Hard-coded id of currently selected item: . JSON version of its record is available from Blacklight on e.g. ??

Metadata associated with selected item should appear here...

Harley MS 2378

Record Id:

040-002032704

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002032704

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000153.0x000202

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 2378

Title:

Miscellany of medical, culinary and alchemical texts and recipes

Scope & Content:

The manuscript is a composite miscellany of medical, culinary and alchemical texts and recipes. It was probably assembled by Nicholas Spalding, its 15th-century owner (his ex-libris on f. 135v and his name on ff. 5r and 61v). The two larger collections of medical recipes in the book (ff. 17r-61v and ff. 121r-135v, 137r-154v) were apparently compiled by him or for his use (see explicit on f. 61v and ex-libris on f. 135v), which suggests that he may have been a medical practitioner (not listed in C. H. Talbot and E. A. Hammond, The Medical Practitioners in Medieval England, Publications of the Wellcome Historical Medical Library, N.S. 8 (London, 1965). The other medical recipes were added to leaves originally blank by a number of 15th-century hands.

Contents include:

1. Index of words and list of contents added by the owner of the manuscript John Covel (b. 1638, d. 1722), (ff. 1r-3r);

2. Records of births in the Goodrich family of Bradfield St. Clare, co. Suffolk, 1579-1608 (f. 4v);

3. Three medical recipes 'Metheglentyne', 'Pro guta', and 'Pro Petra et pro strangewlioun' and recipes for dyes, pigments and clothworking (ff. 5r-6r);

4. Four medical recipes 'For þe ston' (f. 6v);

5. Pseudo-Hippocrates, Astrologia medicorum (ff. 7r-11r);

6. Text relating to apostemes (ff. 11r-11v);

7. Text on seven herbs and seven planets (ff. 12r-14r);

8. Medical recipes (c. 9 recipes) (ff. 14v-16v);

9. Nicholas Spalding (?), Medical recipes (c. 250 recipes) (ff. 17r-61v);

10. Medical recipes (6 recipes) (ff. 61v-62v);

11. Nicolaus Salernitanus, Antidotarium (ff. 63r-110r);

12. Glossary of simples, herbs, alchemical recipes and charms (ff. 110v-118v);

13. Medical recipes (c. 15 recipes) (ff. 118v-120v);

14. De gradibus, excerpt (f. 120v);

15. Nicholas Spalding, Collection of medical recipes (ff. 121r-135v);

16. Medical recipes (8 recipes) (ff. 136r-136v);

17. Nicholas Spalding, Collection of medical recipes (ff. 137r-154v);

18. Medical and culinary recipes (c. 30 recipes) (ff. 155r-168v);

19. Secreta Alberti (ff. 169r-181v);

20. Johannes Paulinus, De corio serpentis (ff. 181v-182v);

21. Ludi nature regis Salomonis (ff. 182v-183r).

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection
Harley Science Project

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002032704", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 2378: Miscellany of medical, culinary and alchemical texts and recipes" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} },{ "id" : "041-002041382", "parent" : "040-002032704", "text" : "Harley MS 2378, ff 1r-3r: Index of words and list of contents" },{ "id" : "041-002041383", "parent" : "040-002032704", "text" : "Harley MS 2378, f 4v: Records of births in the Goodrich family" },{ "id" : "041-002041384", "parent" : "040-002032704", "text" : "Harley MS 2378, ff 5r-6r: Three medical recipes" },{ "id" : "041-002041385", "parent" : "040-002032704", "text" : "Harley MS 2378, f 6v: Four medical recipes 'For þe ston'" },{ "id" : "041-002041386", "parent" : "040-002032704", "text" : "Harley MS 2378, ff 7r-11r: Pseudo-Hippocrates, Astrologia medicorum" },{ "id" : "041-002041387", "parent" : "040-002032704", "text" : "Harley MS 2378, ff 11r-11v: Text relating to apostemes" },{ "id" : "041-002041389", "parent" : "040-002032704", "text" : "Harley MS 2378, ff 12r-14r: Text on seven herbs and seven planets" },{ "id" : "041-002041390", "parent" : "040-002032704", "text" : "Harley MS 2378, ff 14v-16v: Medical recipes" },{ "id" : "041-002041391", "parent" : "040-002032704", "text" : "Harley MS 2378, ff 17r-61v: Nicholas Spalding (?), Medical recipes" },{ "id" : "041-002041392", "parent" : "040-002032704", "text" : "Harley MS 2378, ff 61v-62v: Medical recipes (6 recipes)" },{ "id" : "041-002041393", "parent" : "040-002032704", "text" : "Harley MS 2378, ff 63r-110r: Nicolaus Salernitanus, Antidotarium" },{ "id" : "041-002041394", "parent" : "040-002032704", "text" : "Harley MS 2378, ff 110v-118v: Glossary and recipes" },{ "id" : "041-002041395", "parent" : "040-002032704", "text" : "Harley MS 2378, ff 118v-120v: Medical recipes" },{ "id" : "041-002041396", "parent" : "040-002032704", "text" : "Harley MS 2378, f 120v: De gradibus, excerpt" },{ "id" : "041-002041397", "parent" : "040-002032704", "text" : "Harley MS 2378, ff 121r-135v: Nicholas Spalding, Collection of medical recipes" },{ "id" : "041-002041398", "parent" : "040-002032704", "text" : "Harley MS 2378, ff 136r-136v: Medical recipes (8 recipes)" },{ "id" : "041-002041399", "parent" : "040-002032704", "text" : "Harley MS 2378, ff 137r-154v: Nicholas Spalding, Collection of medical recipes" },{ "id" : "041-002041400", "parent" : "040-002032704", "text" : "Harley MS 2378, ff 155r-168v: Medical and culinary recipes (c. 30 recipes)" },{ "id" : "041-002041401", "parent" : "040-002032704", "text" : "Harley MS 2378, ff 169r-181v: Secreta Alberti" },{ "id" : "041-002041402", "parent" : "040-002032704", "text" : "Harley MS 2378, ff 181v-182v: Johannes Paulinus, De corio serpentis" },{ "id" : "041-002041403", "parent" : "040-002032704", "text" : "Harley MS 2378, ff 182v-183r: Ludi nature regis Salomonis" }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002032704

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 2378 : Miscellany of medical, culinary and alchemical texts and recipes

Contains:

Click here to View / search full list of parts of Harley MS 2378

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[2379]/040-002032704

Container:

View / search within Archive / Collection: Harley MS 1-7661

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Harley_MS_2378 (digital images currently unavailable)

Thumbnail:

Languages:

English, Middle
Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1360

End Date:

1722

Date Range:

1360-1722

Era:

Access:

Please request the physical items you need using the online collection item request form.

Digitised items can be viewed online by clicking the thumbnail image or digitised content link.

Readers who have registered or renewed their pass since 21 March 2024 can request physical items prior to visiting the Library by completing
this request form.
Please enter the Reference (shelfmark) above on the request form.

If your Reader Pass was issued before this date, you will need to visit the Library in London or Yorkshire to renew it before you can request items online. All manuscripts and archives must be consulted at the Library in London.

This catalogue record may describe a collection of items which cannot all be requested together. Please use the hierarchy viewer to navigate to individual items. Some items may be in use or restricted for other reasons. If you would like to check the availability, contact our Reference Services team, quoting the Reference (shelfmark) above.

User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment and paper (ff. 1-2, 4) codex.

Dimensions: 219 x 145 mm

Foliation: ff. vi (paper) + 184. John Covel's pagination '1-356' (ff. 5r-184v); modern foliation in pencil '1-184' (including Covel's additional two paper leaves as ff. 1r-2v and paper slip pasted onto f. 3v as f. 4; ff. 3r-3v, 14v-16v, 62r-62v, 119r-120v, 136r-136v originally blank).

Collation: Gatherings: i^4-1 (fourth missing), ii¹⁰, iii⁸, iv-v¹⁴, vi¹⁰, vii¹², viii¹⁰, ix^8,x12, xi¹⁰, xii^10-4 (seventh-tenth cancelled), xiii-xiv⁸, xv¹⁰, xvi⁸, xvii¹⁰, xviii⁸, xix-xx⁶, with occasional horizontal catchwords.

Layout: Variously ruled in pen or metal point for single columns of 21-36 lines.

Script: Gothic cursive (Anglicana). Written by a number of scribes

Binding: British Museum/ British Library binding with the Harley arms and motto gilt-tooled at centre of covers.

Custodial History:

Origin:

England.

Provenance:

Nicholas Spalding, 15th century: owner of the composite miscellany which was partly compiled (ff. 17r-61v, 121r-135v, 137r-154v) and assembled by or for him, and inscribed with his name (ff. 5r, 61v) and ownership note (f. 135v).

Johannes Lundon or Luverdon, 15th century: inscribed with his name (f. 114v).

The Goodrich family of Bradfield St. Clare, co. Suffolk, related to the Jermyn family, late 16th and early 17th century: records of births in the family between 1579-1608 (ff. 3v, 5, 5v), the name 'Mary Goodricke' (f. 61), and the name 'Wilelmus Jermyn' (f. 5).

John Covel (b. 1638, d. 1722), chaplain to the Levant Company at Constantinople, 1670-1676, and later Master of Christ's College, Cambridge: his Latin manuscript no. 16; his index of words (ff. 1-2v), lists of contents (ff. 3, 4-4v), and pagination; sold to Edward Harley on 27 Feb. 1715/6 together with many other Covel manuscripts (Wright and Wright 1966; Wright 1972).

The Harley Collection, formed by Robert Harley (b. 1661, d. 1724), 1st earl of Oxford and Mortimer, politician, and Edward Harley (b. 1689, d. 1741), 2nd earl of Oxford and Mortimer, book collector and patron of the arts.

Edward Harley bequeathed the library to his widow, Henrietta, née Cavendish Holles (b. 1694, d. 1755) during her lifetime and thereafter to their daughter, Margaret Cavendish Bentinck (b. 1715, d. 1785), duchess of Portland; the manuscripts were sold by the Countess and the Duchess in 1753 to the nation for £10,000 (a fraction of their contemporary value) under the Act of Parliament that also established the British Museum; the Harley manuscripts form one of the foundation collections of the British Library.

Publications:

A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts, in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: [n. pub.], 1808-12), II (1808), no. 2378.

George Henslow, Medical Works of the Fourteenth Century together with a List of Plants recorded in Contemporary Writings, with their Identifications (London: Chapman & Hall, 1899), pp. 76-122.

The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715-1726, ed. by Cyril E. Wright and Ruth C. Wright, 2 vols (London: Bibliographical Society, 1966), I: 1715-1723, pp. xxxiv-xxxvi; II: 1723-1726, p. 211 n. 1.

Rossell H. Robbins, 'Medical Manuscripts in Middle English', Speculum, 45 (1970), 393-415 (pp. 394 n. 4, 403).

Cyril E. Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), pp. 114, 167, 229, 309-10, 407.

B. Roy, 'The Household Encyclopedia as Magic Kit: Medieval Popular Interest in Pranks and Illusions', Journal of Popular Culture, 14 (1980), 60-69 (p. 68 n. 27).

H. Hargreave, 'Some Problems in Indexing Middle English Recipes', in Middle English Prose. Essay on Bibliographical Problems, ed. by A. S. G. Edwards and D. Pearsall (New York and London, 1981), pp. 91-113 (p. 109).

C. B. Hieatt and S. Butler, Curye on Inglysch: English Culinary Manuscripts of the Fourteenth Century (including the "Forme of Cury"), (London: Early English Text Society, 1985), p. 31.

Medieval Lunar Astrology. A Collection of Representative Middle English Texts, ed. by Laurel Means (Lewiston, N.Y: E. Mellen, 1993), p. 16.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)