{ "viewingDirection": "left-to-right", "metadata": [ { "label": "Binding", "value": "

(?)17th-century brown leather; the spine re-backed but featuring its original spine label of read leather with the gold-stamped inscription: \"An Herbal etc. MSS\".<\/p>

Binding height: 195 mm; width: 140 mm; depth: 40 mm.<\/p>" }, { "label": "Physical Location", "value": "Trinity College Library, Cambridge" }, { "label": "Extent", "value": "Codex: i + 67 | 107 + i leaves. Leaf height: 180-185 mm, width: 130-135 mm." }, { "label": "Funding", "value": "Wellcome (cataloguing). All images provided by Trinity College, Cambridge." }, { "label": "Abstract", "value": "

Cambridge, Trinity College, MS R.14.32 is a medical compendium, made partly of parchment (ff. 1-66) and partly of paper (ff. 67-173), and was produced in England in the second half of the 15th century. The paper comes from the same stock, except for the last two quires (ff. 151-173; see Part 2), which are of a visibly different consistency. A single scribe copied the larger part of the texts in a mixed hand with elements of Anglicana and Secretary scripts (see Part 1), however other hands' interventions can be observed in this section of the manuscript (notably, a change of hand occurs at f. 76r<\/a> in the middle of the 'Tractatus de urinis'). Part 2 contains a witness of the Latin herbal known as Circa instans<\/i>, copied by a scribe not involved in the compilation of the previous texts. It is thus likely that originally these two quires had been a separate booklet and were added to the rest of the book at a later date. <\/p>

MS R.14.32 contains exclusively medical texts of different genres, from theoretical treatises to herbals and recipes, which are for the most part Middle English translations of Latin originals. Along with the vernacular writings, the manuscript includes a collection of thirteen medical recipes in Latin (ff. 140r-144r<\/a>) and the aforementioned Circa instans<\/i> (ff. 151r-168r<\/a>). Many of the texts in MS R.14.32 were largely widespread in the late Middle Ages, however the forms in which they occur in this manuscript sometimes deviate from the textual tradition. For example, the herbal on ff. 1v-65r, which has been traditionally identified with a witness of the Middle English Agnus Castus<\/i> is in fact an original compilation derived from the Agnus Castus<\/i>, the Circa instans<\/i>, and other sources still to be identified. Among the entries of the herbal some spaces have been left blank, probably to add other plants' descriptions or botanical drawings.<\/p>

Under the rubric 'Tractatus de urinis' (ff. 67r-80v<\/a>), various texts on urines have been joined together to form a cohesive unity, very similar to the texts found in London, British Library, MS Sloane 121 and London, British Library, MS Sloane 706. The 'Tractatus de urinis' is followed by a small compendium made of nine texts, recorded in MS Sloane 706 and Cambridge, Jesus College, MS Q.D.1<\/a> as well. The compendium begins with an abridged Middle English translation of the Letter of Ipocras<\/i> merged with a dietary regimen (ff. 81r-82r<\/a>), and continues with treatises on the body parts where ailments arise (ff. 82v-83r<\/a>), the heartbeat (ff. 83r-85v<\/a>), the leaves of sage (f. 85v<\/a>), bloodletting (ff. 86r-88r<\/a>), the influence of planets on men's complexions (ff. 88r-88v<\/a>), the four humours (ff. 88v-89r<\/a>), and on the number of bones, veins and teeth in human body (f. 89v<\/a>), and finally the four-chapters version of the Middle English translation of John of Burgundy's treatise on the plague (ff. 90r-92r<\/a>). Other texts include a treatise on the medical properties of distilled waters (ff. 93r-93v<\/a>) and a fragmentary Middle English translation of the Circa instans<\/i> (ff. 128r-129v<\/a>). There are also excerpts from the Middle English version of Geoffrey of Vinsauf's commentary on Palladius, known as the Book of Trees and Wine<\/i> (ff. 130r-130v<\/a>), and relatedly from the Craft of Grafting<\/i> by Nicolas Bollard (f. 131r<\/a>), a herbal in verse (ff. 134v-139v<\/a> and 144v-146v<\/a>), and a verse treatise on rosemary (ff. 147r-148r<\/a>).<\/p>

The corpus of medieval medical recipes displayed in MS R.14.32 is substantial: there are 288 such texts in total, all but a few of which are gathered in thematically organized collections (for example, the receptarium known as The Alchemical Waters of Saint Giles<\/i> on ff. 96r-99r<\/a>) or arranged according to the traditional head-to-foot order. The others were included as standalone items, such as the recipe for a well-known oral anaesthetic known as 'dwale' on f. 92v<\/a>, or added to blank spaces within or at the end of these by 15th- and 16th-century hands (see, for example, ff. 94r-95r<\/a>, 103v<\/a>, 117r<\/a>, 119v<\/a>, 124v<\/a>, 148v<\/a>, 168v-169r<\/a>). Two charms are also included: one to staunch blood (f. 132r<\/a>), crossed out by a later hand (probably of an early modern owner of the manuscript), and one 'Pro Spasmo' (f. 134r<\/a>), written in a pale, faded shade of ink. <\/p>

Little is known about the history of this compendium. The addition of recipes just mentioned, or supplementary entries to the Agnus Castus<\/i>-derived herbal (e.g. on f. 36r<\/a>), and other occasional miscellaneous annotations (ff. 92r<\/a>, 169r-173v<\/a>) are the only evidence of medieval use, and the manuscript contains no information as to the identity of its owners at that time. Further additions by sixteenth-century hands testify to its continued use in the early modern period and more specifically - given that most of these were remedies - a prolonged interest in medical practice. One of these, 'For the yellow jaundice', concludes with the inscription 'M[agister] R Arche a[nno] d[omi]ni 1548', which might be the name of the author of this addition (and others preceding it, which were written in a closely similar script) or the person from whom this particular recipe was obtained. <\/p>

The lack of evidence of medieval ownership notwithstanding, MS R.14.32 is a fascinating example of what is often described as a 'leechbook', a compendium of both theoretical medical texts as well as recipes, which practitioners of the healing arts might have used as a reference and commonplace book during their practice. The use of a single paper stock (aside from the later addition), the adoption of consistent layouts in the presentation of the texts, and their apparently purposeful arrangement in a sequence starting with general topics and concluding with specific remedies, suggests that the book was conceived as a whole from the outset by its owner-compiler, with empty spaces left deliberately in order to accommodate further additions as new medical remedies became known. <\/p>

Dr Laura Poggesi
Post-Doctoral Research Fellow
University of Florence<\/p>" }, { "label": "Former Owner(s)", "value": "Wilson, John, d. 1754" }, { "label": "Title", "value": "Medical treatises and recipes" }, { "label": "Author(s) of the Record", "value": "Dr Clarck Drieshen, Project Cataloguer, Curious Cures in Cambridge Libraries" }, { "label": "Material", "value": "Folios 1-66b are parchment. Folios 67-173 are paper." }, { "label": "Collation", "value": "