Peterhouse : Medical texts

Peterhouse

<p style='text-align: justify;'>Peterhouse MS 178 contains a compilation of medical and scientific texts copied in the 14th century by a single scribe and then extensively corrected and annotated by that scribe and several additional medieval annotators. Peterhouse MS 178 comprises codicological units (ff. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(3);return false;'>1r-244v</a> and <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(451);return false;'>225r-310v</a>), both written by the same scribe, but prepared with a different mise-en-page in each unit, i.e., in single-column format in ff. 1-244 and double-column format in ff. 225-310. The main scribe copied the texts in a calligraphic although somewhat error-prone <i>gothic rotunda</i> throughout and made additions and corrections in the margins in that same gothic rotunda hand, enclosing the corrections within a partial red frame, see e.g., f. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(36);return false;'>17v</a> 'In mane' in the outer margin correcting 'In marie'. Rod Thomson localised the main scribe to the Low Countries and as such, the volume must have arrived in England soon after it was copied as there are marginal notes in a 14th century English hand on ff. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(92);return false;'>45v</a> ('Nota Elmam'), <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(104);return false;'>51v</a> ('Lok wel'), <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(134);return false;'>66v</a> ('Nota Ryde <i class='delim' style='font-style:normal; color:red'>[</i><i class='unclear' style='font-style:normal;' title='This text imperfectly legible in source'>... ... est quod</i><i class='delim' style='font-style:normal; color:red'>]</i>'), <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(251);return false;'>125r</a> ('Scharp lok þis') and <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(341);return false;'>170r</a> ('Lo Robyn'). In his <i>Catalogue</i> of the Peterhouse manuscripts, Thomson drew attention to this group of annotations as he had noticed their similarity to annotations in two other Peterhouse manuscripts, MSS 109, 150; and suggested that the annotations in all three manuscripts may be teaching notes where the teacher is encouraging students to consult particular passages and 'Lok wel'. Thomson has also cautiously suggested that these teaching marginalia could be in the hand of the former master of Peterhouse, Ralph Holbeche (d. c. 1373-1374) as identified a note on Peterhouse MS 109 f. 252v signed 'Rad Holbech' that appears to be in the same hand as the teaching-annotations in that volume and MSS 150 and 178. </p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Dr Sarah Gilbert<br /> Project Cataloguer for the Curious Cures in Cambridge Libraries Project<br /> Cambridge University Library</p><p style='text-align: justify;'><b>References</b>: <br /><div style='list-style-type: disc;'><div style='display: list-item; margin-left: 20px;'>R. M. Thomson, <i>A Descriptive Catalogue of the Medieval Manuscripts in the Library of Peterhouse, Cambridge</i> (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2016), nos 109, 150, 178</div><div style='display: list-item; margin-left: 20px;'>Venn: ACAD (no number, search 'Holbeche')</div></div><br /></p>