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.5.11

Aldobrandino da Siena, Régime du corps

Contents

Introduction: Cambridge, University Library, MS Ii.5.11 is a fifteenth-century illustrated copy of a household health text commonly known as the Régime du corps. It contains a full version of the text with 143 accompanying illuminations. These images are in the form of historiated initials, capital letters that contain small, relatively simple scenes within them. This type of initial letter is often used to introduce chapters or sections of a text. The Régime du corps is a French text originally composed in 1256 by the physician Aldobrandino of Siena . Aldobrandino’s text was essentially a compendium of small excerpts culled from various established medical sources that were associated with the training of physicians in universities. Presented in a concise, general, and accessible tone, the resulting text was directed toward those who oversaw households. The advice it offers was intended for the maintenance of health and the treatment of minor illnesses in the home, serving as a kind of self-help guide. This thirteenth-century health guide was one of the first medical texts to be written in French rather than Latin and it would become popular and influential: it was translated into at least four other languages and exists in dozens of surviving copies that were made during the next two hundred years. The topics covered include activities for good health like rest, bathing, and clean air and water, interventions such as a phlebotomy and purging, chapters on specific body parts, and recommended foods, spices, and beverages. According to the prologue that accompanies some copies, the ambitious countess of Provence, Beatrice of Savoy , enlisted Aldobrandino, her personal physician, to compose this guide for her to pass along to her four daughters just as they were forming their own households. These daughters were also the present or future queens of England, France, Germany, and Sicily. Women like these queens probably played a role in the spreading of the text and its knowledge across Europe. In addition to the Régime du corps, CUL MS Ii.5.11 also includes a short selection of French and Middle English recipes (Régime: 7r-85r; recipes: 85v-86r). The manuscript was likely made in France in the mid-fifteenth century, in the Rouen region. By the later fifteenth century, however, the manuscript was in royal English hands. The arms of Henry VII, king of England (1457–1509) and Queen Elizabeth of York (1465–1503) are found on folio 6v. This was likely added after 1486, when the couple was married; based on this date, Henry was a later, probably second owner of the manuscript. The abundantly and extravagantly illustrated copies of the Régime du corps, including CUL MS Ii.5.11, were high status objects. While it is unclear how heavily such health guides were used for the information they contained, they were unquestionably objects that reflected luxury as well as the kind of specialized content that was attractive to bibliophiles. The illuminations of CUL MS Ii.5.11 are characterized by diverse colors, elaborate leafy vines in the margins, and some use of gold leaf. The artistic style of CUL MS Ii.5.11 results in figures with somewhat oversized hands and heads, appearing just a bit too large for the space provided them. Status is often conveyed through specificity in clothing and headwear. A few examples demonstrate the unique style evident in this manuscript. On folio 27v, the chapter on corruption is represented with a particularly well-dressed physician advising a patient. In a delightful initial to accompany the chapter on fromage, the cheese is set out to dry with a basket hanging nearby (fol. 77r). In the image for the chapter on caring for a newborn, two female attendants tend to the infant and new mother in this conventional lying-in scene (fol. 34v). The chapter on pregnancy shows a lone woman holding a book, possibly consulting the same manuscript in which this image appears (folio 33r). Depictions of the domestic sphere are abundant, reinforcing the association of these manuscripts with household management overseen by women. Numerous illustrated copies of this health guide exist, including seven that are illustrated with historiated initials. CUL MS Ii.5.11 includes 143 historiated initials, reflecting the increased illustration program of several other later copies. It is among a group of four made in the fifteenth century, of which three are remarkably similar to each other. The Cambridge copy shares much in common with both New York, Morgan Library MS M.165 and London, British Library, Sloane MS 2401 . CUL MS Ii.5.11 and Morgan MS M.165 were likely both made in Rouen around 1440–50. Sloane 2401 shares much with these two copies and likely has a similar origin. The determination of royal, English ownership by the late fifteenth century raises questions about where and for whom the Cambridge manuscript was originally produced. During the Hundred Years War, the English presence in the area around Rouen in the mid-fifteenth century was prominent; Elizabeth of York’s grandfather Richard, Duke of York (1411–60) was in residence in that area, and her father, Edward IV , was born in Rouen in 1442. Edward was a pronounced collector of Continental, specifically Burgundian, manuscripts; another, later illustrated copy of the Régime, Lisbon, Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal, MS Ajuda 52-XIII-26 , may have been produced for him in Bruges. That the Cambridge manuscript took such a path to the collection of Henry VII seems quite plausible. References:
J. Borland, ‘Freeze-Framed: Theorizing the Historiated Initials of the Régime Du Corps’, Word & Image, 32.2 (2016), 235–50 [https://doi.org/10.1080/02666286.2016.1172546]
J. Borland, 'Female networks and the circulation of a late medieval illustrated health guide', in Moving women, moving objects (400-1500), ed. by T.C. Hamilton and M. Proctor-Tiffany (Brill, 2019), pp. 108-136 [https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004399679_007]
J. Borland, Visualizing Household Health: Medieval Women, Art, and Knowledge in the Régime Du Corps (University Park, PA: Penn State University Press, 2021) https://doi.org/10.1515/9780271091495
Dr Jennifer Borland| Professor of Art History and Director of the Center for the Humanities| Oklahoma State University

Language(s): Middle French with some annotations in Latin and Middle English

1. 1v
Extract from a poem - Quisquis es in mensa
Language(s): Latin
Incipit: 1v Dum sedes in mensa primo de paupere pensa
Explicit: 1v Potum bis ferre lex est et regular terre

Extract from a popular poem 'Quisquis es in mensa', with a variant opening line. Edited by Glixelli.

S. Glixelli, 'Les "Contenances de Table', Romania 47 (1985), pp. 1-40
2. 2r-85r
Regime du corps Aldobrandino da Siena
Language(s): Middle French
2.1. 2r-4r
Table of Contents to the Regime du corps
Language(s): Middle French
Rubric: 2r Cy commancent les rebriches de la primere partie de ce present liure et consequament de tout le liure
Incipit: 2r De prologue
Explicit: 4r De cognoistre lomine qui est luxurieux . lxxix
2.2. 7r-85r
Regime du corps Aldobrandino da Siena
Language(s): Middle French
Incipit: 7r Dieu qui par sa grant
Explicit: 85r On oir parler de femmes
Final rubric: 85r Cy fine ce liure qui traute de tout ce qui necessaire pour le gouuernement de corps domme et de plusiers remedes contre plusieurs et diuerses maladies

This text is also known by the title Le regime de sante and Régime de santé

Landouzy and Pépin (1911)
3. 85r-86r
Medical recipes
Language(s): Medieval French, Latin, Middle English

By several hands of the late 15th / early 16th century. The first two begin by referring to apothecaries ('apoticariez' and 'la poticare') as sources of ingredients. The purposes of these recipes are generally unstated, except for one described as a 'poudre laxsatie' (f. 85v).

A full transcription of the last, in Middle English (purpose unstated): 'take þe longis of a fox and wasche hem clene and poutte hem to drie in an howyn [oven] our on a tylston for the hesporge hem and wan yt is so drie that yt may be stampyt in poudre take of clovys and masys massis and greynis of a lyk moche and stampe hem al to gedre in a morter and kepem as clos as ȝe may from þe heyr'.

Two recipes in Middle English transcribed in IMEP XIX, p. 218
4. 86r
Couplet in Latin
Language(s): Latin
Incipit: 86r Cuspite cultelli perierunt ambo iemele
Explicit: 86r Amne soror mater fune. dolore pater

The couplet is a modified extract from the short verse beginning 'Ense necat Paulum par lux'. It should read: 'Cuspide cultelli perierunt ambo gemelli / Amne puer, mater fune, dolore pater'.

16th-century annotation.

The name '(?)Willelmus Waltur/Walturus' and a word llinpenff(?) next to the couplet, perhaps all in the the same hand. See Provenance for further discussion.

Walther, Initia carminum, no. 5454
5. 86r
A note about King Henry VII
Language(s): Middle French

Text: ‘Roy Henry VII a qui dieu doint bonne vie et paradis amen’ in a 16th century hand.

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: 2r Cy commancent les rebriches de (table of contents)
Secundo Folio: 8r aussi bien le sain (main text)
Form: codex
Support: Parchment (HFFH).
Extent: Codex: i + 4 + 2 + 80 + i leaves. | 275 × 210 mm.
Foliation:

20th-century foliation.

[i] + 1-4 + 5-6 + 7-86 + [ii]

Foliated in pencil in the upper outer corner of each recto in Hindu-Arabic numerals.
Foliation:

Late 15th-century foliation.

i-lxxix for ff. 7r-85r

Foliated in red ink in the centre of the upper margin of each recto in Roman numerals. This foliation sequence covers the leaves containing the 'main text' of the Regime du corps. Prompts to the rubricator are occasionally visible in the lower right-hand corner of the recto side of the leaves: see ff. 33r-37r.

Collation

The majority of the manuscript is formed of regular quires of 8 leaves, with some variant quires at the beginning and end of the volume. A bifolium (ff. 5-6) was added after the first quire in order to accommodate a coat of arms (see Provenance).

  • Quire 14 (ff. 1-4)
  • Quire 22 (ff. 5-6)
  • Quires 3-118 (ff. 7-78)
  • Quire 126 (ff. 79-84)
  • Quire 132 (ff. 85-86)

14 22 3-118 126 132

Partial remains of medieval leaf signatures in the usual combination of letters and numerals, written in light brown ink, now mostly trimmed away: see f. 17r-18r ('b iii', 'b iiii') and 32r-34r ('d ii', 'd iii', 'd iiii').

 Catchwords present and enclosed in small decorative frames in the centre of the lower margin of the last verso of each quire.

Condition

In good condition. The manuscript has been trimmed for rebinding at least once and some marginal text and decoration has been lost to trimming.

Layout

185 × 130 mm. Ruled in leadpoint, frame and lines. Ruled in single-column format, 29 lines to the page and written below top line. Folios 2r-4v are ruled in two columns for the list of capitula.

Hand(s)

The main text is written in a late northern textualis formata with some libraria features.

Decoration

6v: Full-page miniature of the arms of King Henry VII of England (b. 1457 – d. 1509) impaled with those of his wife, Elizabeth of York (b. 1486, d. 1503). The heraldic achievement on f. 6v can be described as follows:| Crown: circlet with alternate fleurs-de-lis and crosses pattée, 6 arches shown, over a red velvet cap trimmed with ermine | Escutcheon: Per pale. Dexter, Quarterly of four, 1st and 4th France, 2nd and 3rd England; Sinister, Quarterly of four, 1st Quaterly France and England, 2nd and 3rd Or a Cross gules (de Burgh), 4th Barry or and azure on a Chief of the first two pallets between two base esquires of the second over all an Inescutcheon argent (Mortimer)| Supporters: A red dragon and a white talbot gorged gules studded or . Other manuscripts bearing ownership marks relating to Henry VII and/or Elizabeth of York include:

For further information see: Kathleen Scott, 'Manuscripts for Henry VII, his household and family' in S. Panayatova (ed.), The Cambridge Illuminations: the Conference Papers (London, 2007), pp. 279–286.

7r: Half-page miniature in colours and gold of Christ enthroned, and nimbed in a pastoral scene. Christ holds an orb in his left hand and holds up his right hand in benediction as a variety of large and small animals gather around him in the scene.

Almost every chapter in the volume begins with a historiated or decorative initial typically 4-6 lines high set within a square or rectangular frame with gold details and a spray border extending into the adjacent margin(s). The majority of these decorative initials present a literal depiction of the subject of the chapter, but some offer more abstract scenes or occasionally add or remove elements relative to the description of the chapter given in the rubric. The image cycle in CUL MS Ii.5.11 is of wider interest because of its similarities to other manuscript copies of the Regime du corps; the Binski and Zutshi Western Illuminated Manuscripts catalogue refers to similarities between the image cycle in this manuscript and the image cycle in the  New York, Morgan Library, MS M.165 . A dissertation by Luís Miguel Campos Ribeiro 'Picturing Medieval Health: artistic production and visual discourse in Le Régime du corps of the Ajuda library (Cod 52-XIII-26)' (Lisbon, 2016) discusses CUL MS Ii.5.11 in relation to a similar cycle of images in Lisbon, Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal, MS Ajuda 52-XIII-26 , and Jennifer Borland has drawn attention to the similarities of the image cycle in these manuscripts and also London, British Library, Sloane MS 2401 . In the list of the initials below, a description of the initial is given followed by the accompanying rubric in the manuscript (supplied in parentheses). The chapter illustrations are as follows:

  • 7r: Bust of a man (?Avicenna) holding an open book in one hand and gesturing to Christ in the half-page miniature above with his other hand
  • 8v A man sitting outside and raising his hands ('Le premier chapitre de lair')
  • 9v A mealtime scenewoman and a man sitting at a table set with dishes and other vessels ('Du mengier')
  • 11r A man sitting outside with a cup under a canopied chair, a servant filling the cup ('Du boire et premierement de leaue')
  • 12r A man holding a rod. Two men each holding a piece of bread and a cup of wine ('Du uin')
  • 13r A person sleeping in a bed ('Du dormir')
  • 14v A man in a canopied bath tub with a table of food ('Du bainguier')
  • 15v A man and a woman embracing ('Le viie chapitre de aler a femme')
  • 17v A doctor letting blood from a patient's arm ('Le ixe enquel temps et pourquoy on se doit sanguier')
  • 20v A doctor performing cupping on the back of a half-naked man ('De uentouser')
  • 21v A man sitting on riverbank with his legs in the water and leeches on his legs ('Des sansues')
  • 26v A man sitting on a ?bench or ?commode ('Pourquoy on se doit user le uomir')
  • 27v A doctor and patient conversing ('Le viiie chapitre pourquoy on se doit garder de pestillence et de corrupcione')
  • 29r The signs of the zodiac ('Comment on doit garder son corps en chascune saison')
  • 30v A city ('Le xv . Comment on doit congnoistre les uilles')
  • 31v A man swimming and another man walking ('Le xvie comment on doit cheminer per terre ou nagier par mer'
  • 33r A ?pregnant woman in a horned headdress holding a book in a chemise binding ('Le xviie chapitre comment la femme grosse se doit garder')
  • 34v A woman giving birth to child and being supported by a midwife. Another woman (a ?nurse) bathing a small child in a wooden tub ('Le xviie chapitre comment on doit garder lenfant quant il est nez et comment on doit eslire(?) la noutrice . pour lenfant nourir')
  • 36v A bloodletting scene - a woman sitting in a chair and extending her arm over a bowl in her lap and letting blood flow from a small incision near her elbow while a man stands in front of her holding another bowl ('Le ixe chapitre comment on doit garder son corps en chascun aage')
  • 38v A man examining another man's hair ('Comment len doit garder les cheueulx . premier chapitre')
  • 40v A man gesturing towards another man who is holding a bowl or a dish to his eye ('Comment len doit les yeux garder')
  • 41v A doctor examining the ear of a patient ('Comment on garder les oreilles')
  • 42v A man sitting at a table covered in pots and jars, holding a pot in one hand and examining his mouth with the other hand ('De garder les dens et les genciues')
  • 43v A woman holding a mirror in one hand and standing in front of a table covered in pots and jars ('Le quint de garder le uisage et de donn⟨er⟩ bonne couleur')
  • 44v A man drinking from a flask by a table covered in pots and jars ('Comment len doit garder lestomac')
  • 46r Two men conversing ('Le viie chapitre de garder le foye')
  • 47r A doctor giving a container of medicine to a patient ('Le viiie chapitre de garder le cuer')
  • 48r Wheat stalks ('De toutes manieres de blez et premierement du fourment')
  • 48v Barley stalks ('De orge')
  • 49r Millet stalks ('Du milet')
  • 49r A woman sitting at table and cleaning grains of rice ('Du ris')
  • 49v Oat stalks ('Du aueine')
  • 49v ?Sorghum stalks ('De rogier melebranche')
  • 50r Farro stalks ('De far qui est une maniere de ble')
  • 50r A person sieving wheatbran ('De bren de fourment')
  • 50r Trees, springs, and a river ('De toutes manieres de buurages . Et premierement de leaue')
  • 50v Two men making wine ('Du uin')
  • 51r Two tuns of grain for making ale, the tun closest to the viewer above a fire being tended by a kneeling man ('De ceruoise')
  • 51r Two men preparing apple wine ('De uin de pommes')
  • 51v A man making vinegar ('De uinaigre')
  • 51v A man crushing mulberries in a bucket ('De moure')
  • 52r Two pigs grazing ('De char de porc')
  • 52v A cow grazing ('De char de beuf')
  • 53r Two lambs grazing ('De char de brebis')
  • 53v Two sheep grazing ('De char de mouton')
  • 53v A long-horned goat ('De char de bouc')
  • 54r A goat eating from a tree ('De char de cheure')
  • 54r Two stags grazing ('Char de cerf et de dam')
  • 54v A hare ('De char de lieure')
  • 54v Rabbits and burrows ('Char du connin')
  • 54v A bear ('De char dours')
  • 54v Four birds: two flying, two on the ground ('De char de leaux uolans')
  • 55r A dovecote and doves ('De char de coulon')
  • 55v Geese and goslings ('De loye')
  • 55v Ducks ('De la quenne et quanart')
  • 56r Partridges ('De la perdris')
  • 56r A pheasant ('Du faisant')
  • 56r A peacock and a crane ('Du paon et de la grue')
  • 56v A swan and a heron ('Char de cyne et de hairon')
  • 56v Three sparrows ('Char de passeret')
  • 56v A quail and a lark ('De char de quaille et daloe')
  • 57r A plover and a redwing ('De char de plouuier mauuis')
  • 59r Two flowering broad bean plants ('De feues')
  • 59v Two chickpea plants ('De chiches')
  • 59v Two flowering pea plants ('De pois')
  • 60r Two lentil plants ('De lentilles')
  • 60r Two flowering bean plants ('De faisoles')
  • 60v Two lupin plants ('De lupins')
  • 60v Incomplete initial for ?orbille, a type of vetch ('Dorbe')
  • 60v Chickpea plants ('De cerres')
  • 60v Three flowering vetch plants ('De uesce')
  • 61r A fig tree ('De figues')
  • 61v A fruiting grapevine on a trellis ('De roisins')
  • 62r A fruiting pear tree ('De poires')
  • 62v A fruiting apple tree ('De pommes')
  • 62v A fruiting pomegranate tree ('De pommes grenates')
  • 62v A fruiting quince tree ('De coins')
  • 63r A fruiting (?lemon) tree ('De pommes citrines')
  • 63v A date-palm tree ('De dates')
  • 63v A fruiting peach tree ('De pesches')
  • 64r A fruiting currant or gooseberry tree ('De groiselles')
  • 64r A fruiting mulberry tree ('De meures')
  • 64v A fruiting plum tree ('De prunes')
  • 65r A fruiting walnut tree ('De grosses noix')
  • 65v A hazelnut tree ('Noix de coudre')
  • 65v An almond tree ('De amandes')
  • 66r An incomplete initial for a fruiting pine nut tree ('Du sein')
  • 66r A fruiting medlar tree ('Neffles')
  • 66r A fruiting sweet chestnut tree ('Chastaignes')
  • 66v An olive tree ('De oliues')
  • 67r A fruiting and flowering strawberry plant ('De freses')
  • 67r A fruiting cornelian cherry tree ('De corneilles')
  • 67r A fruiting service tree (Sorbus domestica) ('De cormes')
  • 67r A fruiting juniper tree ('De geneure')
  • 67v A fruiting and flowering winter squash (cucurbita) plant ('De courges')
  • 67v A fruiting and flowering cucumber plant ('De cocombres')
  • 67v A pumpkin plant - there is probably a mistake in the rubric here as the scribe has written 'De citrones' (i.e., 'On lemons' or 'On citrus fruits') rather than 'De citroles' (i.e., 'On pumpkins' or 'On squashes'). The plant illustrated here is much more like a pumpkin or squash plant than a citrus tree, and the text of the chapter itself is more appropriate for a description of squashes or pumpkins than any sort of citrus fruit
  • 68r Two ewers of sugarcane juice on a table ('De canamiel')
  • 68r Two beehives or skeps on a table ('Du miel')
  • 68v Cabbage plants ('De choux')
  • 69r Two flowering leek plants ('De poreaux')
  • 69r Two onion plants ('De oignons')
  • 69v Two garlic plants ('De aux')
  • 69v Two shallot plants ('De eschalongues')
  • 70r Two flowering mustard plants ('De seneue')
  • 70r A spinach plant ('De espinoches')
  • 70r A beet or chard plant ('De Betes')
  • 70r A flowering borage plant ('De bourraches')
  • 70v A mallow plant ('De mauues')
  • 70v Some turnip plants ('De naues')
  • 70v Some ?caraway plants ('De larais')
  • 71r A flowering parsnip plant ('De panais')
  • 71r A ?radish plant ('De rafle')
  • 71r Two flowering fennel plants ('De fennoul')
  • 71r A flowering parsley plant ('De persil')
  • 71r A flowering chervil plant ('De cerfueil')
  • 71r A lettuce ('De laictues')
  • 72r A purslane plant ('De pourpie')
  • 72r A plant painted over with white pigment and mostly obscured ('De parages')
  • 72v A sage plant ('De sauge')
  • 72v A mint plant ('De mente')
  • 72v A basil plant in a pot ('De basilicoq')
  • 72v A rocket (arugula) plant ('De ruque')
  • 73r Mushrooms growing in a field ('De champions')
  • 73v A flowering hyssop plant ('De ysope')
  • 73v A flowering cress plant ('De cresson')
  • 73v A flowering clary plant ('De oruale')
  • 73v A flowering ?elecampane plant ('De nula')
  • 74r A flowering ?pennyroyal or ?wild thyme plant ('De poulieul')
  • 74r An incomplete initial for ?southernwood ('De brote')
  • 74r Fish in a river ('De toutes manieres de poissons et generalment')
  • 76r A basket of eggs and a hen sitting in a nest ('De eufs')
  • 77r Cheeses on a table ('De frommage')
  • 77v A woman milking a cow ('Du lait')
  • 79r A doctor examining the urine of a male patient - this image is probably misplaced as it accompanies the chapter 'On pepper' ('Du poiure')
  • 79v A ginger plant ('De gingembre')
  • 79v A ?cinnamon plant ('De canelle')
  • 79v An incomplete initial for the chapter on cloves ('De girofle')
  • 80r A man grinding galangal ('De garingal')
  • 80v Men grinding cumin ('De commin')
  • 80v Flowering saffron crocuses ('De safren')
  • 81r Cubeb trees ('De cubebes')
  • 81r Cardamon trees ('Cardamon')
  • 81v An anise plant ('De anis')
  • 81v A man evaluating nutmeg ('De noix muguecte')
  • 82r A ?zedoary plant ('De citoual')
  • 82r A man evaporating salt ('Du sel')
  • 82r Three doctors conversing ('Du phisonomie')

Minor initials in gold on blue and purple grounds with white pen-work flourishing throughout the volume.

Additions

Quire signatures ('1-12') in the bottom right-hand corner of the recto side of the first leaf of each quire, and '+' in the same position on the first leaf after the centre of the quire, written in pencil by a hand of the 19th/20th century.

A note about the Royal arms of Henry VII and Elizabeth of York in pencil on f. 5r, by the hand of Charles Sayle (1864-1924) .

Notes about the rebinding of the manuscript written in ink and the classmark written in pencil on the front pastedown - and a collation formula written in pencil on the rear pastedown - all by the hand of H.L. Pink .

Binding

Rebound in August 1961 by Douglas Cockerell and Son in Letchworth. Quarter bound in goatskin with marble-paper sides and parchment tips on outer corners. Blind single-fillet decoration around perimeter of leather back-piece. Four raised bands on spine. Head and tail bands visible and sewn in a cream yarn. Two black leather labels applied to spine with text tooled in gold, the first a title label 'GOUVERNMENT DE CORPS DOMME', and the second a shelfmark label 'Ii.5.11'.

Paper pastedowns pasted over the turn ins. The front pastedown contains a note about the rebinding and a pasted-in strip of paper with the labels from an older binding fixed with an adhesive.

One paper endleaf cojoint with the adjacent pastedown added at each end of the volume (ff. i and ii).

Binding dimensions (L x W x D): 280 x 220 x 35 mm.

A former binding of 'paper boards' recorded in an unpublished description of the manuscript by M.R. James.

History

Origin: Mid-15th century. ; France. Date of production based on palaeographical and decorative features and in comparison with New York, Morgan Library MS M.165 . For discussion of the Rouen origin of the manuscript see in particular Borland (2019), esp., pp. 129-32.

Provenance and Acquisition

Owned by King Henry VII of England (1457-1509) and Elizabeth of York (1465-1503) : their impaled coat of arms painted onto one side of an added bifolium (f. 6v), presumably after their marriage in 1486. On the tomb in which Henry and Elizabeth are buried in Westminster Abbey, Henry's arms are presented above, with these impaled arms below. In such a context, presenting a 'joint' coat of arms in addition to Henry's would presumably have been redundant, thus raising the possibility that the impaled arms are indicative not of joint ownership but rather of Elizabeth's personal possession of this manuscript.

The name 'Will(?elmus) Walter(?us)' on f. 86r next to a Latin couplet (see Contents for further information) and the word 'llinpenff'(?), all in what appears to be the same 16th-century hand. A William Walter (d. 1523) was known to Henry VII, whom he briefly served as an envoy at the papal curia in the late 1490s. This Walter had studied at Bologna earlier in that decade and was subsequently recorded as doctor of canon and civil law there; he spent the last two decades of his life as archdeacon of Brecon. The word 'llinpenff' bears the hallmarks of an as yet unidentified Welsh placename that began 'Llyn...' (meaning 'lake'), which is also suggestive of a possible connection between this manuscript and this Walter. Another William Walter (fl. c. 1525-1533), poet and translator, was alive around this time. He may have been the owner of London, British Library, Sloane MS 1686, f. 1r , a copy of the Canterbury Tales, which bears an ownership inscription matching his name, written in a later, different style of handwriting to the inscription found in MS Ii.5.11. Little is known about this second Walter's life, and Ralph Griffiths has put forward suggestive evidence that the two Walters are one and the same.

R. Griffiths, 'From Bologna to Brecon: The Cosmopolitan World of a Pre-Reformation Archdeacon', Medieval Prosopography 33 (2018), pp. 153-166
A.S.G. Edwards, 'Walter, William (fl. c. 1525-1533), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004) [https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/28641]

The manuscript may have left the Royal library by c. 1535-1542. MS Ii.5.11 is not listed among the 123 French manuscripts and printed books recorded by an anonymous French visitor to Richmond Palace in 1535. The list is printed in H. Omont, 'Les manuscrits français des rois d'Angleterre au château de Richmond', in Etudes romanes dédiés à Gaston Paris (Paris: É. Bouillon, 1891), pp. 1-13 and in CBMLC 7, pp. 3-29 as list 'H1' with minor variations from Omont's list. Nor is MS Ii.5.11 in the list of the books in the Upper Library at Westminster made in 1542 shortly after the death of Henry VIII, which includes four copies of the Régime du corps identified in CBMLC 7 as Lisbon, Biblioteca de Ajuda MS 52-XIII-2, London, British Library, MS Royal 20.B.ix, London, British Library, MS Royal 16.F.8, and London, British Library, MS Royal 20.B.x; the 1542 Westminster list is printed in CBMLC 7 as list 'H2', see esp., H2 nos 1291, 1294, 1299(1-2).

CBMLC 7, H1 and H2

John Moore (1646-1714) , bishop of Ely: no. 577 (f. 2r) in Bernard, Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliæ et Hiberniæ (c. 1697).

Presented to the University Library in 1715 by George I : donation bookplate engraved by John Pine in 1736 on the front pastedown.

Additional Information

Record Sources

This catalogue entry draws on the description provided by Paul Binski and Patrick Zutshi, with the collaboration of Stella Panayotova, Western Illuminated Manuscripts: A Catalogue of the Collection in Cambridge University Library (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011) (used here by kind permission of Cambridge University Press), 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), and the Catalogue of the manuscripts preserved in the library of the University of Cambridge: Vol III Gg-Kk (Cambridge, 1858).

Availability

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

Custodial History

The manuscript was displayed as part of the exhibition Curious Cures: Medicine in the Medieval World (Cambridge University Library, 29 March-6 December 2025) (ff. 32v-33r and 34v-35r).

Bibliography

    Medical Manuscripts in Middle English Speculum, Robbins, Rossell Hope (45, 3, 393-415, 1970, http://www.jstor.org/stable/2853500) Later Gothic manuscripts, 1390-1490 A survey of manuscripts illuminated in the British Isles, Scott, Kathleen L. (London, I: Text and Illustrations & II: Catalogue and Indexes, Harvey Miller, 1996) The Possibilities of Literacy and the Limits of Reading: Women and the Gendering of Medical Literacy Women’s Healthcare in the Medieval West Texts and Contexts, Green, Monica Helen (Aldershot, VII: 1-76, Ashgate, 2000) Le 'Régime du corps' d'Aldebrandin de Sienne: complément à la tradition manuscrite (suite) Scriptorium: Revue internationale des études relatives aux manuscrits / International Review of Manuscript Studies, Fery-Hue, Françoise (58, 1, 99-108, 2004) Manuscripts for Henry VII, his household and family The Cambridge illuminations: the conference papers, Scott, Kathleen L. (London, 279-286, Harvey Miller, 2007) Manuscripts in the University Library, Cambridge (Dd-Oo) Index of Middle English Prose, Connolly, Margaret (Woodbridge, D.S. Brewer, 2009) Western illuminated manuscripts: a catalogue of the collection in Cambridge University Library, Binski, PaulZutshi, Patrick (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2011, https://doi-org.ezp.lib.cam.ac.uk/10.1017/CBO9780511780479) Picturing Medieval Health: artistic production and visual discourse in Le Régime du corps of the Ajuda library (Cod 52-XIII-26), Campos Ribeiro, Luís Miguel (Lisbon, 2016, Masters) Freeze-framed: theorizing the historiated initials of the Régime du corps Word & Image, Borland, Jennifer (32, 2, 235-250, 2016, http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02666286.2016.1172546) Female Networks and the Circulation of a Late Medieval Illustrated Health Guide Moving women, moving objects (400-1500), Borland, Jennifer (Brill, 2019, https://brill.com/display/book/edcoll/9789004399679/BP000016.xml) Visualizing Household Health: Medieval Women, Art, and Knowledge in the Régime du corps, Borland, Jennifer (University Park, PA, Penn State University Press, 2021, https://doi.org/10.1515/9780271091495)

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Wellcome

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