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 1734

Record Id:

040-002047565

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002047565

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000709.0x0000f2

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 1734

Title:

Medicine book of John Forbes of Echt, written by Patrick Scot

Scope & Content:

Scottish medical recipe book, with marginal additions in other hands. Title page (f. 2): ‘Ane medicyne buik perteininge to ane Richt Honorabill man Johnne Forbes of Echt, writtin be me Patrik Scot his Servant quha wissis to him & his Lady Beatrix Gordoun Continewall Grace, Mercie, & peace, from the Lord. The x day of merch anno 1605’. Includes some distinct sections with section titles, such as women’s health (f. 61) and horse medicine (f. 77).

Contents:

ff. 3-5: Remedies for various conditions. Heading: ‘Ane Nottabill & Excellent Medicine-Buik, for all Diseissis’.

ff. 5v-9: Salves and other treatments for wounds. ‘The Maner to make Savis, Entreatis, & Drinkis, to Woundis, or to wther hurtis of Manis Bodie’.

ff. 10-23: Properties of various herbs.

ff. 23-35: Remedies for various conditions.

ff. 35-39r: Scots rhymes on the different complexions of man and of the seasons of the year.

ff. 39-47: Remedies for various conditions.

f. 48-50: Recipes for various oils, powders, perfumes, and conserves.

ff. 50v-51: Antidotes for pests and plagues. Purgatives.

ff. 52-54v: Recipes for dyeing and colouring.

ff. 54-58: The complexions of man, in prose. ‘Of the four Complexionnis of man’.

ff. 59-60r: The twelve months of the year: ‘Ane Regiment of the tuell monethis’.

ff. 60v-61r: ‘Certane Conjectiouris of the husbandsmen touching the tuell monethis of the zeir’.

ff. 61-77r: Medicine for women’s conditions and complaints: ‘Here beginnis ane lytill teiching to gar Vemen haif knowledg of their avin Infirmiteis’ [etc.]. Followed by a mixture of children’s and general household remedies.

ff. 77v-79: Diseases of the horse and remedies. Heavily annotated.

ff. 80-81: Urine, and how it indicates health or sickness in man or woman.

ff. 81-104: Remedies for various conditions.

f. 105: ‘Ane reull of the ancient phisition Ipocrates, concerning Maladies’.

ff. 106-132: Distilled waters, including herbal waters: ‘Sundrie Sortis of Distellit Watteris, with thair properties’.

ff. 132-137: ‘Componit Medicenis’.

ff. 137-159: Properties of herbs.

ff. 160-194: Remedies for various conditions.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002047565", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 1734: Medicine book of John Forbes of Echt, written by Patrick Scot" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002047565

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 1734 : Medicine book of John Forbes of Echt, written by Patrick Scot

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[1736]/040-002047565

Container:

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

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

English
Scots

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1605

End Date:

1605

Date Range:

1605

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: Paper.

Dimensions: 285 x 200 mm.

Foliation: 194 folios. Original pagination from f. 3: pages 1-384.

Binding: British Library binding, 1980.

Custodial History:

Former owner: John Forbes, baron of Echt (d. ? 1610).

Former owner: Henry Worsley (1675-1747).

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

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

Finding Aids:

A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), vol. 2, no. 1734.

Cyril Ernest Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts Preserved in the Department of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), p. 154, 361.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Worsley, Henry, scholar and manuscript collector, envoy at the Court of Portugal (1714-1721) and governor of Barbados (1721-1731), 1675-1747