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 Kk.6.33

Medical texts and recipes

Contents

Introduction: Cambridge, University Library, MS Kk.6.33 is a fifteenth-century composite manuscript that contains a wealth of medical texts across its codicologically distinct parts. Part 1 is comprised of two leaves which contain medical recipes in French and English, copied by a fifteenth-century hand in different stints and inks; a different fifteenth-century hand has added to these a note in Latin on the medical virtues of the crocus plant. The ink foliation in the middle of the top of the leaves ('xxi' and 'liii') indicate that they have come from a larger (now lost) collection, which may have belonged to a 'Robert Pedwardine', whose name is written on the top of ff. ii recto–ii verso. Part 2 is a collection of astronomical tables and texts copied out very neatly by a single scribe in black, red and blue ink in a single cursive script with some features of textualis. Part 3, the most extensive, contains medical recipes and charms (mainly in English but occasionally in Latin) interspersed with other medical texts, such as: a treatise on wounds and the plague; instructions on the best times to let blood; an extract from a herbal; and information on the perilous days of the year. Multiple hands (described in more detail below) contribute to this part of the manuscript at different times, demonstrating that large collections of recipes like this could move between many different readers and owners, who would each add to, adapt, and correct the healing information they inherited. Later readers could also impose order upon that information: from f. 2:29r, numbers appear alongside the recipes in Part 3 of the codex, suggesting that a later reader wished to compile a list of contents, in order to make individual recipes easier to locate. This accumulation of knowledge over time by multiple readers and scribes is immediately apparent in the first quire of Part 3 (ff. 2:1r-2:10v). Between ff. 2:3r-2:7v, a fifteenth-century hand has copied a collection of medical recipes; on f. 2:7v, the same hand may have added a recipe at a later point in time in a different ink. On ff. 2:1r–2:2v, 2:6v–2:7r, 2:8r–2:10v, as many as six other hands have later added recipes before, after, and amongst those medical recipes. This opening quire seems once to have existed separately from the rest of Part 3 as a booklet, which originally contained blank leaves before and after the main body of recipes; those blank leaves were then filled by the later hands. The thinness and greater discoloration of the parchment in this quire (compared to the parchment comprising the later quires of Part 3) support this. One of the hands that adds recipes into this opening quire (ff. 2:2v, 2:6v–2:7r, 2:8r, 2:8v–2:10v) also adds them into the quires that come after, indicating that, when this scribe was reading the manuscript, the quires comprising Part 3 were all part of one codex. In the remaining quires comprising Part 3, the majority of the texts are copied by another fifteenth-century hand in a neat variety of Anglicana Formata. The medical recipes and treatises (on wounds, bloodletting and the plague) copied by this hand seem well-suited to an educated medical practitioner: the recipes normally contain precise quantities; electuaries are referred to through their technical pharmaceutical names such as 'diagalanga' and 'diapenydion' (f. 2:24v) and it is expected that the reader will already have these to hand or know how to prepare them without further instruction. Furthermore, the recipes normally refer to the patient in the third person (indicating that the intended reader is a practitioner who will administer the recipe to that patient's body) and many of the recipe collections display a recurrent interest in surgical matters such as wounds and broken bones. There is, however, a more homely, culinary reference on f. 2:66r where the reader is instructed to 'oyle ϸi handis as ϸou woldist do gyngerbrede'. This instruction may have been copied wholesale from an exemplar but it nevertheless demonstrates how closely entangled culinary processes, spaces and ingredients were with medical preparations. Whilst copying these medical texts, this scribe occasionally leaves gaps between recipes; he may have intended to return to these and add additional recipes or supply something that was missing in his exemplar from a different source. Sometimes, the text supplied in these gaps does look like it could have been added by this scribe at a later date in a slightly modified script (e.g. f. 2:36v-2:37r). Elsewhere, however, one of the hands who added recipes to the first quire of Part 3 has inserted material into these gaps. For instance, on f. 2:100r, in a recipe for an affliction of the bones, the main scribe has broken off copying mid-recipe after the phrase 'do hem on shepis'. The later scribe has completed this instruction by adding in 'lethir for fowling of your lynyn clothis'. In the rest of the gap left by the main scribe on the reverse side of the leaf, this later scribe has then proceeded to add a different recipe for 'water of coperose'. He gives the original text a neater and clearer end before squeezing in additional information to make the most efficient use of the space within the codex. This scribe adds recipes into many other places too. Sometimes, his efforts to squeeze in additional information confuse the text: for instance, on f. 2:71v, he adds a recipe at the bottom of the leaf for a woman who has not had a rite of purification after childbirth; this insertion disrupts the prose of the main scribe's unrelated recipe for 'watir of borage' which is copied across the folios. In contrast, on f. 2:77r, this later scribe has added a remedy for gout, sciatica, podagra and other ailments after a remedy by the main scribe for dropsy, sciatica and podagra. Here, the later reader has made use of the gap left by the first scribe to group information together in a way that makes it more usable, locatable and comparable. Elsewhere, this hand also corrects the text of the main scribe after it has been damaged or part of it has been lost. For instance, a missing leaf means that the remedy at the top of f. 2:48r is acephalous. However, the scribe has added in a title and supplied the imperative 'take' before the first named ingredient, in order to give the recipe a clear beginning; the recipe is here turned into something usable and it now reads as complete. This scribe's corrections and additions show how recipe collections could become collaborative, patchwork texts over time, as different hands reshaped and extended them. The texts in MS Kk.6.33 are patchwork compilations of voices in other respects too. I have noted elsewhere that some of the recipes within the manuscript reproduce - without acknowledgement - personal anecdotes wholesale from other sources. For instance, on f. 2:109v, there is an anecdote after a recipe for valence of wormode (wormwood) beginning 'This y haue muche yvsyd and louyd for withe it I helid a sherve at Bristowe the whiche of ϸe prikyng of a smal dager poynt in the lacert of the lift arme for peyne bolnyng brennyng and crampe was nye ded thorugh an vnhappi cure of a barboure...'. Similar versions of the recipe and the anecdote appear in other fifteenth- and sixteenth-century manuscripts (such as Cambridge, Magdalene College, MS Pepys 878 , p. 160 and Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Ashmole 1389 , pp. 221–22). Both seem to have been adapted from the writings of the fourteenth-century English surgeon, John Arderne. The scribe of MS Kk.6.33 may have copied this anecdote wholesale from another Middle English recipe collection without any awareness of Ardene's text. But, wherever he copied it from, it is testament to how comfortable scribes and compilers were reproducing within their own manuscripts the personal voices and testimonies of others. MS Kk.6.33 also contains several charms, which invite readers to imagine the codex supporting other kinds of vocal performance too: three charms occur in the first quire of Part 3. The charms are for treating burns and scalds (f. 2:4r), for breaking a swelling (f. 2:4v), and for healing wounds (f. 2:5r). The charm for the swelling contains many performative utterances, which suggest an oral performance: 'I aske leue of oure lady...I blisse ϸis breste...'. However, the end of the charm contains the instruction 'Set that worde ϸer ϸou wilt haue hit ybroke'. This may invite the reader to apply the charm to the body in a written form. The charm for burns also displays an interesting hybridity: as T.M. Smallwood notes (2008, p. 89), it is written in 'unrhymed free verse'. Although the charm is written out in lines of prose, puncti indicate where verse lineation could be imposed; a refrain also reverberates across the charm, increasing its memorability and its capacity to charm readers in the multiple different senses of that word. Other texts in the manuscript similarly appeal to readers' capacity for wonder: at the end of a series of recipes for medicinal preparations, it is written 'who so euer can worche wiþ ϸes wateris and oylis and askis schuld be namyd more a prophet ϸan a leche' (f. 2:75v). In these lines, a magnificent confidence is instilled in the reader: the preparations are so failproof that the 'leche' or physician using them will be able to foretell the patient's recovery with the confidence of a prophet. Regardless of whether this startling guarantee was taken seriously or seen as rhetorical bombast, it may have been a refreshing change from the difficult processes of trial-and-error that inevitably confronted medieval medical practitioners and users of large compendiums of recipes. Dr Hannah Bower| Faculty of English| University of Cambridge References
T.M. Smallwood, 'Conformity and Originality in Middle English Charms', in Charms, Charmers and Charming, ed. by Jonathan Roper (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), pp. 87–99
Hannah Bower, 'The Brickmaker, the Tavernkeeper, and the Knight: The Role of Obscurity and Imagination in Medieval Medical Recipes', in Recipes and Book Culture in England, 1350–1600, ed. by Carrie Griffin and Hannah Ryley (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2024), pp. 95-117

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: Parchment and paper
Extent: Codex: v + 2 | 15 | 92 + iv leaves. Blank paper leaves have been added at various places in the manuscript, specifically after the first two medieval leaves, and at points where medieval leaves are no longer present. For this statement of extent, these internal, modern leaves have not been counted. In one instance, a paper leaf has been added in order to provide a mount for a fragmentary leaf that would otherwise be detached from the manuscript (f. 1:7a). Since there is still a remnant of a medieval leaf that bears writing, this has been counted in this statement. This fragment was previously unfoliated but has now been assigned the number '7a'.
Foliation:

20th-century foliation:

i-ii, [iia]-[iib], 1-7 (ff. 1:1-1:7), 7a (f. 1:7a), 8 (f. 1:8), [8a] (f. [1:8a), 9-14 (ff. 1:9-1:14)

Numbering in pencil in the upper right-hand corner of the rectos. This catalogue record follows the 16th- and 20th-century foliation, adding folio numbers between square brackets for the modern paper leaves that have been inserted between the manuscript's original paper and parchment leaves. Due to the recurrence of numbers in the folio sequences of parts 2 and 3, these sequences have been attributed unique numbers ('1' and '2') and folio references to leaves within these parts are now preceded by these numbers. The modern foliation that is used in this record is as follows: [a]-[e], i-ii, [iia]-[iib] | 1:1-1:7, 1:7a, 1:8, [1:8a], 1:9-1:14 | 2:1-2:12, [2:12a]-[2:12b], 2:23-2:26, [2:26a]-[2:26b], 2:29-2:31, 2:33-2:53, [2:53a]-[2:53h], 2:62-2:113, [f]-[i].
Foliation:

16th-century foliation:

1-12 (ff. 2:1-2:12), [12a]-[12b] (ff. [2:12a]-[2:12b]), 23-26 (ff. 2:23-2:26), [26a]-[26b] (ff. [2:26a]-[2:26b]), 29-53 (ff. 2:29-53), [53a-53h] (ff. [2:53a]-[2:53h]), 62-113 (ff. 2:62-2:113).

Numbering in pencil in the upper right-hand corner of the rectos.
Foliation:

15th-century foliation:

'xxi' and 'liii' for ff. i-ii

Numbering in brown ink at the centre of the upper margins on both the rectos and versos.

Collation

This collation differs from that of M.R. James, which also contains some errors. The first two leaves are not counted as a quire, since contemporary foliation indicates that they are a fragment of a larger compendium of medical recipes. A gap in the 16th-century foliation points to the loss of a complete quire between Quires 8 (ff. 2:46-2:53) and 9 (ff. 2:62-2:69); to indicate this, eight blank paper leaves were added when the manuscript was rebound.

  • Quire 110-2 (ff. 1:1-1:8: 8th leaf after f. 7 and 10th leaf after f. 8 missing and replaced with unfoliated blank paper leaves)
  • Quire 26 (ff. 1:9-1:14) |
  • Quire 310 (ff. 2:1-2:10)
  • Quire 4two (ff. 2:11-2:12)
  • Quire 58-4 (ff. 2:23-2:26: 1st, 2nd, 7th and 8th leaves missing)
  • Quires 6-108 (ff. 2:27-2:77)
  • Quire 118+1 (ff. 2:78-2:86: 1 leaf inserted after 8th, f. 86)
  • Quire 1210 (ff. 2:87-2:96)
  • Quire 138 (ff. 2:97-2:104)
  • Quire 148+1 (ff. 2:105-2:113: 9th leaf inserted, f. 113) |

110-2 (10th missing and most of 8th missing) 26 | 310 4two 58-4 (1st-2nd and 7th-8th missing) 6-108 118+1 (9th leaf inserted) 1210 138 148+1 (1 leaf inserted after 8th).

Additions

Quire signatures ('1-14') in the bottom right-hand corner of the recto side of the first leaf of each quire (beginning at Quire 3), written in pencil by a hand of the 19th/20th century.

Binding

Half leather binding with marbled paper sides and white paper pastedowns on the inside covers, by Stoakley and Son ('Bound by Stoakley, late Hawes') of Cambridge, dated 1894 on the front pastedown.

Binding height: 170mm; width; 110mm; depth: 25mm.

History

Provenance and Acquisition

John Moore (1646-1714) , bishop of Ely: no. 152 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 f. 2:113v.

Part 1 [Cambridge, University Library, MS Kk.6.33, ff. i-ii]

Contents

Language(s): Middle English, Middle French and Latin

1. i recto-i verso
Medical recipes
Language(s): Middle English and Latin

They address the following (in Middle English, unless otherwise stated):

  • f. i recto: for wounds, 'mormal' (a kind of scab, boil or carbuncle), fester, canker, worms, sinews and 'all manner of oþer sores' (includes cross-reference at the end, written by a different hand: 'And of þe satlynge þat leues in þe erthyn pot after þe spendynge of þis water is made a maner of trete in þe maner as it is tauȝt in þe ende of þis boke at þis signe [...]'); for mormal; for heartburn; to cleanse the heart; notes referring to two named medicines, 'Aragon' and 'Dialtea', in Latin
  • f. i verso: an ointment for all manner of 'werke' (?wart / ?worm) or bruise ()

eVK2 5016.00 (v0059960000)
2. i verso
Medical recipe
Language(s): Middle French and Middle English
Rubric: i verso Cest medicyn est esproue bone pur toutz les vertues \passions/ et toutz dolours del corps del home et pur le coer et pur le fu et pur lesplene et pur lez veyns et pur arsure del coer et pur ceaux qui ne poent aler al priue et pur le goute et pur le crampe et pur la dolour et passions des membrez et pur ceux qui ont empotent sanke et pur sangleter et pur tout maner de tusse et pur toutz maners de male qest dedeynes le corps del home
Incipit: i verso Pernez comyn, peyuer, bays de lorer, pions, pelestre et de chescun de y ceste . vi . onncez de semence \sede/ de fenoil / iiij . vncez de semence \sede/ de ache . vij . vncez de auence . iij . vncez de louache . ij . vncez . Cy fetez en poudre et puys le comficez one miele et faitez de ce letuarie qar cest medicyn est contrarie a la mort et bone veisiu a la vie . Cest Cest medicyn un sarazine la prist a vn chiualer cristien pur qi amour il guerpi son loy et deuient cristien et vnct on le chiualer et per cest medicy

Full transcription. A well-proven medicine for all illnesses ('passions') and pains in a man's body, and for the heart, for ?inflammation ('fu', i.e. fire?), the spleen, the veins, heartburn, gout, cramp, pain and passions in the members, and those in poor health, for bleeding and all manner of cough, and all manner of sickness in a man's body. With interliner glosses ('sede') in Middle English.

Followed by a note on a (?) payment ‘apud Boston’.

eVK2 5016.00 (v0059960000)
3. i verso
Medical recipe
Language(s): Latin
Rubric: i verso Unguentum laxativum

For a laxative unguent.

eVK2 5016.00 (v0059960000)
4. ii recto
Medical recipe
Language(s): Middle English
Rubric: ii recto For to make blake entrete
Incipit: ii recto Tak j poudre liturge aureum and breke it into riȝt smal poudre
Explicit: ii recto and þe plaistres of it most be drawen on lethir for cloþ is not strong ynoȝe þerto

For a lead oxide plaster.

eVK2 5016.00 (v0059960000)
5. ii recto
Medical recipe
Language(s): Middle French
Rubric: ii recto Pour menisoun senglant
Incipit: ii recto Pernez milfoill et plantayn
Explicit: ii recto Si garra [...]||

For diarrhoea.

eVK2 5016.00 (v0059960000)
6. ii verso
Medical recipe
Language(s): Middle English
Rubric: ii verso For þe wilde fire and all maner hetes
Incipit: ii verso Stille þe water of letuse and þan when þou haste þis watur wesche þe place þat is sore of þe fire þerwiþ
Explicit: ii verso and he didde on þe same maner as it is seyd bifore and it esie him gretely

For erysipelas (inflammation).

eVK2 5016.00 (v0059960000)
7. ii verso
Note on the medicinal virtues of the crocus
Language(s): Latin

Added in a different 15th-century hand.

eVK2 5016.00 (v0059960000)

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: ii recto ffor to make blake entrete
Form: codex
Support: Paper (no watermark).
Extent: Fragment, comprising: 2 leaves. 140 × 105 mm.

Condition

Stains on f. ii recto obscure some of the recipes.

Layout

110-1130 × 80-90 mm. No ruling. Single columns. 24-37 lines to the page.

Hand(s)

Written by different hands writing in cursive scripts, predominantly Anglicana but also including Secretary features.

Decoration

Two small capitals highlighted in red ink on f. ii recto.

History

Origin: 15th century. ; England.

Provenance

i recto-ii verso: 'Robert Pedward.': perhaps Robert Pedwardine : his name inscribed in the upper right-hand corner of f. ii recto and upper left-hand corner of f. ii verso in a 15th-century script.

Part 2 [Cambridge, University Library, MS Kk.6.33, ff. 1:1r-1:14v]

Contents

Language(s): Latin and Middle English

1. 1:1r
Language(s): Latin and Middle English
Table with dominical letters for the liturgical year
Language(s): Latin and Middle English

Some English is used in the column headings: ‘Dominical letteris’, ‘Estreday’, ‘Whitsonday’, ‘From Christmas to Quadragesima’, ‘From Whitsonday to midsomer’, and ‘From pentecost to aduent’.

2. 1:1v-1:11r
Language(s): Latin and Middle English
Astronomical calendar

The calendar consists of a liturgical calendar with feasts from the Sanctorale and Temporale flankes by columns with astronomical information; each month is opposed by a page with tables for three consecutive lunar cycles in a year, which are identified as 1463, 1482, and 1501; the leaves containing August and October are torn out, with a small fragment of August remaining.

Some English is used in the column headings, ‘noumbre of dayes’, ‘dawnyng’, ‘sun risyng’, ‘[sign of the Zodiac] greis’, ‘houris of planet’, ‘sonsettyng’, ‘derknyght’.

Highlighted in red ink are David and Chad (March), Erkenwald (April), Edith (September), Winifred and Erkenwald (November).

3. 1:11v
Table of the moon's passage through the signs of the Zodiac
Language(s): Latin and Middle English
4. 1:12r
Table of lunar months

Numerical table (no text).

5. 1:12v
Table giving the signs of the planets ruling over the daytime hours
Language(s): Latin
Rubric: 12v Tabula planetarum

The days of the week are given in Middle English: ‘Sunday’, ‘monday’, ‘tuesday’, ‘wednysday’, ‘þursday’, ‘friday’, and ‘saturday’.

6. 1:13r
Solar Eclipse Table
Language(s): Latin
7. 1:13r
Lunar Eclipse Table
Language(s): Latin
8. 1:13v
Table of the Planetary Houses
Language(s): Latin
Rubric: 1:13v Domus planetarum - Gaudium planetarum
Incipit: 1:13v Capricornus - Aquarius: domus saturni - libra
Explicit: 1:13v Cancer: domus lune - Tauro
9. 1:13v
Astrological verse
Language(s): Latin
Incipit: 1:13v Jupiter et venus bona sunt . Saturnus marsque malignus . Mercurius medius sol et luna mediocres.

Full transcription.

10. 1:14r
Astrological verse
Language(s): Middle English
Incipit: 1:14r Aries hathe þe hede taurus þe neke and þe þrote gemin þe schuldris armes and handis cancer þe brest and stomak leo þe bake virgo þe wombe libra þe naule scorpio haþe þe preuy membres sagittarius þe sharis capricornus the kneis aquarius the shankis pisses þe fett also blede not in no lyme of youre body whille þe mone reyneth in þe signe þat longith to þat lyme

Full transcription; the verse is written beneath a circular diagram showing the cardinal and intercardinal directions in Middle English; the diagram is blank in the centre, but a pinhole indicates that it is an incomplete volvelle, missing its rotating disk.

eVK2 1051.00 (v0059970000)

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: 1:2r Nomber of dayes
Form: codex
Support: Parchment (FHHF)
Extent: Codex: 15 leaves. 160 × 105 mm.

Collation

  • Quire 110-2 (ff. 1:1-1:8: 8th leaf after f. 7 and 10th leaf after f. 8 missing and replaced with unfoliated blank paper leaves)
  • Quire 26 (ff. 1:9-1:14)

Possible signatures consisting of Roman numerals in brown ink in the right lower-hand corners of f. 4 (‘v’) and f. 5 (‘vi’).

Layout

105 × 75 mm. Ruled in leadpoint, frame and line ruling for single columns of text and tables. 31 lines to the page, written below top line, except for the table headings.

Hand(s)

Written by a single scribe in a cursive script with both Anglicana and Secretary features.

Decoration

Large circular diagram in brown ink with names of the cardinal and intercardinal directions in brown or red ink.

Large (1- or 2-line) initials in blue, red, or brown ink throughout the calendar.

Headers for columns, and Signs of the Zodiac and numbers in tables highlighted in red ink.

Paraphs in red ink in the text on f. 14r.

History

Origin: Second half of the 15th century. ; England.

Part 3 [Cambridge, University Library, MS Kk.6.33, ff. 2:1r-2:113v]

Contents

Language(s): Middle English and Latin

1. 2:1r-2:2r
Medical recipe
Language(s): Middle English
Rubric: 2:1r Thys ys the makyng of Bame ryall
Incipit: 2:1r ffurst take iij quartes of mete oyle of þe best
Explicit: 2:2r þat hit breke not owȝt of þe cloth and þan afterward put hit in a botell of pewter and þat hit be cepte close

For Balm Royal.

eVK2 1738.00 (v0059980000)
2. 2:2v
Medical recipe
Incipit: 2:2v For þe gowte take hennebane mogwort sawge mynt horsmynte watercarsyn cynchoun fenel [? amount] and wyneg wyndraftes and ale draftes and frye ham wel in schepys talw and lay to þe gowte
Final rubric: 2:2v a resoluatife

For gout. Full transcription.

eVK2 5510.00 (v0059990000)
3. 2:2v
Medical recipe
Language(s): Middle English, with a Latin rubric
Rubric: 2:2v Emplastrum communionis
Incipit: 2:2v Recipe lynsed millilote camamille anete rose barly mele of iche half a pound medill alle þese well togedir
Explicit: 2:2v and medill þam well togedyr

For a common plaster. The rubric is transcribed as ‘Emplastrum couisis[.]’ in Connolly (2009).

eVK2 5510.00 (v0059990000)
4. 2:2v
Medical recipe
Language(s): Middle English, with a Latin rubric
Rubric: 2:2v Emplastrum per fraccione venarum et pro matrice
Incipit: 2:2v Recipe a neg yrostyd hard and pu away the whyte cle[...]
Explicit: 2:2v and make a plastyr of all thys and ley to the syde þer as the sor hys

For a plaster for broken veins and the womb.

eVK2 5510.00 (v0059990000)
5. 2:3r-2:10v
Medical recipes and charms
Language(s): Middle English and Latin

A collection of thirty-five medical recipes and charms, including ‘A charme for brennyng and scaldyng’ (f. 2:4r), ‘A charme for a breste’ (f. 2:4v), and ‘A charme for alle manere woundes’ [= the so-called Tres Boni Fratres charm] (ff. 2:5r-2:5v); the collection ends with the ‘grene oynement’ (f. 2:10v).

eVK2 5531.00 (v0060000000)
Smallwood (2008), pp. 89-90
Tuomi (2016), pp. 76, 96
6. 2:10v
Maxim
Language(s): Latin
Incipit: 2:10v Nobile vingendi [sic: vincendi] genus est paciencia. Vincit qui patitur si vis vincere disce pati

Full transcription.

7. 2:11r-2:11v
On diet and bloodletting, translatio De Phlebotomia
Language(s): Middle English
Rubric: 2:11r A wise man and gode leche seyþe that [followed by 'in the monþe of' and the name of the month, repeated throughout the text]
Incipit: 2:11r in þe monþe of Januarij Whit wyn is gode to drynk
Explicit: 2:11v and whoso þis lif lediþ he may be sure to haue his hele and iij dayes þer be of perel þe xv þe xvi and þe xx day

For other copies, see Connolly (2009), p. 302.

eVK2 3000.00 (v0060010000)
8. 2:12r-2:12v
Circa Instans (fragment) Matthaeus Platearius
Language(s): Middle English
Incipit: 2:12r Aloen is hote and drye in þe secunde degre
Explicit: 2:12v aspaltum tare of ynde is .h[ote]. and d[rye] in 3. [de]g[re] it is an erþe comyþ out of ynde and it is heuy and stynkyg||

For other copies, see Connolly (2009), p. 302.

eVK2 0861.00 (v0060020000)
9. 2:23r-2:37r
Medical recipes
Language(s): Middle English and Latin

A collection of eighty-seven medical recipes.

eVK2 5817.00 (v0060030000)
10. 2:37r-2:39r
On perilous days related to the waxing and waning of the moon, two in each month, twenty-four in the year
Language(s): Middle English
Incipit: 2:37r Thou shalt vndirstand and wit wel þat in eche monþe of þe yere be ij. euyl dayes
Explicit: 2:39r take mesure and no more for in mene restiþ vertu and that goode holy seyntis whiche helden to hemselfe

For other copies, see Connolly (2009), p. 303.

eVK2 7528.00 (v0060040000)
11. 2:39r-2:42v
Plague tract John of Burgundy (attributed)
Language(s): Middle English
Rubric: 2:39r-2:39v I Johan of burgoyn or Johan wiþ þe berd burges of leodye and master of medesyns in þis skrow wiþ goddis helpe þe preseruyng and cure of pestilenc euelis pleynly y puprose to chewe þat ouueþ eny man schal a phision but euery man may be a phisician a preseruer a gouerner and a curater of hymself
Incipit: 2:39v In þe begynnyg þerfor eueri man auoyde gret replecion of met and drink schun baþis and al þing þat sentiþ þe body
Explicit: 2:42v þat þe hert is greuid and suffriþ wherfor minucioun is a non to be had of þe hert veyn and of þe same side
eVK2 2496.00 (v0060050000)
eVK2 2870.00 (v0060060000)
eVK2 3720.00 (v0060070000)
12. 2:42v-2:43v
Medical recipes
Language(s): Middle English

A collection of four medical recipes. For comparable texts, see Connolly (2009), pp. 303-304.

eVK2 6474.00 (v0060080000)
13. 2:44r-2:47v
Treatise on Wounds
Language(s): Middle English
Incipit: 2:44r The furst for to spek of a wound in general i thynk to begyn at a newe wound made in flech as wiþ knyf or swerd wiþ spere or wiþ arowe or wiþ eny oþer þing
Explicit: 2:47v this oynement is right gode in al synny placis and it is consolodatif and medigatif

With the added title ‘De vulnerum cura’.

eVK2 1632.00 (v0060090000)
eVK2 7019.00 (v0060100000)
eVK2 7019.00 (v0060110000)
14. 2:47v-2:70v
Medical recipes
Language(s): Middle English

A collection of fifty-six medical recipes.

eVK2 7019.00 (v0060100000)
eVK2 6166.00 (v0060120000, v0060130000)
15. 2:70v-2:75v
Recipes for distillations and a list of precious waters
Language(s): Middle English
Incipit: 2:70v A gode watir for eche maner siknes: Take cloue de gilofre quibibus maces of eueriche [ounce] 1 comyn [ounce] and of long peper a quarter candi .ij. [ounce] of saffron þe weght of .ij. d[rams] and ane halpeny nad make poudre of al þes þingis
Explicit: 2:75v and who so euer can worche wiþ þes wateris and oylis and askis schuld be namyd more a prophet þan a leche.

For other copies, see Connolly (2009), p. 304.

eVK2 5162.00 (v0060140000)
Voigts (2003) [edition of ff. 2:73r-2:73v]
16. 2:75v-2:86r
Medical recipes
Language(s): Middle English

A collection of forty-six medical recipes.

eVK2 5662.00 (v0060150000)
eVK2 6244.00 (v0060160000)
17. 2:86r-2:86v
Instructions for applying a fomentation to a sore
Language(s): Middle English
Rubric: 2:86r ffomentaciones
Incipit: 2:86r to this purpose bee made of decocciouns of simple medesyns and thei must be applied to the pacient or the mundificatif be leyd declaraciouns benen iiij. herof
Explicit: 2:86v be not to hard in her workyng lest thei hurt the sore and aftur that to drawe humours to another place
18. 2:86r
Medical recipe
Language(s): Middle English
Rubric: 2:86r for festur
Incipit: 2:86r the poudur of antymony medelid wiþ blak sop and anoynt þerwiþ þi tent and put it in þe mowþ of þe festur þe poudur þerof strewid on a kanker or on ded flesch is asouereyn remdy [sic]

For a powder to treat a sore or an abcess. Full transcription; added by a later hand to the bottom margin.

19. 2:86v
Medical recipe
Language(s): Middle English
Rubric: 2:86v An emplastrum lauatif
Incipit: 2:86v Recipe wex [ounce] iiij rosyn [ounce] iij turbentyn librum 1 purid hony [ounce] ij mastik thuris mascli sartocol myr aloes safron [? amount] [ounce] ij and in the ende of the sethyng put to thes poudirs aforseid and mak a plaster

For a cleansing plaster. Full transcription.

20. 2:87r-2:87v
Medical recipes
Language(s): Middle English
Rubric: 2:87r Pultes cathaplasmata
Incipit: 2:87r Recipe flouris of camamyll anesse sede [? amount] [ounce] ij mele of fenigrek sede lynsede and barly mele [? amount] [ounce] iij oyle of anese and camamyl [? amount] [ounce]
Explicit: 2:87v but as me semyth thei be regenderyng for this is that olde surgyns hade most delyt in

Four recipes for poultices.

21. 2:87v-2:92r
Medical treatise on maturatives
Language(s): Middle English
Rubric: 2:87v De maturatiuis
Incipit: 2:87v ffor to draw to tho thingis whiche bethe longyng to digestion of humounis warmyng hem in goode qualite
Explicit: 2:92r in thes thingis aforseyd is that he drawith all maner humiditeis fro the vttirmost place without any noying.

The rubric is transcribed as ‘De maturatuus’ in Connolly (2009), pp. 305-306.

22. 2:92r-2:97v
Medical treatise on mundificatives
Language(s): Middle English
Rubric: 2:97v A tretyse of medisyns that bene mundificatiuis
Incipit: 2:97v Of mundificatiuis sum bene febil and esy in her working as hony and all thingis made of hony iuse of apij wormode and mele
Explicit: 2:97v thus is mel roset made in turbentyn clensid and oþer oyles of mundificatiuis here we make an ende.
23. 2:98r-2:113r
Medical recipes
Language(s): Middle English

A collection of seventy-three medical recipes, with some additions on blank spaces by a later hand.

24. 2:113v
Medical recipe (?)
Language(s): Latin and Middle English

Added text in a 15th-century script, including ingredients such as 'Whyt vyn' and 'Tartary'.

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: 2:2r liquida. Caste in bladdyr
Form: codex
Support: Parchment (HFFH)
Extent: Codex: 92 leaves. 160 × 110 mm.

Collation

  • Quire 310 (ff. 2:1-2:10)
  • Quire 4two (ff. 2:11-2:12)
  • Quire 58-4 (ff. 2:23-2:26: 1st, 2nd, 7th and 8th leaves missing)
  • Quires 6-108 (ff. 2:27-2:77)
  • Quire 118+1 (ff. 2:78-2:86: 1 leaf inserted after 8th, f. 86)
  • Quire 1210 (ff. 2:87-2:96)
  • Quire 138 (ff. 2:97-2:104)
  • Quire 148+1 (ff. 2:105-2:113: 9th leaf inserted, f. 113)

Leaf signatures in Roman numerals in brown ink in right lower-hand corners of the rectos of the first halves of quires.

 Catchwords in brown ink in lower right-hand corners.

Layout

105 × 75 mm. Ruled in leadpoint, frame only, with occasional line ruling. Single columns. 23-28 lines to the page, written below top line.

Hand(s)

Written in various cursive scripts with both Anglicana and Secretary features.

Decoration

Small (1- or 2-line) plain initials in blue ink.

Headings of texts rubricated in red ink.

Paraphs in blue or red ink.

History

Origin: 15th century. ; England.

Provenance

An owner from or with relations to Daglingworth in Gloucester: inscribed ‘Dallingworthe’ on f. 113v.

Additional Information

Record Sources

This catalogue entry draws on M. Connolly, Manuscripts in the University Library, Cambridge (Dd-Oo), Index of Middle English Prose, 19 (Cambridge: Brewer, 2009), 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) Vernacular Literacy in Late-Medieval England: The Example of East Anglian Medical Manuscripts, Jones, M. Claire (Glasgow, 2000) The Master of the King's Stillatories The Lancastrian Court Harlaxton Medieval Studies, Voigts, Linda Ehrsam (Donington, 233-252 and plates 59-65, Shaun Tyas, 2003) Addenda al listado de manuscritos del Circa Instans preservados en bibliotecas británicas Cronos: Cuadernos valencianos de historia de la medicina y de la ciencia, Garrido Anes, Maria Edurne (8, 1, 139-146, 2005) John of Burgundy: Treatises on Plague Sex, Aging, & Death in a Medieval Mediecal Compendium: Trinity College Cambridge MS R.14.52. Its Texts, Language, and Scribe. Volume One Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, Matheson, Lister M. (Tempe, AZ, 2, 569-606, Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2006) Practical Reading for Body and Soul in Some Later Medieval Manuscript Miscellanies Journal of the Early Book Society, Connolly, Margaret (10, 151-174, 2007) Middle English Medical Books as Examples of Discourse Colonies: G.U.L. Hunter 307 Bells Chiming from the Past : Cultural and Linguistic Studies on Early English Costerus New Series, Alonso-Almeida, Francisco (Amsterdam, 56-80, Rodopi, 2007) Conformity and Originality in Middle English Charms Charms, Charmers and Charming: International Research on Verbal Magic Palgrave Historical Studies in Witchcraft and Magic, Smallwood, T. M. (Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2008) Vernacular Herbals: A Growth Industry in Late Medieval England Design and Distribution of Late Medieval Manuscripts in England, Keiser, George R. (York, 292-307, York Medieval Press in association with the Boydell Press and with the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of York, 2008) Manuscripts in the University Library, Cambridge (Dd-Oo) Index of Middle English Prose, Connolly, Margaret (Woodbridge, D.S. Brewer, 2009) The Three Good Brothers Charm: Some Historical Points Incantatio, Olsan, Lea (1, 48-78, 2011) 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) “As I went up the hill of Mount Olive”. The Irish Tradition of the Three Good Brothers Charm Revisited Studia Celtica Fennica, Tuomi, Ilona (13, 69-96, 2016) Manuscript Relations through Form and Content in the Middle English Circa Instans SELIM. Journal of the Spanish Society for Medieval English Language and Literature, Garrido Anes, Maria Edurne (13, 1, 2019) Middle English Medical Recipes and Literary Play, 1375-1500, Bower, Hannah (Oxford University Press, 2022) Henry Daniel and the Rise of Middle English Medical Writing, Star, Sarah (Toronto, University of Toronto Press, 2022) The Brickmaker, the Tavernkeeper, and the Knight: The Role of Obscurity and Imagination in Medieval Medical Recipes Recipes and Book Culture in England, 1350–1600 Exeter Studies in Medieval Europe: History, Society and the Arts, Bower, Hannah (Liverpool, 95-117, Liverpool University Press, 2024)

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Wellcome

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