Medical treatises (Ars medicine) (St John's College MS E.29)
This manuscript contains a number of the standard components that made up the Ars medicine, a group of texts that was used as a basic introduction to Hippocratic and Galenic medicine in the Late Middle Ages: the Isagoge of Johannitius, the Liber Urinarum of Isaac Israeli ben Solomon, the Liber Urinarum of Theophilus, the Liber Pulsuum of Philaretus, and the Tegni of Galen.
The manuscript opens with four leaves that were added to the manuscript in the 13th century. The first leaf contains a fragment of another copy of the Quaestiones on the Isagoge of Johannitius, and was formerly used as a pastedown. Although this copy was not made by the same hand that produced the copy found on ff. 1r-34r, the fragment and full-text copy were certainly bound together from an early stage. This is indicated by the fact that the three subsequent leaves with which f. [i] may form a booklet (ff. [ii]-[iv]) contain texts copied by 13th-century hands that also added other texts in the manuscript (see f. 72r-72v and ff. 109r-110r).
Dr Clarck Drieshen
Project Cataloguer
Cambridge University Library
Information about this document
- Physical Location: St John's College Library
- Classmark: St John's College MS E.29
- Subject(s): Medicine
- Extent: Codex: 4 | 110 leaves.
- Collation: 1four 2-128 138-1 (7th leaf cancelled) 148 158-1 (8th leaf cancelled)
Quire numbers added in pencil throughout the manuscript in the 20th century: '1-14' for 1-110. Please note that the collation in this manuscript counts ff. [i] recto-{iv] verso as quire 1.
- Binding:
Vellum binding with three blind-stamped panels with floral motifs, zoomorphic figures and hybrids. Those on the front cover are much faded, but on the rear cover a monkey and bird (outer panel) and a centaur and dragon (central panel) can be seen. The rear cover is inscribed with the letters 'de f. v.' in a (?) 15th-century script. Spine sewn on two raised bands, insribed, in brown ink, with the number '29', with, an old paper label with the same number written on it above it and two modern paper pastedown with the classmark references 'E' and '29'
Binding height: 210mm; width: 170mm; depth: 40mm.
- Foliation:
Late 19th or early 20th-century foliation
[i], [ii]-[iv] | 1-110
Numbering in pencil in the upper right-hand corner of the rectos. - Provenance:
?The Benedictine Priory of West Mersea, Essex (founded 1046; dissolved 1542): perhaps its ownership inscription on f. [i] verso: 'Iste liber pertinet domi de mersay' (crossed out) (see 'Medica — Mersea, Essex. Benedictine alien priory of St Peter; cell of St Ouen, Rouen', in MLGB3 [accessed 1 March 2023]).
'John Bote': 16th-century ownership inscription in the upper margin of f. 80v: 'Iste lyber pertenet [sic] ad me John [?]Bote'.
Purchased at an unknown time before 1624 by William Crashaw, a lawyer, book collector, and former Johnian. In his lifetime Crashaw's collection numbered around 200 manuscripts and 1000 printed books.
Purchased from William Crashaw by Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton at some time before his death in 1624 with the intention to present the volumes as a gift to the Library of St John's College. The library was still partly under construction at the time of the purchase resulting in the Wriothesley family storing Crashaw's collection and delivering it piecemeal to the College over a number of years. Upon Henry Wriothesley's death in 1624, this duty passed to his son Thomas Wriothesley, 4th Earl of Southampton.
- Acquisition: Given to St John’s College in 1635 by Thomas Wriothesley, 4th Earl of Southampton on behalf of William Crashaw and Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton. The initials ‘Tho. C. S.’ in ink (for Thomas Comes Southamptoniensis) are present on f. inside of the upper cover. William Crashaw's bookplate recording the donation is present on inside of the upper cover; St John's College's (?) 17th-century armorial bookplate pasted on the inside of the upper cover; and its classmark 'E.29' written in a (?) 17th-century script both on the vellum binding on the inside of the upper cover and on the exposed inside upper cover.
- Funding: Wellcome
- Data Source(s): This catalogue entry draws on M. R. James, Descriptive Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Library of St John's College, Cambridge (Cambirdge, 1913) .
- Author(s) of the Record: Dr Clarck Drieshen, Project Cataloguer, Cambridge University Library
- Bibliography:James, M.R., A descriptive catalogue of the manuscripts in the library of St. John's College, Cambridge (Cambridge: University Press, 1913).Ker, N.R., Medieval libraries of Great Britain: a list of surviving books 2nd, Royal Historical Society guides and handbooks 3 (London: Offices of the Royal Historical Society, 1964).O'Boyle, Cornelius, Thirteenth- and fourteenth-century copies of the Ars medicine: a checklist and contents descriptions of the manuscripts, Articella studies 1 (Cambridge: Cambridge Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine, 1998).Brenner, Elma, "The Medical Role of Monasteries in the Latin West, c. 1050–1300", in Alison I. Beach and Isabelle Cochelin (eds), The Long Twelfth Century, The Cambridge History of Medieval Monasticism in the Latin West (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020) 3 865-881.
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- Physical Location: St John's College Library
- Classmark: St John's College MS E.29
- Subject(s): Medicine
- Extent: Codex: 4 | 110 leaves.
- Collation: 1four 2-128 138-1 (7th leaf cancelled) 148 158-1 (8th leaf cancelled)
Quire numbers added in pencil throughout the manuscript in the 20th century: '1-14' for 1-110. Please note that the collation in this manuscript counts ff. [i] recto-{iv] verso as quire 1.
- Binding:
Vellum binding with three blind-stamped panels with floral motifs, zoomorphic figures and hybrids. Those on the front cover are much faded, but on the rear cover a monkey and bird (outer panel) and a centaur and dragon (central panel) can be seen. The rear cover is inscribed with the letters 'de f. v.' in a (?) 15th-century script. Spine sewn on two raised bands, insribed, in brown ink, with the number '29', with, an old paper label with the same number written on it above it and two modern paper pastedown with the classmark references 'E' and '29'
Binding height: 210mm; width: 170mm; depth: 40mm.
- Foliation:
Late 19th or early 20th-century foliation
[i], [ii]-[iv] | 1-110
Numbering in pencil in the upper right-hand corner of the rectos. - Provenance:
?The Benedictine Priory of West Mersea, Essex (founded 1046; dissolved 1542): perhaps its ownership inscription on f. [i] verso: 'Iste liber pertinet domi de mersay' (crossed out) (see 'Medica — Mersea, Essex. Benedictine alien priory of St Peter; cell of St Ouen, Rouen', in MLGB3 [accessed 1 March 2023]).
'John Bote': 16th-century ownership inscription in the upper margin of f. 80v: 'Iste lyber pertenet [sic] ad me John [?]Bote'.
Purchased at an unknown time before 1624 by William Crashaw, a lawyer, book collector, and former Johnian. In his lifetime Crashaw's collection numbered around 200 manuscripts and 1000 printed books.
Purchased from William Crashaw by Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton at some time before his death in 1624 with the intention to present the volumes as a gift to the Library of St John's College. The library was still partly under construction at the time of the purchase resulting in the Wriothesley family storing Crashaw's collection and delivering it piecemeal to the College over a number of years. Upon Henry Wriothesley's death in 1624, this duty passed to his son Thomas Wriothesley, 4th Earl of Southampton.
- Acquisition: Given to St John’s College in 1635 by Thomas Wriothesley, 4th Earl of Southampton on behalf of William Crashaw and Henry Wriothesley, 3rd Earl of Southampton. The initials ‘Tho. C. S.’ in ink (for Thomas Comes Southamptoniensis) are present on f. inside of the upper cover. William Crashaw's bookplate recording the donation is present on inside of the upper cover; St John's College's (?) 17th-century armorial bookplate pasted on the inside of the upper cover; and its classmark 'E.29' written in a (?) 17th-century script both on the vellum binding on the inside of the upper cover and on the exposed inside upper cover.
- Funding: Wellcome
- Data Source(s): This catalogue entry draws on M. R. James, Descriptive Catalogue of the Manuscripts in the Library of St John's College, Cambridge (Cambirdge, 1913) .
- Author(s) of the Record: Dr Clarck Drieshen, Project Cataloguer, Cambridge University Library
- Bibliography:James, M.R., A descriptive catalogue of the manuscripts in the library of St. John's College, Cambridge (Cambridge: University Press, 1913).Ker, N.R., Medieval libraries of Great Britain: a list of surviving books 2nd, Royal Historical Society guides and handbooks 3 (London: Offices of the Royal Historical Society, 1964).O'Boyle, Cornelius, Thirteenth- and fourteenth-century copies of the Ars medicine: a checklist and contents descriptions of the manuscripts, Articella studies 1 (Cambridge: Cambridge Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine, 1998).Brenner, Elma, "The Medical Role of Monasteries in the Latin West, c. 1050–1300", in Alison I. Beach and Isabelle Cochelin (eds), The Long Twelfth Century, The Cambridge History of Medieval Monasticism in the Latin West (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020) 3 865-881.
- Title: Part 1
- Origin Place: England or France.
- Date of Creation: Copied in the 13th century.
- Language(s): Latin
- Extent: Codex: 4 leaves. Leaf height: 215 mm, width: 160 mm.
- Collation:
- Quire 1four (ff. [i]-[iv])
- Material: Parchment
- Format: Codex
- Script:
Folio [i] copied by a single hand in an 13th-century Northern Gothica Textualis Libraria script.
Additions to ff. [ii]-[iv] copied by various hands in cursive Gothic scripts.
- Layout: [i] recto-[i] verso: Written height: 100 mm, width: 150 mm. Ruled in crayon, frame and line, single columns, 33 lines to the page, written above top line. [ii] recto-[iv] verso: Written height: mm, width: mm. Ruled in crayon, frame and line, ruled for two columns but written on three on f. [ii] recto, up to 57 lines to the page, written above top line.
- Decoration:
This part of the manuscript does not contain any signficant form of decoration.
- Title: Quaestiones on Iohannitius, Isagoge
- Language(s): Latin
- Note(s): Altough the second part of this manuscript contains a full copy of the Quaestiones on Iohannitius, Isagoge , this fragmentary leaf has been copied by a different scribe. Perhaps it was taken from the exemplar for this manuscript or is a cancelled leaf from a copy that was made from this manuscript.
- Title: Medical notes
- Language(s): Latin
- Note(s): E.g.: "Tisis est consumptio tocius humiditatis corporis ex ulcere pulmonis proveniens".; Added by a 13th-century hand.
- Title: Note on the five Germanic regions
- Language(s): Latin
- Note(s): Added by a 13th-century hand.
- Excerpts:Incipit: [ii] verso Westphalis [...] saxonie [...] quinque regiones Alemannie
- Title: Medical verses
- Language(s): Latin
- Note(s): Including the Hexametri leonini de plantis of Otto of Cremona on f. [ii] verso: "Est aloes lignum preciosum sit tibi signum".
- Excerpts:Incipit: [ii] recto Collige triticeis mensure pondera grauis / Graua quater quinque scrupuli pro pondere poneExplicit: [iii] recto Empta solet kare multum medicina iuuare / Si detur gratis nil confert utititatis
- Bibliography:eTK t0044770000eTK t0099090000eTK t0238390000eTK t0261370000eTK t0292060000
- Title: Medical commentary
- Language(s): Latin
- Note(s): Because the text is heavily abbreviated, its incipit and explicit have not been transcribed in this record.
- Title: Verse text on uroscopy
- Language(s): Latin
- Excerpts:Incipit: [iv] recto [Q]uis color et que sit substantia quanta sit et quid / Continuantur in urina sit questio primaExplicit: [iv] verso Optima citrina est subduccio pessima liuens / Vel nigra uel uiridis mala sanguinis emula multa / Pleureticis et consumptis preuentia mortis
- Bibliography:eTK t0293360000eTK t0309630000
- Title: Medical verses
- Language(s): Latin
- Note(s): One of the verses has been copied out by a later hand below: 'In sene uel iuene si uene sanguine plene / Quo uis mense bene fiat de cisio uene'.
- Excerpts:Incipit: [iv] verso Claudus et balbus vt utrique malo mediaris / Antidotum tibi do sedeas et pauca loquarisExplicit: [iv] verso Est uulnus plaga pars uel prouincia dicta / Est arbor palma pavola uel victoria dicta
- Title: Part 2
- Origin Place: England or France.
- Date of Creation: Copied in the first half of the 13th century.
- Language(s): Latin
- Physical Description:
2r -culis sperma ministrant
- Extent: Codex: 110 leaves. Leaf height: 220 mm, width: 170 mm.
- Material: Parchment (FHHF)
- Format: Codex
- Condition: The leaves contain various holes that were caused when the in the process of making the parchment. One strip of parchment has been sewn to f. 4 with red thread.
- Layout:
Written height: 120-135 mm, width: 75-80 mm. Ruled in leadpoint, frame and line ruling. Single columns, 24-26 lines to the page, written above top line.
- Decoration:
Two-line initials in blue or red with penwork decoration and pen-flourishing in the opposite colour throughout.
Titles and headings have been written in red ink.
Paraphs in blue or red ink.
- Additions:
Numerous marginal notes and recipes added by 13th-century hands to the medical texts throughout this part of the manuscript
Note of the manuscript's contents, by an early-modern hand (f. [i] verso). - Title: Liber urinarum
- Author(s): Isaac Israeli ben Solomon
- Language(s): Latin
- Bibliography:eTK t0157600000
- Title: Medical tract
- Language(s): Latin
- Note(s): Copied by the same 13th-century hand that added the tract on ff. [iii] verso-[iv] recto.; Because the text is heavily abbreviated, its incipit and explicit have not been transcribed in this record.
- Title: Liber urinarum
- Author(s): Theophilos Protospatharios
- Language(s): Latin
- Title: Saying
- Language(s): Latin
- Note(s): Full transcription.
- Excerpts:Incipit: 81r Dum dolet infirmus medicus sit pingnore firmus / sedus in antiqum conseruat pingnus amicum
- Title: Liber pulsuum
- Author(s): Philaretus
- Language(s): Latin
- Title: Medical notes and recipes
- Language(s): Latin
- Note(s): Added in a 13th-century hand.
- Title: Two memoranda
- Language(s): Latin
- Note(s): Full transcription.; Added by a 13th-century hand.
- Excerpts:Incipit: 109v Memorandum quod in die beati Steffani acquietaui me in Judaismo totaliter usque ad vi. sol. postea cepi viii.d deinde per Johannem xl.d postea in die annunciationis beate Marie iiii sol.Explicit: 110r Memorandum quod computatis omnibus debu[i]t mihi domina Ysot. viii sol. iiiior d. minus
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