Medieval Medical Recipes : Collection of plague tracts

Medieval Medical Recipes

Fitzwilliam Museum, MS 261 is a luxurious manuscript, the likes of which were only affordable to royalty or high aristocracy. In this case, its patron was a royal lady of remarkable stature. Decorative motifs in the borders reveal that it was copied for Lady Margaret Beaufort (1443-1509), the mother of Henry VII and the founding matriarch of the Tudor dynasty. Lady Margaret was a strong and politically astute woman, who played an active role in the plot to overthrow Richard III and place her son on the throne of England. It was also her plan to marry her son to Elizabeth of York, uniting the bloodlines of York and Lancaster and bringing about the end to the Wars of the Roses. Among other things, Lady Margaret was a major patron of learning, and her royal patronage was instrumental in the foundation of Christ's College and St John's College in Cambridge. She was also actively involved in the book trade, commissioning and buying hundreds of manuscripts and printed books, and this manuscript is but one of many books associated with her: the distinctive Beaufort badge of a portcullis appears in decorated borders throughout the manuscript, and on f. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(7);return false;'>1r</a> is also between a dragon gules and greyhound argent, symbols subsequently used by supporters of Henry VII.The manuscript's contents are entirely concerned with the plague. It contains medical texts, including both Latin (f. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(7);return false;'>1r</a>) and English (f. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(24);return false;'>9v</a>) versions of the Canutus plague treatise, as well as two versions of John of Burgundy's Tractatus de morbo epidemiae. There are also regimen texts, which give instructions on diet: the Regimen sanitatis Aristotilis ad Alexandrum magnum of pseudo-Aristotle (ff. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(43);return false;'>19r-20r</a>) and John Lydgate's Dietary (ff. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(66);return false;'>30v-32v</a>). The presence of such texts among plague treatises can be explained by physiological theories of the day: that the disease was transmitted by corrupt air and that the body was more susceptible to infection if it was not kept in balance. Thus, maintaining a healthy diet and habits was considered paramount in preventing the disease. In addition to these medical and dietary guides, the reader of this manuscript could seek the intervention of higher powers, through a selection of prayers and hymns for use in times when the pestilence struck. In one of these (f. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(59);return false;'>27r</a>), a series of spiritual 'remedyes' are prescribed: 'Repentance of heart, shrift of mouth (i.e. oral confession), fulfilling of penance, injoined prayer, fasting, alms, processions with the litany, private devotions and penance, and willingly saying prayers at masses', with examples of 'orisons', collects and antiphons following in the text. Alpo Honkapohja Tallinn University