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) comprises works by two early Christian theological writers: Ambrose of Milan and Jerome. The main texts were probably copied in England or 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. Jesus 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 Jesus MS Q.B.10 was made in England, it was certainly there 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: 'Lib. Magistri Andree Doket rectoris Sancti Botulfi Cantabr.' (f. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(10);return false;'>4v</a>: '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 Jesus MS Q.B.10 appears on that list. Assuming Doket owned the manuscript at that point, he apparently considered it a personal rather than an institutional possession. It is not known what happened to Jesus MS Q.B.10 after Doket's death and before its acquisition by Jesus College. It certainly belonged to the College by c. 1700 at the latest, since as the <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(2);return false;'>front pastedown</a> bears 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;'>Dr Sarah Gilbert<br /> Project Cataloguer for the Curious Cures Project<br /> Cambridge University Library</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>