Harley MS 1600

A collection of medical and surgical recipes and charms from the late 14th century or early 15th century with added recipes and charms that date to the late 15th and/or early 16th century. Two of the charms refer to the Earl of Hereford (f. 35r) and the Infirmary of Killyngworth (f. 35v). The recipe collection is closely associated with that found in Add MS 33996.

Contents:

ff. 1r-3v: A table of contents, listing all the recipes and charms, with their corresponding number marked at the side in red.

ff. 3v-4r: Middle English poem in praise of leechcraft in sixteen couplets, beginning: 'þe man þat will of lechcraft ler / Red vppon þis boke and he may ler'; another copy in Harley 3407, f. 48v (see Hargreaves, ‘Indexing Middle English Recipes’ (1981), p. 109; Keiser, ‘Verse Introductions’ (2003), p. 302; Boffey and Edwards, A New Index of Middle English Verse (2005), no. 3422.6; eVK2 no. 6911.00); written in the late 14th or early 15th century.

ff. 4r-41v. Collection of medical recipes and charms (circa 278 recipes) in Middle English and Latin, imperfect; beginning with a rubric: 'For man or Woman þat is sausfleme to do it out of þe visage', beginning: 'Take strong vynegre of whit wyne and anoynt ever / iche day thrys or for tymes þe wysage', expl. 'cum albumine ovis et oleo et unge de super haec rumpit'. The collection comprises recipes and fourteen charms for a total of 253 texts numbered in the margins in Roman numerals in red, plus (ff. 40v-41v) nine other unnumbered recipes. One recipe relates to the Earl of Hereford (f. 35r) and another to the Infirmary of Killyngworth (ff. 35v-36r). Among the charms (ff. 9v, 30r-30v, 34v, 38v, 39r, 39r, 39r-39v, 39v, 39v-40r, 40r, 40r, 40r-40v, 40v-41r, 41r-41v) is a charm that invokes St Nicasius against worms, St Apollonia for the toothache, the Three Magi against the ‘falling evil’, and also includes the ‘Tres Boni Fratri’ for wounds, the Charm of St Susanna, and a conjuration of fevers that invokes the Holy Innocents (see eVK2, no. 6008.00 [on this collection]; Smallwood, ‘God was born in Bethlehem’ (1989), p. 211 [for the charm on ff. 30r-30v]; Boffey and Edwards, A New Index of Middle English Verse (2005), no. 1293 [for the charm on f. 40r]; and eVK2, no. 2475.00 [for the charm on f. 40r]; written in the late 14th or early 15th century.

The manuscript contains various later additions:

ff. 42r-46v. Collection of medical, surgical and magical recipes (circa 14 recipes) in Middle English and Latin, beginning: 'Take þe ballockys of an alde koc or of a 3oung grys'. The collection comprises around twenty recipes, one charm (f. 46r) and directions for making an amuletic ring (f. 46r) written by different hands with faded ink in places (see eVK2, no. 6045); written in the late 15th or early 16th century.

Decoration:

Initials (2-3 lines) in alternate blue and red; text on ff. 3v-4, rubrics (often underlined) and marginalia in red.