Add MS 70515

This late fourteenth-century medical miscellany in Middle Dutch is one out of at least six extant Dutch medical manuscripts that contains excerpts from the natural encyclopedia and bestiary Der nature bloeme (The Flower of Nature) that the Dutch poet Jacob van Maerlant (b. c. 1235, d. c. 1300) wrote around 1270. Here, the nine excerpts, explaining the medical purposes of stones, plants and snakes, have been embedded into the twelfth-century treatise Circa Instans, which is attributed to a Salernitan physician. The manuscript's scribe has added a colophon (f. 20v) in which he dates his work to the year 1377.

Contents:

ff. 1r-20v: Fragment of a 'table of contents' (f. 1r) and beginning of another table, listing page numbers for remedies contained in the manuscript, alternated with long (rubricated) explanations of ailments and remedies, 'Dese taeffel leert nu voert / medicina die behoert / ten lede[n] die houden inne / die geeste en[de] die .v. sinne / van elken zaken die uw deert / zoeket als u die taeffel leert'.

ff. 21r-123v: A compilation of the Antidotarium Nicolai, Practica Medicina by Roger of Salerno (d. 1119), Circa Instans (also known as the Liber de simplici medicin) attributed to Mattheus Plataerius (12th century), and other medical works, 'Hier beghinnet Antidotarius syne bedyedinghe ende syne ordineringhe alsen nycolaus seyt maecten'.

ff. 124r-214v: An adapted version of the Circa Instans, 'Circa instans meninghe ghaet In simplen medicine verstaet die simple medicina als galienus seyt is die al sulc is als die natura voert brenghet'.

ff. 274v-289v: An adapted version of the Liber de vinis by Arnaldus de Villa Nova, 'Hijr beghinnet die redenne meyster arnts van parijs van conficeringhe der wine der medicinenen'.

ff. 289v-294r: Two medical recipes against blindness and ear ache, 'tgheghen duusterheit der oghen', 'Tgheghen zere oren' followed by an explanation of eight medicines, excerpted from the Circa Instans.

ff. 294r-295r: Eight recipes for potions and plasters, 'Wat Capitellum is ende women maket'.

ff. 294v-295v are blank except from a note, written in a much later (17th-century?) hand, on f. 295v.

Decoration:

Zoomorphic and anthropomorphic figures in red ink on f. 21r; Schematic drawings in red and black ink of medical instruments on ff. 23r, 24r and 262v; One large red initial with red and black penwork decoration on f. 9r; Numerous small red initials throughout the manuscript.