Rare Books and Manuscripts : Tabula medicine, and an anonymous medical text

Rare Books and Manuscripts

This composite manuscript contains two parts that were copied in the 15th century. The first part (ff. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(13);return false;'>1:1r-1:145r</a>) contains the so-called Tabula medicine, a Latin handbook of alphabetically arranged medicinal simples that was compiled by English friars between 1411 and 1425 and that may be attributed specifically to the friar William Holme (fl. 1380–1415) (see Jones (1996), p. 154, and Jones (2008)). The collection shows a particular concern for the healthcare of women. For example, it includes an instruction for making an amulet to aid women in giving birth (see f. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(242);return false;'>1:93v</a>) that invokes St Celina, the daughter of the Bishop of Soissons, who was known for miraculously giving birth to a son, St Remigius of Rheims, at a significantly advanced age (see Olsan and Jones (2011), p. 114; and Jones and Olsan (2015), p. 424 fn. 46). The second part contains an anonymous medical work that includes lectures by John Cokkys [Cokkes], a clerk and physician of Oxford, who was dead by 1475; on f. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(409);return false;'>2:7r</a> the text reads: 'I, John Cokkys, with true charity, offer my secrets, an abundance of first sustenance, to students' ('ego Johannes Cokkis caritate non ficta primi alimenti copiam alumpnis offero archana mei'). One owner of the manuscript appears to have attributed the entire work to Cokkys and wrote his name on the manuscript's fore-edge: 'Io. Cokis' (On Cokkys, see Talbot and Hammond (1965), pp. 134-136; and Getz (1990), p. 265). However, in the cataloguing of this manuscript, the larger part of this medical work has been identified as a copy of the Commentarium super Tabulas Salerni by the twelfth-century author Bernardus Provincialis of Arles (ff. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(413);return false;'>2:9r-2:32r</a>).The manuscript features numerous marginal annotations and added leaves with additions to the Tabula medicine, as well as separate texts describing medical observations and treatments copied and devised by the astrologer and medical practitioner Simon Forman (1552–1611) (on Forman, see Kassell (2004) [ODNB entry]). The latter clearly owned the manuscript for several decades: he acquired the manuscript when he was a student in Oxford on 2 February 1574 (see Edmond (1977), 44-60 ); he entered his name and date on f. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(8);return false;'>[iii] verso</a> but also added: a medical recipe for headache dated 1576 to f. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(45);return false;'>1:10d recto</a>; a scribal note on f. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(1);return false;'>[2:32c] verso</a> with the date 1576; a medicine for coughs and congestion on f. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(375);return false;'>1:146a recto</a> dated to 1575; tracts on urine that he signed with the date 1576 on f. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(361);return false;'>141c recto</a> ('Quod Simon fforman / .1576 march 31. Saturda[i]'); an astrological chart on f. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(394);return false;'>1:146k verso</a> with the date 1579; a medicine for the 'King's Evil' on ff. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(325);return false;'>130b recto-130b verso</a> with accounts dated to 1580 and 1596 and a medical note to the outer margin of f. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(190);return false;'>1:71v</a> with the date 13 May 1600.Forman copied out passages from Andrew Boorde's The breviary of helth (1547) (see e.g.: f. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(357);return false;'>1:141a recto-1:141a recto</a>) and Philip Barrough's The methode of physicke (1583) on ff. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(206);return false;'>1:79v-1:80v</a> (for dates and sources in the manuscript, see Traister (2001), pp. 32-39). Forman evidently used the manuscript as a textbook while practising medicine in London. When he was examined for quackery by the Censors of the College of Physcians on 7 November 1595, he boasted to practise medicine by astrology only and stated 'that he had never read any writer in medicine except one of a certain Cockis' (see Kassell (2005), p. 78). Forman, whose work focused on female reproduction, was especially interested in the medicines for women that are described in the aforementioned Tabula medicine; e.g. see his notes on ff. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(204);return false;'>1:78v-1:80v</a> and <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(216);return false;'>1:84v</a> (see Kassell (2005), pp. 160-170).In the cataloguing of this manuscript, an added German fragmentary text (f. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(151);return false;'>1:52c</a>) has been identified as a sixteenth-century copy of the anonymous Middle German alchemical poem Von der alchemischen Kunst [On the Art of Alchemy]. It is possible that this fragment belonged to and was added to the manuscript by Forman. He may have acquired the work or received it from connections established in the late 1560s, when he travelled through the Low Countries and Germany (see Kassell (2005), p. 107]). Forman may have acquired the copy in the 1570s when he developed a strong interest in alchemy and making the Philosopher's Stone as can be witnessed from his notebooks and copies and translations of major alchemical works (see Kassell (2005), pp. 171-225).It is possible that King's College acquired this manuscript through William Ward, regius professor of physic at King's College in c. 1591, with whose support Forman obtained a licence to practice physic and astronomy from the University of Cambridge in 1603 (see Kassell (2005), pp. 97-98).Dr Clarck Drieshen Project Cataloguer Cambridge University Library

Page: front cover, outer

Tabula medicine, and an anonymous medical text (Cambridge, King's College, MS 16)

This composite manuscript contains two parts that were copied in the 15th century. The first part (ff. 1:1r-1:145r) contains the so-called Tabula medicine, a Latin handbook of alphabetically arranged medicinal simples that was compiled by English friars between 1411 and 1425 and that may be attributed specifically to the friar William Holme (fl. 1380–1415) (see Jones (1996), p. 154, and Jones (2008)). The collection shows a particular concern for the healthcare of women. For example, it includes an instruction for making an amulet to aid women in giving birth (see f. 1:93v) that invokes St Celina, the daughter of the Bishop of Soissons, who was known for miraculously giving birth to a son, St Remigius of Rheims, at a significantly advanced age (see Olsan and Jones (2011), p. 114; and Jones and Olsan (2015), p. 424 fn. 46). The second part contains an anonymous medical work that includes lectures by John Cokkys [Cokkes], a clerk and physician of Oxford, who was dead by 1475; on f. 2:7r the text reads: 'I, John Cokkys, with true charity, offer my secrets, an abundance of first sustenance, to students' ('ego Johannes Cokkis caritate non ficta primi alimenti copiam alumpnis offero archana mei'). One owner of the manuscript appears to have attributed the entire work to Cokkys and wrote his name on the manuscript's fore-edge: 'Io. Cokis' (On Cokkys, see Talbot and Hammond (1965), pp. 134-136; and Getz (1990), p. 265). However, in the cataloguing of this manuscript, the larger part of this medical work has been identified as a copy of the Commentarium super Tabulas Salerni by the twelfth-century author Bernardus Provincialis of Arles (ff. 2:9r-2:32r).

The manuscript features numerous marginal annotations and added leaves with additions to the Tabula medicine, as well as separate texts describing medical observations and treatments copied and devised by the astrologer and medical practitioner Simon Forman (1552–1611) (on Forman, see Kassell (2004) [ODNB entry]). The latter clearly owned the manuscript for several decades: he acquired the manuscript when he was a student in Oxford on 2 February 1574 (see Edmond (1977), 44-60 ); he entered his name and date on f. [iii] verso but also added: a medical recipe for headache dated 1576 to f. 1:10d recto; a scribal note on f. [2:32c] verso with the date 1576; a medicine for coughs and congestion on f. 1:146a recto dated to 1575; tracts on urine that he signed with the date 1576 on f. 141c recto ('Quod Simon fforman / .1576 march 31. Saturda[i]'); an astrological chart on f. 1:146k verso with the date 1579; a medicine for the 'King's Evil' on ff. 130b recto-130b verso with accounts dated to 1580 and 1596 and a medical note to the outer margin of f. 1:71v with the date 13 May 1600.

Forman copied out passages from Andrew Boorde's The breviary of helth (1547) (see e.g.: f. 1:141a recto-1:141a recto) and Philip Barrough's The methode of physicke (1583) on ff. 1:79v-1:80v (for dates and sources in the manuscript, see Traister (2001), pp. 32-39). Forman evidently used the manuscript as a textbook while practising medicine in London. When he was examined for quackery by the Censors of the College of Physcians on 7 November 1595, he boasted to practise medicine by astrology only and stated 'that he had never read any writer in medicine except one of a certain Cockis' (see Kassell (2005), p. 78). Forman, whose work focused on female reproduction, was especially interested in the medicines for women that are described in the aforementioned Tabula medicine; e.g. see his notes on ff. 1:78v-1:80v and 1:84v (see Kassell (2005), pp. 160-170).

In the cataloguing of this manuscript, an added German fragmentary text (f. 1:52c) has been identified as a sixteenth-century copy of the anonymous Middle German alchemical poem Von der alchemischen Kunst [On the Art of Alchemy]. It is possible that this fragment belonged to and was added to the manuscript by Forman. He may have acquired the work or received it from connections established in the late 1560s, when he travelled through the Low Countries and Germany (see Kassell (2005), p. 107]). Forman may have acquired the copy in the 1570s when he developed a strong interest in alchemy and making the Philosopher's Stone as can be witnessed from his notebooks and copies and translations of major alchemical works (see Kassell (2005), pp. 171-225).

It is possible that King's College acquired this manuscript through William Ward, regius professor of physic at King's College in c. 1591, with whose support Forman obtained a licence to practice physic and astronomy from the University of Cambridge in 1603 (see Kassell (2005), pp. 97-98).

Dr Clarck Drieshen
Project Cataloguer
Cambridge University Library

Information about this document

Physical Location: King's College Library
Classmark: Cambridge, King's College, MS 16
Subject(s): Medicine
Former Owner(s): Bartlatt, John, fl. 16th century; Forman, Simon, 1552-1611
Associated Name(s): Forman, Simon, 1552-1611; Ward, William, 1534-1609
Extent: Codex: ii + 3 + 146 (+ 45 added paper leaves) | 32 (+ 8 added paper leaves) + 2 + ii leaves. Paper leaves have been added at intervals throughout the first and second parts of the manuscript. Rather than count and list each group of parchment or paper leaves separately and in the sequence in which they appear in the manuscript, they have been described in this statement of extent as separate totals.
Collation: 1-17⁸ 18¹⁰ | 19-22⁸
This collation omits the added paper leaves with notes and tracts by Simon Forman.
Condition: The right half of the lower half of f. 1:146 has been cut out.
Binding:
Modern brown leather binding.
Binding height: 290mm; width: 200mm; depth: 55mm.
Foliation:
Late 16th- or early 17th-century pagination
'3'-'251' for ff. 1:2r-1:120r, excluding added paper leaves
Written in brown ink in the upper right-hand corner of the recto of each leaf by Simon Forman (1552–1611): alongside numbers for the columns '17'-'688' for ff. 3r-146f verso (including added paper leaves).
20th-century foliation:
[i]-[ii] + [iii]-[v] + 1:1-1:8, 1:8a-1:8b, 1:9-1:10, 1:10a-1:10c, 1:10e, 1:10d, 1:11-1:22, 1:22a-1:22d, 1:23-1:29, 1:29a-1:29b, 1:30-1:46, 1:46a-1:46b, 1:47-1:52, 1:52a-1:52c, 1:53-1:84, 1:84a-1:84b, 1:85-1:90, 1:90a-1:90b, 1:91-1:94, 1:94a-1:94b, 1:95-1:100, 1:100a, 1:101-1:130, 1:130a-1:130d, 1:131-1:138, 1:138a-1:138b, 1:139-1:141, 1:141a-1:141d, 1:142-1:146, 1:146a-1:146i, 1:146k-1:146l | 2:1-2:32, 2:32a, 2:[32b]-2:[32h] + [vi]-[vii] + [viii]-[ix]
Written in pencil in the upper right-hand corner of the recto of each leaf.
Folios 1:10e and 1:22d are paper stubs.
Additions:
Simon Forman has added a table of contents for the manuscript to ff. [iii] verso-[v] verso, an index to ff. [vi] recto-[vi] verso, and perhaps also the list of the authors cited in the anonymous medical work in the manuscript's third part (ff. 2:1r-2:32v) on f. [vii] recto.
A late 16th-century or early 17th-century hand has added a prognostic to f. [vii] recto: 'yff the ☾ goeth slowly that is yf he be 3 dayes in a sign then the gref shall be grevouse / Yff yt be quick .1. 2 dayes then the sick shall be ease'.
A late 16th-century or early 17th-century hand has added a poem to [vii] recto: 'Trust neuer to hes Rede that benethe / ?ij tonges in on hon hede / for many man that so doos / etythe somtyme no more brede'.
Quire numbers on first rectos and crosses to mark in pencil added in the 20th century.
Provenance:
John Bartlatt, fl. 16th century: his ownership inscription on f. [iii] verso: 'Iste liber pertinett ad Ihohannes Bartlatt testantibues est domini Iohannes Gobbe et multi alii'; an erased inscription at the top of f. [v] recto may have been written by a relative or his wife: 'Memorandum that I ?ales Bartlat [...] Johannes Gobbe [...] Wylliam [...]'.
Simon Forman (1552–1611): his ownership inscription on f. [iii] verso: 'Anno domini 1574 Simonn Formann februari 2. day'; and his name 'Simon' inscribed with decorative motifs on f. 1:128r.
Acquisition: Possibly acquired by King's College via William Ward, Regius professor of Physic at King's College in c. 1591, with whose support Simon Forman obtained a licence to practice physic and astronomy from the University of Cambridge in 1603 (see Kassell (2005), pp. 97-98). The manuscript was certainly at King's College by the end of the 17th century or early 18th century: its early modern classmark '16' inscribed in black ink on f. [iii] recto; its early modern armorial bookplate with the title 'Collegium Regale in Universitate Cantabrigiensi' pasted on f. [iv] recto; and its modern bookstamp ('King's Coll. Libr. Camb.') on the inside of the upper cover.
Funding: Wellcome
Data Source(s): This catalogue entry draws on M.R. James, A descriptive catalogue of the manuscripts other than Oriental in the library of King's College, Cambridge (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1895)
Author(s) of the Record: Dr Clarck Drieshen, Project Cataloguer, Cambridge University Library
Bibliography:
James, M. R., A descriptive catalogue of the manuscripts other than Oriental in the library of King's College, Cambridge (Cambridge: University Press, 1895).
MacKinney, Loren, Medical illustrations in medieval manuscripts, Publications of the Wellcome Historical Medical Library. New series 5 (London: Wellcome Historical Medical Library, 1965).
Talbot, C.H. and E.A. Hammond, The medical practitioners in medieval England : a biographical register (London: Wellcome Historical Medical Library, 1965).
Getz, Faye, "Medical Practitioners in Medieval England", Social History of Medicine 3 (1990).
Traister, Barbara Howard, "Simon Forman, “Matrix and the Pain Thereof": A Sixteenth-Century Gynaecological Essay", Medical History 35 436-451 (1991).
Jones, Peter Murray, "Reading Medicine in Tudor Cambridge", in Vivian Nutton and Roy Porter (eds), The History of Medical Education in Britain (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1996) 153-183.
Traister, Barbara Howard, The Notorious Astrological Physician of London: Works and Days of Simon Forman (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001).
Kassell, Lauren, Medicine and Magic in Elizabethan London. Simon Forman: Astrologer, Alchemist and Physician (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2005).
Jones, Peter Murray, "The Tabula medicine: an evolving encyclopedia", English Manuscript Studies: 1100-1700 14 60-85 (2008).
Olsan, Lea T. and Peter Murray Jones, "Charms and Amulets for Conception and Childbirth", in A. Mikhailova Tatyana, Jonathan Roper, Andrey L. Toporkov and Dmitry S. Nikolayev (eds), Oral Charms in Structural and Comparative Light: Proceedings of the Conference of the International Society for Folk Narrative Research’s (ISFNR) Committee on Charms, Charmers and Charming. 27–29th October 2011, Moscow (Moscow: PROBEL-2000, 2011) 110-121.
Telle, Joachim, Didier Kahn and Wilhelm Kühlmann, Alchemie und Poesie: Deutsche Alchemikerdichtungen des 15. bis 17. Jahrhunderts - Untersuchungen und Texte, Band 1 (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2013).
Jones, Peter Murray and Lea T. Olsan, "Performative Rituals for Conception and Childbirth in England, 900–1500", Bulletin of the History of Medicine 89 3 406-433 (2015) https://muse.jhu.edu/article/596616.
Jones, Peter Murray, The Medicine of the Friars in Medieval England, Health and Healing in the Middle Ages 5 (Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 2024) https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.5558126.

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Cambridge, King's College, MS 16, ff. 1r-52b, 53-146l: Part 1 (image 11, page [v] recto) Added medical entries and recipes to the Tabula medicine (image 11, page [v] recto) Tabula medicine [Alphabetical handbook of medicinal simples from 'Abhominacio' to 'Vulua'] (image 13, page 1:1r) Medical treatments (image 371, page 1:145r) Poem on bloodletting extracted from Regimen sanitatis Salernitanum (image 387, page 1:146g recto) Observations concerning bloodletting (image 388, page 1:146g verso) Tract on the four humours and four ages of mankind (image 388, page 1:146g verso) Astrological tract on bloodletting (image 389, page 1:146h recto) Diagram of and tract on the 'Vein Man' (image 389, page 1:146h recto) Dietary advice for the months of the year (image 392, page 1:146i verso) Diseases associated with the months of the year (image 393, page 1:146k recto) Astrological chart for bloodletting (image 394, page 1:146k verso) Order of bloodletting (image 394, page 1:146k verso) Tract on the four degrees of heat and cold (image 396, page 1:146l verso) Tract on the properties of the four degrees of heat and cold (image 396, page 1:146l verso) Tract on hot and cold medicines (image 396, page 1:146l verso) Tract on the four phases of the moon (image 396, page 1:146l verso) Tract on the four elements (image 396, page 1:146l verso) Cambridge, King's College, MS 16, ff. 1:52c recto-1:52c verso: Part 2 (image 151, page 1:52c recto) Cambridge, King's College, MS 16, ff. 2:1r-2:[32h] verso: Part 3 (image 397, page 2:1r) Medical lectures (image 397, page 2:1r) Commentarium super Tabulas Salerni (image 413, page 2:9r) Verse prayer for England (image 459, page 2:32r) Regimen sanitatis Salernitanum [Extracts] (image 461, page 2:32a recto) Treatise on the conservation of the human body (image 469, page 2:[32e] recto) Epistola ad Antigonum regem [Dietic rules for the months of the year] (image 476, page 2:[32h] verso)

Information about this document

Physical Location: King's College Library
Classmark: Cambridge, King's College, MS 16
Subject(s): Medicine
Former Owner(s): Bartlatt, John, fl. 16th century; Forman, Simon, 1552-1611
Associated Name(s): Forman, Simon, 1552-1611; Ward, William, 1534-1609
Extent: Codex: ii + 3 + 146 (+ 45 added paper leaves) | 32 (+ 8 added paper leaves) + 2 + ii leaves. Paper leaves have been added at intervals throughout the first and second parts of the manuscript. Rather than count and list each group of parchment or paper leaves separately and in the sequence in which they appear in the manuscript, they have been described in this statement of extent as separate totals.
Collation: 1-17⁸ 18¹⁰ | 19-22⁸
This collation omits the added paper leaves with notes and tracts by Simon Forman.
Condition: The right half of the lower half of f. 1:146 has been cut out.
Binding:
Modern brown leather binding.
Binding height: 290mm; width: 200mm; depth: 55mm.
Foliation:
Late 16th- or early 17th-century pagination
'3'-'251' for ff. 1:2r-1:120r, excluding added paper leaves
Written in brown ink in the upper right-hand corner of the recto of each leaf by Simon Forman (1552–1611): alongside numbers for the columns '17'-'688' for ff. 3r-146f verso (including added paper leaves).
20th-century foliation:
[i]-[ii] + [iii]-[v] + 1:1-1:8, 1:8a-1:8b, 1:9-1:10, 1:10a-1:10c, 1:10e, 1:10d, 1:11-1:22, 1:22a-1:22d, 1:23-1:29, 1:29a-1:29b, 1:30-1:46, 1:46a-1:46b, 1:47-1:52, 1:52a-1:52c, 1:53-1:84, 1:84a-1:84b, 1:85-1:90, 1:90a-1:90b, 1:91-1:94, 1:94a-1:94b, 1:95-1:100, 1:100a, 1:101-1:130, 1:130a-1:130d, 1:131-1:138, 1:138a-1:138b, 1:139-1:141, 1:141a-1:141d, 1:142-1:146, 1:146a-1:146i, 1:146k-1:146l | 2:1-2:32, 2:32a, 2:[32b]-2:[32h] + [vi]-[vii] + [viii]-[ix]
Written in pencil in the upper right-hand corner of the recto of each leaf.
Folios 1:10e and 1:22d are paper stubs.
Additions:
Simon Forman has added a table of contents for the manuscript to ff. [iii] verso-[v] verso, an index to ff. [vi] recto-[vi] verso, and perhaps also the list of the authors cited in the anonymous medical work in the manuscript's third part (ff. 2:1r-2:32v) on f. [vii] recto.
A late 16th-century or early 17th-century hand has added a prognostic to f. [vii] recto: 'yff the ☾ goeth slowly that is yf he be 3 dayes in a sign then the gref shall be grevouse / Yff yt be quick .1. 2 dayes then the sick shall be ease'.
A late 16th-century or early 17th-century hand has added a poem to [vii] recto: 'Trust neuer to hes Rede that benethe / ?ij tonges in on hon hede / for many man that so doos / etythe somtyme no more brede'.
Quire numbers on first rectos and crosses to mark in pencil added in the 20th century.
Provenance:
John Bartlatt, fl. 16th century: his ownership inscription on f. [iii] verso: 'Iste liber pertinett ad Ihohannes Bartlatt testantibues est domini Iohannes Gobbe et multi alii'; an erased inscription at the top of f. [v] recto may have been written by a relative or his wife: 'Memorandum that I ?ales Bartlat [...] Johannes Gobbe [...] Wylliam [...]'.
Simon Forman (1552–1611): his ownership inscription on f. [iii] verso: 'Anno domini 1574 Simonn Formann februari 2. day'; and his name 'Simon' inscribed with decorative motifs on f. 1:128r.
Acquisition: Possibly acquired by King's College via William Ward, Regius professor of Physic at King's College in c. 1591, with whose support Simon Forman obtained a licence to practice physic and astronomy from the University of Cambridge in 1603 (see Kassell (2005), pp. 97-98). The manuscript was certainly at King's College by the end of the 17th century or early 18th century: its early modern classmark '16' inscribed in black ink on f. [iii] recto; its early modern armorial bookplate with the title 'Collegium Regale in Universitate Cantabrigiensi' pasted on f. [iv] recto; and its modern bookstamp ('King's Coll. Libr. Camb.') on the inside of the upper cover.
Funding: Wellcome
Data Source(s): This catalogue entry draws on M.R. James, A descriptive catalogue of the manuscripts other than Oriental in the library of King's College, Cambridge (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1895)
Author(s) of the Record: Dr Clarck Drieshen, Project Cataloguer, Cambridge University Library
Bibliography:
James, M. R., A descriptive catalogue of the manuscripts other than Oriental in the library of King's College, Cambridge (Cambridge: University Press, 1895).
MacKinney, Loren, Medical illustrations in medieval manuscripts, Publications of the Wellcome Historical Medical Library. New series 5 (London: Wellcome Historical Medical Library, 1965).
Talbot, C.H. and E.A. Hammond, The medical practitioners in medieval England : a biographical register (London: Wellcome Historical Medical Library, 1965).
Getz, Faye, "Medical Practitioners in Medieval England", Social History of Medicine 3 (1990).
Traister, Barbara Howard, "Simon Forman, “Matrix and the Pain Thereof": A Sixteenth-Century Gynaecological Essay", Medical History 35 436-451 (1991).
Jones, Peter Murray, "Reading Medicine in Tudor Cambridge", in Vivian Nutton and Roy Porter (eds), The History of Medical Education in Britain (Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1996) 153-183.
Traister, Barbara Howard, The Notorious Astrological Physician of London: Works and Days of Simon Forman (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001).
Kassell, Lauren, Medicine and Magic in Elizabethan London. Simon Forman: Astrologer, Alchemist and Physician (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2005).
Jones, Peter Murray, "The Tabula medicine: an evolving encyclopedia", English Manuscript Studies: 1100-1700 14 60-85 (2008).
Olsan, Lea T. and Peter Murray Jones, "Charms and Amulets for Conception and Childbirth", in A. Mikhailova Tatyana, Jonathan Roper, Andrey L. Toporkov and Dmitry S. Nikolayev (eds), Oral Charms in Structural and Comparative Light: Proceedings of the Conference of the International Society for Folk Narrative Research’s (ISFNR) Committee on Charms, Charmers and Charming. 27–29th October 2011, Moscow (Moscow: PROBEL-2000, 2011) 110-121.
Telle, Joachim, Didier Kahn and Wilhelm Kühlmann, Alchemie und Poesie: Deutsche Alchemikerdichtungen des 15. bis 17. Jahrhunderts - Untersuchungen und Texte, Band 1 (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2013).
Jones, Peter Murray and Lea T. Olsan, "Performative Rituals for Conception and Childbirth in England, 900–1500", Bulletin of the History of Medicine 89 3 406-433 (2015) https://muse.jhu.edu/article/596616.
Jones, Peter Murray, The Medicine of the Friars in Medieval England, Health and Healing in the Middle Ages 5 (Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 2024) https://www.jstor.org/stable/jj.5558126.

Section shown in images 11 to 396

Title: Part 1
Origin Place: England
Date of Creation: Copied between the 2nd quarter and 4th quarter of the 15th century.
Language(s): Latin and English
Physical Description:
1:3r ponatur in aceto
Extent: Codex: 146 leaves (+ 45 added paper leaves). Paper leaves have been added at intervals throughout the first and second parts of the manuscript. Rather than count and list each group of parchment or paper leaves separately and in the sequence in which they appear in the manuscript, they have been described in this statement of extent as separate totals. Leaf height: 275 mm, width: 190 mm.
Collation:
- Quires 1-17⁸ (ff. 1:1-1:136)
- Quire 18¹⁰ (ff. 1:137-1:146)
There are leaf signatures consisting of combinations of letters and Roman numerals in brown ink but most have been cropped.
catchwords in black ink in the lower right-hand corners of the last versos of quires.
Material: Parchment (FHHF) and Paper, folded in folio.
Folios 1:8a-1:8b, 1:10a-1:10d, 1:22a-1:22c, 1:29a-1:29b, 1:46a-1:46b, 1:52a-1:52b, 1:84a-1:84b, 1:90a-1:90b, 1:96a-1:96b, 1:100a, 1:130a-1:130d, 1:138a-1:138b and 1:141a-1:141d: Jug ( Watermark height: 55 mm, width: 25 mm. ) in the centre of the folio.
Format: Codex
Condition: This part of the manuscript is in a good condition.
Script:
The medical compendium has been copied by a single hand in a Northern Textualis.
Simon Forman added texts throughout this part of the manuscript, both on added leaves and in margins, in a Secretary script.
Layout:
Written height: 205 mm, width: 135 mm. Ruled in leadpoint, frame only. Double columns (except Simon Forman's additions on ff. 1:22a verso-1:22c verso, 1:52b verso, 1:52c recto-1:52c verso, 1:94b verso, 1:130d verso, 1:141a recto-1:141c recto and 1:146g recto-1:146l verso , which have single columns). 30 lines to the page, written below top line.
Decoration:
Vein Man diagram (f. 1:146h recto).

One large (4 lines) gold initial in a frame of blue and white ('champ' initial) with pen-flourishing ingreen and gold (f. 1:1r).

Large (2 lines) blue initial in frames of red penwork decoration and with pen-flourishing in the same colour.

large (2 lines) blue initials.

Paraphs in blue or red ink.

Section shown in images 11 to 12

Title: Added medical entries and recipes to the Tabula medicine
Language(s): English
Note(s): Additional entries by Simon Forman on an inserted parchment leaves (ff. [v] recto-[v] verso, 1:145r-1:146v) and paper leaves (ff. 1:8a, 1:8b, 1:10a-1:10d, 1:22a-1:22c, 1:29a-1:29b, 1:46a-1:46b, 1:52a-1:52b, 1:84a-84b, 1:90a-1:90b, 1:96a-1:96b, 1:100a, 1:130a-1:130d, 1:138a-1:138b, 1:141a-1:141d, 1:146a recto-1:146f verso; perhaps with a few additions in another hand on f. 1:10d recto and f. 1:103d recto.; Copied by Simon Forman.

Section shown in images 13 to 371

Title: Tabula medicine [Alphabetical handbook of medicinal simples from 'Abhominacio' to 'Vulua']
Language(s): Latin
Excerpts:
Incipit: 1r Abhominacio contra abhominacionem et fastidium
Explicit: 1:145r Item oua perdicis invncta super vulvam elargant eam secundum gaddesden
Final Rubric: 1:145r Deo gracias Amen
Bibliography:
Jones (2008)

Section shown in images 371 to 386

Title: Medical treatments
Language(s): English
Note(s): Copied by Simon Forman.
Excerpts:
Incipit: 1:145r To knowe whether a mann be possessed with and evill spirit and how he may be holpen / Of raging: Insania in lattin signifieth madnese
Explicit: 1:146f verso and giue sum to eat sugar of roses

Section shown in images 387 to 387

Title: Poem on bloodletting extracted from Regimen sanitatis Salernitanum
Language(s): Latin
Note(s): Copied by Simon Forman, with an added marginal note in English: 'none may be let blud except he or she be 17 years off age or 14 at the leste . yet I Simon Forman the Ooter of this bocke haue let children blode of 5 years old and lesse' (f. 146g recto).
Excerpts:
Rubric: 1:146g recto ffor blud letting
Incipit: 1:146g recto Denus septenus vix phlebotomum petit annus / Spiritus vberior exit per phlebotomiam: spiritus ex potu vini mox multiplicatur
Explicit: 1:146g recto purgat epar : splenum : pectus precordia : vocem / Innaturalem tollit de corde dolorem.

Section shown in images 388 to 388

Title: Observations concerning bloodletting
Author(s): Simon Forman (1552–1611)
Language(s): English
Excerpts:
Rubric: Certain Observations Concerning blud lettinge
Incipit: 1:146g verso When the weather is extrem hote, or exceading cold . hit is not then good to let blud vnlesse that sum great necessyty do requier hyt
Explicit: 1:146g verso that he vse moderat dyet, both in meat and dri[nk] and to avoyd much abstinence, over much slepe, late syttinge vpe and such lyke, which bringeth great inconvenience vnto the body.

Section shown in images 388 to 388

Title: Tract on the four humours and four ages of mankind
Language(s): English
Note(s): Copied by Simon Forman.
Excerpts:
Rubric: 1:146g verso The 4 Ages
Incipit: 1:146g verso Youth is lykned vnto prime time which is hot and moyst vntill he com to 25 years old
Explicit: 1:146g verso Old ages is lykned to winter cold and moist . from .56. to the end of lyf . Decemb. Janua. ffebruar. and is natur of water and of Complaxion flflegmatick

Section shown in images 389 to 389

Title: Astrological tract on bloodletting
Language(s): English
Note(s): Full transcription; Copied by Simon Forman.
Excerpts:
Incipit: 1:146h recto The Chirurgion must take heed as learning doth him will: / That he observe what doth procead, for doing any yll / That he touch not with Instrument, the body of a mane wherein the moon hath government and raigneth as lady then . Nor when the lord ascendent is in governing that parle / you shal not Joces lest that you mise the true knowledg of ast[rology]

Section shown in images 389 to 391

Title: Diagram of and tract on the 'Vein Man'
Language(s): English
Note(s): The diagram of the Vein Man is accompanied by two marginal notes.; The tract is followed by a note in another hand, beginning: 'Ther is also a vaine in the bottom of the foot the with is the principalle vaine that is to be letten blod for all dizeases of the bodye and especiali for the hart'.; Copied by Simon Forman.
Excerpts:
Incipit: 1:146h verso The names off the places wher the vaynes be ar showed by the letters set in the margent at the beginninge of the matter after the sorce of the picture
Incipit: 1:146h verso A: The vayne in the mids of the fforehead wold be letten blud ffor the ach and payne of the head
Explicit: 1:146i recto And avayleth greatly to women for to restrayne menstruossytys when they haue to great habundaunce

Section shown in images 392 to 392

Title: Dietary advice for the months of the year
Language(s): English
Note(s): Copied by Simon Forman.
Excerpts:
Rubric: 1:146i verso What meats ar beste to eat in prime time - Marche, Arpyll and Maye
Incipit: 1:146i verso In thes monthes let a man not cloth him to hote nor to cold
Explicit: 1:146i verso then a man ought to kepe him warme and manly ffor to lyue in helth

Section shown in images 393 to 393

Title: Diseases associated with the months of the year
Language(s): English
Note(s): Copied by Simon Forman.
Excerpts:
Rubric: 1:146k recto Sickneses which ar wonte to happen in particular times of the year and according to the diuversiti of ages
Incipit: 1:146k recto The maladyes which most commonly h[...] in the springe time
Explicit: 1:146k recto ptisis . that is consumption and shortnes of breth

Section shown in images 394 to 394

Title: Astrological chart for bloodletting
Language(s): English
Note(s): Full transcription.; Copied by Simon Forman.
Excerpts:
Incipit: 1:146k verso Set .1579. on .☾. ante meridium beinge the .19. of Januarie . beginning my year at christmas . at what time that I did let John Waller of Wickhams blood in the right arme on the vaine of the Lyuer for certaine diseases . and I toke from him of blod in quantitie of a Pint or more

Section shown in images 394 to 394

Title: Order of bloodletting
Author(s): Simon Forman
Language(s): English
Note(s): Fully transcribed in Traister (2001).
Excerpts:
Rubric: 1:146k verso The Order that I vsed in Letting him Blood
Incipit: 1:146k verso Item I bound his arme about the albo with a garter hard
Explicit: 1:146k verso sugar is verie good to put on it to stays the blood and wet clouts vpon [..]

Section shown in images 396 to 396

Title: Tract on the four degrees of heat and cold
Language(s): Latin and English
Note(s): Copied by Simon Forman.
Excerpts:
Rubric: 1:146l verso De gradidbus siccitatis et calidatis sciendum est
Incipit: 1:146l verso 1. Primum gradus of hotnes and coldnes et cum aliqua res habeat vnam portionem frigitatis et duas calidatis. Then that thing is sayd to be hot in the first degre
Explicit: 1:146l verso 4. Quartus gradus est quando habet vnuam portionem frigiditatis et sex decem caliditatis. tunc dicitur esse calida in quat[r]o gradu

Section shown in images 396 to 396

Title: Tract on the properties of the four degrees of heat and cold
Language(s): English
Note(s): Copied by Simon Forman.
Excerpts:
Rubric: 1:146l verso The properties off degres and what effect is contained in everie degre
Incipit: 1:146l verso 1. The first degre doth alter and chaunge sensiblelye
Explicit: 1:146l verso 4. The ffowrth degree banisheth and putteth forth the sence by his exceadinge temperature.

Section shown in images 396 to 396

Title: Tract on hot and cold medicines
Language(s): English
Note(s): Copied by Simon Forman.
Excerpts:
Rubric: 1:146l verso Of medisons temperat and vntemperat
Incipit: 1:146l verso Temperat medisons be such taht do nether manifestly heat, cold, moisten, nor drye
Explicit: 1:146l verso Thes be vntemperat medisons, which ar plainly to be called hote or cold / And chiefly such as be of the first second third or fowrth degre

Section shown in images 396 to 396

Title: Tract on the four phases of the moon
Language(s): Latin
Note(s): Copied by Simon Forman.
Excerpts:
Rubric: 1:146l verso De etate lunae qunado et sicca vel calida
Incipit: 1:146l verso 1. Prima etas lune calida est et humida
Explicit: 1:146l verso [4.] Quarta humida et sicca

Section shown in images 396 to 396

Title: Tract on the four elements
Language(s): Latin
Note(s): Copied by Simon Forman.
Excerpts:
Rubric: 1:146l verso Quatuor Elementa
Incipit: 1:146l verso Ignis est callidus et siccus
Explicit: 1:146l verso Terra frigida et sicca, Artumnus . melencholia.

Section shown in images 151 to 152

Classmark: Cambridge, King's College, MS 16, ff. 1:52c recto-1:52c verso
Title: Von der alchemischen Kunst [fragment of alchemical poem]
Origin Place: Germany
Date of Creation: Probably copied in the 2nd half of the 16th century.
Language(s): German
Note(s): A fragmentary paper pasted on a blank paper leaf containing a previously unidentified late 16th-century copy of the anonymous Middle German poem 'Von der alchemischen Kunst' [On the Art of Alchemy].
Extent: Fragment1 fragment.
Material: Paper, without a watermark.
Format: Codex
Condition: The leaf is heavily torn on all sides - causing loss of text at the top and bottom - and has been mounted on a blank paper leaf. It has not been measured for this catalogue record since it is not possible to determine its original dimensions.
Script:
Copied by a single hand in a cursive script.
Layout:
No ruling. Single columns. About 33 lines to the page on the remaining fragment.
Decoration:
The fragment does not contain any form of decoration.
Excerpts:
Incipit: 1:52c recto auff einem cleinen feur / so muss im sein leken [vergen]
Explicit: 1:52c verso Wel tu in meren so geb im sein gl[ich] / Got well uns erneren ewiglich
Bibliography:
Telle, Kahn, and Kühlmann (2013), 212-215 [extant copies] and 216-221 [edition] (without this manuscript)

Section shown in images 397 to 476

Title: Part 3
Origin Place: England
Date of Creation: Copied between the 2nd quarter and 4th quarter of the 15th century.
Language(s): Latin and English
Physical Description:
2:2r cituatus et qualiter
Extent: Codex: 32 leaves (+ 8 added paper leaves). Paper leaves have been added at intervals throughout the first and second parts of the manuscript. Rather than count and list each group of parchment or paper leaves separately and in the sequence in which they appear in the manuscript, they have been described in this statement of extent as separate totals. Leaf height: 28 mm, width: 29 mm.
Collation:
- Quires 19-22⁸ (ff. 1-2:32)
There are leaf signatures consisting of combinations of letters and Roman numerals in brown ink but most have been cropped off.
Catchwords in black ink in the lower right-hand corners of the last versos of quires.
Material: Parchment (FHHF)
Format: Codex
Condition: This part of the manuscript is in good condition.
Script:
The medical compendium has been copied by a single hand in a Northern Textualis.
Simon Forman added texts throughout this part of the manuscript, both on added leaves and in margins, in a Secretary script.
Layout:
Written height: 205 mm, width: 135 mm. Ruled in leadpoint, frame only. Double columns. 51 lines to the page, written below top line.
Decoration:
One large (3 lines) gold initial in a frame of blue and white ('champ' initial) with pen-flourishing ingreen and gold (f. 2:1r).

Lare (2 lines) blue initial in frames of red penwork decoration and with pen-flourishing in the same colour.

large (2 lines) blue initials.

Capitals (1 line) highlighted in red ink.

Paraphs in blue or red ink.

Section shown in images 397 to 412

Title: Medical lectures
Author(s): John Cokkys
Language(s): Latin
Note(s): On f. 2:8r is the following reference to John Cokys: 'Quia ego Johannes Cokkis caritate non ficta primi alimenti copiam alumpnis offero archana mei p^oris domesticis perfero digitis'.
Excerpts:
Incipit: 2:1r Cum in quacumque sciencia oportet scire quid est et quia et secundum philosophum Medicina igitur cum sit sciencia oportet eam diffinire
Explicit: 2:8v et hoc medicinam generaliter a phisicis vocatur emagoga quia purgans sanguinem vel ducens in puritatem et hec per ordinem ponam et quid sit breviter describam vt vos pro medicatores practicos redditu

Section shown in images 413 to 459

Title: Commentarium super Tabulas Salerni
Author(s): Bernardus Provincialis
Language(s): Latin
Excerpts:
Incipit: 2:9r Cassia fistula
Explicit: 2:32r Receptum etiam per os ualet contra venenum frigidum
Final Rubric: 2:32r Explicit

Section shown in images 459 to 459

Title: Verse prayer for England
Language(s): Middle English
Note(s): Full transcription; added in the late 15th or early 16th century [not recorded in IMEV, NIMEV, or DIMEV].
Excerpts:
Incipit: 2:32r God that made bothe see and sond / Save the Reme off mery in lond and / Sped ryght well the plov for and / the plov sped a rayth both the / Kyng and yche the knyȝht and all / so all the Reme full and houll are bond / to pray for them all may sped day / and euer off thayr dylygyns boȝthe

Section shown in images 461 to 468

Title: Regimen sanitatis Salernitanum [Extracts]
Language(s): Latin
Note(s): Copied by Simon Forman.
Excerpts:
Incipit: 2:32a recto Ex scola salernis
Explicit: 2:[32d] verso Quatuor humores in humano corpore constant /Sanguine cum colera fleuma melancolia / Terra . melan . aqua . fleg . et aer sanguis . colerit . ignis

Section shown in images 469 to 476

Title: Treatise on the conservation of the human body
Author(s): Simon Forman (1552–1611)
Language(s): English
Note(s): Possibly copied by Simon Forman.
Excerpts:
Rubric: 2:[32e] recto To the conseruation of the body of mankind within the limitation of health which as gallen saith is the state of the body, wherin we be neither greued with pain nor let from doing our nessessary busynes . doth be longe the dilegent consideration of that sorts of things that is to saye
Incipit: 2:[32e] recto Things 1. natural 2. not naturall and 3. against nature
Explicit: 2:[32h] verso But most of all other things mirth and conpany gladnes moderat exercyse with moderat feeding etcaetera
Final Rubric: 2:[32h] verso finis

Section shown in images 476 to 476

Title: Epistola ad Antigonum regem [Dietic rules for the months of the year]
Author(s): Diocles of Carystus
Language(s): English
Note(s): Possibly copied by Simon Forman.
Excerpts:
Rubric: A Diet concerning Diuers times off the yere . writen by the Old phisisian Diocles to King Antigonus
Incipit: 2:[32h] verso From the .12. daye of Decembar at the which time the Day is at shortteste / vntil the .9. day of March which do contain 90 dayes Rennis and moisturs do encres
Explicit: 2:[32h] verso let him eat fine meats and being once [...] returne lyttle and lyttle to his old custome

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Rare Books and Manuscripts : Tabula medicine, and an anonymous medical text