Harley MS 497

Alcoatim, Congregatio sive liber de oculis, and other short medical Texts ; 15th cent. Latin and Italian. Copies. A copy of Alcoatim's ophthalmologic treatise in Latin translation (ff. 1-46; item 1), followed by three other short texts relating to medicine. Owned in the late 15th-early 16th cent. by Cardinal Domenico Grimani (1461-1523), his ex-libris on f. 1* verso 'Liber .D. Grimani Cardinalis S. Marci'. Owned in the 17th cent. by Sir Simonds D'Ewes, first baronet (1602-1650), diarist and antiquary, his MS. 121: see E. Bernard, Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliæ et Hiberniæ in unum collecti… (Oxford, 1697), t. ii, pt. i, p. 387, no. 9981; A. G. Watson, The Library of Sir Simonds D'Ewes (London, 1966), [A242], [E153] and [B121]. Purchased with the D'Ewes library by Robert Harley (1661-1724), 1st earl of Oxford and Mortimer, politician, on 4 Oct. 1705: see Add. 70478 (formerly Loan 29/254 packet 2), Portland Papers, receipt of payment from D'Ewes to Wanley: see Watson, The Library…, cit. above, pp. 60, 91 n. 308; C. E. Wright and R. C. Wright, The Diary of Humfrey Wanley (London, 1966), i, p. xviii n. 3; C. E. Wright, Fontes Harleiani (London, 1972), pp. 172, 131, 380. Passed on to Robert Harley's son, Edward (1689-1741), 2nd earl of Oxford and Mortimer, book collector and patron of the arts. Bequeathed with Edward's library to his widow, countess Henrietta, née Cavendish Holles (1694-1755), during her lifetime and thereafter to their daughter, Margaret Cavendish Bentinck (1715-1785), duchess of Portland. Sold with the other Harley manuscripts 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 Harleian manuscripts became part of the collections of the British Library on its establishment in 1973. An old shelfmark 'no. 26' on f. 1*. Harley shelfmarks '40.B.3/497' in brown and black inks and 'J/III C' in pencil on f. 1* verso. The manuscript is described in A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum (London, 1808-1812), i, p. 330. The cataloguing of the MS. was funded by the Wellcome Trust.

Paper; ff. ii+48. Modern foliation in pencil ff. '1*, 1-48' (followed here, including second original front flyleaves as f. 1*; f. 48v blank). Sec. fol. (f. 2) 'neque parte'. circa 222 x 150mm. Gatherings: i⁸, ii-v¹⁰, with horizontal catchwords within cartouches at centre of lower margin of last versos. Ruled (single bounding lines only) in metal point for single columns of circa 36 written lines. Text either above or across top line. Written in brown ink in an Italian cursive Gothic hand. Large initials (2-5 lines) sketched in metal point, with guide-letters in the left margin. British Library binding with Harley arms and motto gilt-tooled at centre of covers.

Contents as follows:

1. ff. 1-46. Alcoatim [Sulaymân Ibn Hârit. Al-Qûtî], Congregatio sive liber de oculis [De egritudinibus oculorum]; 15th cent. Latin translation. Copy. Title (f. 1, upper margin) 'In nomine dei patris omnipotentis et filij et spiritus sancti amen / Incipit liber salamonis filij dearith alcoati de oculis', title 'Incipit liber quod vocatur Alcoati in quo determinatur de figu/ra oculi et componentibus ipsum et de signis continentibus illum / et continet liber iste quinque tractatus', inc. '[T]ractatus primus est de occasionibus continentibus illum [these last two words crossed out] / propter quas compillavit [sic] Alcoati hunc librum', expl. (f. 46) 'aggregationes aliarum medicinarum quorum nullum propter bene confici sine / gummis et cetera. / Completum est capitulum gratiam dei auxilio et totus liber quod / declarat figuram oculi et infirmitates et curationes et colli/ria et sic scripsi et distillationes et preparationes omnium medicinarum / et congregationes salomonis filij de arit alcoati christiani / toletoli deo gratias amen'. The text is divided into five parts beginning respectively on ff. 1, 3, 9, 28v, 33v and marked by running numbers '1-5' on upper right corners of rectos. The MS. is not mentioned in D. C. Lindberg, A Catalogue of Medieval and Renaissance Optical Manuscripts (Toronto, 1975), p. 81, no. 107. For the text, see J. L. Pagel, Neue litterarische Beiträge zur mittelalterlichen Medecin (Berlin, 1896), pp. 121-194 (Tract. 1-3); idem, Die Augenheilkunde des Alcoatim. (Aus dem 1159) (Berlin, 1896), pp. 1-57 (Tract. 4-5); P. Pansier, Collectio Ophtalmologica veterum auctorum, fasc. 2 (Paris, 1903), pp. 65-179; J. M. Millás Vallicrosa, 'Sobre el oftalmólogo hispanoárabe Alcoatí', Nuevos estudios sobre historia de la ciencia española (Barcelona, 1960), pp. 211-219; Alcoatim (Sulaymân Ibn Hârit. Al-Qûtî, 6 th/12th cent). Texts and studies, collected and reprinted by F. Sezgin in collaboration with M. Amawi, C. Ehrig-Eggert, E. Neubauer (Frankfurt am Main, 1996; Institute for the History of Arabic-Islamic Science at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Islamic Medicine, 56). Keywords: ophthalmology.

2. ff. 46v-47. De ingenio sanitatis, excerpts from Books 1-10; 15th cent. Latin. Possibly excerpts from the Latin translation of Galen's De ingenio sanitatis or Methodus medendi by Burgundio of Pisa. Title (f. 46v) 'Liber primus de ingenio sanitatis B(urgundius?)', inc. 'Nullus est cuius similis non inveniatur. capitulo 3.^o / Si aliquis iudicavitur non addito rationis testimonio deridenduns est. 4^o capitulo', expl. (f. 47) '10^us liber / prohibente autem multitudinem … Difficile est invenire aliquod auxilium quod nichil nocens / prosit multum etcetera'. Keywords: medicine.

3. f. 47v. Ad fistulam in oculis; 15th cent. Latin [translation?]. Copy. Inc. 'Ad fistulam que sit in angulis oculorum et curatur per collirium / de arsenico', expl. 'cauterium actuale et propter cum auro vel argento. Et cetera'. The MS. is not mentioned in D. C. Lindberg, A Catalogue…, cit. above, p. 82-83 no. 111, where the text is tentatively related to Alcoatim's treatise. Keywords: ophthalmology.

4. ff. 47v, 48. Medical recipes; 15th cent. Italian. Title (f. 47v) 'Pro acuendo visum Recipe', inc. 'Uno pane ben bianco et grosso che venga fresco dal / forno', expl. 'et sottili nel vedere che te parerao avere bona vista et conserva / quella'; title (f. 48) 'Pro lo male delle gambe pidicielle scose vessiche o piaga', inc. 'Recipe Uno picchieri de olio', expl. 'et ogni fu et guarirao'. Keywords: recipes, medical.

includes:

• ff. 1-46 Medicine and Surgery: Alcoatim: Congregatio sive liber de oculis by Alcoatim, followed by (ff. 46v-48) other short medical texts: 15th cent.: Lat. and It.