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 Ii.2.5

Medical texts

Contents

Introduction: It is not unusual to find within the covers of a medieval manuscript that it comprises two or more sections of separate date and place of production. Such a 'composite' book may have been formed by a medieval or post-medieval owner; indeed, in some instances, its precise make-up may have undergone a succession of changes during its lifetime. The choices that readers made in determining the contents of the books they owned or used can shed valuable light on the reception of those texts: 'associated contents' can indicate how someone perceived a particular text, and illuminate the intellectual context in which they read it. An important first step is thus to look for evidence in the manuscript or documentary sources that can inform our understanding of when - and even by whom - a book was assembled. The manuscript shown here - a newly identified book that was owned or used by a 15th-century physician, Roger Marchall - illustrates some possibilities as well as some of the challenges in attempting to reconstruct such a composite manuscript's history. Roger Marchall (d. 1477) was an important benefactor to the libraries of Gonville Hall, King's College and Peterhouse, the three colleges in medieval Cambridge where the study of medicine was supported. A fellow of Peterhouse from 1437, he studied and lectured on medicine, and relocated to London after approximately twenty years in Cambridge. There he continued to pursue his medical career, not least as physician to Edward IV, and fulfilled a number of other duties: for example, serving on a panel in 1468 to determine a case of leprosy in a certain woman, and, four years later, being summoned by the mayor of London, along with another physician and certain apothecaries, to confirm that a merchant's consignment of treacle was unwholesome. Given the evidence of his material wealth, Marchall's time in London was profitable, though this apparently derived as much from his mercantile investments in his family members' trading activities as his services as a physician. Records document Marchall's gift of books to King's and Peterhouse, though only at Peterhouse do some of these remain; some or all of the eighteen manuscripts at Gonville and Caius College that bear evidence of his use or ownership must also have been gifts. In total, more than forty surviving manuscripts may be connected with Marchall, though whether he owned them or simply accessed and annotated them is not always clear. They often bear his name, as well as two characteristic interventions: a prefatory table of contents, and rubrics at the opening of texts, both likewise written in his distinctive handwriting. It is on the basis of such rubrics that Cambridge, University Library, MS Ii.2.5 may be identified as another Marchall manuscript. Like many of the books annotated by Marchall, MS Ii.2.5 is a composite, comprising four parts of separate production - and, again similarly, with one exception the texts therein are all incomplete in some way. The first part contains two of the half dozen or so texts that formed the Articella or Ars medicinae: an anthology used for foundational instruction in the study of medicine from the 12th century onwards. Here, they are accompanied by commentaries: Hippocrates' Prognostica, with a commentary by Galen; and Galen's Tegni, with a commentary by ʻAlī ibn Riḍwān (commonly known then, in Latinised form, as 'Haly'). Both texts end imperfectly, though their identical layout and script confirm that they were made by the same scribe. The third text lacks both its beginning and end, and gives very few internal clues as to its authorship; it remains unidentified. The fourth text is also introductory: the Cantica of Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna), again with a commentary, by Ibn Rushd (Averroës). This has losses both internally and at the end. Only the fifth text is complete: a compilation of medical recipes attributed to Petrus Hispanus, to which later hands have added numerous further remedies in the margins. Last in sequence is the Tacuinum sanitatis of Ibn Buṭlān, from which text has been lost at the end, too. Though many of the manuscripts in which his hand is found are composites, it is often unclear what role Marchall may have played (if any) in their assembly. Without supporting evidence, there remains some doubt as to whether MS Ii.2.5 is in the form in which Marchall himself owned or encountered it. For instance, no Marchall rubric appears at the beginning of the unidentified text (see f. 25r); could it have been added later? As other manuscripts show, Marchall's tables of contents and rubrics were often selective, and drew attention to particular contents according to criteria that have yet to be fully understood. It is also possible that Marchall recognised this text as medical (it begins '[I]ste egritudines...', 'These illnesses...'), but did not know its author or title. However, what establishes its presence in Marchall's time without doubt are late medieval alphanumeric leaf signatures in Quires 3, 4 and 5+6 ('e', 'f' and 'g' respectively). Unquestionably, these additions post-date the production of the leaves, and are a single sequence that straddles Part 1 ('e') and Part 2 ('f' and 'g'), thus confirming that these had been (or were in the process of being) bound together when the signatures were added. What of the signatures that preceded 'e'? One possibility is that Quires 1 and 2 were 'c' and 'd': thus, the text of the Prognostica was imperfect at the end when Marchall owned it, but some other text on 'a' and 'b' has since been lost from the beginning of the manuscript. This might explain the absence of a Marchall table of contents and name inscription, though these are not always present or they could have been on an endleaf that has been removed when the manuscript was rebound. Another, perhaps more plausible explanation is that Quires 1 and 2 were 'a' and 'b' (though any such signatures have been lost to cropping) and a further two quires ('c' and 'd') contained the rest of the Prognostica - yet the loss of these two quires must have occurred after the point at which this and the Tegni were bound together. Comparison with another copy confirms that the Prognostica and commentary in MS Ii.2.5 break off a little more than half-way through (see Yale, Cushing/Whitney Medical Library, Medical Historical Library, MS 29 vault , ff. 194r-227r) and that the putative two quires of eight leaves ('c' and 'd') would have been sufficient to accommodate the rest (see ff. 227r-253r of the aforementioned Yale manuscript). Curiously, a different hand continued the text of Haly's commentary on Galen in an extended footnote, completing the sentence at the end of a section. The unidentified text (on Quire 4/'f') was probably imperfect at the time it was bound with the preceding quires. The signature 'f v' on f. 29r shows that this was a quire of ten leaves when it was added. This is an unusual structure for a manuscript of this period and the imperfect opening of the text suggests that a bifolium had originally enclosed the quire (thus making a more typical gathering of twelve leaves). The signatures ('g') that follow in the next part are certainly not a reliable guide to the structure of those leaves, since they span two quires, though the tight binding means that their structure cannot be determined (Quires 5 and 6). The route by which MS Ii.2.5 came to Cambridge University Library is similarly uncertain. The earliest record of its presence is the printed catalogue entitled Ecloga Oxonio-Cantabrigiensis, published by Thomas James in 1600, wherein it is noted as no. 149 - though James overlooked the Tegni and made no mention of the unidentified text. The holdings of the University Library expanded substantially between the compilation of a handwritten inventory in 1583 (now UA CUR 31.1(10) ) and the publication of the Ecloga. J.C.T. Oates noted the expenditure in the Vice-Chancellor's accounts of of 10d. in 1584-85 for 'a carte to bring certayne written books from peter howse to the schooles gyven by mr dr perne to the librarye' and 8d. 'for twoe yt did helpe to lade and vnlade the same'. 'mr dr perne' is, of course, Andrew Perne (?1519-1589), Vice-Chancellor of the University and Master of Peterhouse. Comparing the 1583 and 1600 lists, Oates observed that 'since we know of only two manuscripts (James 224, 240) which certainly came from a source other than Perne, we must conclude that the remainder came from him, whether during his lifetime in 1584-85 or after his death in 1589, when his bequests to the Library included "all the old doctors and Histories that I have in written hande in parchment or in paper at Cambridge or at Ely"'. MS Ii.2.5 falls within Oates's suggested group, raising the tantalising possibility that it went from Marchall to Peterhouse and from there to the University Library. However, pen trials among the Tacuinum sanitatis include the words of a legal agreement dated to 37 Henry VIII (i.e. 1545/46), suggesting that - for a period, at least - the manuscript may have been elsewhere. Dr James Freeman| Medieval Manuscripts Specialist| Cambridge University Library References
J.C.T. Oates, Cambridge University Library, a history: from the beginnings to the Copyright Act of Queen Anne (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986)
See L. Voigts, 'A doctor and his books: the manuscripts of Roger Marchall (d. 1477)', in R. Beadle and A. J. Piper (eds.), New science out of old books: studies in manuscripts and early printed books in honour of A.I. Doyle (Aldershot, 1995) pp. 249-314

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: 2r: res ex eis presentes
Form: codex
Support: Parchment
Extent: Codex: ii + 24 | 19 | 19 | 36 + ii leaves. 340 × 240 mm.
Foliation:

20th-century foliation

[i-ii] + 1-16 ; 17-24 | 25-43 | 44-62 | 63-98 + [iii-iv]

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

The first endleaf (f. [i]) is preceded by a parchment endleaf guard and two paper stubs, ff. [a]-[c]); likewise, the last endleaf (f. [iv]) is followed by two paper stubs and a parchment endleaf guard.

Collation

Three quires (1-3), each of eight leaves. The text at the end of Quire 2 ends imperfectly and a new text begins at the start of Quire 3, but the layout and hand are the same. The leaf signatures on Quire 3 suggest the loss of perhaps two quires after Quire 2 (assuming Quires 1-2 had the signatures 'a' and 'b').

  • Quires 1-28 (ff. 1-16) ;
  • Quire 38 (ff. 17-24) |
  • Quire 4ten (ff. 25-34)
  • Quire 5five (ff. 35-39)
  • Quire 6four (ff. 40-43) |
  • Quire 712 (ff. 44-55)
  • Quire 88-1 (ff. 56-62: 1st leaf, before f. 56, missing) |
  • Quires 9-1112 (ff. 63-98)

1-28 ; 38 | 4ten 5nine | 612 78-1 (1st leaf missing) | 8-1012

Condition

Margins of ff. 11 and 12 excised, with slight loss of text.

Additions

Quire signatures ('1-10') in the bottom right-hand corner of the recto side of the first leaf of each quire, written in pencil by one or more hands of the 19th/20th century (no longer indicative; see Collation).

Binding

Early 17th-century, full blind-tooled calf with rectangular and diamond-shaped frames, over pasteboards. Repaired by Cambridge University Library, 1951.

Accompanying Material

Straws in the gutter between ff. 6v and 7r.

History

Provenance and Acquisition

A hitherto unidentified manuscript formerly used or in the possession of Roger Marchall (fl. 1436-1477) , doctor of medicine: rubrics written in his characteristic handwriting on ff. 1r, 17r, 44r (over an erased line of text) and 63r. For further details of Marchall and other manuscripts containing his handwriting, see L. Voigts, 'A doctor and his books: the manuscripts of Roger Marchall (d. 1477)', in R. Beadle and A.J. Piper (eds.), New science out of old books: studies in manuscripts and early printed books in honour of A.I. Doyle (Aldershot, 1995) pp. 249-314

In the University Library by 1600, when it was recorded as no. 149 in the Ecloga Oxonio-Cantabrigiensis by Thomas James (1600) (see front pastedown, 1r and fore-edge).

Part 1 [Cambridge, University Library, MS Ii.2.5, ff. 1-24]

Contents

Language(s): Latin

1. 1r-16v
Prognostica (tr. Constantinus Africanus or Gerard of Cremona) Hippocrates Constantinus Africanus (trl) Gerard of Cremona (trl)
Language(s): Latin
Rubric: 1r: Pronostica ypocratis cum commento galieni
Incipit: 1r Omnis qui medicine artis studio
Explicit: 16v: Et rubeum omnio molestum . album . globosum . uiscosum inutile est||

Ends imperfectly in Book Two. Rubric written by Roger Marchall (see Provenance).

Hippocrates Latinus XLV.A.2
eTK 1002B
2. 1r-16v
Commentary on Hippocrates' Prognostica (tr. Constantinus Africanus) Galen Constantinus Africanus (trl)
Language(s): Latin
Rubric: 1r: Pronostica ypocratis cum commento galieni
Incipit: (gloss) 1r Uidetur mihi quod ex melioribus rebus est uti
Explicit: 16v: a flebotomie adusto . Et ego quidem iam ostendi in alio||

Ends imperfectly.

eTK 1694N
3. 17r-24v
Tegni Galen
Language(s): Latin
Rubric: 17r: Tegni Galieni . cum comento haly .
Incipit: 17r: Tres sunt omnes doctrine que ordine habentur
Explicit: 24v: rectiora uero fieri que ex utraque parte||

Ends imperfectly in Book Two. Rubric written by Roger Marchall (see Provenance).

eTK 1585J
4. 17r-24v
Commentary on Galen's Tegni (tr. ?Gerard of Cremona) ʻAlī ibn Riḍwān
Language(s): Latin
Incipit: 17r: Intendimus edere sermonem exponentem illud quod clausum est
Explicit: 24v: ab illo malicia in complexione eius||

Ends imperfectly. Text continued from end of column in extended catchword in lower margin.

eTK 0757H

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: 2r: res ex eis presentes
Form: codex
Support: Parchment (FHHF)
Extent: Codex: 24 leaves. 340 × 240 mm.

Collation

  • Quires 1-28 (ff. 1-16) ;
  • Quire 38 (ff. 17-24)

Leaf signatures on Quire 3 only ('e i'; rest partially cropped); sequence continued in Part Two.

Catchwords (in Quires 1 and 2, enclosed by ornamental frames).

Layout

230 × 150 mm. Ruled in leadpoint, frame and line. Two columns, 70 lines, written below top line.

Hand(s)

Core text and commentary both written in littera textualis. The core text is written in a larger module of script on alternate lines.

Decoration

Nine- to eleven-line puzzle initials in red and blue, with infill and marginal flourishing in red ink, at the beginning of text and commentary (ff. 1r, 17r). Smaller, seven-line puzzle initial, only the blue section completed and without flourishing, at the beginning of Book Two of the Prognostica (f. 10v).

One- to three-line plain initials in blue, marking the beginning of passages of text and commentary and further textual subdivisions within.

Additions

Interliner glosses and marginal notes by hands of the later 13th and early 14th centuries.

History

Origin: Second half of the 14th century. ; England.

Provenance

An inscription, perhaps recording ownership, in the bottom margin of f. 6v, now heavily erased and illegible under UV light.

Part 2 [Cambridge, University Library, MS Ii.2.5, ff. 25-43]

Contents

Language(s): Latin

1. 25r-34v
Unidentified medical text
Language(s): Latin
Incipit: || 25r: [I]ste egritudines sinunt propter flegma
Explicit: 34v: Et spiritus crisii congruatur propter humorem aut secundum parte||

Begins and ends imperfectly. As M.R. James noted in an unpublished description (see Source), one section of the text ends and another begins on f. 30r, the latter beginning 'Ista pars dividitur in duae partes: primo narrat signa signancia sanitatem...Secundo narrat signa signancia super egritudines et causas istarum...'. There is a mark at the end of the text that has the apperance of a signe de renvoi, but is found nowhere else in the manuscript.

2. 35r-43v
Cantica (tr. Armengaudus Blasius) Avicenna Armengaudus Blasius (trl)
Language(s): Latin
Rubric: 35r: Cantica Auicenne cum commento Aueroys
Incipit: 35r: Postquam deo gratias egi largienti vitam
Incipit: 35r: Medicina est conseruacio sanitatis et curacio
Explicit: 43v: Non est curandum de assumpcione multi viui ||

Text breaks off after 1:274 at the end of f. 41v; the left-hand column on f. 42r is blank; text resumes in the right-hand column at Verse 1:422. Text continues to 2:34, ending imperfectly. Rubric written by Roger Marchall (see Provenance).

eTK 0857C (t0165400000)
Jahier and Noureddine (1956) (not using this MS)
3. 35r-43v
Commentary on Avicenna's Cantica Averroës
Language(s): Latin
Incipit: 35r: Hec est diffinitio medicine secundum enim Galienus
Explicit: 43v: immense est erroneus quam (?)vivum teste ||

Ends imperfectly.

eTK 1070C (t0206030000)

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: Parchment (disposition uncertain - see Collation)
Extent: Codex: 19 leaves. 340 × 240 mm.

Collation

  • Quire 4ten (ff. 25-34)
  • Quire 5nine (ff. 35-43)
  • Quire 6four (ff. 40-43) |

Leaf signatures on Quire 4 ('f v' on f. 29r) and Quire 5 ('g ii'-'g vii'; first one cropped).

Layout

245-250 × 150 mm. Ruled in leadpoint, frame only. Two columns, 70-80 lines, written below top line. Slight differences in ruling, with single bounding lines used in Quire 4 and double in Quire 5.

Hand(s)

Core text and commentary both written in littera textualis. The first line of the core text is written in a larger module of script, changing to a smaller module thereafter, which is also used for the commentary.

Decoration

Five- to seven-line plain initials in blue for the opening and major textual divisions, two- to three-line initials of the same type for further textual subdivisions.

Gaps left for in-column rubrics in Quire 4.

History

Origin: 14th century. ; England.

Part 3 [Cambridge, University Library, MS Ii.2.5, ff. 44-62]

Contents

Language(s): Latin

1. 44r-62v
Thesaurus pauperum Petrus Hispanus
Language(s): Latin
Rubric: 44r: Incipit thesaurus pauperum editus per petrum hispanum
Incipit: (prologue) 44r: In nomine sancte et indiuidue trinitatis que omnia creauit
Incipit: 44r: Si capilli cadunt fac lexiuum
Explicit: 62v: eos autem qui hic aliquid impietatis querunt ob nubila. Qui cum deo patre et spiritum sancto unus et regnas amen
Final rubric: 62v: Scriptoris munus sit vos bonus

Opening rubric written by Roger Marchall (see Provenance).

eTK 0698A
2. 62v
Compendium urinarum (extracts) Walter Agilon
Language(s): Latin
Incipit: 62v: Cum secundum auctores uiginti sint colores vrinarum
Explicit: 62v: aut signat colicum uel yliacam passionem . si spissa fuerit et sum arenis cum crudo flegme uiscoso et in febribus intestis
eTK 0338M (t0066650000)
3. 44r-48r
Medical recipes
Language(s): Latin

Added by hands of the 15th century to the top and bottom margins. They address the following:

  • f. 44r: for worms eating your hair ('Ad tineas corodentes capillos') and to stop hair growing ('vt pili numquam crescat')
  • f. 44v: against madness ('contra insaniam') and two against frenzy ('Item contra frenesim')
  • f. 45r: to revive hair growth ('Ad renascendi capillos') and remove anything that may have fallen into one's ears ('Item ad extrahendum quidquid in aurem inciderit')
  • f. 45v: to make someone fall asleep and then revive them ('Et ad excitandum illum'), followed by two further recipes for sleeplessness; to bring on perpetual sleep ('Item ad sompnum sempiternum') (partially cropped), and another for the same.
  • f. 46r: for a growth (or excess humour?) arising in the eyes ('Nota contra omnem superfluitatem in oculo existentem'), which concludes with a note by the annotator that the reader should 'heed this experimentum [experience / proven method], just as it [the recipe] instructs, as much as the incomparable Theasaurus [Pauperum], from which I have transcribed it' ('Hoc experimentum custodi tanquam thesaurum incomparabilem prout precepit . de quo istud transscripsi').
  • f. 46v: under the first column: a marvellous experimentum against watering, itching, red or inflamed eyes ('Nota mirabile experimentum contra oculos lacrimantes et pruriginem et ruborem et inflacionem'), followed by another that promises to cure the complaint perfectly in a few days ('curabitur in perfectissime ad paucos dies'). Another for burning and red eyes ('Item contra arsuras et rubores oculorum'), and a final one for the same, whose first ingredient is 'caprifolium', for which a contemporary English annotator has provided its common name, 'id est Wodebynde'. Further recipes for eye-salves are written above and below the second column.
  • f. 47r: two further recipes for eye-salves.
  • f. 47v: against tinnitus and deafness ('contra tinnitum et surditatem aurium'); another that cures all gout, both hot and cold, without distinction ('Nota quod omnem guttam tam calidam quam frigidam indifferenter curat').
  • f. 48r: several recipes, the last partially cropped, for unstated purposes but presumably for ailments of the teeth or gums.

4. 50r-51r
Medical recipes
Language(s): Latin

Added by hands of the 14th and 15th century to the bottom margin. They address the foollowing:

  • f. 50r: a powerful electuary, a marvellous laxative, which is given either before or after food, to someone of any age, without danger ('Nota electuarium valde mirabile laxatiuum quod datur indifferenter ante cibum et post et prout dari omni etati sine periculo'); another for a styptic, which tightens the stomach ('stringat ventrem').
  • f. 50v: three recipes for unstated purposes, but presumably against the flux / dysentery.
  • f. 51r: against spasm ('contra spasmum'), against sciatica ('contra ciaticam passionem').

5. 52r-55v
Medical recipes
Language(s): Latin

Added by hands of the 15th century. They address the following:

  • f. 52r: two remedies for haemorrhoids ('contra Emeroydas')
  • f. 52v: two remedies for jaundica ('curat yctericos' and 'curat yctericiam')
  • f. 53r: for strangury, the stone and inflammation ('Nota pro stranguria et lapide et inflammacione')
  • f. 53v: for canker in the penis ('De cancer virge') and a most effective medicine for inflammation of the penis and testicles or other members ('contra inflammacionem virge et testiculorum vel alterius membri efficacissimum medicamen')
  • f. 54r: for retention of menstrual flow ('contra retentionem menstruorum')
  • f. 54v: for excessive menstrual flow ('contra superfluitatem menstruorum')
  • f. 55r: two remedies for suffocation of the womb ('contra suffocacionem matricis'
  • f. 55v: to aid conception. It is described as a desirable remedy which woman around the world wish for and rightly so ('Nota remedium optabilem quam mulieres super omnia mundo optant et merito'). It bears a close similarity to the 'True medicine and often proven, so that a woman may conceive however sterile she may be' recorded by Richard Tenet OCarm (fl. 1418-after 1422) in Cambridge, Trinity College, MS O.8.2 . The plant name 'pilosellam' has been glossed: 'id est Mowshere'. It concludes with an extended note by the annotator, who obtained the remedy 'word for word, transcribed from the book of a certain friend, but [which] has not yet been proven by me'.

6. 58r-58v
Medical recipes
Language(s): Latin

Added by hands of the later 14th and 15th centuries. They address the following:

  • f. 58r: two remedies for fever. The first has been 'proven many times' ('expertum est multociens'). Through use of the second, fever 'will be cured within four days' and is proven against all quartan fevers ('curabitur infra iiii dies expertum est contra omnes quartanam').
  • f. 58v: two remedies for quartan and other fevers.

7. 60v-61r
Medical recipes
Language(s): Latin

Added by hands of the and 15th century. They address the following:

  • f. 60v: to cleanse leprosy / skin inflammation ('Nota ad sanandum lepram'), the best salve against all types of scabies, which heals miraculously quickly ('Vnguentum optimum contra omne genus scabiei . mirabilitier cito sanat'), to destroy something [reading uncertain] ('Ad mortificandum ?M''), against numbness of the limbs ('Contra stupefactionem membrorum'), and against morphea ('contra morfeam').
  • f. 61r: four remedies to beautify the face ('Nota hic de ornatu faciei').

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: 45r: -tere cum melle et aceto
Form: codex
Support: Parchment (FHHF)
Extent: Codex: 19 leaves. 340 × 240 mm.
Foliation:

14th-/15th-century foliation

[1]-20 (for ff. 44-62)

Written in ink in the upper right-hand corner of the rectos in medieval Arabic numerals.

Collation

  • Quire 712 (ff. 44-55)
  • Quire 88-1 (ff. 56-62: 1st leaf, before f. 56, missing)

Catchword in simple red frame (f. 55v).

Layout

250 170 Ruled in leadpoint, frame and line. Two columns, 57 lines to the page, written below top line.

Hand(s)

Written in littera textualis, perhaps southern European.

Decoration

Fifteen-line puzzle initial in red and blue, with marginal flourishing in red ink, at the opening of the text (f. 44r).

Two- to ten-line initials, alternating in red and blue, with infill and marginal flourishing in contrasting blue and red.

Chapter titles written in red ink.

History

Origin: 14th century. ; ?Italy.

Part 4 [Cambridge, University Library, MS Ii.2.5, ff. 63-98]

Contents

Language(s): Latin

1. 63r-98v
Tacuinum sanitatis Ibn Buṭlān
Language(s): Latin
Rubric: 63r: Tacuynum id est regimen sanitatis editum per Albuchasim
Incipit: 63r: Tacuynum sanitatus in medicina ad narrandum vi res necessarias et in narratione iuuamentum ciborum
Explicit: 98v: augent et nigrificant . Accipe enim||

Opening rubric and attribution to Albucasis written by Roger Marchall (see Provenance). Text ends imperfectly, in a section on bathing.

eTK 1554H (t0296880000)

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: 64r: lingue efficiens
Form: codex
Support: Parchment (FHHF)
Extent: Codex: 36 leaves. 340 × 240 mm.
Foliation:

14th-century foliation

1-36 (for ff. 63-98)

Written in ink in Arabic numerals in the centre of the top margin of the verso side of each leaf. Repeated by a later, probably 15th- or early 16th-century hand in the top right-hand corner of the recto side of each leaf.

Collation

  • Quires 9-1112 (ff. 63-98)

Layout

275 × 190 mm. Ruled in leadpoint, frame and line; diagrams also ruled in leadpoint. Number of lines variable; no page filled with text and lines ruled only where necessary. Single column, written below top line.

Hand(s)

Written in littera textualis.

Decoration

37 diagrams, drawn by the text scribe.

Additions

Annotations by a 15th-century hand in the margins surrounding the diagram entitled 'De purgatione combinatione et munidificatione dencium et cura ebriorum' (f. 95v).

History

Origin: 14th century. ; England.

Additional Information

Record Sources

This catalogue entry draws on an unpublished description of the manuscript composed between 1926 and 1930 by M.R. James (1862-1936) , now held in the University Archives (UA ULIB 7/3/74/41).

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

    Poème de la médecine = Urğūza fī 't-tibb. = <hi rend="italics">Cantica Avicennae</hi>: Texte arabe, traduction française, traduction latine du XIIIe siècle Collection Arabe, (Paris, Société d'édition "Les Belles Lettres, 1956) Manuscripts in the University Library, Cambridge (Dd-Oo) Index of Middle English Prose, Connolly, Margaret (Woodbridge, D.S. Brewer, 2009, https://doi.org/10.1017/9781846157363) Byzantine medical manuscripts: towards a new catalogue, with a specimen for an annotated checklist of manuscripts based on an index of Diels' catalogue Byzantion: Revue internationale des Études Byzantines, Touwaide, Alain (79, 453-595, 2009) Greek Medical Manuscripts - Diels' Catalogue, Touwaide, Alain (Berlin, 2: Corpus Hippocraticum, De Gruyter, 2020, https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110600001/html)

Funding of Cataloguing

Wellcome

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Cambridge Digital Library

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