Medieval Medical Recipes : Guy de Chauliac, Chirurgia Magna (Middle English translation)

Medieval Medical Recipes

<p style='text-align: justify;'>Jesus College MS Q.G.23 is of particular interest because it contains a Middle English version of Guy de Chauliac's <i>Chirurgia Magna</i> or 'Great Surgery' (1363; ed. Nicaise (1890)) different from any published in full. For a medical manuscript, the degree of ornament is considerably more than was required for a working copy; for example, foliate initials F and A in gold, blue, green, red and magenta, with border surrounding the whole page interlaced with bars and floral sprays, including corner pieces, occur on folios <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(46);return false;'>20v</a> and <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(120);return false;'>57v</a> respectively, marking the beginning of Treatises I and II. This fact suggests that the manuscript was produced for a particular well-to-do patron. Other manuscripts of Middle English translations of Guy de Chauliac (listed below) were also well produced. MS Q.G.23 has belonged to Jesus College (founded 1496) from the time when it was probably bequeathed by Thomas Man (BA 1674), vicar of Northallerton in the North Riding of Yorkshire, whose manuscripts came mostly from Durham Priory or other northern religious houses. At the time when M.R. James wrote his Catalogue (1895), MS Q.G.23 was missing, and so it was omitted, not being restored to Jesus College Library until 1930. </p><p style='text-align: justify;'>The Middle English translation of Guy de Chauliac's <i>Chirurgia Magna</i> consists of seven 'treatises' or books, each divided into two 'doctrines' or parts: I. Anatomy, with a 'Singular Chapter' or introduction; II. Apostemes; III. Wounds; IV. Ulcers; V. Fractures and Dislocations; VI. Other illnesses; VII. Antidotary (i.e. Cures). Three different Middle English translations of the full text of the <i>Chirurgia Magna</i> are known today, only the first of which survives in complete form in more than one manuscript: <ul><li>Chauliac (1): edited from the earliest surviving copy: <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://catalog.nyam.org/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=120276'>New York, New York Academy of Medicine, MS 12</a> (Treatise I, ed. Wallner (1964); Treatise II, ed. Wallner (1988–89); Treatise III, ed. Wallner (1976); Treatise IV, ed. Wallner (1982–84); Treatise V, ed. Wallner (1969). No edition of Treatises VI and VII) </li><li>Chauliac (2): edited from: <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://archivesetmanuscrits.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cc100235r?collect'>Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, MS Angl. 25</a> (Ogden (1971); Treatise I, ed. Wallner (1964) in parallel with the above manuscript) </li><li>Chauliac (3): no edition: Cambridge, Jesus College, MS Q.G.23</li></ul></p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Until the rediscovery of MS Q.G.23, this version was known only in partial copies in two manuscripts: <ul><li><a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-DD-00003-00052/1'>Cambridge, University Library, MS Dd.3.52</a>, ff. 3r-8v: preface (ends imperfectly) [a copy of 'Chauliac (1)' without the <i>capitulum singulare</i> follows on ff. 11r-249v]</li><li><a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-GONVILLE-AND-CAIUS-00336-00725/1'>Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College, MS 336/725</a>, ff. 1r-16r: preface, <i>capitulum singulare</i> and the headings of the seven treatises</li></ul></p><p style='text-align: justify;'>The dialect of the Middle English text in MS Q.G.23 is probably to be assigned to an area in or near south Lincolnshire. Unfortunately, the original first two leaves (or more) of the manuscript are missing, so such evidence of origin or provenance as might have been there has been lost; if the manuscript came to Jesus from Thomas Man, a northerly provenance is likely. On the blank pages left by the scribe of Guy de Chauliac at the end of the manuscript, three scribes of the first half of the 16th century added recipes in English. The first (ff. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(823);return false;'>409r–411r</a>) is a recipe for 'aqua vite geuen by Gallyen proued' ('eau-de-vie given by Galen', the ancient medical expert, 'proved', i.e. tried and tested). Later, a second scribe added two more recipes, one associated with Henry VIII that claimed 'thys pyll draweth downe flegme and coleric mattur and wynd owte of the head and stomack and yt clarifieth the syght', and the other recommending 'the duke of northumbelandis pill', which concludes 'take half a dram'. A third added a recipe for spiced paper to f. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(829);return false;'>412r</a>. </p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Some marginal annotations reflect use of the manuscript. There are triple points (with 'tail') on ff. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(343);return false;'>169r-171r</a>, no doubt used to draw attention to matter in the text considered by a reader to be important. The annotations in Treatise VI (Other Illnesses) are heavier than elsewhere in the work. Apart from the fact that it was read and had been annotated, nothing is known of the manuscript's history until it came into the possession of Jesus College c. 1690. </p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Angela M. Lucas<br />Wolfson College<br />Cambridge<br />and<br />Professor Peter J. Lucas<br />Honorary Research Associate<br />Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic<br />University of Cambridge</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>This introduction is dedicated to the memory of Frances Wilmoth, Assistant Keeper of the Old Library at Jesus College 1996–2017. Her devotion to the library treasures, her skills as an archivist (she was College Archivist from 2003), and her keen interest in herbals and medicinal recipes were an inspiration.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'><b>Bibliography</b><ul><li>Albert E. Hartung (gen. ed.), <i>A Manual of the Writings in Middle English 1050-1500</i>, vol. 10, Works of Science and Information, by George R. Keiser (New Haven CN: Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1998), 3646–8, 3831–2, no. 251.</li><li>Edouard Nicaise (ed.), <i>La Grande Chirurgie de Guy de Chauliac</i> (Paris: Ancienne Librairie Gerner Baillière, 1890)</li><li>Margaret S. Ogden (ed.), <i>Cyrurgie of Guy de Chauliac I: Text</i>, Early English Text Society, original series 265 (London: Oxford University Press, 1971)</li><li>Björn Wallner (ed.), <i>The Middle English Translation of Guy de Chauliac's Anatomy with Guy's Essay on the History of Medicine</i>, Lunds Universitets Årsskrift, N.F. Avd. I, Bd 56, no. 5 (Lund: Gleerup, 1964)</li><li>Björn Wallner (ed.), <i>The Middle English Translation of Guy de Chauliac's Treatise on Apostemes: Book II of the Great Surgery edited from MS. New York Academy of Medicine 12 and related MSS</i>, Skrifter utgivna av Vetenskapssocieteten i Lund 80, 82 (Lund: Gleerup, 1988–89)</li><li>Björn Wallner (ed.), <i>The Middle English Translation of Guy de Chauliac's Treatise on Wounds: Book III of the Great Surgery</i>, Acta Universitatis Lundensis, Sectio I, Theologica, Juridica, Humaniora 23, 28 (Lund: Gleerup, 1976; also Stockholm: Almqvist and Wiksell, 1979)</li><li>Björn Wallner (ed.), <i>The Middle English Translation of Guy de Chauliac's Treatise on Ulcers: Book IV of the Great Surgery edited from MS. New York Academy of Medicine 12 and related MSS</i>, Acta Universitatis Lundensis, Sectio I, Theologica, Juridica, Humaniora 39, 44 (Stockholm: Almqvist and Wiksell, 1982–84)</li><li>Björn Wallner (ed.), <i>The Middle English Translation of Guy de Chauliac's Treatise on Fractures and Dislocations: Book V of the Great Surgery edited from MS. New York Academy of Medicine 12 and related MSS</i>, Acta Universitatis Lundensis, Sectio I, Theologica, Juridica, Humaniora 11 (Lund: Gleerup, 1969)</li></ul></p>