Medieval Medical Recipes
The man that will of leechcraft lere
Read over this book and he may hear
Many a medicine both good and true
To heal sores both old and new" Anonymous introduction to a compilation of medical recipes in rhyming couplets, 15th century
To what medical uses did medieval practitioners put dove faeces, fox lungs, salted owl or eel grease? How might one aid a man with a weak bladder or swollen testicles, or a woman with 'grinding the womb' or who 'travaileth of child'? What remedies were available to the medieval sufferer of daily complaints such as headache, toothache and aching limbs, or more grisly ailments such as 'rankled wounds' or 'canker that breeds in a man's mouth'? How might the image-conscious rid themselves of freckles, whiten their faces or solve bad breath?
Curious Cures in Cambridge Libraries is a Wellcome-funded project to conserve, catalogue and digitise 186 medieval manuscripts that contain in excess of 8,000 unedited medical recipes. In addition, it will harness cutting-edge Handwritten Text Recognition technology by using Transkribus to produce full-text transcriptions of these recipes. This will open their contents to health researchers in the humanities and social sciences, enabling keyword and faceted searching and detailed comparative analysis on a scale not possible hitherto. This will not only help researchers to pinpoint recipes relevant to their work, but will also enable them to understand how this kind of medical knowledge evolved, how recipes were tried and tested over time, and what connections might exist between such practical recipe books and scholarly medical treatises.
Building on the successful collaborations of the recently completed Polonsky Foundation Greek Manuscripts project, the Curious Cures manuscripts are drawn from collections across the University: from the University Library, which is leading the project, from twelve colleges (Clare, Corpus Christi, Emmanuel, Gonville & Caius, Jesus, King's, Magdalene, Pembroke, Peterhouse, St John's, Sidney Sussex and Trinity), and the Fitzwilliam Museum. High-resolution digital images, detailed catalogue descriptions and full-text transcriptions of each manuscript will be brought together and made freely accessible on the Cambridge Digital Library.
The project encompasses manuscript compilations of dozens or even hundreds of medical recipes, known as receptaria, but also medical and non-medical texts that contain recipes on their peripheries as added texts or marginal annotations. The manuscripts were made between the 11th to the 16th centuries, with most dating to the fourteenth or fifteenth centuries. Many of the recipes are written in Latin, and some in French, but a substantial proportion are written in Middle English, and illustrate the beginnings of the circulation of medical knowledge in the vernacular language of this country.
A wide range of ingredients - animal, mineral and vegetable - are mentioned in these recipes. There are herbs that are known today - such as sage, rosemary, thyme, bay and mint - as well as common perennial plants: walwort, henbane, betony and comfrey. Ingredients were often mixed with common products such as ale, white wine, vinegar, milk or honey, but medieval physicians also exploited international trade networks, using cumin, pepper, ginger and other spices in their formulations. There are also many strange and curious ingredients recorded in the recipes, in particular those derived from animals: the use of roasted puppy fat as a salve to treat gout, or the gall bladder of a hare as a component in a treatment for 'web in the eye'.
Digitisation of these manuscripts will place medical recipes in their material contexts, revealing how they are arranged and presented on the page - while detailed descriptions of the manuscripts' textual contents will situate the recipes in their intellectual contexts, showing the different routes by which medical knowledge was recorded and disseminated. Evidence of production and provenance contained in these books may also help researchers to understand where and by whom these recipes were used. Conservation of the manuscripts will also enable the manuscripts to be digitised safely and ensure both their long-term preservation and accessibility to future generations of researchers.
For more details about the project, including blogposts about the manuscripts and the project's activities, see the Curious Cures project webpage.

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Composite manuscript of theological and medical texts (Cambridge, University Library, MS Add. 6865)
This composite manuscript, written for the most part in the first half of the 13th century, has passed through several centuries … more -
The Jenney Commonplace Book (MS Add. 7912)
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Medical Treatises (Cambridge, Clare College, MS 12)
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Medical recipes and charms for horses (MS Dd.4.44)
This manuscript contains a large collection of medical recipes and charms for curing horses. Dr Clarck Drieshen Project … more -
Alchemical works (Dd.4.45)
This manuscript of alchemical texts comprises four distinct parts that appear to have been produced separately in fifteenth-century … more -
Medical treatises and recipes (MS Dd.5.76)
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Medical miscellany (MS Dd.6.29)
This medical handbook was written in the late 14th- to early 15th-century, possibly somewhere in East Anglia, and contains … more -
Bible in Latin (Cambridge, University Library, MS Dd.8.12)
This manuscript is a composite volume and comprises a complete copy of the Bible in Latin made in England in the first half … more -
John Gower, Confessio amantis (MS Dd.8.19)
This manuscript contains a copy of the late 14th-century Middle English poem Confessio Amantis (The Lover's Confession), … more -
Medical manuscript (MS Ee.1.13)
This composite manuscript predominantly contains a Middle English translations of the Circa Instans, a Latin work on the … more -
Collection of medical tracts and recipes (MS Ee.1.15)
This manuscript is a compilation of remedies, healing instructions and diagrams with the common goal of healing a medieval … more -
Johannes de Sancto Paulo, Practica; and a Herbal (MS Ee.6.41)
The medical school of Salerno, near Naples in Italy, features prominently in this small but bulky 15th century manuscript. … more -
Florilegium (MS Ff.6.53)
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Macrobius and Mattheus Platearius (MS Gg.1.10)
This manuscript comprises three parts, all probably copied in the 12th century, perhaps in France. The first part, which … more -
Compilation of classical, late antique and medieval poetic works (including the 'Cambridge Songs') (MS Gg.5.35)
Introduction: the history of the manuscriptCopied by perhaps four scribes during the mid-11th century, this manuscript contains … more -
Medical texts (Gonville and Caius College MS 190/223)
John Arderne, Liber receptorum medicinalium, and miscellaneous medical texts (15th century) preceded by a libellus containing … more -
Compilation of theological texts (MS Hh.6.11)
According to the list of contents at the beginning of this manuscript, it once belonged to Ramsey Abbey, and had been donated … more -
Constantinus Africanus, al-Khwarizmi, Hermannus Contractus, and other texts (MS Ii.6.5)
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Two medical tracts on the diseases of women (Ii.6.33)
The two main texts in this manuscript have a shared theme and may have had a common readership in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century … more -
Collection of devotional works (MS Kk.1.6)
This mid 15th-century manuscript contains an important collection of Middle English religious prose and verse. It features … more -
Abridgement of Statutes (Kk.6.6)
This manuscript contains an abridgement of statutes from the reign of Kind Edward III (r. 1327–1377), written in Latin and … more -
Collection of alchemical works (MS Add. 4087)
Dr Clarck Drieshen Project cataloguer Cambridge University Library … more -
Theological works (Hh.6.13)
This manuscript mainly comprises two large theological works. The first text is a copy of William of Auvergne's De sacramentis … more -
Medical treatises (MS Dd.11.45)
This composite manuscript of three parts contains medical treatises and recipes in Latin and Middle English, including excerpts … more -
Medical texts (Gonville and Caius College, MS 97/49)
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Medical and astrological treatises (MS Dd.5.53)
This manuscript contains a single collection of medical and astrological treatises. Dr Clarck Drieshen Project Cataloguer … more -
Medical treatises (MS Dd.3.52)
This manuscript principally contains a Middle English translation of the treatise on surgery (Chirurgia Magna) by the French … more -
Medical treatises and recipes (Gonville and Caius College, MS 178/211)
This manuscript contains a collection of Latin medical treatises and recipes but also three previously unrecorded recipes … more -
Medical works (Gonville and Caius College MS 105/57)
This composite manuscript consists of two 14th-century volumes with medical works. The presence of a list of the contents … more -
Medical treatises and recipes (Ii.6.17)
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