Western Medieval Manuscripts : Medical recipes and charms

Western Medieval Manuscripts

<p style='text-align: justify;'>The contents of the manuscript comprise simple, practical medicine: somewhat more than two hundred recipes, written in Middle English, as well as some charms in Middle English or Latin (see ff. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(60);return false;'>28r-29r</a>), including a Latin charm for making an apotropaic amulet called the Seal of Solomon ('Sigillum Salamonis'). In numerous instances, these correspond - though not always precisely - with recipes and charms found in other compilations made in the 15th century, pointing not only to their widespread circulation in a number of manuscript forms, but also to a complex history of textual transmission, selection and emendation (for example comparisons and further discussion, see the introduction to <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-EMMANUEL-COLLEGE-00095/1'>Cambridge, Emmanuel College, MS 95</a>). The first complete recipe in the present manuscript (preceding 'For a man þat spekyth in his slepe' on f. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(8);return false;'>3r</a>) lacks its rubric, but reading the text it is clear that it concerns dental care. The reader is instructed to burn a green branch of broom, grind the results into a powder and mix it with a powder of burned alum 'the fourth part' (meaning, perhaps, to use a quarter of the quantity of the broom powder). They should be mixed well and tempered with fresh water: 'Frote ofte the teþe þerwith' and any blackness shall be removed, it concludes. It must have been preceded by another recipe for the same issue, since it begins 'Also'. Only the last three words of the preceding recipe remain - '[and] þe felth' - but this is enough for us to locate the recipe in other collections of this kind, such as <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-ADD-09308/65'>Cambridge, University Library, MS Add. 9308</a>, f. 26r, and <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-DD-00006-00029/105'>Cambridge, University Library, MS Dd.6.29</a>, f. 54r. The latter seems to provide the closest match, and there the two recipes are introduced by the rubric: 'For to make teth white þat arn blake or ȝolowe' (i.e. black or yellow). </p><p style='text-align: justify;'>MS Add. 9309 is especially worthy of note, however, on account of the survival of its medieval, and probably original, binding. It comprises a rigid spine made from a thick strip of leather, attached to which is a rectangular piece of thinner, flexible leather held together in numerous places and along tears by rough stitching. Through this cover and through the spine were punched numerous holes, grouped in rough clusters at four stations. Through these holes have been looped fine leather tackets that were then tied closed with knots. Onto these tackets were then sewn the two quires of paper that comprise this manuscript. Thin strips of parchment, placed along the fold on the outside of the quire and at its centre, and through which the stitching passes, provided the leaves with some additional reinforcement. The leather wrapper was then folded along its short edges, in order to enclose the paper quires. The fold on the part of the wrapper at the back of the manuscript then went around the right-hand part of the front cover. A looped leather thong attached to this flap would have then been placed around a simple toggle or button, probably made also of leather or perhaps bone, attached to the front cover (this has since been lost and only the leather tie remains, now split into two halves). </p><p style='text-align: justify;'>This constituted a practical, and cost-effective, form of binding: it comprised cheap materials, and provided the book with good protection against the elements. The survival of such 'limp' or flexible covers is rare, especially since they were more vulnerable to wear and tear than 'hard' bindings made from wooden boards, and (like those) were also at risk of being disbound and placed into more attractive or robust covers by later collectors and libraries. The quires may have been written on and held together in some temporary way before being bound together in this wrapper. However, we know from other surviving examples that such books could be made up and sold as blanks, a phenomenon that appears to have become increasingly common in the later medieval period, in response to growing demand for the documentation of land holdings, financial accounts and the like, a demand fed by the increasing importation of paper to 15th-century England. Either way, a remarkable characteristic of this binding was its expandability: once all available space had been used up, its owner could purchase further quires and have them sewn onto additional tackets attached to the stiff leather spine, enabling the book to function something like a modern-day ring binder file. </p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Information about the makers, owners and readers of these books is often frustratingly elusive. We might infer that they were owned by practitioners of the healing arts, or 'leeches', who learned medicine not through academic study but empirical experience, perhaps as a sort of apprentice at the side of a master. The use of the vernacular instead of Latin would have made the contents more accessible to such readers. The practical, portable format of the binding suggests that it was intended to be carried around, perhaps on visits to patients. There are examples that appear to have been made professionally (for example, Cambridge, University Library, MS Add. 9308), suggesting the existence of a commercial market for such books - though in the case of the present manuscript it seems more likely that it was made by its intended user. It is written in a cursive script, with almost no decoration (only minor flourishes in the same ink as the text), on pages that have not been ruled for a regular layout. There are some tantalising clues as to who its owners might have been in the form of three, very faded inscriptions: one referring to someone not necessarily the volume's copyist ('Iste liber constant [...] scriptoris', f. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(75);return false;'>35v</a>), another similarly recording ownership but where the name is no longer legible ('Iste liber constant [...], <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(3);return false;'>inside of the front cover</a>), and a third mentioning the name 'Thomas Wortis leche' (<a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(76);return false;'>inside of the rear cover</a>, about an inch from the top edge). All three were first noticed in 2023 by Clarck Drieshen, Project Cataloguer for the Curious Cures in Cambridge Libraries Project. Advanced imaging techniques undertaken by Cambridge University Library's Cultural Heritage Imaging Laboratory have helped to reveal these inscriptions further, and future analysis may provide further insights. Whether Thomas Wortis may be identified with any individual known in other records remains to be seen.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Dr James Freeman<br />Medieval Manuscripts Specialist<br />Cambridge University Library</p>

Page: front cover, outer

Medical recipes and charms (Cambridge, University Library, MS Add. 9309)

The contents of the manuscript comprise simple, practical medicine: somewhat more than two hundred recipes, written in Middle English, as well as some charms in Middle English or Latin (see ff. 28r-29r), including a Latin charm for making an apotropaic amulet called the Seal of Solomon ('Sigillum Salamonis'). In numerous instances, these correspond - though not always precisely - with recipes and charms found in other compilations made in the 15th century, pointing not only to their widespread circulation in a number of manuscript forms, but also to a complex history of textual transmission, selection and emendation (for example comparisons and further discussion, see the introduction to Cambridge, Emmanuel College, MS 95). The first complete recipe in the present manuscript (preceding 'For a man þat spekyth in his slepe' on f. 3r) lacks its rubric, but reading the text it is clear that it concerns dental care. The reader is instructed to burn a green branch of broom, grind the results into a powder and mix it with a powder of burned alum 'the fourth part' (meaning, perhaps, to use a quarter of the quantity of the broom powder). They should be mixed well and tempered with fresh water: 'Frote ofte the teþe þerwith' and any blackness shall be removed, it concludes. It must have been preceded by another recipe for the same issue, since it begins 'Also'. Only the last three words of the preceding recipe remain - '[and] þe felth' - but this is enough for us to locate the recipe in other collections of this kind, such as Cambridge, University Library, MS Add. 9308, f. 26r, and Cambridge, University Library, MS Dd.6.29, f. 54r. The latter seems to provide the closest match, and there the two recipes are introduced by the rubric: 'For to make teth white þat arn blake or ȝolowe' (i.e. black or yellow).

MS Add. 9309 is especially worthy of note, however, on account of the survival of its medieval, and probably original, binding. It comprises a rigid spine made from a thick strip of leather, attached to which is a rectangular piece of thinner, flexible leather held together in numerous places and along tears by rough stitching. Through this cover and through the spine were punched numerous holes, grouped in rough clusters at four stations. Through these holes have been looped fine leather tackets that were then tied closed with knots. Onto these tackets were then sewn the two quires of paper that comprise this manuscript. Thin strips of parchment, placed along the fold on the outside of the quire and at its centre, and through which the stitching passes, provided the leaves with some additional reinforcement. The leather wrapper was then folded along its short edges, in order to enclose the paper quires. The fold on the part of the wrapper at the back of the manuscript then went around the right-hand part of the front cover. A looped leather thong attached to this flap would have then been placed around a simple toggle or button, probably made also of leather or perhaps bone, attached to the front cover (this has since been lost and only the leather tie remains, now split into two halves).

This constituted a practical, and cost-effective, form of binding: it comprised cheap materials, and provided the book with good protection against the elements. The survival of such 'limp' or flexible covers is rare, especially since they were more vulnerable to wear and tear than 'hard' bindings made from wooden boards, and (like those) were also at risk of being disbound and placed into more attractive or robust covers by later collectors and libraries. The quires may have been written on and held together in some temporary way before being bound together in this wrapper. However, we know from other surviving examples that such books could be made up and sold as blanks, a phenomenon that appears to have become increasingly common in the later medieval period, in response to growing demand for the documentation of land holdings, financial accounts and the like, a demand fed by the increasing importation of paper to 15th-century England. Either way, a remarkable characteristic of this binding was its expandability: once all available space had been used up, its owner could purchase further quires and have them sewn onto additional tackets attached to the stiff leather spine, enabling the book to function something like a modern-day ring binder file.

Information about the makers, owners and readers of these books is often frustratingly elusive. We might infer that they were owned by practitioners of the healing arts, or 'leeches', who learned medicine not through academic study but empirical experience, perhaps as a sort of apprentice at the side of a master. The use of the vernacular instead of Latin would have made the contents more accessible to such readers. The practical, portable format of the binding suggests that it was intended to be carried around, perhaps on visits to patients. There are examples that appear to have been made professionally (for example, Cambridge, University Library, MS Add. 9308), suggesting the existence of a commercial market for such books - though in the case of the present manuscript it seems more likely that it was made by its intended user. It is written in a cursive script, with almost no decoration (only minor flourishes in the same ink as the text), on pages that have not been ruled for a regular layout. There are some tantalising clues as to who its owners might have been in the form of three, very faded inscriptions: one referring to someone not necessarily the volume's copyist ('Iste liber constant [...] scriptoris', f. 35v), another similarly recording ownership but where the name is no longer legible ('Iste liber constant [...], inside of the front cover), and a third mentioning the name 'Thomas Wortis leche' (inside of the rear cover, about an inch from the top edge). All three were first noticed in 2023 by Clarck Drieshen, Project Cataloguer for the Curious Cures in Cambridge Libraries Project. Advanced imaging techniques undertaken by Cambridge University Library's Cultural Heritage Imaging Laboratory have helped to reveal these inscriptions further, and future analysis may provide further insights. Whether Thomas Wortis may be identified with any individual known in other records remains to be seen.

Dr James Freeman
Medieval Manuscripts Specialist
Cambridge University Library

Information about this document

Physical Location: Cambridge University Library
Classmark: Cambridge, University Library, MS Add. 9309
Subject(s): Medicine
Origin Place: England
Date of Creation: 15th century
Language(s): Middle English and Latin
Physical Description:
4r be closed with a clothe downe to þe erthe þat þe hete may passe
Extent: Codex: 34 leaves. Only small portions of the second leaf (f. 2r-2v and f. [2a]) remain. A single fragment of another missing leaf features after f. 19 (f. [19a]). Leaf height: 175 mm, width: 135-145 mm.
Collation:
- Quire 1^20-2 (ff. 2r-19v: 1st leaf missing, 20th missing or cancelled)
- Quire 2¹⁶ (ff. 20-35)
1^20-2 (1 missing, 20 missing or cancelled) 2¹⁶
Material: Paper, folded in quarto:
Tête de bœuf (ff. 2-19) ( Watermark height: 50 mm, width: 30 mm. ) in the centre of the inner margin of the folio. Bull's head with eyes and nostrils, surmounted with a line topped with a star in the shape of an X: Bull's head similar to Briquet nos 15096-15097, but with longer straight muzzle, which are dated to 1455 and 1470.
Tête de bœuf (ff. 20-25) ( Watermark height: 50-55 mm, width: 25-30 mm. ) in the centre of the inner margin of the folio. Different types of bull's heads with eyes and nostrils, surmounted with a line topped with a star in the shape of an X: similar to Briquet nos 15096-1509, and 15098, which are dated to 1455, 1470, and 1478.
Bœuf (ff. 27-28) ( Watermark height: 50 mm, width: 55 mm. ) in the centre of the inner margin of the folio. Bull with long tail with three ends, head turned and face visible, similar to Briquet nos 2782 and 2783, which are dated to 1446-1448 and 1447.
Format: Codex
Condition: Paper in a brittle state with water damage on every page and with many tears throughout, especially ff. 3-14.
Binding:
Rough binding of vellum pieces stitched together, including a flap secured with vellum ties; spine formed of a rigid strip of leather. Probably the original binding.
Script:
The medical recipes are written in a cursive Secretary script with Anglicana features, including the double-compartment 'a' which is used in headings.
The added Latin text on f. 35r is written in a cursive Anglicana script.
Foliation:
Added in the 15th century:
iii-xxxv (for ff. 3-35)
Written in brown ink in the upper margin of each recto.
Late 20th/early 21st-century foliation:
2, [2a], 3-19, [19a], 20-35 (for ff. 2-35)
Written in pencil in the upper right corner of each recto by Jayne Ringrose.
Layout: Written height: 185 mm, width: 120-125 mm. No ruling. Single columns. 30 lines to the page.
Decoration:
1 large (5-line) initial in brown ink decorated with cadels and a fish on f. 8v.

1 large (3-line) initial in brown ink with penwork flourishing on f. 8v.

Line-fillers consisting of fern-like leaves in brown ink throughout.

Sketch of a castle in brown ink on the leather of the inside upper cover, visible below f. 1r.

Sketches of human and animal figures on f. 1v in brown ink.

Decorated rectangular 'frame' drawn on f. 35v in brown ink, but heavily rubbed.

Geometric figures drawn in brown ink on the leather of the inside lower cover.
Additions:
A note on the manuscipt in brown ink written in a 17th-century hand on the inside upper cover: '33 Leaves [...]', possibly followed by a date 'September 1670 [or 1870]' and the initials 'A.J.W'.
Provenance:
Unknown English owner, their name illegible in a 15th-century inscription on the inside upper cover: 'Iste liber constat [...]'.
Unknown English owner, their name erased in a 15th-century inscription on f. 35v: 'Iste liber constat [...] scriptoris'
Unknown English owner, their name erased in a 15th-century inscription on f. 35v: '[...] est bonus puer quem deus amat'.
? Thomas Wort, their name inscribed in a 15th-century inscription on the inside lower cover: 'Thomas wort[is] Leche'.
Acquisition: Purchased by the University Library at Bonham's Sale on 23 May 1995.
Funding: Wellcome
Author(s) of the Record: Dr Clarck Drieshen, Project Cataloguer, Cambridge University Library
Bibliography:
Wakelin, Daniel, "Writing the Words", in Alexandra Gillespie and Daniel Wakelin (eds), The Production of Books in England 1350–1500 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014) 34-58.

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Medical recipes (image 6, page 2r) Account of a soul's seven-day journey after death (image 74, page 35r) Poem against women (image 74, page 35r) Note (image 76, page rear cover, inner)

front cover, outer

fore-edge flap

front cover, inner

Information about this document

Physical Location: Cambridge University Library
Classmark: Cambridge, University Library, MS Add. 9309
Subject(s): Medicine
Origin Place: England
Date of Creation: 15th century
Language(s): Middle English and Latin
Physical Description:
4r be closed with a clothe downe to þe erthe þat þe hete may passe
Extent: Codex: 34 leaves. Only small portions of the second leaf (f. 2r-2v and f. [2a]) remain. A single fragment of another missing leaf features after f. 19 (f. [19a]). Leaf height: 175 mm, width: 135-145 mm.
Collation:
- Quire 1^20-2 (ff. 2r-19v: 1st leaf missing, 20th missing or cancelled)
- Quire 2¹⁶ (ff. 20-35)
1^20-2 (1 missing, 20 missing or cancelled) 2¹⁶
Material: Paper, folded in quarto:
Tête de bœuf (ff. 2-19) ( Watermark height: 50 mm, width: 30 mm. ) in the centre of the inner margin of the folio. Bull's head with eyes and nostrils, surmounted with a line topped with a star in the shape of an X: Bull's head similar to Briquet nos 15096-15097, but with longer straight muzzle, which are dated to 1455 and 1470.
Tête de bœuf (ff. 20-25) ( Watermark height: 50-55 mm, width: 25-30 mm. ) in the centre of the inner margin of the folio. Different types of bull's heads with eyes and nostrils, surmounted with a line topped with a star in the shape of an X: similar to Briquet nos 15096-1509, and 15098, which are dated to 1455, 1470, and 1478.
Bœuf (ff. 27-28) ( Watermark height: 50 mm, width: 55 mm. ) in the centre of the inner margin of the folio. Bull with long tail with three ends, head turned and face visible, similar to Briquet nos 2782 and 2783, which are dated to 1446-1448 and 1447.
Format: Codex
Condition: Paper in a brittle state with water damage on every page and with many tears throughout, especially ff. 3-14.
Binding:
Rough binding of vellum pieces stitched together, including a flap secured with vellum ties; spine formed of a rigid strip of leather. Probably the original binding.
Script:
The medical recipes are written in a cursive Secretary script with Anglicana features, including the double-compartment 'a' which is used in headings.
The added Latin text on f. 35r is written in a cursive Anglicana script.
Foliation:
Added in the 15th century:
iii-xxxv (for ff. 3-35)
Written in brown ink in the upper margin of each recto.
Late 20th/early 21st-century foliation:
2, [2a], 3-19, [19a], 20-35 (for ff. 2-35)
Written in pencil in the upper right corner of each recto by Jayne Ringrose.
Layout: Written height: 185 mm, width: 120-125 mm. No ruling. Single columns. 30 lines to the page.
Decoration:
1 large (5-line) initial in brown ink decorated with cadels and a fish on f. 8v.

1 large (3-line) initial in brown ink with penwork flourishing on f. 8v.

Line-fillers consisting of fern-like leaves in brown ink throughout.

Sketch of a castle in brown ink on the leather of the inside upper cover, visible below f. 1r.

Sketches of human and animal figures on f. 1v in brown ink.

Decorated rectangular 'frame' drawn on f. 35v in brown ink, but heavily rubbed.

Geometric figures drawn in brown ink on the leather of the inside lower cover.
Additions:
A note on the manuscipt in brown ink written in a 17th-century hand on the inside upper cover: '33 Leaves [...]', possibly followed by a date 'September 1670 [or 1870]' and the initials 'A.J.W'.
Provenance:
Unknown English owner, their name illegible in a 15th-century inscription on the inside upper cover: 'Iste liber constat [...]'.
Unknown English owner, their name erased in a 15th-century inscription on f. 35v: 'Iste liber constat [...] scriptoris'
Unknown English owner, their name erased in a 15th-century inscription on f. 35v: '[...] est bonus puer quem deus amat'.
? Thomas Wort, their name inscribed in a 15th-century inscription on the inside lower cover: 'Thomas wort[is] Leche'.
Acquisition: Purchased by the University Library at Bonham's Sale on 23 May 1995.
Funding: Wellcome
Author(s) of the Record: Dr Clarck Drieshen, Project Cataloguer, Cambridge University Library
Bibliography:
Wakelin, Daniel, "Writing the Words", in Alexandra Gillespie and Daniel Wakelin (eds), The Production of Books in England 1350–1500 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014) 34-58.

Section shown in images 6 to 74

Title: Medical recipes
Language(s): Middle English recipes, including a title in Latin on f. 28r (hec est medicina bona pro morbo caduco) and two Latin charms on f. 28v
Note(s):
The collection contains three charms: 1. an abracadabra-type of charm in Latin for protection against evil that is called "Sigillum Salamonis" (f. 28v). 2. A Latin charm for curing epilepsy ("gutta caduca") that involves the Pater Noster and Ave Maria. 3. A charm against "Crampe" that involves the formula "Ananizapta" (ff. 28v-29r).
One or two users have marked the recipes in different ways: with crosses and with the astronomical symbol for Cancer (♋).
Excerpts:
Incipit: 3r and þe felth Also take a grene branche of brome and bren him and make þerof powdur and do to þat poudur \powdyr/ of brent alyme þe fourþe part and medyll ham well to gedur and temper ham with fayr watur and frote ofte þi teþe þerwith and hit schall do awey al þe blakmites of ham
Explicit: 35r ffor bytynge of an eddyr: Take lylly rote and pouer hit and drinke hit oþer drinke pympernolle and hit wolle þe hole
Bibliography:
eVK2 5989.00
eVK2 1260.00
eVK2 2363.00
eVK2 4063.00
eVK2 5463.00

Section shown in images 74 to 74

Title: Account of a soul's seven-day journey after death
Language(s): Latin
Note(s): Added in the second half of the 15th century by a different hand than that of the medical recipes. The text appears to be unique, but probably derives from the Visio Sancti Pauli, which describes a similar seven-day journey of a soul after death: "Si quidem quando vadit anima de corpore primo ad orientem, diende ad Iherusalem, deinde ad domum quam edificavit Adam, deinde ad Iordanem, deinde ad templum Salomonis, deinde ad Bethleem Iuda, deinde ad montem Oliveti, deinde ascendit scalam ad superna, ubi conveniunt ei quatuor milia angelorum et archangelorum de tartaris preliantes circa anima hominis. Deinde venit ad Ierusalem celestum in septem diebus et die VII iudicatur in conspectu troni, prout gessit sive bonum sive malum" (see Lenka Jiroušková, Die Visio Pauli: Wege und Wandlungen einer orientalischen Apokryphe im lateinischen Mittelalter. Unter Einschluß der alttsechischen und deutschsprachigen Textzeugen, Mittellateinische Studien und Text, XXXIV (Leiden: Brill, 2006), p. 538.
Excerpts:
Incipit: 35r De exitu anime per septem dies primo quidam die quando exit a corpore tendit ad hierusalem ubi Christus passus pro se
Explicit: 35r septa die ad habitaculum proprium si vixerit male ad pena si bona ad requiem

Section shown in images 74 to 74

Title: Poem against women
Author(s): Guido Faba
Language(s): Latin
Note(s): Full transcription. Added in the second half of the 15th century by the same hand that copied the previous item. The first line is an extract from Guido Faba, Summa de vitiis et virtutibus (1.10.4).
Excerpts:
Incipit: 35r Femina fax sathane fetens rosa dulce venenum / Si tanges tangit si tanget cederes [?]nes
Bibliography:
Virgilio Pini, 'La Summa de vitiis et virtutibus di Guido Faba', Quadrivium 1 (1956), 41-152 (p. 124)

Section shown in images 76 to 76

Title: Note
Language(s): Latin and Middle English
Note(s): The note is twice repeated, perhaps referring to the concentric circles above the inscriptions.
Excerpts:
Incipit: 35r Hoc ornamentum for a dranc