Cambridge, University Library, MS Ee.1.15
Collection of medical tracts and recipes
Contents
- Cambridge, Trinity College, MS R.14.51
- London, British Library, Add. MS 15236
- London, Wellcome Library, MS 407
- San Marino (CA), Huntington Library, MS HM 64
- Stockholm, Kungliga biblioteket, MS X.90
Physical Description
16th- or 17th-century foliation:
[i]-[iii] + 1-18, [19], 20-100 | 101-105, 110-129, 143-144, 132-134, [134a], 135-142, 145-156 + [iv]-[v]
Written in black ink in the upper right-hand corner of the recto of each leaf. Gaps in the sequence owing to the loss or partial loss of leaves. Folio 116 largely torn out. Folios 143-144 bound out of sequence.
ff. [19] and [134a] are unfoliated paper stubs of excised leaves featuring remains of text. f. [v] is a sheet of paper that has been folded in half, creating two leaves that are attached to one another at the top. Folio numbers 19, 106-109, 130, and 131 assigned to leaves no longer present in the volume. Stubs after f. 18 and f. 134 have been assigned numbers for reference purposes in this electronic catalogue record. These numbers are placed between square brackets to indicate that they have been supplied.Collation
The manuscript comprises several booklets of paper bound together, however the irregular nature of these gatherings and the tightness of the current binding mean that it is not presently possible to determine their structure.
Binding
A 19th- or early 20th-century pasteboard binding with light brown paper on the covers.
Binding height: 230 mm; width: 155 mm; depth: 35 mm.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
Robert Steel (fl. 17th century) : his name inscribed on f. 4r. Perhaps the Robert Steele of Harpham, Yorkshire (b. c. 1623, d. 1688): admitted to Christ's College, Cambridge in 1640, and later headmaster of Beverley School 1645-47 and Hull School 1647-50, Vicar of Scarborough c. 1650-60, Rector of Catwick and later Brandesburton 1661-68 (see Venn, Alumni Cantabrigienses).
John Moore (1646-1714) , bishop of Ely: no. 163 (f. 1r) in Bernard, Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliæ et Hiberniæ (c. 1697).
Presented to the University Library in 1715 by George I , but without the usual donation bookplate engraved by John Pine in 1736.
Part 1 [Cambridge, University Library, MS Ee.1.15, ff. 1-100]
Contents
Language(s): Middle English and Latin
Part of a herbal, alphabetically arranged ('P'-'Y'); f. 6v is headed 'Y' but has no entries.
Contains an addition in an early 16th-century hand: 'ys good for aman or a woman þat is in a ffransy'.
Probably added in the early 16th century.
The astrological text is written around a circular diagram that occurs three times: two times on f. 2r and once on f. 3r. The first diagram has an apothecary recipe (?) written inside the circle; the second diagram the word 'diatesseron'; and the third diagram does not contain text.
Added in the late 15th or early 16th century.
Perhaps added in the early 16th century.
Full transcription. Perhaps added in the early 16th century.
Full transcription. Fragment of a medical recipe perhaps added in the early 16th century.
Full transcription. Accompanied by a drawing of a flower in dark ink; added in the 16th century.
Written by the same hand.
The collection includes a recipe to make caudells ('To make Caudell[es] for any man ys Lorde') on f. 10r. They address the following:
- f. 7r: two for quinsy, for deafness, for jaundice
- f. 7v: for jaundice in a man or woman, for jaundice, for quenching thirst arising from heavy labour and to prevent fever, for a salve for healing and drying
- f. 8r: for knowing and learning ways to heal canker, for restoring appetite, for making a white unguent ('vnguentum album') (continuing on f. 8v)
- f. 8v: for cleansing wounds, for scaled head (?dandruff), for headache, for any sickness that a man or woman might have in June, July or August (continuing on f. 9r)
- f. 9r: for sudden illness/fit/fever ('þe axys'), for a swollen leg arising from 'an axis' or any other illness whether hot or cold, for the sinews, for making pus appear
- f. 9v: for haemorrhoids, for nosebleeds, for drying a sore (incomplete), for healing an old sore
- f. 10r: for making caudels, for healing old men and women
Added in the late 15th or early 16th century.
Added in the late 15th or early 16th century.
English translations written above the lines by a (?) 16th-century hand: 'A wylde boare', 'An ape', 'A grype', 'Spyde[r]'.
Added in the late 15th or early 16th century.
Full transcription.
Added in the late 15th or early 16th century.
Full transcription.
Added in the 16th century.
Perhaps the text refers to the same 'Shipman's Calendar' that John Walley [Waley], stationer of London, published in 1562-63.
They address the following:
- f. 14v: to staunch bleeding even if the patient is 100 miles away but the man or woman's name is known ('Longinus charm' - crossed out), to staunch bleeding ('Flum Jordan charm' - crossed out)
- f. 15r: for 'women's sickness', for saucefleme 'provyd in hye and lowe' (crossed out), a charm for toothache (a narrative about Christ healing Abraham on the Mount of Olives - crossed out), a recipe for an unspecified purpose
- f. 15v: for the 'chink' cough, for haemorrhoids, for the stone, for haemorrhoids, for toothache and for drawing teeth without any pain
For other copies of the charms, see Connolly (2009), p. 98.
The collection includes the Sage Leaf charm against fever and a Beronix/Beronixa charm to staunch blood ('Waronix'-'Waronixa').
For other copies of the Sage Leaf charm and Beronix/Beronixa charm, see Connolly (2009), p. 98.
Contains 16th-century notes, e.g.: 'Mugworte brotherworte or motherworte all ys one'.
Transcription of usefulness of mugwort/brotherwort/artemisia for inducing labour and delivering a stillborn child, for removing the stone and curing jaundice: (f. 24v) Mugworte or brotherworth is clepid Arthemasia for þow þat she is moder of all other erbys [...] Of þis erbe I ffynd many vertues [...] (f. 25r) The secunde vertu [.] take þis erbe as grene as sho growest and stampe hit and bynde hit to þy wombe and hit shall deliuer þe warplyng in þy womb [...] The iiij vertu dryngk þis erbe with wyne ofte and she wele make þe to pisse and she wole distroye þe stone and she helpis hym þat hath þe jaundijs [...]
Translation: Mugwort or brotherwort is called artemisia for she is mother of all other herbs [...] Of this herb I find many virtues [...] The second virtue: take the herb as green as she grows and stamp it and bind it to your womb and it shall deliver the warpling [i.e. dead foetus] in your womb [...] The fourth virtue: drink the herb with wine often and she will make you piss and she will destroy the stone and she helps him that has the jaundice.
The last recipe (for 'scietica passio') ends incompletely.
The names of herbs are organised alphabetically, but only cover the letter 'A' ('Absintihium' to 'Arnoglassa').
Ends imperfectly.
The collection includes charms for childbirth [Maria peperit cristum] (f. 78r), stillbirth, the falling sickness (ff. 93r-93v), wounds [Plate of Lead charm] (ff. 94r-94v); and a recipe for 'gracia dei' attributed to Master Denis of Paris ('secundum maister dionisium de parysse' - f. 83r).
Full transcription of remedy for bloodshot eyes (f. 84v): Take rewe and comyn and boyle them in white wyne and streyne hit thorowe a cloth and put þis in þy yen when þou goyste to slepe .
Full translation: Take rue and cumin and boil them in white wine and strain it through a cloth and put this in your eyes when you go to sleep.
Added by a later 16th-century hand.
For jaundice, to break a boil, and for palsy.
The ink recipes are part of the medical recipes above. The first one is in English (entitled: 'To make gode blak yngk as ony ys in ynglond') and the second one is in Latin.
Physical Description
Collation
This part of the manuscript comprises several booklets of paper bound together, however the irregular nature of these gatherings and the tightness of the current binding mean that it is not presently possible to determine their structure.
Condition
Layout
170-190 × 120-140 mm. Frames (occasionally) ruled in blindpoint (outer vertical line only). Single columns except for ff. 100v which has two columns. c. 30-c. 40 lines to the page.
Hand(s)
Several cursive hands, mostly writing in scripts with both Anglicana and Secretary features throughout.
Decoration
Circular astrological diagrams in brown ink on f. 2r and f. 3r.
Diagram of a zodiac man in brown ink with yellow used for hair colour on f. 11r.
Diagram of a mnemonic hand in brown ink with red used for the cross section of the wrist on f. 11v.
Diagram of a lead plate with five crossed drawn in brown ink in the margin of f. 94v.
Large brown initials with cadels and minor decorative elements throughout (e.g. f. 65r).
Manicules in brown ink throughout the manuscript.
Additions
Many of the recipes are accompanied by littera notabiliores in the margin, giving the first letter of the illness the adjacent recipe addresses, apparently in preparation for compiling an alphabetical index.
History
The manuscript's collections of recipes contain various references to London, e.g.:
- f. 21v: 'provyd in london with hye and lowe'.
- f. 22v: 'by provyd diuerse tymes in london'.
- f. 152r: 'A medycyn for the swetyng sekenesse that was sett vp apoun pawllesgate' refers to St Paul’s Gate, which situated at the intersection of Paternoster Row and Cheapside Street, giving access to St Paul’s Cathedral’s churchyard.
Provenance
Many of the recipes are accompanied by marginal notes - 'Master Robert Fehary' (sometimes abbreviated to 'M R F') - perhaps attributing them to a 15th-century medical practitioner of this name: see ff. 7r onwards and 15r-15v onwards.
Part 2 [Cambridge, University Library, MS Ee.1.15, ff. 101-156]
Contents
Language(s): Latin
Written by different hands
Contains a crossed-out charm entitled 'Misse contra morbum Caducum' (f. 102r) and an instruction for preserving oysters (f. 112v)
Includes extracts from a text on the virtues of herbs on ff. 118r-119r.
Full transcription; text crossed out and the word 'Bulle papalis' inked out; followed by a crossed-out list of popes: Paulus papa secundus regnauit - annus / Pius papa secundus regnauit - annus / Sixtus papa tertius regnauit - annus'.
Physical Description
Collation
This part of the manuscript comprises several booklets of paper bound together, however the irregular nature of these gatherings and the tightness of the current binding mean that it is not presently possible to determine their structure.
Condition
Layout
165-195 × 90-125 mm. Frames (occasionally) ruled in blindpoint (outer vertical line only). Single columns except for ff. 100v which has two columns. c. 25-c. 30 lines to the page.
Hand(s)
Several cursive hands, mostly writing in scripts with both Anglicana and Secretary features throughout the manuscript.
Decoration
This part of the manuscript does not contain any significant forms of decoration.
Additions
History
The collection contains two dated recipes: one recipe for curing the Sweating Sickness, entitled ‘ffor the new agew called the new acqueynttance Ao xxxijo Regni Regis H[enrici] octaui’, is dated to 1540/1 (f. 111v); another recipe, entitled ‘A souereyn medysyn for to stoppe a laske other of man or Chylde’, has the year ‘1520’ written above it (f. 115r).
The manuscript's recipes refer to a number of patients and medical practitioners from early 16th-century London: ‘Mastres Roppyssleys medycyn and plaster’ (f. 103r) may refer to the wife of Thomas Ropysley who is named a citizen and surgeon of London in his will of 1504. But the ‘Mastres Wallwyn the Awdytours wyff’ who is also associated with the recipe must be must be one of the three wives of William Walwyn of Kensington, auditor for the king and the duchy of Lancaster, who made his will in 1535 Kew, The National Archives, PROB 11/27/88 ). She could be his first wife ‘Alice’, who had died and was buried in St Bartholomew’s Hospital in West Smithfield when William made his will; his second wife ‘Katherine’ whose marriage seems to have ended with divorce; or his third wife Sibylla (‘Sible’) who was still alive in 1535.
The collection also contains a recipe for curing toothache that is said to have been ‘proved good by Sir John Thurston knyȝt’ (f. 115v). It probably refers to John Thurston, knight, goldsmith and alderman of the City of London whose will was drawn up in 1520. This identification can be confirmed from a recipe for treating pain in the limbs (f. 156v) that is said to have been proved by three men: two knights named John Thurston and Thomas Exmew, and a priest of a church dedicated to St Peter named John Chaunterell (‘quod probatum fuit per dominum Johannum Thurston militem et per dominum Exmew Militem et per magistrem johannum chawnterell rectorem ecclesie sancti petri’). While the first is the aforementioned John Thurston, the second probably is Thomas Exmewe, another goldsmith and alderman of London (1508–29), who was Sheriff of London in 1508 and Lord Mayor of London in 1517. The priest probably is the John Chaunterell who was rector of the church of St Peter in Westcheap from 1492 until his death in 1509.
The manuscript's second part contains two recipes that are attributed to a ‘doctor Bentley’: ‘a medycyn tawght by magister doctor Bentley doctor of physyke’ (f. 124r) and ‘good Medycyn [...] gevyn by Doctor bentley’ (f. 124r). He probably was Thomas Bentley who became Bachelor of Medicine at the University of Oxford in 1516, and received the degree of Doctor of Medicine in 1518. He was soon chosen as physician to the Duke of Buckingham. In 1521, he was several times consulted by Henry VIII. In 1523, he was appointed Censor of the Royal College of Physicians, and its President four times between 1525 and 1530 (see C.H. Talbot and E.A. Hammond, The Medical Practitioners in Medieval England: A Biographical Register (London: Wellcome Historical Library, 1965), p. 334.
On the basis of the previous identifications, the ‘Master Twysellton’ who is mentioned in a recipe (‘ffor the fflyxe a medycyn whiche is callyd M. Twyselltons’) on f. 103v may refer to John Twisleton who was a goldsmith and alderman of the City and died in 1525.
Additional Information
Record Sources
Availability
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Custodial History
Bibliography
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Funding of Cataloguing
Wellcome
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