Londres. Wellcome Library, MS.408

Biblissima authority file: https://data.biblissima.fr/entity/Q149744

  • Other Form of the Shelfmark :
    • London. Wellcome Collection, MS.408
    • London. Wellcome Library, MS.408
    • Londres. Wellcome Library, MS.408
    • Wellcome Library, MS.408
  • Held at : Londres. Wellcome Library
  • Date of Origin :
    • 1450-1550?
  • Composition :
    • 1 volume; 108 leaves 4to. 21 x 14 cm. Modern vellum covers. Margins and corners badly frayed and worn, some staining by damp. The text on various faded pages becomes almost illegible, e.g. f. 24r. A leaf at the beginning and end of the first section, and two leaves at the end, are wanting. The first 14 leaves are written in a neat Anglicana formata book-hand, initials, marginal headings and underlinings in red, 32-34 lines to a page. ff. 71-85 are on paper of smaller format (19.5 x 13.5 cm), and written probably c. 1500. The manuscript has been re-foliated in pencil, but there is an original foliation throughout most of the manuscript, excluding the first section, of 1-71 but now bound in wrong order, viz. 64-67, 18 not foliated originally, 68-71, 1-61; 62 and 63 are wanting. Following f. 92 and f. 100 of the new foliation are inserted slips. There are 4 vellum fly-leaves at the beginning, and 5 at the end, consisting of fragments of a legal work written c. 1300. The script of these fragments suggests that they were written later (c. 1350-1425), as they are presented in a neat gothic textura semi-quadrata hand. The date 1533 occurs in the margin of f. 97v; and on ff. 106v and 107r are receipts 'Pro mentagra vel morbo gallico'. The entry on f. 4r, line 15 describing William Bokynham as a cardinal seems to be an error, it should perhaps read 'ad cardinali'. On f. 7r in the margin is an elaborate calligraphic decoration of Bokynham's name. It incorporates the typical Anglicana 'barbed-wire' decoration, alongside knots on the elongated looped ascenders, see: L. Warner, 'Scribes, Misattributed: Hoccleve and Pinkhurst,' Studies in the Age of Chaucer, 37 (2015), pages 55-100.

IIIF manifest

IIIF Drag and Drop Icon

Full digitisation

Notes

Data Source: Wellcome Collection - Online Collections

  • Collection of medical receipts, etc. in English and Latin by several late 15th century and early 16th century Anglicana and Secretary hands. Preceded by three short works on uroscopy in Latin, by William Kylinghale and William Bokynham, in a mid-15th century Anglicana script.

    Contents

    1. ff. 1r-v Anonymous, De urinis [beginning wanting].

    f. 1r De Vrinis / et tristicia distemperata Quarta decima significatur ab abstinencia ... f. 1v ... non liquor alter in est, cui talis regula datur.

    2. ff. 1v-4r William Kylinghale, Colores urinarum.

    f. 1v Hic incipiunt colores urinarum quibus magister Willelmus Kylinghale doctor phisice usus fuit tempore / suo. / Urine whyte and clere as water of a welle ... f. 4r ... usque ad plantam pedis. et vocatur regio regeneratorum. quia ibi membra regenerantur.

    3. ff. 4r-7r William Bokynham, Colores urinarum.

    f. 4r Hic incipiunt colores urinarum per Willelmum bokynhamum de bononia doctorem phisice. ac cardinalem Romane / ecclesie. / Urina rufa. is of the coloure of golde ... f. 7r Melancolia frigida et sicca.

    4. ff. 7r-13r William Bokyngham, De urinis.

    f. 7r Hic incipit quidam tractatus de urinis compilatus per Willelmum Bokynhamum. ecclesie Catholice sancte trinitatis Norwici monachum. In iche urin aren. iiii thenges to be considered ... f. 13r ... And stinkande sauor corupcion of humores. Explicit tractatus de urinis compilatus per Willelmum bokynhamum monachum. Testante R.G.

    5. ff. 13v-14v Queen Isabella's Book of Medicines.

    f. 13v De conferentibus. / Here begynneth a compilacion of philisoferes that was sent to Dame Isabelle. qwene of Engelond ... f. 14v ... Alle mylke of bestes is bad saue of the gote. Aqua mirabilis. Recipe salpetri et vitriole ana. de quolibet eorum ... bibe illam sero frigidam mane vero calidam.

    On this dietary see W. L. Braekman, Studies on Alchemy, Diet, Medecine [sic] and Prognostication in Middle English (Brussels: UFSAL, 1986), pp. 43-82.

    f. 15r Blank

    6. ff. 15v-20v Index to the manuscript.

    f. 15v The dyrectory for conclusyones In this booke not goyng by lettre. (Text begins) ffor barkyng of dogg ... f. 15v ... pryceys off ii vinneys [sic for 'vines'] and othre thyngs.

    ff. 16r-20v The dyrectory of thys booke by letter. (Text begins) A / appetide [sic for'appetite'] ... f. 20v ... ypocrase to make.

    7. ff. 21r-24r Middle English and Latin receipts.

    f. 21r (Begins) Pro as[s]umatur ... f. 24r (faded) ... for py or iij.

    8. ff. 24v-30v Suppositoria, Clistoria, etc. in Anglicised Latin.

    f. 24v A table of medical terms related to the text, entitled: Subiect in medicine of corporis harmonium. f.25r (Text begins) Suppositoria sunt quid in prius ad ... f. 26v Clistoria / Clistoria debent administravi in bonis et formatis ... f. 28r Pro deo actionibus Regula veneralis / Recipe qua utilitatem planta aquo ut ... f. 29v Penarum / possarum pro forma ... f. 30r hic in sequiam [sic for 'sequium'] aliquid de simplis quodvis paruum ... f. 30v ... Exemplie in digestando fhlegma pro iiij. viabus.

    9. ff. 31r-37r Tables of syrup and water based medicines.

    f. 31r Sirupi digestentes phflegma ... f. 31v Regula sirupi et aqua sunt pro digestens colore ... f. 32r Sequintur digestiua materiorum membris spiritualibus et primo / de coleria pectoris ... f. 37r sirupi restauratiui sic ... (Ends) ... tuius [sic for 'cuius'] cole et serta.

    10. ff. 37v-42r A Latin tract on Syrups, entitled: Lapativa et solutiva.

    f. 37v Lapatiua et solutiua / (Text begins) postquam datum est de lenitiuis digestinis et ... f. 42r (faded) ... superioris sirupta.

    11. f. 42v Latin recipe: De decoctionibus / decoctione deterioralis ... (ends) ... notabilitus terminatum.

    12. ff. 43r-46v Middle English receipts.

    f. 43r ffor the fallisyng off the royls off the audits / Take commyne and a rase off gyuyng and ... f. 46v (faded) ... this thyng cut yt away or yt bring[e]th in a cold.

    13. ff. 47r-66v Middle English receipts in a neat Anglicana formata script.

    f. 47r ffor the heed achis / Take and withe verueyne and wormode and ther with wasshe the heed ... f. 66v (faded) Contra mortem subitaneam in anglia regnantem anno regni Regis Henrici septimi primo [1485] ... they shalle saue.

    14. ff. 67r-70v Middle English tract, entitled: Vnguentum paraliticorum [Incomplete].

    f. 67r If lorel levye camamylle. sawge. fatherwode ... f. 70v (faded) ... for them that be not ...

    15. ff. 71r-75r Latin-English glossary, entitled: De Nomina infirmitatis Instrumentorum et medicinarum.

    f. 71r Stranguria is when this bryn cometh drepping ... f. 75r Vincula est quodam membrum dependans apaerto te in modo utilier mamillarum.

    16. ff.75v-77r Middle English receipts.

    f. 75v ffor the heed and the stomak xvii Wendlak / The notemyggis ganynggale [sic for 'galingale'] gyngor of alle a lyk ... f. 77r ... as the sune draweth to hym maystres and it shall go oute thrugh castyng. agens appetyte. and the effect shalbe losed.

    17. f. 77v Latin astrological table and notes, entitled: De quinis et aliis [Incomplete].

    f. 77v Scamonye libra ualet ... (end) ... Ad idem. ponatue lollium [sic for 'lolium'] per. iij. dies.

    18. ff. 78r-108v Middle English receipts and notes.

    f. 78r Pro generat doloris capitis / ... ffor the heedake ... f. 81r ... yff a wound sufor traueld in labor and vnlykly to be delyuerd ... (ends) ... valle [sic for 'vale'] bona. f. 81v Memorandum quod I haue payd for the Hows that I bowth of Jon ffende [?] ffurst payment ii marks and x shillings. to the grey ffriars ... f. 82r To mak fles vnguentorum ... f. 94v Pro memoria admendanda secundum cuiusdam doctoris hispanici Inter comunem midicentis [sic for 'medicintis'] bristollie. f. 108v (faded) Notanda / In all thys and abote all thyngis the must ... (ends) ... the drynk or the oyntment or or [sic] both.

  • Anglo-Saxon letter forms in Moorat's catalogue description (such as contraction marks and thorn and yogh symbols) have been replaced with Latin characters.
  • Purchased 1921.

Bibliography

  • Getz, Faye. Healing and Society in Medieval England: A Middle English Translation of the Pharmaceutical Writings of Gilbertus Anglicus (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1991), p. xlii.

    Greatrex, Joan. 'Horoscopes and Healing at Norwich Cathedral Priory in the Later Middle Ages', The Church and Learning in Later Medieval Society: Essays in Honour of R.B. Dobson: Proceedings of the 1999 Harlaxton Symposium, ed. Caroline M. Barron, Jenny Stratford and Richard Barrie Dobson (Spalding: Shaun Tyas, 2002), pp. 170-171.

    Lancashire, Ian. 'Lexicography in the Early Modern Period: The Manuscript Record', Historical Dictionaries and Historical Dictionary Research: Papers from the International Conference on Historical Lexicography and Lexicology, at the University of Leicester, 2002, ed. Julie Coleman and Anne McDermott (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2004), p. 22.

    Lidaka, Juris G. 'The Book of Angels, Rings, Characters, and Images of the Planets: Attributed to Osbern Bokenham', Conjuring Spirits: Texts and Traditions of Medieval Ritual Magic, ed. Claire Fanger (University Park: Penn State Press, 1998), p. 34.

    Rawcliffe, Carole. '"On the Threshold of Eternity": Care for the Sick in East Anglian Monasteries', East Anglia's History: Studies in Honour of Norman Scarfe, ed. Christopher Harper-Bill, Carole Rawcliffe and Richard George Wilson (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2002), pp. 56, 62 and 65.

    Rawcliffe, Carole. Urban Bodies: Communal Health in Late Medieval English Towns and Cities (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2013), pp. 50-51 and 165.

    Taavitsaainen, Irma. The Index of Middle English Prose, Handlist X: Manuscripts in Scandinavian Collections (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2007), p. 16.

    Talbot, Charles H. and Hammond, Eugene Ashby. The Medical Practitioners in Medieval England: A Biographical Register (London: Wellcome Historical Medical Library, 1965), pp. 147, 386, 405.

    Tavormina, M. Teresa. Uroscopy in Middle English: a Guide to the Texts and Manuscripts, Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History, ser. 3, no. 11 (University of Michigan, 2014), passim.

Data source