Londres. Wellcome Library, MS.404

Biblissima authority file: https://data.biblissima.fr/entity/Q149740

  • Other Form of the Shelfmark :
    • London. Wellcome Collection, MS.404
    • London. Wellcome Library, MS.404
    • Londres. Wellcome Library, MS.404
    • Wellcome Library, MS.404
  • Held at : Londres. Wellcome Library
  • Date of Origin :
    • Late 15th century
  • Composition :
    • 1 volume; ii + 48 folios 4to. 21 x 15 cm. Quarter calf binding, with label 'Bretherton ligavit 1849'. In several hands. F. 18 is wanting, and a leaf after f. 1, as well as some leaves at the end. Several margins have been repaired. At the beginning are two fragments of vellum end-papers, one from a 15th cent. psalter with musical notation and text in red and black. The first 30 folios are by one hand, with initials in alternate red and green. Ff. 31-36 are by a smaller hand. Ff. 37-42 are by a third hand, with headings and paragraph marks in red. The last section, folios 43-end, is by yet another hand with capitals and paragraph marks in red. The last two sections are perhaps somewhat earlier than the rest. On folio 32 is a circular pen-drawn diagram illustrating the colours of urines: on the verso is a drawing of a talisman against plague in red and black, and on folio 33v a circular figure showing times for blood-letting according to the zodiacal signs.

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Data Source: Wellcome Collection - Online Collections

  • Collection of medical receipts, notes on astrological medicine, colours of urines, etc.

    Contents

    f. 1r-v Pseudo-Galen, Dietary

    f. 1r Galion the good leche here saith and techeth off mette and drynke to use yn tyme and yn tyme off blood lettyng to haue truly yn any tyme off the yere. In the monethe off Januar ... f. 1v [November] ... for they be all humours preste and quycke.

    The Dietary attributed to Galen is a regimen for each month of the year, outlining food and drink to be consumed or avoided, times for bloodletting and perilous days of each month. See W. L. Braekman, Studies on Alchemy, Diet, Medecine [sic] and Prognostication in Middle English (Brussels: UFSAL, 1986), p. 58.

    2. ff. 3r-29v Miscellaneous tracts, receipts and remedies, including two charms to stop bleeding. (Ff. 19v, 29v)

    f. 2r Uryne pale with whitt smale thyng therin ... f. 3r, line 3 And thou schalt knowe urynes wery man is hole wos uryne yn the mornyng is whyghttpe and afore mete redde and after mete wighttpe ... f. 29v ... for deyth.

    f. 30r Astrological diagram

    f. 30v Figure of a Talisman 'Contra pestilentiam', with inscription 'Quidam monaco Abbate de courbe [Corby?] in comitate lincolniense Angelus Apparuit et imprimebat manu eius ex precepto ihesu proprio hoc signum'.

    f. 31r blank

    f. 31v Astrological blood-letting figure with text

    ff. 32r-34v Medical receipts, with rules for diet, blood-letting, etc.

    f. 34v Dies lunae bona et mala: for blood-letting.

    f. 35r-39v Anonymous, Queen Isabella's Dietary

    f. 35r This book was sent fro thee kyng of franse to dame Isabell queyne of yngland and made be all the [sic] lechis and phisissions of mownpelers ... f. 39v and drynk yt of yn the mornyng and euenyng mylk warme.

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

    ff. 40r-44v Miscellaneous receipts by two different hands

  • Written in England.
  • On f. 42 is a scribbling in Dutch by a 15th cent. owner, 'Vriendelicke groetenesse vorstreuen [?] an ljv [?] / myn lieue seere ghemynde vrient meester'. On the last leaf are some notes by Dib relating to the number of towns, parish churches, knight's fees, religious houses and earldoms: lastly 'The Some of the fyftene [i.e. 'Fifteenths', a tax on personal property] Cometh unto xxxvii thousand, nyne hundred xxxiii li. ix s. besyde the expences of the Collectors'. Below is a receipt by the same hand. Anglo Saxon letter forms in Moorat's catalogue description (such as contraction marks and Thorn and yogh symbols) have been replaced with Latin characters.
  • On the recto of the first vellum end-paper fragment is written 'John Tho[mas ?] in genten [? Ghent] by a 15th cent. hand. On the recto of the second 'Mr Thomas dib borne 1501 the firste of maye'. The same hand has inscribed 'This Booke Teacheth a diatory for the xii monthes a treatis of urines medicynes from heade to the foote, and makinge of plasters and oyntments with a treatise of medycyne sente By the masters of Salerno [sic] to lady Phylypa [sic] quene of Ingland wyfe to edward the third M.CCC.XX', on the first un-numbered paper leaf. Below in another hand 'Ex Bibliotheca P. van Musschenbroek' [Peter van Musschenbroeck (1692-1761), Dutch physician]. Library stamp of Sir Thomas Phillipps on the first un-numbered leaf. Phillipps MS. No. 3311. Sold at Sotheby's 30/4/1903, Lot 760.
  • Purchased 1905.

Bibliography

  • Aberth, John. From the Brink of the Apocalypse: Confronting Famine, War, Plague and Death in the Later Middle Ages (London: Routledge, 2013), p. 296.

    Braekman, W. L. Studies on alchemy, diet, medecine [sic] and prognostication in Middle English (Brussels, UFSAL, 1986), p. 61 n. 1.

    Green, Monica. Women's healthcare in the medieval west: texts and contexts (Farnham: Ashgate, 2000), p. 255.

    Rawcliffe, Carole. Urban Bodies: Communal Health in Late Medieval English Towns and Cities (Woodbridge: Boydell and Brewer, 2013), p. 90 n. 173.

    Rider, Catherine. Magic and Religion in Medieval England (Edinburgh: Reaktion Books, 2013), p. 188.

    Tavormina, M. Teresa. 'The Middle English Letter of Ipocras', English Studies, 88:6 (December 2007), pp. 632-652.

    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.

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