Harley MS 2374

This composite manuscript is made up of two booklets (ff. 1-28 and 29-64), both made in the 15th century. The first booklet comprises a botanical glossary, a partial copy of an antidotary (book of antidotes) and a collection of medical recipes in Middle English and Latin. The second contains an anonymous Middle English translation of the Latin Antidotarium Nicolai (Antidotary of Nicholas), a late 11th-early 12th-century collection of pharmacopoeial remedies compiled at the School of Salerno. The work became an essential feature of the medical curriculum at European universities during the later medieval period (on the Middle English translation of the text, see Linares, 'Middle English Antidotarium Nicholai (2005), 71-92).

A copy of the Latin Antidotarium Nicolai is now Harley MS 4983.

Contents:

ff. 1r-4v: possibly an antidotary, imperfect at the beginning; beginning, 'dolorem mitigat cardiacus summum remedium est ydropicus … Dyasatryon', and ending, 'ffecit. Apfert Innais aubet Octus debilitates / Explicit quidam medicinale secundum praxim'. Mid-15th century.

ff. 5r-10v: a botanical glossary in Latin and Middle English, beginning, 'Alleluya anglice Goukesoure / paniscuculi anglice woodsorre', expl. 'zedwarium / zeduare anglice zedwale / Explicit herbale:', followed by later additions 'zinnia fermentum. leven … zirungen. borage'. The text is laid out in figures of division. Mid-15th century.

f. 11r: added notes in French and Middle English in a later hand.

ff. 11v-28v: a collection of around 130 medical recipes in Middle English and Latin, with a prologue, beginning, 'Hic sequitur quidam tractatus medicinarum / aggregatus et per diversos homines in philosophia ex/pertos in Anglicis verbis approbatus per naturam et / operacionem diversarum rerum'.

f. 29r: an eight-line poem in English, beginning, 'Whose witte most fine with arte did flowe', followed by the note 'Quoth Ffludd' relating the verse to Robert Fludd, (bap. 1574, d. 1637), physician and writer on the occult. Copied out twice by two late 16th-early 17th-century hands.

ff. 29v-30r: Two medical recipes in Middle English, beginning, 'Recipe perroseyne / ii {drams} roseyn viii {drams} olibanum i {dram} terbentyn iv {drams}'. Mid-15th century.

f. 30v: A note written by a priest of Rotherham, relating to the number of baptisms, weddings and christenings that took place in his parish in 1472, as well as an account of some expenses in that year.

ff. 31r-64v: Antidotarium Nicolai, in an anonymous Middle English translation; imperfect at the beginning and end; beginning. 'Letuares Tak lapdanum pure clene {ounces} iij storax cala/myte a {dram} and half storax' in the middle of the recipe called 'Confectio Alipte Muscate', breaking at 'and hornes on þe manere of a corne of whete'. Early 15th century.

Decoration:

Large initials and paraph marks in alternating red and blue (ff. 31r-64v).

The cataloguing of this manuscript was funded by the Wellcome Trust.