<p style='text-align: justify;'>Cambridge, Trinity College MS O.8.27 (hereafter MS O.8.27) is a composite manuscript, with the major parts originating from Lucca in Italy in the late 14th century, and from France in the late 13th century. All of the Parts were together in England by the 15th century, when a list of the contents of the volume was added to f. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(10);return false;'>[i] verso</a> by an English hand. The contents of the manuscript primarily consist of medicinal recipes in Latin, but the final part includes an instructive medicinal poem in Anglo-Norman (the <i>Physique rimee</i> on ff. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(327);return false;'>3:1r-3:3r</a>) and some medical recipes in medieval French. The multi-lingual context of medieval medicine in north-western Europe is further emphasised by the plant-name glosses added by two medieval scribes in Middle English to the margins of Platearius's <i>De simplicibus medicinis ('Circa instans') on ff. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(179);return false;'>2:34r-2:107r</a></i>. </p><p style='text-align: justify;'>While the order of texts in the table of contents corresponds to the order in which they appear in the manuscript, it appears that at least one and possibly two of those listed may have been removed from the manuscript after the list was written, apparently before the end of the 16th century, when a second table of contents was added below. The texts listed in the first table of contents are as follows, with current folio references given where possible: <ul><li>Primus liber seruitor serapionis (ff. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(13);return false;'>1:1r-1:50r</a>)</li><li>Secundus liber Sinonoma latine Gallice et anglice</li><li>Tercius liber Tabule magistri Salerni (ff. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(113);return false;'>2:1r-2:34r</a>)</li><li>Quartus liber platearium de simplicibus medicinis id est Circa instans (ff. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(179);return false;'>2:34r-2:107r</a>)</li><li>Quintus liber </li><li>Sextus liber Tractatus de secretis secretorum aristotelis (ff. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(332);return false;'>3:3v-3:5r</a>)</li><li>Septimus liber liber Medicinarum et incipit homo de humo fractus de quatuor Elementis Constat (ff. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(337);return false;'>3:6r-3:16r</a>)</li></ul> The absence of a title against 'Quintus liber' may suggest a mistake on the part of the scribe, an unfulfilled plan to add a fifth text to the volume, or uncertainty on the scribe's part as to the correct information to record. The latter may indeed be the case, since the text of the <i>Physique rimee</i> is acephalous, and a title was not provided in the closing rubric. The note 'Rhasis pag. 45' does not indicate an additional text, but is merely a repetition of the misattribution of the <i>Liber servitoris</i> to Razi in the scribal colophon on that page ('...magistri raxis seruitoris...'). This annotator did not record the <i>Physique rimee</i> either. </p><p style='text-align: justify;'>MS O.8.27 was donated to Trinity College by Thomas Gale in 1738. The volume had been obtained from an unknown source by Thomas' father Roger, a fellow of Trinity College and a significant collector of rare books and manuscripts. Although we do not have a complete provenance for the manuscript, one former English owner of the book in the early 17th century was probably the London physician Daniel Sellin (d. 1615). A 'D Sellin' signed his name twice on f. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(13);return false;'>1:1r</a> in a contemporary script, and a Daniel Sellin described himself as a 'doctor of physick' in his will (proved 21 April 1615). Sellin appears in a scurrilous poem about London physicians now preserved in Cambridge, University Library, MS Add. 4138 (ff. 16v-18v) and briefly discussed in Harkness (2008). The poem begins (f. 16v):</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>'Faire ladies all gladd yee , here com's Doctor Paddie <br /> the best at womans Glister <br /> What euer be her grief , he gaue her reliefe <br /> If once he but kisse hir'.<br /> The poem continues in a similar excorciation of the behaviours of a significant number of the professional doctors working in London in the early 17th century. The anonymous poet says of Sellin (f. 17v):<br /> 'Doctor quinne you looke verie thinne <br /> though you be of the Colledge <br /> Yet Doctor Selinne in a Cup of good winne <br /> Hath farre better knowledge <br /> Is it with reading Greshams lectures ; or yet you are a great inventor ?<br /> No no t'is not so well <br /> Shall I tell you the cause , it is because <br /> You love it too, too well.'</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Four copies of the poem survive (see also: London, British Library, MS Lansdowne 241, fol. 374v (John Sanderson's diary and commonplace book, 1560-1610); Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Rawl. Poet. 160, ff. 183v-185r; and Oxford, Corpus Christi College, MS 327, ff. 8v-10r), each with a similar opening and a similar group of physicians, but with occasional additions and subtractions of poorly behaved doctors (see Harness, esp. n. 23). </p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Dr Sarah Gilbert<br /> Project Cataloguer for the Curious Cures in Cambridge Libraries Project<br /> Cambridge University Library</p><p style='text-align: justify;'><b>References</b><div style='list-style-type: disc;'><div style='display: list-item; margin-left: 20px;'>D. Harkness, 'A View from the Streets: Women and Medical Work in Elizabethan London', <i>Bulletin of the History of Medicine</i> 82.1 - Special Issue: Women, Health, and Healing in Early Modern Europe (2008) pp. 52-85</div><div style='display: list-item; margin-left: 20px;'>Kew, The National Archives, PROB 11/125/336</div><div style='display: list-item; margin-left: 20px;'>Cambridge, University Library, MS Add. 4138, ff. 16v-18v</div></div><br /></p>
