Rubric: 145v Here folowyth oþer contentes of vryne
Incipit: 145v Vryne myche in quantite grene and derke frome þe botome to the myddys it betoknyth þe spirituall vesselles is stoppyd and the bowelles
Explicit: 148r Vrine rede that hath knottys of blode is signe of myche yvyll beyng in the stomake
Tavormina (2014), p. 60 (no. 7.5.4)

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: 105r vina
Form: codex
Support: Parchment (HFFH)
Extent: Codex: 46 leaves. 230 × 165 mm.

Collation

  • Quire 1210 (ff. 104-113)
  • Quire 138 (ff. 114-121)
  • Quires 14-1510 (ff. 122-141)
  • Quire 168 (ff. 142-149)

Condition

Layout

175 × 120 mm. Ruled in leadpoint, frame only. Single columns. 31-32 lines to the page, written above top line.

Hand(s)

Copied by a single scribe in a predominantly Secretary script but also with Anglicana features.

Medical recipes and dietary information by a scribe in a predominantly Secretary script but also with Anglicana features.

Decoration

Large (2-line) initials in red or blue ink.

Line fillers in red ink.

Headings in red ink.

Initials highlighted in red ink.

Paraphs in blue or red ink.

History

Origin: 15th century. ; England.

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 (Woodbridge: Brewer, 2009), pp. 26-30 and an unpublished description of the manuscript composed between 1926 and 1930 by M.R. James , now held in the University Archives (UA ULIB 7/3/74).

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) Obras médicas de Pedro Hispano Acta Universitatis Conimbrigensis, (Coimbra, University of Coimbra, 1973) Plant Names of Medieval England, Hunt, Tony (Cambridge, D.S. Brewer, 1989) Manuscripts (Medieval) Catalogue of the Pepys Library at Magdalene College Cambridge, McKitterick, RosamondBeadle, Richard (Cambridge, V.i, Brewer, 1992) The Transmission of Learned Medical Literature in the Middle English Liber Uricrisiarum Medical History, Jasin, Joanne (37, 313–29, 1993) Anglo-Norman medicine. - Vol.1: Roger Frugard's "Chirurgia"; "Practica Brevis" of Platearius, Hunt, Tony (Cambridge, D.S. Brewer, 1994) Anglo-Norman Literature: A Guide to Texts and Manuscripts Anglo-Norman Text Society Occasional Publications Series, Dean, Ruth J.Boulton, Maureen Barry McCann (London, Anglo-Norman Text Society, 1999) The Twenty-Jordan Series: An Illustrated Middle English Uroscopy Text ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes and Reviews, Tavormina, M. Teresa (18, 3, 43-67, 2005, https://doi.org/10.3200/ANQQ.18.3.43) Between Herbals et alia: Intertextuality in Medieval English Herbals, Mäkinen, Martti (Helsinki, 2006) The Middle English Letter of Ipocras English Studies, Tavormina, M. Teresa (88, 6, 632-652, 2007, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00138380701706526) Gendering the History of Women’s Healthcare Gender and History, Green, Monica H. (20, 3, 487-518, 2008) Manuscripts in the University Library, Cambridge (Dd-Oo) Index of Middle English prose, Connolly, Margaret (Woodbridge, D.S. Brewer, 2009) Salerno on the Thames: The Genesis of Anglo-Norman Medical Literature Language and Culture in Medieval Britain: The French of England, c. 1100—c.1500, Green, Monica (Woodbridge, pp. 220-232, Boydell & Brewer, 2009) Uroscopy in Middle English: A Guide to the Texts and Manuscripts Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History, Tavormina, M. Teresa ([Michigan?], 2014) Evidence for the Continued Use of Medieval Medical Prescriptions in the Sixteenth Century: A Fifteenth-Century Remedy Book and Its Later Owner Medical History, Connolly, Margaret (60, 2, 133-154, 2016) La Practica de Plateario: edición crítica, traducción y estudio Edizione nazionale dei testi mediolatini d'Italia, (Firenze, SISMEL: edizioni del Galluzzo, 2016) Dictionary of Medical Vocabulary in English, 1375–1550: Body Parts, Sicknesses, Instruments, and Medical Preparations, Norri, Juhani (Abingdon, Routledge, 2016) Naming the Unnamed 'Philosofre' in Chaucer's Prologue to the "Treatise on the Astrolabe" Medium Ævum, Stadolnik, Joe (85, 2, 314-318, 2016) The Mystery of MOULD 'Top of the Head' in Middle English Remedybooks Neuphilologische Mitteilungen, Norri, Juhani (118, 1, 165-170, 2017) Trimming and Compilation, MS. CUL, Dd.10.44 (Joint Blog Post/ Teachable Features 5), Doherty, Hope (2019, https://teachingthecodex.com/2019/07/29/trimming-and-compilation-ms-cul-dd-10-44/) Middle English Medical Recipes and Literary Play, 1375-1500, Bower, Hannah (Oxford University Press, 2022) Reading Practice: The Pursuit of Natural Knowledge from Manuscript to Print, Reynolds, Melissa (Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 2024)

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Wellcome

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