Rāzī, Liber Almansoris (Cambridge, University Library, MS Add. 9213)
This manuscript contains a very early copy of a Latin translation of the Liber Almansoris (Kitāb al-Manṣūrī) (The Book of Medicine dedicated to Manṣūr) by Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Zakarīyā Rāzī (sometimes written as al-Razi, Rases or Rhazes). Rāzī was a doctor, alchemist, and philosopher who was born in the late 9th century in the city of Ray, part of modern-day Tehran. After studying and practicing medicine in Baghdad, Rāzī was invited back to Ray to be the director of its hospital by Prince Mansur ibn Ishaq, the city's governor. Rāzī dedicated two of his books to Prince Mansur ibn Ishaq, the Kitab al-Tibb ar-Ruhani (The Book of Spiritual Medicine) and the Kitāb al-Manṣūrī or Liber Almansoris, i.e., The Book of Medicine dedicated to Manṣūr. The latter was one of Rāzī's earlier works, and it is essentially a medical textbook for students studying medicine: it is divided into ten books on topics such as diagnostics, physiognomy and surgery. The ninth book often circulated independently as the Liber Nonus.
Rāzī's Kitāb al-Manṣūrī was translated into Latin by Gerard of Cremona (d. 1187), probably c. 1180. The demand for access to Arabic medical texts in the medieval west is attested by the activities of translators such as Gerard of Cremona and Constantinus Africanus, who between them produced Latin versions of works by Ibn Sina (Avicenna), Ishaq Ibn Suleiman (Isaac Iudaeus), Hunayn ibn Ishaq al-'Ibadi (Iohannitus), Ibn Wafid (Albenguefit), al-Farghani (Alfraganus), al-Haytham (Alhazen) and others. The Liber Almansoris remained a popular medical text into the early modern period: for example, the Dutch physician and anatomist Andreas Vesalius wrote his doctoral thesis on the ninth book.
There are many uncertainties about the origin of Cambridge, University Library, MS Add. 9213 due to its apparent age and its textual content. The production of Cambridge, University Library, MS Add. 9213 has been dated to the late 12th or early 13th centuries, i.e., not long after the death of Gerard of Cremona in 1187. The origin of this manuscript is not known, nor is it known if the manuscript was made for a particular individual or for use in a religious house. The manuscript may have been made in England, although Michael Gullick has proposed a French origin for the volume (personal communication to Jayne Ringrose, recorded in the departmental running files at Cambridge University Library).
The particular translation of the Liber Almansoris in MS Add. 9213 is itself of interest for the study of the reception of Arabic scientific texts in north-western Europe. According to Danielle Jacquart, the style of the translation found in this manuscript differs from that in other works translated by Gerard. This not only prompts doubts about the authenticity of the attribution in this instance, but raises the possibility that the manuscript may have been made at an even earlier date. This is significant in the context of other surviving copies of this work made in western Europe. According to one description of this manuscript (Sotheby's Sale Catalogue for 6 December 1993), manuscripts of the complete corpus of ten books of the Liber Almansoris are rare, with only a single other manuscript of English origin known (Worcester Cathedral, MS Q.60), which dates to the early thirteenth century. Only one copy of the complete corpus of ten books was recorded in the early fourteenth-century Registrum Anglie at St Albans (described in CBMLC 2, R.96), but the Sotheby's Sale Catalogue description states that that entry in the Registrum Anglie does not correspond with Worcester Cathedral, MS Q.60. Lynn Thorndike and Pearl Kibre in their survey of scientific manuscript recorded around a dozen manuscripts of the complete corpus of ten books of the Liber Almansoris of mainland-European origin, and none earlier than the thirteenth century.
The earliest, though incomplete, evidence of the manuscript's provenance does not resolve any of the questions surrounding this manuscript's origin, but it does describe something of the manuscript's later-medieval receiption. The provenance-indication is found on f. iv verso, one of the endleavesat the front of the manuscript. An inscription in a fourteenth-century hand at the top of the page reads 'Liber colegii de [...]', pointing to the possession of the manuscript by a college at one of the universities. The removal of the following word makes a conclusive identification impossible, however it may be that the manuscript belonged to Clare College (then known as Clare Hall): a 'Librum Rasis in Almasorio' is recorded alongside three other books in the 'Master's Old Book' (now Clare College Archives, C, 1/7, p. 17) as having been given to the college by William de Acton/Aketon (d. by Feb. 1391). In addition, Linda Voigts has noted that the mnemonic verse in the margin of f. 188r, in a section of the text dealing with uroscopy, may be by the hand of Roger Marchall (fl. 1436-1477), doctor of medicine, and physician to King Edward IV whose handwriting appears in a number of medical manuscripts now in the possession of various Cambridge Colleges, but that there is no other evidence of his participation in this manuscript.
Thirteen manuscripts owned or used by Roger Marchall (and another with possible Marchall connections) are being digitised, catalogued and conserved as part of the Curious Cures in Cambridge Libraries project:
- Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College, MS 59/153 (Voigts 1995, no. 2)
- Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College, MS 98/50 (Voigts 1995, no. 4)
- Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College, MS 105/57 (Voigts 1995, no. 5)
- Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College, MS 159/209 (Voigts 1995, no. 9)
- Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College, MS 178/211 (Voigts 1995, no. 10)
- Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College, MS 181/214 (Voigts 1995, no. 11)
- Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College, MS 345/620 (Voigts 1995, no. 12)
- Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College, MS 373/593 (Voigts 1995, no. 13)
- Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College, MS 379/599 (Voigts 1995, no. 14)
- Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College, MS 401/623 (Voigts 1995, no. 16)
- Cambridge, Peterhouse, MS 95 (Voigts 1995, no. 24)
- Cambridge, Peterhouse, MS 222 (Voigts 1995, no. 28)
- Cambridge, Trinity College, MS O.8.31 (Voigts 1995, no. 29)
- Cambridge, University Library, MS Add. 9213 (possible Marchall connections) (Voigts 1995, no. 48)
Dr Sarah Gilbert
Curious Cures in Cambridge Libraries Project Cataloguer
Cambridge University Library
and
Dr James Freeman
Medieval Manuscripts Specialist
Cambridge University Library
References:
Information about this document
- Physical Location: Cambridge University Library
- Classmark: Cambridge, University Library, MS Add. 9213
- Subject(s): Medicine, medieval
- Donor(s): de Aketon, William (b. ?1293, d. ?1391)
- Extent: Codex: 1 + ii + 1 + 230 + ii | i leaves.
- Collation:
28 quires of mostly 8 leaves. The medieval front endleaves associated with ff. 1-230 are present in the manuscript as ff. i and iv, now mutilated, but with a medieval ownership inscription and medical recipe texts in contemporary hands on f. iv recto and iv verso. Interleaved with the opening bifolium is a paper bifolium (ff. ii-iii) that was probably added when the present binding was applied to the volume. At the close of the manuscript there is another paper bifolium (ff. v-vi) with a watermark that matches the watermark on ff. ii-iii, and also a parchment stub (f. vii) datable to c. 1590-1592. The quires are arranged as follows:
- Opening bifolium (ff. i, iv) +
- Quires 1-28 (ff. 1-16)
- Quire 38 (3rd and 6th singletons, stubs visible; ff. 17-24)
- Quire 48 (ff. 25-32)
- Quire 510 (ff. 33-42)
- Quire 68 (ff. 43-50)
- Quire 78 (2nd and 7th singletons, stubs visible; ff. 51-58)
- Quire 810 (3rd and 8th singletons, stubs visible; ff. 59-68)
- Quires 9-118 (ff. 69-92)
- Quire 1212 (ff. 93-104)
- Quires 13-148 (ff. 105-120)
- Quire 156 (ff. 121-126)
- Quires 16-288 (ff. 127-230)
Quire signatures in pencil in Hindu-Arabic numerals in the lower outer corner of the first recto of each quire.
- Material: Parchment
- Binding:
17th century (?second half) binding, 'probably bound for Sir Lionel Tollemache, 1648-1726, third Earl of Dysart' (Sotheby's Sale Catalogue for 6 December 1993, Lot 52). Full bound in sprinkled calf over millboard with matching decoration to left and right covers. Covers are decorated with a blind double fillet frame with Oxford corners inset from the perimeter of the board by c. 10mm. The cover material over the head, fore, and tail edges of the boards is decorated with a thick single fillet tooled in gold. Five raised bands on spine, each decorated with a blind double fillet through their centre (i.e., across the width of the spine). Spine compartments are decorated with a blind single fillet along their upper and lower perimeters. Head and tail bands are a beige fibre wrapped around a core of what appears to be straw or reed; head band is exposed as the upper opening of the spine has been torn away down to the first raised band. Two paper labels fixed to spine with an adhesive:
- - Upper label: 'Medical Tracts MSS XIII' in ink
- - Lower label: 'Add. 9213' in ink (the present Cambridge University Library shelfmark)
No pastedowns; turn ins and inner faces of boards are exposed. The number '15' circled and struck through on the inner face of the left board.
Head, fore, and tail edges of the bookblock are stained red.
Paper bifolia forming two endleaves at each end of the bookblock (ff. ii-iii and ff. v-vi). Each paper bifolium has a watermark at the centrefold of a crown over a scroll-eared escutchon with two bendlets. This watermark is a close visual match for a watermark found in Oxford, Christ Church College, MS Mus. 1018-1020, a collection of partbooks of music composed by Thomas Talbot, probably copied in the 1630s. The watermark is printed in Ashbee, Thompson, and Wainwright (eds.), The Viola Da Gamba Society Index of Manuscripts Containing Consort Music, 2 vols (2014), II.302.
Parchment endleaves at the opening of the volume (ff. i and iv) are contemporary with the main text and have probably always travelled with the main quire stack as the opening endleaves.
A parchment stub at the end of the volume (f. vii) of a document dated to the 33rd and 34th regnal years of Queen Elizabeth I (c. November 1590 - November 1592).
- Accompanying Material:
A brief summary of the manuscript, handwritten in ink with additions in an additional hand in pencil, on a paper leaf 203x127 mm. The leaf bears the pressmark L.J.IV.2 with the '2' struck out. The appearance of the leaf, and the presence of the pressmark indicates that the leaf was created before 1955 and during the period where the manuscript belonged to the Tollemache family of Helmingham Hall.
A typewritten letter on a paper leaf c. 177x135 mm dated 4 February 1961 from Neil Ker to Philip Robinson, enquiring about the location of four manuscripts formerly owned by Sir Thomas Phillips, as well as the location of two others he had previously seen at Helmingham Hall but which had since been sold to Robinson.
Both items are loose leaves kept with the manuscript.
See Peter Kidd, 'The Helmingham Hall Manuscripts', Medieval Manuscripts Provenance: Notes and Observations (18 March 2015) - Foliation:
Late 20th-/Early 21st-century foliation:
i + ii-iii + iv + 1-230 + v-vi | vii
Foliated in pencil in the upper outer corner of each recto by Jayne Ringrose. - Provenance:
Possibly owned by Clare College, Cambridge (then known as Clare Hall): an ownership inscription by a hand of the fourteenth century on f. iv verso reads: 'Liber colegii de [...]'. The removal of the following word makes a conclusive identification impossible, however this may be one of the four books donated to Clare Hall by William de Acton/Aketon (d. by Feb. 1391) (the others were copies of John of Gaddesden, Rosa medicinae, Avicenna, Canon medicinae, tr. Gerard of Cremona, and Bartholomeus Anglicus, De proprietatibus rerum).
R.W. Hunt, 'Medieval Inventories of Clare College Library', TCBS 1.2 (1950), pp. 105-125CBMLC 10, pp. 138-39, 655MLGB3Venn:ACAD (no reference ID - search 'Aketon')Owned by the Tollemache family of Helmingham Hall, Helmingham, Suffolk, England: Helmingham MS 15, pressmark L.J.IV (paper label, inside of the left board). A loose leaf of paper kept with the manuscript bears a brief description written in ink in a ?20th century hand, with the pressmark reference L.J.IV.2 (with the '2' struck out).
It is not known when the Tollemache family acquired MS Add. 9213; according to Edwards and Griffiths the Tollemache family seems to have began assembling a private library by the mid-16th century, and subsequent generations continued to acquire manuscripts and rare books. The 1993 Sotheby catalogue description suggests that the the manuscript was 'probably bound for Sir Lionel Tollemache, 1648-1726(!), third earl of Dysart', which would place the family's acquisition of the volume before 1727.
Probably the manuscript described as 'Liber Medicines Abubecri' in the 1762 Catalogue of the Library at Helmingham Hall in Suffolk (Suffolk Record Office, Ipswich HD 1538/253/167, printed in Edwards and Griffiths, pp. 362-364). Edwards and Griffiths tentatively suggested that the 'Liber Medicines Abubecri' might be their 'MS 64', now Pennsylvania, University of Pennsylvania, Library, Lawrence J. Schoenberg Collection, MS 24, a copy of the medical works of Isaac Israeli ben Solomon, but since the opening words of MS Add. 9213 are 'Abubecri arazi filij zacarie liber incipit' (1r) it seems much more likely that that the 'Liber Medicines Abubecri' entry in the in the 1762 Catalogue refers to CUL MS Add. 9213.
Peter Kidd, 'The Helmingham Hall Manuscripts', Medieval Manuscripts Provenance: Notes and Observations (18 March 2015)A.S.G. Edwards and J. Griffiths, 'The Tollemache Collection of Medieval Manuscripts', The Book Collector 49.3 (2000), pp. 349-364. MS Add. 9213 is their MS 63.Owned by Philip Robinson (1902-1991), antiquarian bookseller (with his brother Lionel Robinson (1897-1983)): see correspondence from N.R. Ker, kept with the manuscript.
- Acquisition:
Purchased by Cambridge University Library as Lot 52 from a sale of Robinson Trust items at Sotheby's on 6 December 1993.
- Funding: Wellcome
- Data Source(s):
This catalogue record draws on an unpublished description of the manuscript by Jayne Ringrose, used here by kind permission of the author.
- Author(s) of the Record: Dr Sarah Gilbert, Project Cataloguer, Curious Cures, Cambridge University Library
- Bibliography:R. W. Hunt, "Medieval Inventories of Clare College Library", Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society 1 2 105-125 (1950) https://www.jstor.org/stable/41337257.Danielle Jacquart, "Les traductions médicales de Gérard de Crémone", in P. Pizzamiglio (ed.), Gerardo da Cremona, Annali della biblioteca statale e libreria civica di Cremona 41 (Cremona: 1992) 57-70.Voigts, Linda Ehrsam, "A doctor and his books: the manuscripts of Roger Marchall (d. 1477)", in Richard Beadle and A. J. Piper (eds), New science out of old books: studies in manuscripts and early printed books in honour of A.I. Doyle (Aldershot: Scolar Press, 1995) 249-314.Dean, Ruth J. and Maureen Barry McCann Boulton, Anglo-Norman literature: a guide to texts and manuscripts, Anglo-Norman Text Society occasional publications series 3 (London: Anglo-Norman Text Society, 1999).A. S. G. Edwards and J. Griffiths, "The Tollemache Collection of Medieval Manuscripts", The Book Collector 49 3 349-364 (2000).Hamesse, Jacqueline, Danielle Jacquart, École pratique des hautes études (France) and Université catholique de Louvain (1835-1969) (eds), Lexiques bilingues dans les domaines philosophique et scientifique: Moyen Age - Renaissance: actes du colloque international organisé par l'Ecole pratique des hautes études, IVe Section et l'Institut supérieur de philosophie de l'Université catholique de Louvain, (Paris, 12-14 juin 1997), Textes et études du moyen âge / Fédération internationale des instituts d'études médiévales 14 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2001).Pouzet, Jean-Pascal, "Le transmission de textes en Anglo-Français insulaire", in André Crépin and Jean Leclant (eds), Approches techniques littéraires et historiques / IIe Journée d'études anglo-normandes organisée par l'Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres, Palais de l'Institut, 21 mai 2010 (Paris: Académie des inscriptions et belles lettres, 2012).
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- Physical Location: Cambridge University Library
- Classmark: Cambridge, University Library, MS Add. 9213
- Subject(s): Medicine, medieval
- Donor(s): de Aketon, William (b. ?1293, d. ?1391)
- Extent: Codex: 1 + ii + 1 + 230 + ii | i leaves.
- Collation:
28 quires of mostly 8 leaves. The medieval front endleaves associated with ff. 1-230 are present in the manuscript as ff. i and iv, now mutilated, but with a medieval ownership inscription and medical recipe texts in contemporary hands on f. iv recto and iv verso. Interleaved with the opening bifolium is a paper bifolium (ff. ii-iii) that was probably added when the present binding was applied to the volume. At the close of the manuscript there is another paper bifolium (ff. v-vi) with a watermark that matches the watermark on ff. ii-iii, and also a parchment stub (f. vii) datable to c. 1590-1592. The quires are arranged as follows:
- Opening bifolium (ff. i, iv) +
- Quires 1-28 (ff. 1-16)
- Quire 38 (3rd and 6th singletons, stubs visible; ff. 17-24)
- Quire 48 (ff. 25-32)
- Quire 510 (ff. 33-42)
- Quire 68 (ff. 43-50)
- Quire 78 (2nd and 7th singletons, stubs visible; ff. 51-58)
- Quire 810 (3rd and 8th singletons, stubs visible; ff. 59-68)
- Quires 9-118 (ff. 69-92)
- Quire 1212 (ff. 93-104)
- Quires 13-148 (ff. 105-120)
- Quire 156 (ff. 121-126)
- Quires 16-288 (ff. 127-230)
Quire signatures in pencil in Hindu-Arabic numerals in the lower outer corner of the first recto of each quire.
- Material: Parchment
- Binding:
17th century (?second half) binding, 'probably bound for Sir Lionel Tollemache, 1648-1726, third Earl of Dysart' (Sotheby's Sale Catalogue for 6 December 1993, Lot 52). Full bound in sprinkled calf over millboard with matching decoration to left and right covers. Covers are decorated with a blind double fillet frame with Oxford corners inset from the perimeter of the board by c. 10mm. The cover material over the head, fore, and tail edges of the boards is decorated with a thick single fillet tooled in gold. Five raised bands on spine, each decorated with a blind double fillet through their centre (i.e., across the width of the spine). Spine compartments are decorated with a blind single fillet along their upper and lower perimeters. Head and tail bands are a beige fibre wrapped around a core of what appears to be straw or reed; head band is exposed as the upper opening of the spine has been torn away down to the first raised band. Two paper labels fixed to spine with an adhesive:
- - Upper label: 'Medical Tracts MSS XIII' in ink
- - Lower label: 'Add. 9213' in ink (the present Cambridge University Library shelfmark)
No pastedowns; turn ins and inner faces of boards are exposed. The number '15' circled and struck through on the inner face of the left board.
Head, fore, and tail edges of the bookblock are stained red.
Paper bifolia forming two endleaves at each end of the bookblock (ff. ii-iii and ff. v-vi). Each paper bifolium has a watermark at the centrefold of a crown over a scroll-eared escutchon with two bendlets. This watermark is a close visual match for a watermark found in Oxford, Christ Church College, MS Mus. 1018-1020, a collection of partbooks of music composed by Thomas Talbot, probably copied in the 1630s. The watermark is printed in Ashbee, Thompson, and Wainwright (eds.), The Viola Da Gamba Society Index of Manuscripts Containing Consort Music, 2 vols (2014), II.302.
Parchment endleaves at the opening of the volume (ff. i and iv) are contemporary with the main text and have probably always travelled with the main quire stack as the opening endleaves.
A parchment stub at the end of the volume (f. vii) of a document dated to the 33rd and 34th regnal years of Queen Elizabeth I (c. November 1590 - November 1592).
- Accompanying Material:
A brief summary of the manuscript, handwritten in ink with additions in an additional hand in pencil, on a paper leaf 203x127 mm. The leaf bears the pressmark L.J.IV.2 with the '2' struck out. The appearance of the leaf, and the presence of the pressmark indicates that the leaf was created before 1955 and during the period where the manuscript belonged to the Tollemache family of Helmingham Hall.
A typewritten letter on a paper leaf c. 177x135 mm dated 4 February 1961 from Neil Ker to Philip Robinson, enquiring about the location of four manuscripts formerly owned by Sir Thomas Phillips, as well as the location of two others he had previously seen at Helmingham Hall but which had since been sold to Robinson.
Both items are loose leaves kept with the manuscript.
See Peter Kidd, 'The Helmingham Hall Manuscripts', Medieval Manuscripts Provenance: Notes and Observations (18 March 2015) - Foliation:
Late 20th-/Early 21st-century foliation:
i + ii-iii + iv + 1-230 + v-vi | vii
Foliated in pencil in the upper outer corner of each recto by Jayne Ringrose. - Provenance:
Possibly owned by Clare College, Cambridge (then known as Clare Hall): an ownership inscription by a hand of the fourteenth century on f. iv verso reads: 'Liber colegii de [...]'. The removal of the following word makes a conclusive identification impossible, however this may be one of the four books donated to Clare Hall by William de Acton/Aketon (d. by Feb. 1391) (the others were copies of John of Gaddesden, Rosa medicinae, Avicenna, Canon medicinae, tr. Gerard of Cremona, and Bartholomeus Anglicus, De proprietatibus rerum).
R.W. Hunt, 'Medieval Inventories of Clare College Library', TCBS 1.2 (1950), pp. 105-125CBMLC 10, pp. 138-39, 655MLGB3Venn:ACAD (no reference ID - search 'Aketon')Owned by the Tollemache family of Helmingham Hall, Helmingham, Suffolk, England: Helmingham MS 15, pressmark L.J.IV (paper label, inside of the left board). A loose leaf of paper kept with the manuscript bears a brief description written in ink in a ?20th century hand, with the pressmark reference L.J.IV.2 (with the '2' struck out).
It is not known when the Tollemache family acquired MS Add. 9213; according to Edwards and Griffiths the Tollemache family seems to have began assembling a private library by the mid-16th century, and subsequent generations continued to acquire manuscripts and rare books. The 1993 Sotheby catalogue description suggests that the the manuscript was 'probably bound for Sir Lionel Tollemache, 1648-1726(!), third earl of Dysart', which would place the family's acquisition of the volume before 1727.
Probably the manuscript described as 'Liber Medicines Abubecri' in the 1762 Catalogue of the Library at Helmingham Hall in Suffolk (Suffolk Record Office, Ipswich HD 1538/253/167, printed in Edwards and Griffiths, pp. 362-364). Edwards and Griffiths tentatively suggested that the 'Liber Medicines Abubecri' might be their 'MS 64', now Pennsylvania, University of Pennsylvania, Library, Lawrence J. Schoenberg Collection, MS 24, a copy of the medical works of Isaac Israeli ben Solomon, but since the opening words of MS Add. 9213 are 'Abubecri arazi filij zacarie liber incipit' (1r) it seems much more likely that that the 'Liber Medicines Abubecri' entry in the in the 1762 Catalogue refers to CUL MS Add. 9213.
Peter Kidd, 'The Helmingham Hall Manuscripts', Medieval Manuscripts Provenance: Notes and Observations (18 March 2015)A.S.G. Edwards and J. Griffiths, 'The Tollemache Collection of Medieval Manuscripts', The Book Collector 49.3 (2000), pp. 349-364. MS Add. 9213 is their MS 63.Owned by Philip Robinson (1902-1991), antiquarian bookseller (with his brother Lionel Robinson (1897-1983)): see correspondence from N.R. Ker, kept with the manuscript.
- Acquisition:
Purchased by Cambridge University Library as Lot 52 from a sale of Robinson Trust items at Sotheby's on 6 December 1993.
- Funding: Wellcome
- Data Source(s):
This catalogue record draws on an unpublished description of the manuscript by Jayne Ringrose, used here by kind permission of the author.
- Author(s) of the Record: Dr Sarah Gilbert, Project Cataloguer, Curious Cures, Cambridge University Library
- Bibliography:R. W. Hunt, "Medieval Inventories of Clare College Library", Transactions of the Cambridge Bibliographical Society 1 2 105-125 (1950) https://www.jstor.org/stable/41337257.Danielle Jacquart, "Les traductions médicales de Gérard de Crémone", in P. Pizzamiglio (ed.), Gerardo da Cremona, Annali della biblioteca statale e libreria civica di Cremona 41 (Cremona: 1992) 57-70.Voigts, Linda Ehrsam, "A doctor and his books: the manuscripts of Roger Marchall (d. 1477)", in Richard Beadle and A. J. Piper (eds), New science out of old books: studies in manuscripts and early printed books in honour of A.I. Doyle (Aldershot: Scolar Press, 1995) 249-314.Dean, Ruth J. and Maureen Barry McCann Boulton, Anglo-Norman literature: a guide to texts and manuscripts, Anglo-Norman Text Society occasional publications series 3 (London: Anglo-Norman Text Society, 1999).A. S. G. Edwards and J. Griffiths, "The Tollemache Collection of Medieval Manuscripts", The Book Collector 49 3 349-364 (2000).Hamesse, Jacqueline, Danielle Jacquart, École pratique des hautes études (France) and Université catholique de Louvain (1835-1969) (eds), Lexiques bilingues dans les domaines philosophique et scientifique: Moyen Age - Renaissance: actes du colloque international organisé par l'Ecole pratique des hautes études, IVe Section et l'Institut supérieur de philosophie de l'Université catholique de Louvain, (Paris, 12-14 juin 1997), Textes et études du moyen âge / Fédération internationale des instituts d'études médiévales 14 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2001).Pouzet, Jean-Pascal, "Le transmission de textes en Anglo-Français insulaire", in André Crépin and Jean Leclant (eds), Approches techniques littéraires et historiques / IIe Journée d'études anglo-normandes organisée par l'Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres, Palais de l'Institut, 21 mai 2010 (Paris: Académie des inscriptions et belles lettres, 2012).
- Title: Part 1: Medical texts in Latin including the translated Liber Almansoris of Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Zakarīyā Rāzī
- Origin Place: England or France
- Date of Creation: 12th, or early 13th century.
- Language(s): Latin
- Physical Description:
2r: de fructibus et pomis redolentibus
- Extent: Codex: 2 + 230 leaves. Leaf height: 220 mm, width: 160 mm.
- Collation:
- Opening bifolium (ff. i, iv) +
- Quires 1-28 (ff. 1-16)
- Quire 38 (ff. 17-24; 3rd and 6th singletons, stubs visible)
- Quire 48 (ff. 25-32)
- Quire 510 (ff. 33-42)
- Quire 68 (ff. 43-50)
- Quire 78 (ff. 51-58; 2nd and 7th singletons, stubs visible)
- Quire 810 (ff. 59-68; 3rd and 8th singletons, stubs visible)
- Quires 9-118 (ff. 69-92)
- Quire 1212 (ff. 93-104)
- Quires 13-148 (ff. 105-120)
- Quire 156 (ff. 121-126)
- Quires 16-288 (ff. 127-230)
Sequence of medieval quire signatures present in the volume in the centre of the lower margin of the final verso of some quires, some signatures probably trimmed away. Quire 9 is marked with the medieval signature 'V', and several subsequent quires are marked in coherent sequence up to Quire 27 which is marked 'XXiii'. In the medieval quire signature sequence present in the volume since Quire 9 is marked 'V', this puts 'I' in the sequence as Quire 5. There are no remnants of any medieval quire signatures present on Quires 1-4.
A small error is present in the medieval quire sequence: Quire 24 is marked 'XX', Quire 25 was originally erroneously marked 'XXXI', but the first 'X' has been erased at a later. Quire 26 is marked 'XXII'.
- Material: Parchment (HFFH).
- Format: Codex
- Condition: A small piece of parchment cut away from f. iv, obliterating the name of a former owner. Some leaves stained and torn with losses to text and marginal annotations; ff. 18 and 230 badly torn. Some quire signatures and marginal annotations lost or damaged due to trimming.
- Script:
Main text is written in a late protogothic with some transitional textualis features by at least two scribes.
- Layout:
Written height: 185 mm, width: 115 mm. Ruled in two-column format, in leadpoint and ink, frame and lines. Typically 30 lines to the column, written above top line.
- Decoration:
Flourished initial in the 'Arabesque' style on f. 1r at the opening of the main text in red, green, and blue. Minor flourished initials in red and blue with marginal flourishes confined to the height of the initial at significant divisions of the text.
Plain initials in red or blue at minor divisions of the text.
Rubricated headings (red only).
Guide letters for flourished initials in the margins, many trimmed away.
- Title: Medical notes
- Language(s): Latin
- Note(s): No text on the recto. Medical notes on the verso in at least two hands of 1300-1400 perhaps the 14th century. The leaf has been cut in half vertically so much of the text is lost, but the names and weights of various plants can be discerned in a style typical of medieval medical recipes.
- Title: Medical text
- Language(s): Latin
- Note(s): First line of text is damaged as a section of the upper part of the leaf has been cut away.; Similar to a recipe in London, British Library, MS Sloane 3466, ff. 111r-112v, see eVK 2903.00 (v0096800000).;
Some text unclear due to rubbing and stains on the leaf.
- Title: Medical recipe attributed to Henry de Mondeville
- Language(s): Latin
- Note(s): This recipe is attributed to Henry de Mondeville ('Henricus de amonda uilla'), who was a medieval French surgeon, an author of a treatise on surgery, and physician to Philip IV (Philippe le Bel), King of France c. 1268-1314.; Some text unclear due to rubbing and stains on the leaf.
- Title: Medical recipe attributed to Johannes Halaquem
- Language(s): Latin
- Note(s): This recipe is attributed to a Iohannes Halaquem and mentions Galen and Dioscorides as sources of authority.; Some text unclear due to rubbing and stains on the leaf.
- Title: Medical recipes
- Language(s): Latin
- Note(s): Some text unclear due to rubbing and stains on the leaf.
- Title: Corrected capitula list for Liber Almansoris Book 2
- Language(s): Latin
- Note(s): 28 capitula. The capitula for the entire (Books 1-10) Liber Almansoris are copied on ff. 1r-4v. A reader noticed an error in the capitula for Liber Almansoris Book 2 and has supplied the correct capitula here. Matching tie marks in red are present in the outer margin of f. iv verso and f. 1v, in column b, after the 7th line of text.
- Title: Medical recipes
- Language(s): Latin
- Title: Liber Almansoris (The Book of Medicine for Manṣūr) [Latin]
- Author(s): Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Zakarīyā Rāzī
- Language(s): Latin
- Note(s): The translation into Latin of the Liber Almansoris is typically attributed to Gerard of Cremona, however, according to Danielle Jacquart, stylistic differences in the text in this manuscript cast doubt on this attribution in this specific instance.; Book list:
- Bibliography:eTK 0272ID. Jacquart, 'Les traductions médicales de Gérard de Crémone', in P. Pizzamiglio (ed.), Gerardo da Cremona, Annali della biblioteca statale e libreria civica di Cremona 41 (Cremona, 1992) pp. 57-70
- Title: Preface and Capitula for the Liber Almansoris (The Book of Medicine for Manṣūr) [Latin]
- Author(s): Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Zakarīyā Rāzī
- Language(s): Latin
- Title: Liber Almansoris (The Book of Medicine for Manṣūr) (10 Books) [Latin]
- Author(s): Abū Bakr Muḥammad ibn Zakarīyā Rāzī
- Language(s): Latin
- Title: Medical notes and glosses associated with the Liber Almansoris (The Book of Medicine for Manṣūr) [Latin]
- Language(s): Latin
- Note(s):
The extracts here conform to the 'Additio' text in the 1510 printed edition of the Latin text Opera parua Abubetri filii Zacharie filii arasi, 2 vols (Lyon, 1510/11), I:1r–216v; in the 1510 edition, the 'Additions' are printed as an integrated gloss within the main text rather than as a separate section of text at the end. The early date of MS Add. 9213 means that it is likely that these 'Additio' texts and glosses have travelled with the main text since early on in the Latin transmission of the work of Rāzī.
A note in the text on f. 198r column one, towards the bottom of that column reads 'Glose sequitur secundum librum almansoris'.
- Title: Medical note on a plant
- Language(s): Latin
- Note(s):
Full transcription: 'Galen et diascorides cheneuiri est herbas in uere nascens que ramos habet longos . et folia longa . et comeditur cruda . et uocantur ganbul'
- Title: Liber elementorum [Latin] (tr. ?Constantinus Africanus)
- Author(s): Isaac Israeli ben Solomon
- Language(s): Latin
- Bibliography:eTK 1045KOmnia opera Ysaac (Lyon, 1515)
- Title: Template letters
- Language(s): Latin
- Note(s):
Several short template letters, somewhat hermeneutic in style, and not identified in any other manuscripts.
In most cases in these template-letters, the addressee is rendered as '.N.', but the text crossing from the bottom of f. 227v to the top of f. 228r mentions a 'dilectissime Willellmi. There are several references to monks, abbots, and the general setting of life in a religious house among the letters.
- Title: Medical notes in Latin and medieval French
- Language(s): Latin and medieval French
- Note(s): Added in several (late) 12th and 13th century hands.
- Classmark: Cambridge, University Library, MS Add. 9213, f. vii
- Title: Record of two legal proceedings
- Origin Place: England, perhaps Yorkshire.
- Date of Creation: Written between November 1590 and November 1592.
- Language(s): Latin
- Note(s): Verso blank. Leaf inserted with text running parallel to hinge of the right board.; The dating clause at the top of the leaf indicates a date between 17 November 1590 and and 16 November 1592 (the 33rd and 34th regnal years of the reign of Queen Elizabeth I). Since the dating clause includes the descriptor "Michaelmas" (29 September, and also the name for the autumn/winter period of study at Cambridge and Oxford universities) this may indicate a date in the autumn of 1591 around the time of the transition from the 33rd to the 34th regnal year The fragment gives details of legal proceedings. Persons named in the document are:
- George Tipladye
- John Crowne
- Robert Crowne
- Extent: Fragment: 1 leaf Fragment height: 43 mm, width: 218 mm.
- Collation:
1 leaf
- Material: Parchment.
- Format: Other
- Condition: Fragment. Section cut away from a larger document for use as a binding support. Text lost. The fragment has been folded so that it could be anchored for sewing and a small c. 8 mm stub is visible between f. 230v and f. v recto. The paper bifolium ff. v-vi is nested within the stub and the main portion of the fragment (f. vii).
- Script:
Written in the English form of documentary cursiva known as secretary hand.
- Layout:
Written height: 39 mm, width: 212 mm. Single-column format. No ruling.
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