Medieval Medical Recipes : Works by Ambrose and Jerome

Medieval Medical Recipes

<p style='text-align: justify;'>The majority of Cambridge, Jesus Collge MS Q.B.10 (hereafter MS Q.B.10) is comprised of works by two early Christian theological writers, Ambrose of Milan and Jerome. The main texts were copied in the twelfth century, probably in England but perhaps in France, and are written and decorated in the typical early 12th century Anglo-Norman style: in single columns, in protogothic minuscule script, and with so-called 'Arabesque' major and minor initials that are either mono-coloured or in combinations of (mostly) red, yellow, and green. MS Q.B.10 has one particularly detailed major initial on f. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(236);return false;'>117v</a>, a foliate interlace initial in white, yellow, red, green, and purple and with a dragon forming the sloping ascender of a stylised form of uncial 'd'. </p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Whether or not MS Q.B.10 was made in England, it was certainly in England by the 15th century: it has a list of plant names and a long recipe in Middle English in a hand of that period on ff. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(6);return false;'>2v-3r</a>, and also an ownership inscription by Andrew Doket (d. 1484), former Master of Queens' College Cambridge. Doket's ownership inscription is visible on f. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(10);return false;'>4v</a>: 'Lib. Magistri Andree Doket rectoris Sancti Botulfi Cantabr.' (The book of Magister Andrew Doket rector of Saint Botolph's, Cambridge). Andrew Doket made a catalogue of the manuscripts belonging to Queens' College in 1482, but no book matching MS Q.B.10 appears on that list, so Doket, if he still owned the manuscript at that point, does not seem to have counted his personal book among the Queens' College library's holdings in the years before his death. It is not known what happened to MS Q.B.10 between Doket's ownership of the volume and its acquisition by Jesus College. MS Q.B.10 certainly belonged to Jesus College by c. 1700 at the latest as the <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(2);return false;'>left pastedown</a> of MS Q.B.10 bears former several former Jesus College shelfmarks of which the approximate periods of their use are known, i.e., a pre-1700 shelfmark ('M.Z.11'), a temporary- or aborted-reorganisation shelfmark 'H.18' in use c. 1700-1705, and another pre-1705 shelfmark 'N.B.10' with the 'N' struck out and changed to 'Q' to reflect the move of the manuscripts from the 'N' to the 'Q' press c. 1705. </p><p style='text-align: justify;'><b>References</b><div style='list-style-type: disc;'><div style='display: list-item; margin-left: 20px;'>R. Hanna, 'The Thomas Mans, Their Books, and Jesus College Librarianship', <i>The Library</i>, 21.1 (2020), pp. 46–73 doi.org/10.1093/library/21.1.46 </div></div><br /></p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Dr Sarah Gilbert<br /> Project Cataloguer for the Curious Cures Project<br /> Cambridge University Library</p>

Page: outside left cover

Works by Ambrose and Jerome (Cambridge, Jesus College, MS Q.B.10)

The majority of Cambridge, Jesus Collge MS Q.B.10 (hereafter MS Q.B.10) is comprised of works by two early Christian theological writers, Ambrose of Milan and Jerome. The main texts were copied in the twelfth century, probably in England but perhaps in France, and are written and decorated in the typical early 12th century Anglo-Norman style: in single columns, in protogothic minuscule script, and with so-called 'Arabesque' major and minor initials that are either mono-coloured or in combinations of (mostly) red, yellow, and green. MS Q.B.10 has one particularly detailed major initial on f. 117v, a foliate interlace initial in white, yellow, red, green, and purple and with a dragon forming the sloping ascender of a stylised form of uncial 'd'.

Whether or not MS Q.B.10 was made in England, it was certainly in England by the 15th century: it has a list of plant names and a long recipe in Middle English in a hand of that period on ff. 2v-3r, and also an ownership inscription by Andrew Doket (d. 1484), former Master of Queens' College Cambridge. Doket's ownership inscription is visible on f. 4v: 'Lib. Magistri Andree Doket rectoris Sancti Botulfi Cantabr.' (The book of Magister Andrew Doket rector of Saint Botolph's, Cambridge). Andrew Doket made a catalogue of the manuscripts belonging to Queens' College in 1482, but no book matching MS Q.B.10 appears on that list, so Doket, if he still owned the manuscript at that point, does not seem to have counted his personal book among the Queens' College library's holdings in the years before his death. It is not known what happened to MS Q.B.10 between Doket's ownership of the volume and its acquisition by Jesus College. MS Q.B.10 certainly belonged to Jesus College by c. 1700 at the latest as the left pastedown of MS Q.B.10 bears former several former Jesus College shelfmarks of which the approximate periods of their use are known, i.e., a pre-1700 shelfmark ('M.Z.11'), a temporary- or aborted-reorganisation shelfmark 'H.18' in use c. 1700-1705, and another pre-1705 shelfmark 'N.B.10' with the 'N' struck out and changed to 'Q' to reflect the move of the manuscripts from the 'N' to the 'Q' press c. 1705.

References

R. Hanna, 'The Thomas Mans, Their Books, and Jesus College Librarianship', The Library, 21.1 (2020), pp. 46–73 doi.org/10.1093/library/21.1.46

Dr Sarah Gilbert
Project Cataloguer for the Curious Cures Project
Cambridge University Library

Information about this document

Physical Location: Old Library
Classmark: Cambridge, Jesus College, MS Q.B.10
Subject(s): Fathers of the church; Christian literature, early; Theology
Origin Place: Probably written in England, or perhaps France.
Date of Creation: Written in the 12th century.
Language(s): Latin and Middle English
Former Owner(s): Andrew Doket (d. 1484); Thomas Cave
Physical Description:
6r: uistus solus est
Extent: Codex: 4 + 140 leaves. Leaf height: 255 mm, width: 165 mm.
Collation:
Quires of mostly 8 leaves arranged as follows:
- Four parchment flyleaves (ff. 1-4) +
- Quire 1^8-1 (ff. 5-11: 1st leaf cancelled)
- Quires 2-6⁸ (ff. 12-51)
- Quire 7^8-1 (ff. 52-58: 5th leaf missing)
- Quires 8-9⁸ (ff. 59-74)
- Quire 10^8-1 (ff. 75-81: 1st leaf missing)
- Quires 11-14⁸ (ff. 82-113)
- Quire 15¹⁰ (ff. 114-123)
- Quire 16⁸ (ff. 124-131)
- Quire 17⁶ (ff. 132-137)
- Quire 18^8-1 (ff. 138-144: 7th leaf cancelled)
Four parchment flyleaves + 1^8-1 (1st leaf cancelled) 2-6⁸ 7^8-1 (5th leaf missing) 8-9⁸ 10^8-1 (1st leaf missing) 11-14⁸ 15¹⁰ 16⁸ 17⁶ 18^8-1 (7th leaf cancelled)
No leaf signatures.
Some quires are numbered in ink in medieval Roman numerals, e.g., 'ii' at the end of Quire 2 on f. 19v.
Catchwords present in the lower margin of the last verso of some quires, e.g., f. 89v.
Material: Parchment (HFFH)
Format: Codex
Condition: In fair condition. All of the sewing supports and head and tail bands have snapped at the left hinge and are no longer connected to the left board, but the supports are still laced firmly into the right board and the cover material over the left joint is in good condition. Leaves have been trimmed with losses to marginal annotations throughout the volume.
Binding:
Fully bound in undecorated tawed skin over wood boards cut flush with the text block. Spine is flat with sewing slips laid in channels across the back. Head and tail bands visible; thick cream yarn around a core of ?tawed skin and mounted on tabs of ?tawed skin extending down the back of the quires almost to the nearest sewing slip. Traces of a former strap-and-pin fastening present on the current binding: a channel for the strap present under the cover material in the centre of the fore-edge of the left board, and a puncture in the centre of the right board, through the cover material and with damage caused by a now-lost pin plate to the endleaves at the rear of the volume. The arrangement of the elements of a strap-and-pin fastening with the strap anchored in the fore edge of the left board and the pin plate fixed to the right board is typical of bindings prepared in England rather than mainland Europe in the 12th and 13th centuries.
The spine has a black leather label with a blind triple-fillet frame at its perimeter and a title 'MISCELLANEA THEOLOGICA MSS.' tooled in gold. Three small printed paper labels fixed to the spine with an adhesive, 'Q' 'B' and '10' for the current shelfmark.
Parts of a former shelfmark are written in ink on the cover material over the fore edges of the board. The fore edge of the left board has a character that resembles the Hindu-Arabic numeral '3', but which probably represents the minuscule form of the Greek letter zeta (ζ), and the fore edge of the right board has '11' written on a small label pasted around the fore edge. The manuscript once had the Jesus College shelfmark M.Z.11 and, presumably, when that shelfmark system was in use, the manuscript was stored fore-edge out.
Parchment pastedowns pasted over the turn ins. The left pastedown contains a Jesus College armorial bookplate with escutcheon, helmet, crown, mantling, and crest and bearing the label 'Collegium Iesu Cantabrigiens〚i〛\e/ 1700'
Accompanying Material:
Three small parchment bookmark tabs numbered '2' '3' and '4' in ink in Hindu-Arabic numerals and attached to ff. 52r, 117v, and 125r. The Hindu-Arabic numeral forms have the standard 'modern' appearance, so the numbers were presumably added post-1600. There is no obvious sign of the loss of a tab '1'.
Script:
Folios 5r-51v written in protogothic libraria minuscule by 'Scribe 1'
Folios 52r-143v written in protogothic libraria minuscule by 'Scribe 2'
Folios 143v-144v written in a small protogothic current minuscule.
Foliation:
20th century foliation
1-4 + 5-144
Foliated in pencil in Hindu-Arabic numerals in the upper outer corner of each recto.
Layout: Written height: 190 mm, width: 105 mm. Folios 5r-143v ruled in crayon, frame and lines. Ruled in single-column format, typically 33 lines to the page and written above top line. Folios 1r-4v and 144rv are more informally arranged and have no visible ruling.
Decoration:
A foliate interlace initial in white, yellow, red, green, and purple on f. 117v topped with a dragon. Major initials in red and green in the 'Arabesque' style on ff. 5r, 52r, and 125r at the other major divisisions of the texts.

Plain initials in red or green at the minor divisions of the texts.

Rubricated headings at the minor divisions of the texts on ff. 5r-51v.
Additions: Former shelfmarks added to the left pastedown:
- Former shelfmark (pre-1705) 'N.B.10' in ink .
- Former shelfmark 'H.18' in ink .
- Former shelfmark 'M.Z.11' twice in ink and struck out.
A note, perhaps in the hand of former owner Andrew Doket on f. 4v: '[...] pro maiore parte ea que non subiacent uisui non cognoscebant 987'.
There is a note in ink on folio 144v by a 15th-century hand: 'Walterus at the noke R. non habuit Iohannem'. A 'Walter atte Noke' witnessed a Grant by Isabella Harry in 1402 of a yearly rent of 6d 'issuing out of a tenement in Birchynton in the vill of Bexle'. See East Sussex and Brighton and Hove Record Office, ASH/4501/41
Provenance:
Owned by Andrew Doket, former Master of Queens' College Cambridge. Doket's ownership inscription is visible on f. 4v: 'Lib. Magistri Andree Doket rectoris Sancti Botulfi Cantabr.' (The book of Magister Andrew Doket rector of Saint Botolph's, Cambridge). Doket was presented to the vicarage of St Botolph's Church in Cambridge in probably 1435 or 1436, and was officially confirmed as Vicar of St Botolph's in 1444 after some legal complexities, and resigned the role on 2nd July 1470. The date of Doket's inscription on f. 4v then may be assigned to c. 1444-1470 (or perhaps 1435-1470), but his ownership of the volume may pre-date the inscription. It is not known when or how the volume left Doket's possession. Doket, in his role as Master of Queens' College, made a catalogue of the Queens' College manuscripts in 1472 (first edited by W. G. Searle and printed in Antiquarian Communications (London, 1864; more recently edited in CBMLC10, UC50), but he does not appear to have presented the volume to the Library of the College of which he was now Master since the manuscript is not among the items that Doket catalogued.
ODNB: Dokett [Doket], Andrew (doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/7772)
Venn:ACAD Andrew Dokett (no Venn:ACAD number)
W. G. Searle, 'Catalogue of the Library of Queens' College', Antiquarian Communications: Being Papers Presented at the Meetings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society , Vol 2 (London, 1864), pp. 165-193
CBMLC 10, UC50

Owned by a Thomas Cave, who added his name 'Liber Thomae Caue', a quotation from Aeneid V.704, '"Quicquid erit superanda omnis fortuna ferando est"', a quotation from Aeneid VI.616, '"Discite iustitiam moniti nec temnere diuos"', and a quotation from an epistle of Horace (Epistle I.4, the epistle to Albium Tibullum) 'Dii tibi divitias' to f. 4v.
Cave also added a brief table of contents to the volume on f. 4v with the heading 'In hoc uolumine continentur' (numbering Cave's):
- 1. Libellus ualde utilium praeceptorum &c de libris officiorum B. Ambrosii collectus
- 2. Liber S. Hieronymi contra Iouinianum
- 3. Liber B. Ambrosii de [...] mysteriis initiantur
- 4. de sacramentis Ecclisiastii
Acquisition:
Acquired by Jesus College before c. 1700, but the precise date and the circumstances of the acquisition are unknown. Jesus College MS Q.B.10 is not one of the seven books at Jesus College described in the Ecloga of Thomas James (1600), nor is it included in Bernard's Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliæ et Hiberniæ (c. 1697), although the lack of inclusion in Bernard does not preclude its arrival at Jesus College before 1697. Bernard's Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliæ et Hiberniæ reprinted James's Ecloga and occasionally updated the information therein, but unfortunately it is not a reliable guide to the 17th-century manuscript acquisitions of Jesus College, since it does not, for example, record the substantial donation of manuscripts to Jesus College by Thomas Man that is known to have taken place in 1685. Thomas Man donated a substantial portion of the medieval manuscripts that now belong to Jesus College as a gift to the Library in 1685, but MS Q.B.10 is almost certainly not a Man donation as MS Q.B.10 once had the Jesus College shelfmark 'M.Z.11'; and the Man donations were in all cases (apart from two that lack shelfmarks in that system entirely) assigned 'M.H.xx' numbers rather than 'M.Z.xx' numbers. The combination of former shelfmarks written in the volume, i.e., 'M.Z.11', 'H.18' 'N.B.10' and latterly 'Q.B.10' indicates that MS Q.B.10 was certainly present at Jesus College c. 1700, as c. 1700-1705 the manuscripts in the library were assigned new shelfmarks and MS Q.B.10 bears an 'M.Z.11' shelfmark which was in use before the reorganisation of the library c. 1700-1705.
There is a Jesus College ownership inscription 'Liber Collegii Jesu' in ink on f. 2r in a late ?17th century or early ?18th century hand.
See R. Hanna for a discussion of the reorganisation of the Jesus College Library c. 1700-1705 and the former shelfmark systems in use there: R. Hanna, ‘The Thomas Mans, Their Books, and Jesus College Librarianship’, The Library, 21.1 (2020), 46–73, doi.org/10.1093/library/21.1.46
Funding: Wellcome
Data Source(s): This catalogue entry draws on M. R. James, A descriptive catalogue of manuscripts in the library of Jesus College, Cambridge (London, 1895), no. 27.
Author(s) of the Record: Dr Sarah Gilbert, Project Cataloguer for the Curious Cures in Cambridge Libraries Project, Cambridge University Library
Bibliography:
Searle, W. G., "Catalogue of the Library of Queens' College", Antiquarian Communications: Being Papers Presented at the Meetings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society II 165-193 (1864).
James, M. R., A descriptive catalogue of manuscripts in the library of Jesus College, Cambridge (London: Clay, 1895).
Underwood, Malcolm G., Doket [Doket], Andrew (c. 1410–1484), college head (Oxford University Press, 2004) http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-7772 1.
Lucas, Angela M., Manuscripts in Christ's, Emmanuel, Jesus, Selwyn and Sidney Sussex Colleges, Peterhouse and Trinity Hall, Cambridge, Index of Middle English prose Handlist XXII (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2016).
Hanna, Ralph, "The Thomas Mans, their Books, and Jesus College Librarianship", The Library 21 1 46-73 (2020) https://doi.org/10.1093/library/21.1.46.
Dowson, Jonathan, The first 40 presidents of Queens' College Cambridge : their lives and times (Tolworth: Grosvenor House Publishing, 2022).

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Two openings for dedicatory epistles (image 2, page inside left cover) Extract from the Homilies on Ezechiel (image 4, page 1v) Extract from In prouerbia Salomonis (image 4, page 1v) Extract from the Vita S. Thomae Becket (image 4, page 1v) List of capitula for Ambrose, De officiis ministrorum (image 5, page 2r) List of herbs in Middle English (image 6, page 2v) Medical recipe (image 6, page 2v) De officiis ministrorum (image 11, page 5r) Contra Jovinianum (image 102, page 50v) De mysteriis (image 236, page 117v) De sacramentis (image 251, page 125r)

outside left cover

inside left cover

Information about this document

Physical Location: Old Library
Classmark: Cambridge, Jesus College, MS Q.B.10
Subject(s): Fathers of the church; Christian literature, early; Theology
Origin Place: Probably written in England, or perhaps France.
Date of Creation: Written in the 12th century.
Language(s): Latin and Middle English
Former Owner(s): Andrew Doket (d. 1484); Thomas Cave
Physical Description:
6r: uistus solus est
Extent: Codex: 4 + 140 leaves. Leaf height: 255 mm, width: 165 mm.
Collation:
Quires of mostly 8 leaves arranged as follows:
- Four parchment flyleaves (ff. 1-4) +
- Quire 1^8-1 (ff. 5-11: 1st leaf cancelled)
- Quires 2-6⁸ (ff. 12-51)
- Quire 7^8-1 (ff. 52-58: 5th leaf missing)
- Quires 8-9⁸ (ff. 59-74)
- Quire 10^8-1 (ff. 75-81: 1st leaf missing)
- Quires 11-14⁸ (ff. 82-113)
- Quire 15¹⁰ (ff. 114-123)
- Quire 16⁸ (ff. 124-131)
- Quire 17⁶ (ff. 132-137)
- Quire 18^8-1 (ff. 138-144: 7th leaf cancelled)
Four parchment flyleaves + 1^8-1 (1st leaf cancelled) 2-6⁸ 7^8-1 (5th leaf missing) 8-9⁸ 10^8-1 (1st leaf missing) 11-14⁸ 15¹⁰ 16⁸ 17⁶ 18^8-1 (7th leaf cancelled)
No leaf signatures.
Some quires are numbered in ink in medieval Roman numerals, e.g., 'ii' at the end of Quire 2 on f. 19v.
Catchwords present in the lower margin of the last verso of some quires, e.g., f. 89v.
Material: Parchment (HFFH)
Format: Codex
Condition: In fair condition. All of the sewing supports and head and tail bands have snapped at the left hinge and are no longer connected to the left board, but the supports are still laced firmly into the right board and the cover material over the left joint is in good condition. Leaves have been trimmed with losses to marginal annotations throughout the volume.
Binding:
Fully bound in undecorated tawed skin over wood boards cut flush with the text block. Spine is flat with sewing slips laid in channels across the back. Head and tail bands visible; thick cream yarn around a core of ?tawed skin and mounted on tabs of ?tawed skin extending down the back of the quires almost to the nearest sewing slip. Traces of a former strap-and-pin fastening present on the current binding: a channel for the strap present under the cover material in the centre of the fore-edge of the left board, and a puncture in the centre of the right board, through the cover material and with damage caused by a now-lost pin plate to the endleaves at the rear of the volume. The arrangement of the elements of a strap-and-pin fastening with the strap anchored in the fore edge of the left board and the pin plate fixed to the right board is typical of bindings prepared in England rather than mainland Europe in the 12th and 13th centuries.
The spine has a black leather label with a blind triple-fillet frame at its perimeter and a title 'MISCELLANEA THEOLOGICA MSS.' tooled in gold. Three small printed paper labels fixed to the spine with an adhesive, 'Q' 'B' and '10' for the current shelfmark.
Parts of a former shelfmark are written in ink on the cover material over the fore edges of the board. The fore edge of the left board has a character that resembles the Hindu-Arabic numeral '3', but which probably represents the minuscule form of the Greek letter zeta (ζ), and the fore edge of the right board has '11' written on a small label pasted around the fore edge. The manuscript once had the Jesus College shelfmark M.Z.11 and, presumably, when that shelfmark system was in use, the manuscript was stored fore-edge out.
Parchment pastedowns pasted over the turn ins. The left pastedown contains a Jesus College armorial bookplate with escutcheon, helmet, crown, mantling, and crest and bearing the label 'Collegium Iesu Cantabrigiens〚i〛\e/ 1700'
Accompanying Material:
Three small parchment bookmark tabs numbered '2' '3' and '4' in ink in Hindu-Arabic numerals and attached to ff. 52r, 117v, and 125r. The Hindu-Arabic numeral forms have the standard 'modern' appearance, so the numbers were presumably added post-1600. There is no obvious sign of the loss of a tab '1'.
Script:
Folios 5r-51v written in protogothic libraria minuscule by 'Scribe 1'
Folios 52r-143v written in protogothic libraria minuscule by 'Scribe 2'
Folios 143v-144v written in a small protogothic current minuscule.
Foliation:
20th century foliation
1-4 + 5-144
Foliated in pencil in Hindu-Arabic numerals in the upper outer corner of each recto.
Layout: Written height: 190 mm, width: 105 mm. Folios 5r-143v ruled in crayon, frame and lines. Ruled in single-column format, typically 33 lines to the page and written above top line. Folios 1r-4v and 144rv are more informally arranged and have no visible ruling.
Decoration:
A foliate interlace initial in white, yellow, red, green, and purple on f. 117v topped with a dragon. Major initials in red and green in the 'Arabesque' style on ff. 5r, 52r, and 125r at the other major divisisions of the texts.

Plain initials in red or green at the minor divisions of the texts.

Rubricated headings at the minor divisions of the texts on ff. 5r-51v.
Additions: Former shelfmarks added to the left pastedown:
- Former shelfmark (pre-1705) 'N.B.10' in ink .
- Former shelfmark 'H.18' in ink .
- Former shelfmark 'M.Z.11' twice in ink and struck out.
A note, perhaps in the hand of former owner Andrew Doket on f. 4v: '[...] pro maiore parte ea que non subiacent uisui non cognoscebant 987'.
There is a note in ink on folio 144v by a 15th-century hand: 'Walterus at the noke R. non habuit Iohannem'. A 'Walter atte Noke' witnessed a Grant by Isabella Harry in 1402 of a yearly rent of 6d 'issuing out of a tenement in Birchynton in the vill of Bexle'. See East Sussex and Brighton and Hove Record Office, ASH/4501/41
Provenance:
Owned by Andrew Doket, former Master of Queens' College Cambridge. Doket's ownership inscription is visible on f. 4v: 'Lib. Magistri Andree Doket rectoris Sancti Botulfi Cantabr.' (The book of Magister Andrew Doket rector of Saint Botolph's, Cambridge). Doket was presented to the vicarage of St Botolph's Church in Cambridge in probably 1435 or 1436, and was officially confirmed as Vicar of St Botolph's in 1444 after some legal complexities, and resigned the role on 2nd July 1470. The date of Doket's inscription on f. 4v then may be assigned to c. 1444-1470 (or perhaps 1435-1470), but his ownership of the volume may pre-date the inscription. It is not known when or how the volume left Doket's possession. Doket, in his role as Master of Queens' College, made a catalogue of the Queens' College manuscripts in 1472 (first edited by W. G. Searle and printed in Antiquarian Communications (London, 1864; more recently edited in CBMLC10, UC50), but he does not appear to have presented the volume to the Library of the College of which he was now Master since the manuscript is not among the items that Doket catalogued.
ODNB: Dokett [Doket], Andrew (doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/7772)
Venn:ACAD Andrew Dokett (no Venn:ACAD number)
W. G. Searle, 'Catalogue of the Library of Queens' College', Antiquarian Communications: Being Papers Presented at the Meetings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society , Vol 2 (London, 1864), pp. 165-193
CBMLC 10, UC50

Owned by a Thomas Cave, who added his name 'Liber Thomae Caue', a quotation from Aeneid V.704, '"Quicquid erit superanda omnis fortuna ferando est"', a quotation from Aeneid VI.616, '"Discite iustitiam moniti nec temnere diuos"', and a quotation from an epistle of Horace (Epistle I.4, the epistle to Albium Tibullum) 'Dii tibi divitias' to f. 4v.
Cave also added a brief table of contents to the volume on f. 4v with the heading 'In hoc uolumine continentur' (numbering Cave's):
- 1. Libellus ualde utilium praeceptorum &c de libris officiorum B. Ambrosii collectus
- 2. Liber S. Hieronymi contra Iouinianum
- 3. Liber B. Ambrosii de [...] mysteriis initiantur
- 4. de sacramentis Ecclisiastii
Acquisition:
Acquired by Jesus College before c. 1700, but the precise date and the circumstances of the acquisition are unknown. Jesus College MS Q.B.10 is not one of the seven books at Jesus College described in the Ecloga of Thomas James (1600), nor is it included in Bernard's Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliæ et Hiberniæ (c. 1697), although the lack of inclusion in Bernard does not preclude its arrival at Jesus College before 1697. Bernard's Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliæ et Hiberniæ reprinted James's Ecloga and occasionally updated the information therein, but unfortunately it is not a reliable guide to the 17th-century manuscript acquisitions of Jesus College, since it does not, for example, record the substantial donation of manuscripts to Jesus College by Thomas Man that is known to have taken place in 1685. Thomas Man donated a substantial portion of the medieval manuscripts that now belong to Jesus College as a gift to the Library in 1685, but MS Q.B.10 is almost certainly not a Man donation as MS Q.B.10 once had the Jesus College shelfmark 'M.Z.11'; and the Man donations were in all cases (apart from two that lack shelfmarks in that system entirely) assigned 'M.H.xx' numbers rather than 'M.Z.xx' numbers. The combination of former shelfmarks written in the volume, i.e., 'M.Z.11', 'H.18' 'N.B.10' and latterly 'Q.B.10' indicates that MS Q.B.10 was certainly present at Jesus College c. 1700, as c. 1700-1705 the manuscripts in the library were assigned new shelfmarks and MS Q.B.10 bears an 'M.Z.11' shelfmark which was in use before the reorganisation of the library c. 1700-1705.
There is a Jesus College ownership inscription 'Liber Collegii Jesu' in ink on f. 2r in a late ?17th century or early ?18th century hand.
See R. Hanna for a discussion of the reorganisation of the Jesus College Library c. 1700-1705 and the former shelfmark systems in use there: R. Hanna, ‘The Thomas Mans, Their Books, and Jesus College Librarianship’, The Library, 21.1 (2020), 46–73, doi.org/10.1093/library/21.1.46
Funding: Wellcome
Data Source(s): This catalogue entry draws on M. R. James, A descriptive catalogue of manuscripts in the library of Jesus College, Cambridge (London, 1895), no. 27.
Author(s) of the Record: Dr Sarah Gilbert, Project Cataloguer for the Curious Cures in Cambridge Libraries Project, Cambridge University Library
Bibliography:
Searle, W. G., "Catalogue of the Library of Queens' College", Antiquarian Communications: Being Papers Presented at the Meetings of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society II 165-193 (1864).
James, M. R., A descriptive catalogue of manuscripts in the library of Jesus College, Cambridge (London: Clay, 1895).
Underwood, Malcolm G., Doket [Doket], Andrew (c. 1410–1484), college head (Oxford University Press, 2004) http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-7772 1.
Lucas, Angela M., Manuscripts in Christ's, Emmanuel, Jesus, Selwyn and Sidney Sussex Colleges, Peterhouse and Trinity Hall, Cambridge, Index of Middle English prose Handlist XXII (Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, 2016).
Hanna, Ralph, "The Thomas Mans, their Books, and Jesus College Librarianship", The Library 21 1 46-73 (2020) https://doi.org/10.1093/library/21.1.46.
Dowson, Jonathan, The first 40 presidents of Queens' College Cambridge : their lives and times (Tolworth: Grosvenor House Publishing, 2022).

Section shown in images 2 to 3

Title: Two openings for dedicatory epistles
Language(s): Latin
Note(s):
The first begins: "Diu me reluctantem pater serenissime", and the second begins: "Multum diuque me reluctantem pater syncerissime".

Section shown in images 4 to 4

Title: Extract from the Homilies on Ezechiel
Author(s): Gregory the Great
Language(s): Latin
Note(s): Extracts from Book 1, Homily 2.; Added by a 15th century hand.
Excerpts:
Incipit: 1v Sicut autem ignis amoris
Explicit: 1v ad inferiora semper incuruat
Bibliography:
CPL 1710

Section shown in images 4 to 4

Title: Extract from In prouerbia Salomonis
Author(s): Bede
Language(s): Latin
Note(s): Book 2, ch. 19. Full transcription: "Secundum salamonem: sicut fremitus leonis ita et [...] ira regis".; Added by a 15th-century hand.
Bibliography:
CPL 1351

Section shown in images 4 to 4

Title: Extract from the Vita S. Thomae Becket
Author(s): John of Salisbury
Language(s): Latin
Note(s): Full transcription: "Reuerentissime diuina sacramenta tractabat . ut intuencium fidem et mores ipsa contrectacio infirmaret . Manus suas excuciebat ab omni munere et a domo sua sordes auaricie prorsus eliminabat . Erat quoque prouidus in consiliis et inuentilacione causarum diligens et modestus auditor . in interogacionibus subtilis . in responsionibus promptus iustus in iudiciis et personarum prprsus accepcione deducta iuris per omnia rectissimus executor".; Added in a 15th-century hand.
Bibliography:
Edited (not from this MS) in J. A. Giles, Joannis Saresberiensis postea episcopi carnotensis opera omnia, vol. 5 (Oxford, 1848) pp. 358-380

Section shown in images 5 to 5

Title: List of capitula for Ambrose, De officiis ministrorum
Note(s): The capitula run from 'De taciturnitate' to 'De amicitia'.; Written by a 12th-century hand.

Section shown in images 6 to 6

Title: List of herbs in Middle English
Language(s): Middle English
Note(s): Arranged in four columns or cedule, the leftmost column headed Prima cedula and then left-to-right the remaining three columns headed Secunda sedula, Tercia sedula, and Quarta sedula. The first plant listed is Elena campana and the last is uerueyn.; Added by a 15th-century hand.; Mentioned, but not printed in IMEP XXII.
Bibliography:
IMEP XXII, p. 126

Section shown in images 6 to 7

Title: Medical recipe
Language(s): Middle English
Note(s): Added by a 15th-century hand.
Excerpts:
Incipit: 2v Fyrst sede þe herbis as þey be wrytyne in lyk porcion
Explicit: 3r do be yt as þu wold do be ale
Bibliography:
IMEP XXII, p. 33

Section shown in images 11 to 102

Title: De officiis ministrorum
Author(s): Ambrose of Milan
Language(s): Latin
Excerpts:
Rubric: 5r Libellus ualde utilium preceptorum atque consiliorum de libris officiorum Beatissimi 〚pape〛 Ambrosii mediolanensis collectus
Incipit: 5r Non arrogans uideri arbitror si inter filios
Explicit: 50v aliquid profectus habeant ; uos probabitis ;
Final Rubric: 50v Explicit defloratio librorum beati Ambrosii de officiis
Bibliography:
CPL 144

Section shown in images 102 to 236

Title: Contra Jovinianum
Author(s): Jerome
Language(s): Latin
Note(s): In two Books, the second begins on f. 87v. List of capitula for Books 1 and 2 on ff. 50v-51v.
Excerpts:
Rubric: 52r Incipit Liber S. Ieronimi presbiteri contra Iouinianum
Incipit: 52r Pauci admodum dies sunt ; quod sancti ex urbe roma
Explicit: 117v epycuri luxuriam susceperunt
Final Rubric: 117v explicit
Bibliography:
CPL 610
PL 23, pp. 211-338

Section shown in images 236 to 251

Title: De mysteriis
Author(s): Ambrose of Milan
Language(s): Latin
Excerpts:
Rubric: 117v Incipit liber beati ambrosii mediolanensis episcopi de misteriis siue iniciandis
Incipit: 117v De moralibus cotidianum sermonem habuimus
Explicit: 125r ueritatem regenerationis operetur
Final Rubric: 125r explicit tractatus de misteriis
Bibliography:
CPL 155

Section shown in images 251 to 290

Title: De sacramentis
Author(s): Ambrose of Milan
Language(s): Latin
Note(s): Arranged in 7 books.; The text on f. 143v-144v is much smaller and in a different and perhaps slightly later hand.
Excerpts:
Rubric: 125r Incipit sermo primus de sacramentis ambrosii
Incipit: 125r De sacramentis que accepistis sermonem adorior
Explicit: 144v qui uiuit et regnat in secula seculorum amen
Final Rubric: 144v Explicit sermo septimus beati ambrosii mediolanensis archiepiscopi de sacramentis
Bibliography:
CPL 154