Harley MS 1736

Medical Miscellany including the Middle English Translation of John Bradmore, Philomena; mid 15th cent. (1446), with late 15th- and 16th-cent. additions. Middle English and Latin. The cataloguing of the MS. was funded by the Wellcome Trust. The manuscript contains (ff. 6-184v) an anonymous translation in Middle English of the surgical treatise, entitled Philomena, written in Latin by John Bradmore (d. 1412), London and royal surgeon, whose original Latin text is found in Sloane 2272. The translation was previously thought to be an original work of Thomas Morstede (d. 1450), also a London and royal surgeon. For the history of attribution see R. T. Beck, The Cutting Edge: Early History of the Surgeons of London (London, 1974), in particular pp. 105-119 (attributed to the London surgeon Thomas Morstede); S. J. Lang, 'John Bradmore and His Book Philomena', Social History of Medicine, 5 (1992), pp. 121-30 (with transcription of ff. 48, 117v); idem, The 'Philomena' of John Bradmore and its Middle English Derivative: A Perspective on Surgery in Late Medieval England, Dissertation St. Andrews University, 1998; idem, 'Bradmore, John (d. 1412)' in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford, 2004); M. Carlin, 'Morstede, Thomas (d. 1450)', ibid. The treatise is preceded (ff. 2-5v) by a contemporary table of contents. The manuscript also includes: - a) a text on catheters and surgery for urinary disorders (ff. 187-188v, 188v-189; item 6); - b) a surgical compendium on apostemes (ff. 196-212v; item 8); - c) the Pseudo-Hippocratic astrological treatise, Astrologia medicorum (ff. 232-234; item 19); - d) a number of recipe collections (passim), some attributed by the main scribe to English practitioners (items 3.a, 4, 7, 13, 15, 22), others added by later hands. Title 'Mesue Opera MS.' (17th-cent. addition) on f. 1v. Owned in the 15th cent. by Thomas Cobb or Colb (?; unidentified), his ex-libris 'Iste liber pertinet ad Thomam colb' on ff. 1* verso, 249. Owned in the 16th cent. by Ricardus Faber, possibly identifiable with Richard Smith, a scholar from Eton and Fellow of King's College Cambridge in 1587, his ex-libris on ff. 2, 230 (crossed out) 'liber Ricardi fabri de colegio / Regali Cantabrigie'. Owned in the early 18th cent. by Henry Worsley (1675-1741), scholar and manuscript collector, envoy at the court of Portugal (1714-21) and governor of Barbados (1721-31), possibly his MS. no. 76, listed among his manuscripts in E. Bernard, Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliæ et Hiberniæ in unum collecti…, ii (Oxford, 1697), p. 214, no. 6924. Donated by Worsley to Robert Harley (1661-1724), 1st earl of Oxford and Mortimer, politician, together with other MSS. from his collection (now Harley 1585-1747, 1811, 1812) before Dec. 1712. A note in pencil (f. 1*) regarding the provenance in the hand of Harley's librarian, Humfrey Wanley (1672-1726), reads 'Coll Worsley': see C. E. Wright and R. C. Wright, The Diary of Humfrey Wanley (London, 1966), i, pp. xix-xx. For the provenance see also C.E. Wright, Fontes Harleiani (London, 1972), pp. 106, 148, 361, 400. 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. Harley shelfmarks '93.A.7 / 1736' in ink and 'J/III D' in pencil on f. 1*; shelfmark '93.A.7' repeated in ink on f. 1v. The MS. is described in A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts (London, 1808-1812), ii, p. 193.

Paper; ff. i (parchment)+paper slip+i+247+i (parchment), plus single blanks after ff. 195, 247; the parchment flyleaves are the two halves of the same page from an early 13th cent. MS. Original foliation in red and black ink '1-122' (ff. 6-227) matching the page references in the table of contents (ff. 2-5v); modern foliation in pencil ff. '1-248' (followed here, including paper flyleaf at the beginning; ff. 189v, 229v, 231v, 247v-248v blank; ff. 1-1v, 187-189, 226-226v, 230-231, 238-239, 246-247, 248 and possibly 240-244 originally blank). Sec. fol. (f. 2) '86 capitulum'. circa 210 x 145mm. Gathering: i⁴, ii-xxiv⁸, xxv^8-1 (seventh excised), xxvi-xxix⁸, xxx⁴, xxxi⁸, xxxii⁶ (possibly not original), xxxiii⁴, with alpha-numerical leaf signatures. Ruled in hard point for single columns of 32 lines, text below top line. Main text written by one scribe in an English cursive hand (littera cursiva media - secretary), with additions in cursive late 15th-16th cent. hands. Rubrics and underlining in red. Drawings of surgical instruments (ff. 42-42v) in red and black. Notabilia and other marginal notes (passim) in red, purple and black, partly contemporary and partly added later. A wood-block Nativity illustration (circa 78 x 51mm) on the verso of the small paper slip inserted between ff. 1* and 1. British Library binding with Harley arms and motto gilt-tooled at centre of covers.

Contents as follows:

1. ff. 1-1v. Medical recipes (4 recipes); 16th-cent. addition. Middle English. Rubric 'For the droppysy or for them that / ar suollen in the stomke', inc. 'Recipe on herbe that ys callydde manys / erre in laten auricula hominis'. Listed in L. E. Voigts and P. D. Kurtz, Scientific and Medical Writings in Old and Middle English: An Electronic Reference, CD-ROM, 2nd ed. (Ann Arbor, MI, 2006 = eVK2), no. 4230.00. Keywords: recipes, medical.

2. ff. 4v. Medical recipe; late 15th-cent. marginal addition. Latin. Rubric 'contra podagra', inc. 'Recipe olei rosarum'. Keywords: recipes, medical.

3. ff. 2-5v, 6-184v. John Bradmore, Philomena; circa 1446. Middle English transl. Title (added in upper margin of f. 6) 'Mesue Englished', prologue inc. 'Ryght as betwyx whete and darnell whyll / þe erbes be grene', expl. (6v) 'and manly of studyars of / practyzars in surgery I have compylyd & made / this boke in þe yer of owr lord MCCCC & / xlvj in þe wyche I have set þe pryncypylles / (f. 6v) with þe secundarys as þe kalendyr makyth mencyon'; rubric (f. 6v) 'Capitulum of comon thyngis þt arn nessessary to / a surgen', inc. 'Sirurgia id est sugery þt ys sayd of this word / kiros of grek þt ys to say a hand in ynglyshe', expl. (f. 184v) 'or of tyne / and so þe may kepe yt in þer'. The text is preceded by (ff. 2-5v) a table of contents with folio numbers in red, rubric 'Prima pars istius libri de anathomia huma/ni corporis', inc. 'Capitulum primum of comon thyngis þt ar nessessary to / a surgen'. With drawings of surgical instruments (ff. 42-42v). Listed in eVK2, nos. 4353.00, 1409.00. Partly transcribed (including the table of contents) in Beck, The Cutting Edge…, cit. above: ff. 2-14; Lang, 'John Bradmore…', cit. above: ff. 48, 117v; I. Taavitsainen, P. Pahta and M. Mäkinen (compilers), Middle English Medical Texts, CD-ROM (Amsterdam, 2005): ff. 6-12v. Keywords: surgery; anatomy; apostemes.

Embedded text:

a. ff. 167-180. Master Rede, Wounds. Middle English. Copy. Rubric 'This surgery ys after þe vse of þe ryght worschyp/full do [do cancelled] Master Doctor Rede / for wounddis', inc. 'Fyrste for to wete yff he þt ys / woundyd schall lyve or dye', expl. 'yt schall draw yt and hele yte probatur'. A medical recipe in Middle English added in the lower margin of f. 174. Listed in eVK2, no. 6214.00. Keywords: wounds; surgery; prognostication.

4. ff. 184v-185. Richardus Ciryanell?, Medical recipes (five recipes); mid 15th cent. Latin and Middle English. Rubric (f. 184v) 'Richardus ciryanell', title 'Medicina optima approbata pro podagra \frigida/', inc. 'In primis recipe cere usualis {pound} i perrosine / {pound} rosine {pound half}'; rubric (f. 185) 'A very pryncipall lynt sal be prouid', inc. 'Take half a pownd of may butter and a / pownd of rosene', listed in eVK2, no. 5460.50. Keywords: recipes, medical; plasters; wounds; waters.

5. ff. 185v-186v Latin text on ointments; mid 15th cent. Latin. Inc. 'Unguentum divinum?'.

6. ff. 187-188v, 188v-189. Text on catheters and surgery for urinary disorders; late 15th- and early 16th-cent. additions. Middle English and Latin. Inc. 'The manner off makyng off water wt instrumentis / after þe mynde off Hale', expl. 'vthat the pacuent schal be helyd'. Listed in eVK2, no. 6915.00. Followed by medical recipes in Middle English and Latin, including a case history added by a different hand, rubric (f. 188v) 'notabile empla/strum', secondary rubric 'A plaster prouyd wppon syr william faryngtun / knyght off a grewus marmoll þt was on hys / leygg…', inc. 'Take j pownd off lytarge of golde and make / yt in fyne powder'. Keywords: catheters; surgery; urine and uroscopy; recipes, medical.

7. ff. 190-195v. Master Rede, Medical recipes (circa 25 recipes); circa 1446. Middle English. Rubric (partly in Latin) 'Here begynnyth þe maner of makynge of entrettis / salvys both sanatyvys and tractyvys…. Secundum magistrum Rede', secondary rubric (partly in Latin) 'Gracia dei maior. 'Ffor to make grene entret / þt ys callyd gracia dei', inc. 'Take bugyll pygyll / sanykyll betayne scabyose rybwort smerworte', expl. 'after lape þe entret / to þe sore probatur'. Listed in eVK2, no. 5187.00. Keywords: recipes, medical; ointments; medicines.

8. ff. 196-212v. Surgery compendium on apostemes; circa 1446. Middle English. Rubric 'Capitulum primum off defferens betwyx vl/cus and vulnus… off ulceris', inc. 'This ys defference be/twyx vlcus and vulnus that ys to say betwyx a fester and a wound', expl. 'cast yt in to þe water after yt ys boylyd'. A note on fistula added to the lower and right margins of ff. 201-202. Listed in eVK2, no. 7415.00. Keywords: apostemes; wounds; fistula; diagnosis.

9. f. 213, Treatise on aqua perfectissima, possibly aqua vitae; mid 15th-cent. addition. Latin. Rubric 'Aqua perfectissima et optima ad bonam memoriam', inc. 'Recipe flores roris marini boragis camomille brole'. Keywords: aqua vitae?; distillation.

10. ff. 213v-215v. Medical recipes (circa 13 recipes); mid 15th cent. Middle English and Latin. Rubric 'Aspeciall medycyn for þe mydgryme and conpunyd ?', inc. 'Take daysyes þe levys and þe rotis and stampe them / and take þe iuse'. Listed in eVK2, no. 5270.00. Keywords: recipes, medical.

11. ff. 215v-218v. Treatise on balsam comprising circa 6 recipes; mid 15th-cent. addition. Middle English. Rubric 'Her ys þe makyng of water of balsami in a / styllatory of glas', inc. 'Take thes spycis and make powder cynamon clowys quibyblyes gynger macis, expl. ded bodys þt woll / preserue and kepe incorruptybyll Amen'. Listed in eVK2, no. 6320.00. Keywords: recipes, medical; distillation; waters; oils and balsams.

12. ff. 218v-223. Medical recipes (circa 12 recipes); mid 15th-cent. addition. Middle English. Rubric 'Ffor deffnes of herynge', inc. 'Take a gret onyon and make a hole þerin / and in þt hole put þe ius of'. Listed in eVK2, no. 4706.00. Keywords: recipes, medical.

13. ff. 224-225v. John of Arderne (attr.), Ad faciendum aquam vitae; mid 15th-cent. addition. Middle English and Latin. The recipe begins in English and continues in Latin. Rubric (margin) 'Aquae vitae Arde[ntis] / mirabilis virtutis', rubric 'Ad faciendam aquam vitam', inc. 'Take the rote of saxifrage / and percil alisaundyr fenel tyme ysope piliol ryall'. Listed in eVK2, no. 6242.00. Keywords: aqua vitae; waters; distillation; recipes, medical.

14. ff. 226-226v. Two medical recipes; 16th-cent. addition. Middle English. Rubric 'For the Frenche pockes / purgatio', inc. 'Fyrst take watter off the grene parte of the walnot / wyche ys wtowt the shell'. Keywords: recipes, medical; laxatives.

15. ff. 227-229. Master Fyncham (attr.), Medical recipes (circa 15 recipes); mid 15th-cent. addition. Latin. Rubric (upper margin) 'De libro magister ffyncham', rubric 'Iter probatum experimentum cum difficilem partem', inc. 'Conteretur ? borago / et distemperatum'. Keywords: recipes, medical.

16. f. 230. Text on capturing birds and wild animals; late 15th- or early 16th-cent. addition. Latin. Rubric 'Ad anes et ferat capiendum', inc. 'Scribe in carta Virginia'.

17. f. 230v. Four medical recipes for ointments and eye-wash; late 15th- or early 16th-cent. addition. Latin. Rubric 'Unguentum de melle secundum Rasis / in vij almansoris in cap. de carbonculis', inc. 'Recipe sarcocolle mellis partes equales sarcocolle / pulverizata'. Keywords: recipes, medical; ointments; ophthalmology.

18. f. 231. Two medical recipes for treacle and wounds; late 15th-cent. addition. Middle English. Rubric 'To make treakell', inc. 'Take one qwartt of honmy and {demi} a pyntt of / weneger 1 handefu\o/ll saweete'. Keywords: recipes, medical; treacle; wounds; antidotary; poison.

19. ff. 232-234. Pseudo-Hippocrates, Astrologia medicorum; circa 1446. Middle English transl. Copy. A copy of a Middle English version of a Pseudo-Hippocratic astrological text, aslo known as Astrologia Ypocratis, relating to medicine and prognostication. Prologue rubric 'This ys þe boke off Ypocras in this boke the techyth / for to know be planetes both lyffe and dethe and the tymes thereoff', inc. 'Fyrst sayth Ypocras a leche schall take kepe off þe mone whan he ys at full'; rubric 'Whan þe mone ys in a sygne þt ys / callyd Aries', inc. 'This sygne hath of a man þe hede to / þe chyne', expl. 'a man may esse hym and wt medicyns cure / hym'. Other copies of the translation in Add. 12195 (ff. 185-190), Harley 2378 (ff. 7-11v) and Sloane 73 (ff. 132v-136). For the copy of one of the Latin versions see Harley 2375 (ff. 89-90, 91-94). The Middle English text is edited in Medieval Lunar Astrology. A collection of Representative Middle English Texts, ed. L. Means (Lewiston-Queenston-Lampeter, 1993), pp. 48, 245-252. The initial lines were published in G. Henslow, Medical Works of the Fourteenth Century together with a List of Plants recorded in Contemporary Writings, with their Identifications (London, 1899), pp. 76-77. See also P. Kibre, Hippocrates latinus. Repertorium of Hippocratic Writings in the Latin Middle Ages, rev. ed. (New York, 1985), p. 107 (with no mention of the present MS.). Listed in A Manual of the Writings in Middle English 1050-1500,. ed. A. E. Hartung, x, G. R. Keiser, Science and Information (New Haven, 1998), p. 3779, no. [116]; eVK2, nos. 1701.00, 8014.00. Keywords: moon; zodiac and signs of; lucky and unlucky days; prognostication, by days of the moon.

20. ff. 234-234v. Text relating to apostemes; circa 1446. Middle English. Copy. Rubric (f. 234) 'Ffor to know off all maner sores wtin and wtowt / off what complection ther be know this rewle', inc. (f. 234v) 'Yeff þu se a sore or aposteme þt ys wtowte in what party / þt yt be ouer þe body', expl. 'for all manner off surgery off apostemes / owtwarde'. Another copy, also following the Pseudo-Hippocratic astrological treatise, in Harley 2378 (ff. 11-11v). Listed in eVK2, no. 2708.00. Keywords: medicine; astrology; prognostication; zodiac and signs of; disease, signs and symptoms; apostemes; diagnosis; etiology.

21. ff. 234v-237v. A Latin text on seven planets and signs of the zodiac, with astrological tables (f. 235v); circa 1446. Latin.

22. f. 237v. Master Wakfelde (Wakefield?), Medical recipes against the plague; circa 1446. Latin and Middle English. A marginal note attributes the recipes to 'Magister Wakfelde / pulvem contra pestem'. Rubric 'Electis pro farmacia', inc. 'Recipe bole armoniac {ounce} 1 {half} sanguis draconis 3 {half} terre si/gillata'.

23. f. 238. Figure of division indicating the qualities of the signs of the zodiac; late 15th- or early 16th-cent. addition.

24. ff. 238v-239. Medical recipes (9 recipes); 16th-cent. addition. Middle English and Latin. Rubric 'Pro gutta pro podigra pro siateca and for aches', inc. 'Take a whelpe off white heers from þe dame þt never dyd ete but syckyd and kylle'. Listed in eVK2, no. 4905.00. Keywords: recipes, medical.

25. ff. 239v-244. Medical recipes (circa 28 recipes); late 15th- or early 16th-cent. addition. Middle English. Rubric 'A webebe þt a horsse þr/to brecke hytte', inc. 'Take blacke sunaylles and take tyllstones / and make hyt whoot yn the fyr and so take hyt / owett'. Listed in eVK2, nos. 5159.00, 5872.50, 5747.50. Keywords: recipes, medical; recipes, veterinary; equine medicine; lucky and unlucky days; herbs and herbal medicine.

26. ff. 244v-245v. Recipes, mainly medical (circa 11 recipes); circa 1446. Latin and Middle English (3 recipes). Rubric (margin) 'Ad capiendum pesses', inc. 'Accipe 1 quarte off þe bast worte and seth yt tyll pynt / Take comyn'.

27. f. 246. Two medical recipes; late 15th cent. Middle English. Rubric 'For stappyng of þe pypys and þe liuer', inc. 'Recipe an halffe penyworthe off lycurus and schaue yt clene and brus / it'. Keywords: recipes, medical.

28. ff. 246-246v, 247, 248. Recipes, predominately medical (9 recipes); late 15th- or early 16th-cent. additions. Latin and English. Inc. 'Recipe argentum urini sall ermoniake salle peter / verideeris'. Keywords: recipes, medical.

Astrology: Recipes: Medicine and Surgery: Medicine, Veterinary MIDDLE ENGLISH: Medical Miscellany including the Middle English Translation of John Bradmore Philomena, collections of recipes and astrological treatises: 1446, and late 15th-16th cent.: Enm. and Lat: Copy.

includes:

• ff. 2-184v Medicine and Surgery: John Bradmore, d 1412 surgeon, of London: Philomena, surgical treatise by John Bradmore: 1446: Enm. transl.
• ff. 232-234 Pseudo- Hippocrates: Astrologia medicorum: circa 1446: Enm. transl.: Copy.
• ff. 232-234 Astrology: Medicine and Surgery: Astrologia medicorum, Pseudo-Hippocratic treatise: circa 1446: Enm. transl.: Copy.