Peterhouse : Medical Texts

Peterhouse

Cambridge, Peterhouse, MS 95 (hereafter Peterhouse 95) is a composite manuscript of two unequally sized Parts. The first and larger part (ff. i-vii, 1-120) is largely comprised of popular medical treatises in Latin, and the second and smaller part contains a glossed copy of Guillaume de Mandagout's De electionibus in Latin. Both Parts of the manuscript were together by 1501 at the latest, since Thomas Deynman (d. 1501), a former Master of Peterhouse added his name to leaves in both Parts. Before passing into Deynman's care, Peterhouse 95 was once owned or used by Roger Marchall (c. 1417-1477), a doctor and physician to Edward IV. In common with numerous other manuscripts, Marchall added a table of contents to the beginning of the manuscript (f. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(8);return false;'>iii verso</a>) as well as rubrics and running headings for some of the treatises in the volume (see e.g., f. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(17);return false;'>1r</a>). Marchall's ownership or use of manuscripts is very well-attested, with forty-five surviving books (including this one) bearing evidence to connect him to them in some way; six others may have been his or accessed by him, and a further twelve are recorded but not traced. Thirteen manuscripts owned or used by Marchall (and another with possible Marchall connections) have been digitised, catalogued and conserved as part of the <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/collections/medievalmedicalrecipes'>Curious Cures in Cambridge Libraries</a> project: <ul><li>- <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-GONVILLE-AND-CAIUS-00059-00153/1'>Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College, MS 59/153</a> (Voigts 1995, no. 2) </li><li>- <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-GONVILLE-AND-CAIUS-00098-00050/1'>Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College, MS 98/50</a> (Voigts 1995, no. 4) </li><li>- <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-GONVILLE-AND-CAIUS-00105-00057/1'>Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College, MS 105/57</a> (Voigts 1995, no. 5)</li><li>- <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-GONVILLE-AND-CAIUS-00159-00209/1'>Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College, MS 159/209</a> (Voigts 1995, no. 9)</li><li>- <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-GONVILLE-AND-CAIUS-00178-00211/1'>Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College, MS 178/211</a> (Voigts 1995, no. 10)</li><li>- <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-GONVILLE-AND-CAIUS-00181-00214/1'>Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College, MS 181/214</a> (Voigts 1995, no. 11)</li><li>- <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-GONVILLE-AND-CAIUS-00345-00620/1'>Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College, MS 345/620</a> (Voigts 1995, no. 12)</li><li>- <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-GONVILLE-AND-CAIUS-00373-00593/1'>Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College, MS 373/593</a> (Voigts 1995, no. 13)</li><li>- <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-GONVILLE-AND-CAIUS-00379-00599/1'>Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College, MS 379/599</a> (Voigts 1995, no. 14)</li><li>- <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-GONVILLE-AND-CAIUS-00401-00623/1'>Cambridge, Gonville and Caius College, MS 401/623</a> (Voigts 1995, no. 16)</li><li>- <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-PETERHOUSE-00095/1'>Cambridge, Peterhouse, MS 95</a> (Voigts 1995, no. 24)</li><li>- <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-PETERHOUSE-00222/1'>Cambridge, Peterhouse, MS 222</a> (Voigts 1995, no. 28)</li><li>- <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://mss-cat.trin.cam.ac.uk/Manuscript/O.8.31'>Cambridge, Trinity College, MS O.8.31</a> (Voigts 1995, no. 29)</li><li>- <a target='_blank' class='externalLink' href='https://cudl.lib.cam.ac.uk/view/MS-ADD-09213/1'>Cambridge, University Library, MS Add. 9213</a> (possible Marchall connections) (Voigts 1995, no. 48)</li></ul> Peterhouse 95 contains several popular medieval medical treatises including the Liber aggregationum of Serapion the Younger in the Latin translation by Simon of Genoa and Abraham of Tortosa, the Areolae of Iohannes de Sancto Amando, and the De simplicibus medicinis of Yuhanna ibn Masawaih (Mesue). Examination of the copy of the De simplicibus medicinis in the manuscript reveals two unusual codicological features. First, the production of Quire 9 (ff. 80-91) appears to have been completed with some difficulty; some text is struck through at the end of f. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(182);return false;'>83v</a>, the following leaf was cancelled, and a singleton was added, not, as is typical, in the position of the cancelled leaf, but one leaf after (i.e., the singleton is f. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(185);return false;'>85</a> not f. 84), and there are further deletions and corrections on ff. 86-87. As it now stands, the text in that quire (Mesue's De simplicibus medicinis) is correct, but the scribes responsible for producing this part of Peterhouse 95 appear to have performed some very precise codicological surgery in order to fix their copy of the De simplicibus medicinis while also retaining as much of their existing work as possible. Secondly, a large number of leaves have been lost between the leaves now designated ff. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(212);return false;'>98v</a> and <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(213);return false;'>99r</a>. There are 12 stubs present in the gutter between ff. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(212);return false;'>98v-99r</a>; these stubs are probably what remains of the last three leaves of Quire 10 and the first nine leaves of Quire 11. The text at the end of f. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(212);return false;'>98v</a> is the last part of Mesue's De simplicibus medicinis) in this manuscript, and it ends abruptly in the middle of a sentence. The number of stubs present in the gutter suggests that some further text-leaves have been lost from Peterhouse 95, as the only remaining leaf of Quire 11, f. 99, is blank, and it is unlikely that Quire 11 would have been placed in the manuscript if it were entirely blank. References: <div style='list-style-type: disc;'><div style='display: list-item; margin-left: 20px;'>L. E. Voigts, ‘A Doctor and His Books: The Manuscripts of Roger Marchall (d. 1477)’, in New Science out of Old Books: Studies in Manuscripts and Early Printed Books in Honour of A.I. Doyle, ed. by R. Beadle and A. J. Piper (Aldershot: Scolar Press, 1995), pp. 249–314</div></div> Dr Sarah Gilbert Project Cataloguer for the Curious Cures Project Cambridge University Library