Notes

Source des données : Wellcome Collection - Online Collections

• Trattato delli veleni. Followed by a number of receipts, many against plague: and a short treatise by an anonymous author, in the form of a letter 'Cricha alla pestifera infirmita'.

  The first 2 folios are an early 19th century addition the first and last 2 folios seem to have been original fly-leaves. Ff.83-91 containing the Plague tract are on paper of slightly larger format (21cm), and are by a different, though contemporary, hand. The main text, with the receipts as far as f.80 are by the same hand. Written in a neat semi-current humanistic hand, 19 lines to a page: headings and paragraph marks in red.

  The two preliminary fly-leaves contain notes on other manuscripts of Petrus de Abano, extracted from Mazzuchelli's 'Gli scittori d'Italia' Vol. 1, together with a transcript of the charm written on f.1, on the verso of the second leaf.

  On the lower half of f.1, following the charm, is an inscription by an 18th century hand: 'Il presente libro li compro il R. P. Antonio Maria del g. Donato Visconti nativo di Milano con altri libri, quando ere Priore a Montefiorello, o sia al Castello di Greve'.

  f.2 (red) Trattato. Delli ueleni composto et colto per mae/stro Pietro de abano./Imprima noi uederemo uno prologho/Capitolo primo... 6v, line 1 ...per oculta [sic] proprie/ta dalli ueleni.//

  QVI chominica El prologho./[E]L Reuerendissimo in christo padre/et singnor misser. J. per la diuina pro/uidenzia sommo ponteficho/Pietro dabano... 7v, line 10 ...se/colui achi morira in quello tempo/e non innanzi./(red)

  Capitolo in nello quale si mette i diuisio/ni de ueleni/[S]Appi che el ueleno sie apposito al cibo/del corpo nostro... 62v, line 7...chiamata madre/di tutte le medicine. Deogracias. Amen. (red) Finitus est tract[at]us de uen[en]is magistri/petri de abano quo non laus sed ho/nor gloria sede pontificho/super laudes existentis. omnibus facto/ribus melioribus referamus. Amen.

  ff.62v (line 14)-79v Collection of receipts in Italian, mostly against plague.

  ff.80-82 Further receipts against plague, by a different, but contemporary hand. Among these are inclueded 'Pulvere' by Diodoro del Carmine, Pandolfo Petrucci [1450-1512] and Giovanni Allegretti. This section contains also, on fol. 82, 'Pillole contra peste et contra morbo ['gallico' superscribed] utilissime cio contra mal francioso'. [Anon.].

  f.83 Plague treatise. Carissimo fratello in christo. Si come dice el filosofo primo delle/thica [sic] che ogni homo a natura dexidera di sapere... 88v, line 1 che facci incarnare et resaldare. finis. amen.

  f.88v After the plague treatise, a plague-receipt by a different and slightly later hand.

  ff.89-92 Blank.

  f.93 Part of a receipt-a copy of the first nine lines on f.82v.

  f.93v Note of an account, dated 1503. (There is a similar note with the same date, added in the upper margin of f.81. The same hand is found, though the date has been torn away at the corner, on f.1, which contains 'Una orazione da cui fusse rischaldato e infredato'.)

  f.93v Below the note dated 1503, is an inscription by a certain Gismondo, in a early 16th century hand who notes that 'mi posi per garzone con Bindo Serminoci e chompagni spesiali'.

• The Plague treatise (ff. 83-88)-though not identified-seems to be based on the 'Modus vivendi tempore pestilentiali' by Johannes de Dondis [1318-1389], who is named as having written it for an anonymous 'Episcopus parisiensis' in 1383. Our treatise however must be of later date, as on fol. 85, line 19 we find 'Poluero composta dal detto maestro da quale uidessi sperimento a genoua nell' anno Mille cccc.xii'. The reference to 'Morbo gallico' and 'Mal francioso' on fol. 82 is an early one-progbably c. 1500-as the date 1503 on the preceding page is certainly a later addition. Though numerous editions of the 'De venenis' in the original Latin are recorded, no Italian translation seems to have been printed. A French version was published at Lyons in 1593.
• Purchased 1905.