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Arundel MS 333
- Record Id:
- 040-002039616
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002039280
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000395.0x0003bd
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100184246302.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Arundel MS 333
- Title:
-
Collection of medical, metaphysical and physical tracts
- Scope & Content:
-
A collection of medical, scientific and philosophical texts, in two parts: part 1, ff. 1-19; part 2, ff. 20-128.
A detailed description is provided by O'Grady and Flower, Catalogue of Irish Manuscripts, i, pp. 231-58.
ff. 1r-5r: Tract on the pulse from Philoretus. Some of the pages are misplaced.
ff. 5r-v, 7r: Medical definitions and rules.
ff. 6r-v: A vellum slip in a different hand. f. 6r contains a tract on medicines that 'draw the humours? (atrahinddi humore [sic.])'. Mentions three agents; internal (the humour), external (medicine) and agents which are both internal and external. f. 6v has a tract on fever resulting from decay of the sanguine humour.
ff. 7r-v: Text on phlebotomy.
f. 8 r-v: Continuation of tract on the pulse from ff. 1r-5r. This section should come between ff. 4 and 5.
f. 9r: Continuation of the tract on the pulse. This must be the final section as the verso is a new text.
ff. 9v-10v: Excerpts from Aristotle on 'generation'. Only on the upper slip.
f. 10r-v: Text on form. Begins on f. 10v, l. 5. At the end of the upper slip it is continued on the lower slip of f. 10r and then carries on to the lower slip of f. 10v.
f. 10v-11r: A text on transmuting energy starts.
f. 11r: : Text on fever of the red humour; text on touch, drawing on Gordony [sic.].
f. 11v: Text on intellect and sense; text on colycus (colic?); text on bathing.
ff. 12r-14v: Tract on the stomach and organs of nutrition (digestive system).
ff. 14v-19v: Definitions of various diseases and illnesses; including leprosy, paralysis, melancholia, pleurisy.
- f. 16r: Lines on complexions (arising from humour?) taken from Regimen Salernitanum.
f. 20r-26r: Tract taken from Isidore of Seville's Etymologies.
Lacuna after f. 24.
f. 25a: Medical memoranda.
f. 26v: Recipe for treating bites from rabid dogs. Text on the upper page is very faded.
f. 27r: Text on measurements of time; text on the distance between celestial bodies.
f. 27v: Explanation of uilidheachta (universal/generic) in relation to sicknesses; a note on the difference between 'sief', collirium and alcohol.
ff. 28r-34r: Aristotelian tract, consisting of scholastic axioms and definitions from various sources, including a certain Burlee, Avicenna, a certain Alibertus, a certain Algalasel. Colophon on f. 34r describes the preceeding matter as the text of the 'Coligid' (Colliget?) and a collection of proverbs. ff. 34r-35v: The secon section of the previous tract.
ff. 35v-37v: Independent scientific and astronomical notes.
- ff. 35v-36r: Note on the length of a month and the relationship between a lunar month and the crisis/turning point in a fever or illness.
- f. 36r: Short note on the composition of elements (everything has its own propery/qualties); on the size of the sun at different times of day.
- ff. 36r-v: Note on the saltiness of sea water.
- f. 36v: Note on the moon's effect on the tides.
- ff. 36v-37r: Note on the cause of a lunar eclipse.
- f. 37r: Another note on eclipses; short note on 'airdreannaighi daingne' (fixed stars); note on the sun's brightness when planets align; note on the visibility of the moon and stars from different countries; note on the same drawing on Ptolemy.
- f. 37v: Note claiming that the sun revolves around the Earth, again drawing on Ptolemy; note on the firmament; notes on nerves, the last of which is attributed to a Gilbertus (the first references Avicenna); note on a fluid/liquid called the lilis which is joined/allied with 'spirits' in the organs.
ff. 37v-39v: Medical tract, notes and definitions.
ff. 40r-49v: Tract of a similar nature. Notes on science and medicine.
ff. 50r-56r: Medical tract of a similar nature drawing on Gordonius.
ff. 56r-67v: Scientific and medical tract drawing on Avicenna, Aristotle, Isidore of Seville and Gordonius.
ff. 67v-82v: Tract of a similar nature.
- ff. 67v-70r: Note on (the three mansions of) urine.
- ff. 70r-75r: Note on matter consisting of altered and corrupted fluids, formed by mixing of blood and flesh.
- ff. 75r-v: Note on the two causes of decay.
- ff. 75v-77r: Note on how long each planet spends in each of the twelve roth (wheels/spheres/rings?) to Ptolemy and Alexander (of Tralles according to O'Grady).
- ff. 77r-78v: Note on winds.
- ff. 78v-82r: Note on fevers.
- f. 82r: Note on colours which reveal crude matter.
- ff. 82r-v: Note on the number of nones, kalends and ides in different months.
- f. 82v: Six reasons why an abscess bursts/spreads.
ff. 83r-86v: Tract in short sections.
- ff. 83r-84r: Medical tract drawing on Isaac, Bernard de Gordon, Theophilus, etc..
- ff. 84r-86v: Shorter paragragphs and some medical proverbs.
ff. 87r-97v: Tract of the same nature, on paper. (discusses fevers, ulcers, cancer, skin problems, etc.).
Lacuna between ff. 96-7.
ff. 98r-111v: Philosophical tract on the nature of 'hyle'. Discusses the properties of inorganic material (stones and metals from ff. 107v-111r). A botanical section begins at f. 111r and ends incompletely at f. 111v. A note on the lower margin of f. 108r claims that it was written in the wrong place, and an interlinear note on f. 107v suggests that the passage from 108r should have gone there. However, O'Grady claims that the content of f. 108r should really occur at ff. 108r-v, 107v, 109r.
f. 112r-113v: Text on the organs of animals.
ff. 114r-123r: Tract on Aristotle's 'predicamenta'.
ff. 123v-124v: Text on the signs of the zodiac.
ff. 124v-127v: Text on precious stones, which the text claims was written by a king of Arabia for Nero.
ff. 128r-v: A paper fragment with a few letters on the verso.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Arundel Manuscripts
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002039280
040-002039616 - Is part of:
- Arundel MS 1-550 : Arundel Manuscripts
Arundel MS 333 : Collection of medical, metaphysical and physical tracts - Hierarchy:
- 032-002039280[0334]/040-002039616
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Arundel MS 1-550
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
- 1 volume
- Digitised Content:
- http://access.bl.uk/item/viewer/ark:/81055/vdc_100184246302.0x000001 (digital images currently unavailable)
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Irish
Latin - Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1500
- End Date:
- 1524
- Date Range:
- 1st quarter of the 16th century
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
-
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript
- Physical Characteristics:
-
Material: Parchment and paper.
Dimensions: 185 x 125mm (written area: 130-145 x 80mm) [ff. 1-3, 9-11]; 185 x 125mm (written area: 145 x 95) [ff. 12-19]; 180 x 125mm (written area: 125 x 80mm; written in two columns) [ff.20-24]; 185 x 125mm (written area: 140-145 x 85mm; written in two columns) [ff. 28-39]; 185 x 125 (written area: 135- 145 x 90mm) [ff. 40-82]; 180 x 120mm (written area: 135-160 x 80-105mm; written in two columns ff. 84r-87v) [ff. 84-97]; 185 x 125mm (written area 140-150 x 100mm) [ff. 99-107, 109-111]; 185 x 125 (written area 130-140 x 95mm) [ff. 114-125]. Smaller, irregular leaves at ff. 4-8, 24-27, 83, 98, 108, 112-3, 126 (could maybe it could go with ff. 114-125, but it has a different written area of 150 x 90mm), 127-8.
Foliation: ff. 128 (+ 3 unfoliated paper flyleaves at the beginning + four at the end).
Script: Irish
Binding: British Museum in-house: Brown half-leather, tooled in gold with the Arundel arms stamped on the upper and lower covers. Earlier binding stamped with the Arundel arms pasted inside the upper and lower cover.
- Custodial History:
-
Origin:
Ireland (Co. Cork? and Co. Clare).
Provenance:
The manuscript was written by various scribes including 'Donnchadh Ó Eichthigern' (scribal colophons at ff. 19v, 82r, 97)v and Cormac Mac Duinnshléibhe (scribal colophon at f. 113v). Cormac claims to be writing for a certain 'Deinis Ó Eachoidhern' (Denis O'Ahiarn). Colophons mention the house of Eoin Albanach (f. 19v) and the house of Domnall O Troightigh (f. 82r) as places of writing. These possibly refer to the same place, the house of Domnall Albanach Ó Troightigh (fl. 1482). The O'Troighthigh are a medical family, based in Co. Clare. Cill inghen Baeith (Killinaboy, Co. Clare?) is given as another place of writing (f. 35v). The dates 1514 (f. 35v) and 1519 (f. 82r) are given in colophons.
William Howard (b. 1563, d. 1640): An ownership inscription with the date 1590 appears on the lower margin on f. 1r. A marginal note on the same page implies that he spent £5 on the manuscript.
Thomas Howard, 14th Earl of Arundel (b. 1585, d. 1646): After William Howard's death in 1640 his book collection was combined with Thomas Howard's, his nephew.
Henry Howard, 6th duke of Norfolk (b. 1628, d. 1684): The grandson of Thomas Howard, he inherited his grandfather's manuscript collection.
Royal Society: Acquired from Henry Howard in 1666 when he divided his collection between the Royal College of Arms and the Royal Society. Arundel MS 333 was donated to the Royal Society, the bookplate of which is on f. [ii].
Purchased by the British Museum from the Royal Society of London together with 549 other Arundel manuscripts in 1831.
- Publications:
- Catalogue of Irish Manuscripts in the British Museum, ed. by Standish Hayes O'Grady (vol. I) and Robin Flower (vol. II), 2 vols (London: British Museum, 1926; repr. 1992), i, 231-58.
- Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)