The James Catalogue of Western Manuscripts

Shelfmark O.8.35
Manuscript Title

Medical Miscellany

Alternative Title

Medica

James Number 1410
Century 15th
Physical Description

22 lines to a page. Clearly written.

Provenance

Part of the Gale collection, given to T.C.C. by Roger Gale in 1738. Marked C. 37. No. 168. The following inscription occurs several times with variation in date. Henri. Dyngley anno xpī 1554 et anno Philippi et Marie primo et secundo vicesimo secundo die Marcii [at Adyngetoon in buckingegamshire].

Donor Gale, Roger (1672-1744), Antiquary
Size (cm) 22.5 x 16
Folio 127 + 4 ff.
Material Parchment
Language Middle English
Collation

4 flyleaves. 18-118 (4 canc.) 128-l68.

IIIF Manifest URL https://mss-cat.trin.cam.ac.uk/Manuscript/O.8.35/manifest.json
Online Since 03/02/2022

Contents

On the flyleaves at the beginning are one or two receipts and also a table of Apothecaries' measures, and a rude sketch of a king with crown and sceptre and the legend Henricus vj. Rex Anglie.

1. f.1 Here begynneth a tretys of al manere of infirmitees of mannys body . bothe withinne as touchyng to phisyk and withoute as touching to surgerie from the crowne of the heed to the sool of the foot. And the remedies therwith if god wol. And first we wol al heer of the hede how it shulde be norisshede and kepte etc.

For to make heer to growe.

Take withien leues.

On f.52b is a section Ad discernendam urinam humanam.

On f.57b begins (without special heading) a discourse of the influence of the heavenly bodies.

On f.69b a section on the twelve signs in Latin.

On f.70b a table of medicines in English.

On 29 chapters ending f.83.

f.84 blank.

2. f.85 Here folewen the Entraailes of man and medicynes also for certeyn parties of a mannys body

The longe holdith the two ouer parties of the brest.

Medicines begin on f.87b.

From ff.111 to 120 the receipts are in Latin: English is resumed on ff.121, 122 where the text ends.

On the last four leaves, originally blank, are receipts in English (xvi).

Bibliography

Mooney, L. R., The Index of Middle English Prose Handlist 11: Manuscripts in the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge (Cambridge, 1995), pp. 133-5

Voigts, L. and R. P. Hudson, 'A drynke that men callen dwale to make a man to slepe whyle men kerven him: a surgical anesthetic from late Medieval England', in Health, disease and healing in medieval culture, ed. S. Campbell et al. (New York, 1992), pp. 34-56

 

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