Medical texts (Cambridge, Magdalene College, Pepys MS 1307)
This compact manuscript once owned by Samuel Pepys, is, for the most part, a redaction of the popular medical text known as the Antidotarium Nicholai. The manuscript also contains a shorter and extensively reorganised version of the information in the Antidotarium Nicholai and a treatise on uroscopy that is part of the 'Dome of Uryne' group of texts identified by M. T. Tavormina. Little is known about the history of the manuscript prior to it coming into the possession of Samuel Pepys, but the palaeography and orthography of the volume suggest that it was made in England, probably in Norfolk, in the second quarter of the 15th century.
The majority of this manuscript is given over to two redactions of the Antidotarium Nicholai, both in Middle English, although the first retains many of the chapter headings from the Latin versions of the text. The larger of the two (ff. 1r-40v) presents the text in a more typical form, with the medicinal preparations described in alphabetical order and each supplied with instructions for making the medicinal preparation followed by dosage instructions. The second (ff. 41r-51v) reorganises the information and presents a list of plants arranged in alphabetical order with a description of their therapeutic uses.
The Middle English uroscopy text found at the end of the volume is a compilation of several popular uroscopy treatises for the most part ultimately deriving from Giles of Corbeil's popular Latin writings on the topic; the text has no direct parallel, but readers are directed to M. T. Tavormina's Uroscopy in Middle English for description and classification of this text and several related texts and manuscripts.
References
Dr Sarah Gilbert
Project Cataloguer
Cambridge University Library
Information about this document
- Physical Location: Pepys Library
- Classmark: Cambridge, Magdalene College, Pepys MS 1307
- Subject(s): Medieval medicine
- Origin Place: Written in England, perhaps in East Anglia.
- Date of Creation: Written in the fifteenth century, probably in the second quarter.
- Language(s): Middle English and Latin
- Donor(s): Jackson, John, d. 1724
- Former Owner(s): Pepys, Samuel, 1633-1703
- Physical Description:
Secundo folio (f. 2r): Anatazia Recipe cinamonum
- Extent: Codex: 1 + 64 + 1 leaves. Leaf height: 185 mm, width: 125 mm.
- Collation:
Quires of typically 8 leaves arranged as follows:
- Quire 18 (ff. 1-8)
- Quire 26 (ff. 9-14)
- Quire 38-1 +1 (the current third leaf (f. 17) repaired from the bottom half of the original third leaf and the top half of the original fourth leaf, the current 8th leaf an added singleton; ff. 15-22)
- Quires 4-78 (ff. 23-54)
- Quire 88+2 (inserted bifolium after the second leaf, ff. 57-58; ff. 55-64)
No leaf signatures.
Quires numbered in pencil in Hindu-Arabic numerals in the lower outer corner of the first recto of each quire beginning at Quire 4 (23r).
Catchwords in the lower margin of the last verso of some quires, usually enclosed in a rectangular frame or a scroll frame.
- Material: Parchment (HFFH and HFHF (see, e.g., Quire 5)).
- Format: Codex
- Condition: In generally good condition, some leaves a little stained or rubbed with minor losses to the legibility of the text. Some marginal text lost to trimming. Folio 17 appears to be the result of a medieval repair; the leaf is formed from two originally separate leaves, the upper and lower halves of the leaves are visually distinct, and there is a small seam running horizontally across the leaf where the two orignally separate leaves have been cut and then joined with an adhesive.
- Binding:
17th-century binding. Armorial binding in sprinked calf over paste- or mill- boards with blind-tooled decoration and gilded armorial stamps on the left and right covers. Each cover is decorated with a blind double-fillet frame set at the perimeter of the boards, and an additional vertical double-fillet inset from the joint by c. 20mm, dividing the centre panel into two vertical segments, one narrower and one wider. The narrower segment has blind-stamped fleurons in the upper and lower left corners, and the wider segment has blind-stamped fleurons at all four corners and also contains the gilded armorial devices. The armorial stamp on the left cover displays Pepys' armorial crest (camel's head erased bridled and lined ducally gorged), helmet (esquire), and mantling, with the words 'SAM. PEPYS CAR. ET IAC. ANGL.REGIBUS A SECRETIS ADMIRALIÆ' replacing the typical charges in the escutcheon. The armorial stamp on the right cover replaces the text in the escutcheon with the arms of the Pepys family: Quarterly 1st and 4th on a bend between two horses heads erased three fleurs-de-lis, 2nd and 3rd a lion rampant within a bordure engrailed.
Four raised bands and two half bands on the spine. Decorative head and tail bands in alternate ?pink and ?blue segments, now very soiled. Spine is unlabled and all compartments are stamped with a gilded floral design. Gilded decorative roll applied to the covers along the head, fore, and tail edges of the boards. Head, fore, and tail edges of the book block sprinkled with red and brown ink.
Marbled paper pastedowns at both ends of the volume pasted over the turn ins.
One parchment endleaf at each end of the volume, ff. i and ii, both bearing traces of adhesive residue on their outermost face suggesting that they were once pastedowns in a former binding. The front flyleaf, f. i recto, bears the following annotations:
- - The current shelfmark, 'No. 1307' in red ink, added by John Jackson, Pepys' nephew and heir.
- - A former shelfmark, '831-B.' in black ink, struck out with red ink, the deletion by John Jackson, Pepys' nephew and heir.
- - A former shelfmark, '628' in black ink, struck out with red ink, the deletion by John Jackson, Pepys' nephew and heir.
There is an engraved portrait Pepys bookplate bearing the text 'Mens cujusque is est Quisque' and 'SAM . PEPYS . CAR . ET IAC . ANGL . REGIB . A SECRETIS ADMIRALIÆ' and the signature 'R.W.Sculp'
See H. M. Nixon, Catalogue of the Pepys Library at Magdalene College Cambridge, Volume VI (Cambridge, 1984), style 'FL'.
- Foliation:
20th century foliation
i + 1-64 + ii
Foliated in ink in Hindu-Arabic numerals in the upper outer corner of each recto. - Layout: Written height: 150 mm, width: 105 mm. Written in single-column format, typically 24 lines to the page; ruling erased.
- Decoration:
Initials in red in the 'Lombardic Capitals' style at the major and minor divisions of the text.
Wavy line fills in red ink throughout the volume.
Guide letters in light brown ink visible within the matrix of most decorative initials. - Provenance:
Owned by Samuel Pepys the famous naval administrator, member of parliament, and diarist. McKitterick and Beadle noticed that this manuscript is not identifiable in Bernard's Catalogi of 1697; in 1694 Pepys submitted a list of his manuscripts for inclusion in the Catalogi, and as MS 1307 is not on that list McKitterick and Beadle surmise that the volume 'may have come into Pepys's possession after 1694'.
R. McKitterick and R. Beadle, Catalogue of the Pepys Library at Magdalene College, Cambridge: Manuscripts. Part I Medieval, Catalogue of the Pepys Library at Magdalene College, Cambridge, 7 vols (Woodbridge, 1992), vol. 5, pp. 14-15 . - Origin: Written in the fifteenth century, probably in the second quarter. Written in England, perhaps in East Anglia.
Date and location of production assigned based on palaeographical and orthographical details. See also McKitterick and Beadle (1992).
R. McKitterick and R. Beadle, Catalogue of the Pepys Library at Magdalene College, Cambridge: Manuscripts. Part I Medieval, Catalogue of the Pepys Library at Magdalene College, Cambridge, 7 vols (Woodbridge, 1992), vol. 5, pp. 14-15 . - Acquisition:
Acquired by Magdalene College, Cambridge upon the death of John Jackson (d. 1724): in his will (The National Archives, PROB 1/9, Will of Samuel Pepys, Codicil, 13th May 1703), Pepys left a bequest of approximately 3000 manuscripts and printed books to Magdalene College and instructed his nephew John Jackson to arrange for this but they only came to the college after Jackson died. Jackson respected the instructions given in the codicil to the will as can be evidenced from Magdalene College Archives A/41/1: an indenture between Anne Jackson, widow and executrix of John Jackson (nephew and residuary legatee of Samuel Pepys), and the Master and Fellows being a deed of covenant as to providing a Library at the College for the reception of the collection of the books and papers bequeathed to the College by Samuel Pepys, 1 June 1724. It is here that the manuscript's current shelfmark "N.o1307" was added in red ink to the i recto, replacing two older shelfmarks "831- B. " and "628" in brown ink on f. i recto, now both crossed out with red ink.
- Funding: Wellcome
- Data Source(s): This catalogue entry draws extensively on R. McKitterick and R. Beadle, Catalogue of the Pepys Library at Magdalene College, Cambridge: Manuscripts. Part I Medieval, Catalogue of the Pepys Library at Magdalene College, Cambridge, 7 vols (Woodbridge, 1992), vol. V, pp. 14-15 - readers are encouraged to consult this volume for further information.
- Author(s) of the Record: Dr Sarah Gilbert, Project Cataloguer, Cambridge University Library
- Bibliography:McKitterick, Rosamond and Richard Beadle, Manuscripts (Medieval), ed. Robert Latham, Catalogue of the Pepys Library at Magdalene College Cambridge (Cambridge: Brewer, 1992) V.i.Carrillo-Linares, María José, "Middle English Antidotarium Nicholai: Evidence for Linguistic Distribution and Dissemination in the Vernacular", International Journal of English Studies 5 2 71-92 (2005).Tavormina, M. Teresa, "Uroscopy in Middle English: A Guide to the Texts and Manuscripts", in , Studies in medieval and renaissance history 3rd ser., 11 ([Michigan?]: 2014).Green, Monica H., The Antidotarium magnum: A Short Description (2019) https://www.academia.edu/40255503/The_Antidotarium_magnum_A_Short_Description_2019_.
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- Physical Location: Pepys Library
- Classmark: Cambridge, Magdalene College, Pepys MS 1307
- Subject(s): Medieval medicine
- Origin Place: Written in England, perhaps in East Anglia.
- Date of Creation: Written in the fifteenth century, probably in the second quarter.
- Language(s): Middle English and Latin
- Donor(s): Jackson, John, d. 1724
- Former Owner(s): Pepys, Samuel, 1633-1703
- Physical Description:
Secundo folio (f. 2r): Anatazia Recipe cinamonum
- Extent: Codex: 1 + 64 + 1 leaves. Leaf height: 185 mm, width: 125 mm.
- Collation:
Quires of typically 8 leaves arranged as follows:
- Quire 18 (ff. 1-8)
- Quire 26 (ff. 9-14)
- Quire 38-1 +1 (the current third leaf (f. 17) repaired from the bottom half of the original third leaf and the top half of the original fourth leaf, the current 8th leaf an added singleton; ff. 15-22)
- Quires 4-78 (ff. 23-54)
- Quire 88+2 (inserted bifolium after the second leaf, ff. 57-58; ff. 55-64)
No leaf signatures.
Quires numbered in pencil in Hindu-Arabic numerals in the lower outer corner of the first recto of each quire beginning at Quire 4 (23r).
Catchwords in the lower margin of the last verso of some quires, usually enclosed in a rectangular frame or a scroll frame.
- Material: Parchment (HFFH and HFHF (see, e.g., Quire 5)).
- Format: Codex
- Condition: In generally good condition, some leaves a little stained or rubbed with minor losses to the legibility of the text. Some marginal text lost to trimming. Folio 17 appears to be the result of a medieval repair; the leaf is formed from two originally separate leaves, the upper and lower halves of the leaves are visually distinct, and there is a small seam running horizontally across the leaf where the two orignally separate leaves have been cut and then joined with an adhesive.
- Binding:
17th-century binding. Armorial binding in sprinked calf over paste- or mill- boards with blind-tooled decoration and gilded armorial stamps on the left and right covers. Each cover is decorated with a blind double-fillet frame set at the perimeter of the boards, and an additional vertical double-fillet inset from the joint by c. 20mm, dividing the centre panel into two vertical segments, one narrower and one wider. The narrower segment has blind-stamped fleurons in the upper and lower left corners, and the wider segment has blind-stamped fleurons at all four corners and also contains the gilded armorial devices. The armorial stamp on the left cover displays Pepys' armorial crest (camel's head erased bridled and lined ducally gorged), helmet (esquire), and mantling, with the words 'SAM. PEPYS CAR. ET IAC. ANGL.REGIBUS A SECRETIS ADMIRALIÆ' replacing the typical charges in the escutcheon. The armorial stamp on the right cover replaces the text in the escutcheon with the arms of the Pepys family: Quarterly 1st and 4th on a bend between two horses heads erased three fleurs-de-lis, 2nd and 3rd a lion rampant within a bordure engrailed.
Four raised bands and two half bands on the spine. Decorative head and tail bands in alternate ?pink and ?blue segments, now very soiled. Spine is unlabled and all compartments are stamped with a gilded floral design. Gilded decorative roll applied to the covers along the head, fore, and tail edges of the boards. Head, fore, and tail edges of the book block sprinkled with red and brown ink.
Marbled paper pastedowns at both ends of the volume pasted over the turn ins.
One parchment endleaf at each end of the volume, ff. i and ii, both bearing traces of adhesive residue on their outermost face suggesting that they were once pastedowns in a former binding. The front flyleaf, f. i recto, bears the following annotations:
- - The current shelfmark, 'No. 1307' in red ink, added by John Jackson, Pepys' nephew and heir.
- - A former shelfmark, '831-B.' in black ink, struck out with red ink, the deletion by John Jackson, Pepys' nephew and heir.
- - A former shelfmark, '628' in black ink, struck out with red ink, the deletion by John Jackson, Pepys' nephew and heir.
There is an engraved portrait Pepys bookplate bearing the text 'Mens cujusque is est Quisque' and 'SAM . PEPYS . CAR . ET IAC . ANGL . REGIB . A SECRETIS ADMIRALIÆ' and the signature 'R.W.Sculp'
See H. M. Nixon, Catalogue of the Pepys Library at Magdalene College Cambridge, Volume VI (Cambridge, 1984), style 'FL'.
- Foliation:
20th century foliation
i + 1-64 + ii
Foliated in ink in Hindu-Arabic numerals in the upper outer corner of each recto. - Layout: Written height: 150 mm, width: 105 mm. Written in single-column format, typically 24 lines to the page; ruling erased.
- Decoration:
Initials in red in the 'Lombardic Capitals' style at the major and minor divisions of the text.
Wavy line fills in red ink throughout the volume.
Guide letters in light brown ink visible within the matrix of most decorative initials. - Provenance:
Owned by Samuel Pepys the famous naval administrator, member of parliament, and diarist. McKitterick and Beadle noticed that this manuscript is not identifiable in Bernard's Catalogi of 1697; in 1694 Pepys submitted a list of his manuscripts for inclusion in the Catalogi, and as MS 1307 is not on that list McKitterick and Beadle surmise that the volume 'may have come into Pepys's possession after 1694'.
R. McKitterick and R. Beadle, Catalogue of the Pepys Library at Magdalene College, Cambridge: Manuscripts. Part I Medieval, Catalogue of the Pepys Library at Magdalene College, Cambridge, 7 vols (Woodbridge, 1992), vol. 5, pp. 14-15 . - Origin: Written in the fifteenth century, probably in the second quarter. Written in England, perhaps in East Anglia.
Date and location of production assigned based on palaeographical and orthographical details. See also McKitterick and Beadle (1992).
R. McKitterick and R. Beadle, Catalogue of the Pepys Library at Magdalene College, Cambridge: Manuscripts. Part I Medieval, Catalogue of the Pepys Library at Magdalene College, Cambridge, 7 vols (Woodbridge, 1992), vol. 5, pp. 14-15 . - Acquisition:
Acquired by Magdalene College, Cambridge upon the death of John Jackson (d. 1724): in his will (The National Archives, PROB 1/9, Will of Samuel Pepys, Codicil, 13th May 1703), Pepys left a bequest of approximately 3000 manuscripts and printed books to Magdalene College and instructed his nephew John Jackson to arrange for this but they only came to the college after Jackson died. Jackson respected the instructions given in the codicil to the will as can be evidenced from Magdalene College Archives A/41/1: an indenture between Anne Jackson, widow and executrix of John Jackson (nephew and residuary legatee of Samuel Pepys), and the Master and Fellows being a deed of covenant as to providing a Library at the College for the reception of the collection of the books and papers bequeathed to the College by Samuel Pepys, 1 June 1724. It is here that the manuscript's current shelfmark "N.o1307" was added in red ink to the i recto, replacing two older shelfmarks "831- B. " and "628" in brown ink on f. i recto, now both crossed out with red ink.
- Funding: Wellcome
- Data Source(s): This catalogue entry draws extensively on R. McKitterick and R. Beadle, Catalogue of the Pepys Library at Magdalene College, Cambridge: Manuscripts. Part I Medieval, Catalogue of the Pepys Library at Magdalene College, Cambridge, 7 vols (Woodbridge, 1992), vol. V, pp. 14-15 - readers are encouraged to consult this volume for further information.
- Author(s) of the Record: Dr Sarah Gilbert, Project Cataloguer, Cambridge University Library
- Bibliography:McKitterick, Rosamond and Richard Beadle, Manuscripts (Medieval), ed. Robert Latham, Catalogue of the Pepys Library at Magdalene College Cambridge (Cambridge: Brewer, 1992) V.i.Carrillo-Linares, María José, "Middle English Antidotarium Nicholai: Evidence for Linguistic Distribution and Dissemination in the Vernacular", International Journal of English Studies 5 2 71-92 (2005).Tavormina, M. Teresa, "Uroscopy in Middle English: A Guide to the Texts and Manuscripts", in , Studies in medieval and renaissance history 3rd ser., 11 ([Michigan?]: 2014).Green, Monica H., The Antidotarium magnum: A Short Description (2019) https://www.academia.edu/40255503/The_Antidotarium_magnum_A_Short_Description_2019_.
- Title: Antidotarium Nicholai (Middle English)
- Author(s): Nicholas
- Language(s): Middle English and Latin
- Bibliography:See María José Carrillo-Linares, ‘Middle English Antidotarium Nicholai: Evidence for Linguistic Distribution and Dissemination in the Vernacular’, International Journal of English Studies, 5.2 (2005), pp. 71–92, for a classification of the Middle English versions of the Antidotarium Nicholai.
- Title: Antidotarium Nicholai - alphabetical list of medical recipes
- Author(s): Nicholas
- Language(s): Middle English and Latin
- Note(s):
- Chapters: Aurea alexandrina - Zynzebere conditum
- In this version of the text the recipe-preparations are arranged in alphabetical order. The first few words of each recipe are typically in Latin, but the majority of the text of each recipe is in Middle English.
- Bibliography:eVK 1210.00eTK 165AeTK 165BeTK 165EeTK 165FeTK 165GeTK 166AeTK 166B
- Title: Version of the Antidotarium Nicholai - alphabetical list of plants and their therapeutic properties
- Author(s): Nicholas
- Language(s): Middle English and Latin
- Note(s):
- Text ends abruptly
- Chapters Aure alexandrina - Zynzebere conditum
- In this version of the text, a list of plants is presented alphabetically, and their therapeutic or other qualities are described.
- Bibliography:eVK 1206.0eTK 0165L
- Title: Synonyma herbarum
- Language(s): Latin
- Note(s):
- Text ends abruptly in 'P'.
- This text is arranged across several leaves, with pre-filled head-letters in red ink in unequal alphabetical groups running down the left edge of the page (aaaa, bbbbbbb, ccc, etc), and then the main text of each lemma added in black ink. The final few head-letters of most sections are unused.
- Bibliography:eTK 0147CeTK 0147HeTK 0147J
- Title: Version of the 'Dome of Urine'
- Language(s): Middle English
- Note(s):
- See Tavormina (2014) for a discussion of medieval uroscopies including this text.
- McKitterick and Beadle (1992) provide the following information supplied by A. I. Doyle about this text: 'Dr Doyle notes that the contents of ff. 61 et seq. appear to correspond with Durham, University Library, Cosin V.v.13, f. 32v, which in turn is related to Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Hatton 29, Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Digby 95, and Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Ashmole 1438 Pt. 1.'
- See also Durham, University Library, MS Cosin V.iii.10, ff. 4r-8r (not mentioned in McKitterick and Beadle (1992)).
- Bibliography:M. T. Tavormina, ‘Uroscopy in Middle English: A Guide to the Texts and Manuscripts’, Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History, 3rd ser., 11 (2014), this MS is Pe2.R. McKitterick and R. Beadle, Catalogue of the Pepys Library at Magdalene College, Cambridge: Manuscripts. Part I Medieval, Catalogue of the Pepys Library at Magdalene College, Cambridge, 7 vols (Woodbridge, 1992), vol. 5, pp. 14-15
- Title: Notes on Urine and Uroscopy
- Language(s): Latin
- Note(s):
- Added in the same hand as the note on f. 58v
- A longer version in Cambridge, University Library, MS Ii.6.17, ff. 42r-47r
- Bibliography:eTK 1610B
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