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Harley MS 3371

Record Id:

040-002049202

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002049202

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000761.0x00032f

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 3371

Title:

Collection of medical texts and recipes, including works by John of Arderne

Scope & Content:

This manuscript contains a collection of medical texts and recipes, including many works by the English practitioner John of Arderne (b. 1307, d. c. 1378).

This collection has been identified as the exemplar used by the author of the Middle English translation of Arderne's works and other texts in Sloane MS 76: see Jones, 'British Library ms Sloane 76' (1990), pp. 21-39; Jones 'Illustrated manuscripts of John of Arderne' (2002), pp. 219-22.

Contents:

ff. 1r-7v: Isaac Judaeus, Liber de urinis, Chapter 1. Latin. Excerpt from the Latin translation by Constantinus Africanus (circa 1020-1098/9) of an Arabic treatise on urines (Kitāb al-bawl) by Abū Ya'qūb Ishāq ibn Sulaymān al-Isrā’īlī (fl. circa 855-955), known to the West as Isaac Judaeus, a Jewish doctor and philosopher, and physician of the Fatimid caliph 'Ubayd Allāh al-Mahdī of Kairouan, Tunisia (909-934). Title 'Incipit liber de urinis Ysaac qui divitur? In decem / particulas prima est de urina essensia' followed by list of contents, expl. 'et / ypostasi quid significet', text inc. 'Urina est sanguinis colamentum'.

f. 8r: Walter Agilon, De dosis medicinarum. Latin. A text on simples and compounds written in the first half of the 13th century by Guatier (Walter) Agilon. Inc. ''Hoc est dosys medicinarum / simplicium et compositarum usitarum / secundum magistrum galterum', expl. 'Expliciunt maiores / doses'.

f. 8v: Text on laxative medicine possibly extracted from a treatise on simple drugs traditionally attributed to a Pseudo-Mesue (also called Johannes Mesue the Younger). Latin. Rubric 'Hec sunt doses medicinarum laxa/tivarum magis usitarum / tam simplicium quam composi/tarum secundum mesue', inc. 'Notandum quod / melius est declinare'.

ff. 9r-12r: Flores antidotarii. Latin and Middle English. Imperfect. As noted by Knott, who also added the rubric 'Flores antidotarii', the text is acephalous and starts at 'Electuaria contra tusitam', expl. 'vesice que reten/cionem menstruorum / Explicit Flores Antidotarij'.

ff. 13r-22v: John of Arderne, Extracta emoroidarum, Chapters 1-11. Latin. Inc. 'Extracta emoroydarum secundum Lanfrancum bononiensum discre/tissimum magistrum. Rege Francie qui duos libros cyr/urgie composuit'.

ff. 22v-24r: John of Arderne, Liber medicinarum, excerpts from Chapters 12 and 13. Latin.The excerpts relate to suffocation and heavy menstrual bleeding. Inc. 'Suffocatio matricis est passio'.

ff. 24r-40r: John of Arderne, Practica, Chapters 14-36. Latin. Treatise of 'fistula in ano'. Inc. 'Quamvis principalis intencio de fistula in ano' (i.e. the beginning of chapter 2).

8. ff. 40-80. John of Arderne, Liber medicinarum, Chapters 37-70. Latin. Inc. 'Pruritum vulve paciunt mulieres', expl. 'Contra pruritum testiculorum … bene cum sapone nigro'.

ff. 80r, 81r-82r: Plague tract. Latin. Inc. 'Dilectissime frater ut intellexi multum times pro instanti / pestilencia', expl 'et sic preservabit te deo mediante'. The copy on f. 80 was interrupted at the end of the page and the text crossed out.

ff. 80v-81r: Two chapters relating to head complaints. Latin. The chapters are a collection of excerpts from Roger of Parma and others. Inc. 'Ad capillos regenerandos'.

ff. 83r-84r, 87r: Recipes, mostly gynecological and medical but last relating to ink-making. Latin. Rubric (f. 83r) 'Ad constringendum fluxum superfluum menstruorum', inc. 'ad constringendum menstrua non cessantia fluere longo tempore / accipe folia'; rubric (f. 87r) 'Ad faciendi incastum lumbardis', inc. 'Cum volueris facere incastum lumbardis et est incaustum optimum'.

ff. 84v-85r: Medical recipes (eight recipes); late 15th-16th cent. Middle English. The recipes have been added by two different hands. Rubric (f. 84v) 'Pater noster / for steynkkyng brethe', inc. 'Recipe a halfepeyny worth of commyng and / hanfull off fenell sed'.

ff. 88r-91v: Collection of medical recipes relating to gynaecological disorders. Latin. Rubric 'Nota de secretis mulieris', inc. 'Ad extrahendum secundina'.

ff. 91v-99v: Medical compendium relating to colic, eye problems, paralysis and other disorders. Latin. The compendium includes excerpts from John of Arderne, John of Gaddesden and others. Rubric (f. 91v) 'Contra colica', inc. 'accipe radices tormentille'. Followed (ff. 100r-106v) by other texts, partly relating to kidney stones. The collection was put together at different times.

ff. 107r-109v: John of Arderne, Practica, Chapter 1. Rubric (added by Knott) 'Practica magistri Johannes de Arderne de cura fistula in ano', inc. 'Practica a Johanne de Ardern cirurgici Ego Johannes / predictus a prima pestilencia', expl. 'parte graciliori sicut hic depingitur'.

f. 110r: Recipes in English for catching rabbits and wild deer, for rat poison and fishing and one in Latin against toothache in children; late 15th cent. Middle English and Latin. Rubric (Knott's addition) 'To take quinies i.e. caniculos', inc. '[…] ovpon the ffyre till hit be vpon the sethyng than set hit downe and lete / hit stande'; rubric 'Ut dentes non dolent cum puer nascitur', inc. 'Accipe sanguinem de crista galli et / unge iungivas et dentes sine dolore nascitur'.

f. 110v: Medical recipes (four recipes?). Latin and Middle English. Rubric 'unguentum nobilissimum ad scaben', inc. 'Recipe gravorum / iuniperi {manipulus} 1 salis coclear'.

ff. 111r-116r: An index to the medical topics covered in the collection, compiled in the 16th century with additions by later hands.

f. 116v: Medical recipes (two recipes); late 15th-early 16th cent. Middle English. Rubric 'Ffor þe swellyng of a sore þt ws astond / and wyll not hele', inc. 'Take red vyne/gar and þe crumys off levynd brede'.

f. 116v: A note in Middle English on the price of medicines for his wife paid by John Balwyn, waxchandler of Chester, to a physician of Wells in 1496 or 1497.

f. 117r: Text relating to Greek fire; 16th cent. Latin. According to the rubric the text is an excerpt from a work by John of Arderne. Rubric 'Compositio ignis inestinguibilis / ex alio libro johannis Ardenis / in Mathei?', inc. 'Nota quod ignis volatilis in aere et post compositio', expl. ' Johanne Arderne mentioned in one of his / tracts that he served? þe black / prince in France'. The text is divided into two sections.

ff. 82v, 85v-86r, and 87v are blank.

Decoration:

Large two-line initials in blue or red (ff. 1r, 13r, 88r). Marginal pen drawings of plants, surgical instruments, heraldic shields, animals, human or animal heads, limbs or bodies in black and red (ff. 15v-19r, 25r-39r, 68r, 72r-72v). Rubrics and paraphs in red.

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002049202", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 3371: Collection of medical texts and recipes, including works by John of Arderne" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002049202

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 3371 : Collection of medical texts and recipes, including works by John of Arderne

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[3372]/040-002049202

Container:

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

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

Languages:

English, Middle
Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1450

End Date:

1499

Date Range:

2nd half of the 15th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Material: Paper.

Dimensions: 225 x 150 mm (170/175 x 105/110 mm).

Foliation: ff. 117 (+ 2 unfoliated early modern and 2 original paper flyleaves at the beginning + 1 unfoliated blank leaves after ff. 82 and 87 + 2 modern paper flyleaves at the end).

Old foliation '1-136' with gaps ('1-8, 11-14, 16-89, 95-119, 122-128, 136) in brown ink in the lower left corner of rectos (including blanks).

Collation: Gathering: i^12-2 (missing eleventh and twelfth; including original flyleaves, i.e. ff. iii and iv), ii⁴, iii-vi¹⁶, vii^12-5? (seventh-eleventh ? excised), viii^12-6? (missing at least five leaves, perhaps sixth to ninth, according to the old foliation 87-89, 95-97), ix¹², x¹⁸, with horizontal catchwords on gatherings iii-vi; the old pen foliation also suggests the loss of one leaf after f. 12, two after f. 109, and seven after f. 116, but there is no evidence of these losses in the gathering composition.

Script: Gothic cursive, written by one scribe, with later additions by other 15th- and 16th-century hands.

Binding: Post-1600. 'Harleian' binding of blind-tooled mottled brown leather, possibly attributable to Thomas Elliott.

Large initials (2-3 lines; ff. 1, 13, 88) in blue or red; other not executed but with guide-letters in place (see ff. 80, 107); rubrics and paragraph marks in red throughout. Marginal pen drawings (ff. 15v-39, 68, 72-72v) in black and red.

Custodial History:

Origin:

England.

Provenance:

Additions by late 15th- and early 16th-century scribes, including an index to the medical topics in the manuscript (ff. 111r-116r).

John Balwyn, wax chandler of Chester: his note dating 1496 or 1497 relating to the price of medicines (f. 116v).

Richard Hutton, unidentified: owned in the late 15th century, his inscription 'Iste liber pertinet Ricardum Hutton' (f. 116v).

Samuel Knott (d. 1687), rector of Combe Raleigh, Devon (1661-1668), antiquary and collector of manuscripts: his notes, often in red (passim; see Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), p. 211).

Robert Burscough (b. 1650/51, d. 1709), prebendary of Exeter in 1701, archdeacon of Barnstaple in 1703, rector of Cheriton Bishop in 1705: his manuscript no. 60: sold along with other manuscripts by his widow to Robert Harley on 17 May 1715 (see Diary (1966), II, p. 496; Wright, Fontes Harleiani (1972), pp. 87-88).

The Harley Collection, formed by Robert Harley (b. 1661, d. 1724), 1st earl of Oxford and Mortimer, politician, and Edward Harley (b. 1689, d. 1741), 2nd earl of Oxford and Mortimer, book collector and patron of the arts, inscribed as usual by their librarian, Humfrey Wanley ‘17 May 1715’, and 'Oxford' by a late hand (f. [iii] recto).

Edward Harley bequeathed the library to his widow, Henrietta Cavendish, née Holles (b. 1694, d. 1755) during her lifetime and thereafter to their daughter, Margaret Cavendish Bentinck (b. 1715, d. 1785), duchess of Portland; the manuscripts were sold 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 Harley manuscripts form one of the foundation collections of the British Library.

Information About Copies:

Select digital coverage available for this manuscript; see the Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts, https://bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/.

Publications:

Edward Bernard, Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliæ et Hiberniæ in unum collecti, cum indice alphabetico, 3 vols (Oxford: Sheldonian, 1697), II, p. 234, no. 7679.

A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: Eyre and Strahan, 1808-12), III (1808), no. 3371.

The Diary of Humfrey Wanley 1715-1726, ed. by Cyril E. Wright and Ruth C. Wright, 2 vols (London: Bibliographical Society, 1966), I: 1715-1723, p. 11 n. 3, II: 1723-1726, p. 496.

Cyril E. Wright, Fontes Harleiani: A Study of the Sources of the Harleian Collection of Manuscripts in the British Museum (London: British Museum, 1972), pp. 87-88, 211, 427.

Peter Murray Jones, 'British Library MS Sloane 76: A Translator's Holograph', in Medieval Book Production: Assessing the Evidence, ed. by Linda l. Brownrigg, Proceedings of the Second Conference of The Seminar in the History of the Book to 1500, Oxford, July 1998 (Los Altos Hills, California: Anderson-Lovelace, 1990), pp. 21-39 (pp. 29, 31, and passim, figs 1, 3).

Peter Murray Jones, 'Staying with the Programme: Illustrated Manuscripts of John of Arderne, c.1380-c.1550', in English Manuscript Studies 1100-1700, 10, Decoration and Illustration in Medieval English Manuscripts, ed. by Anthony S. G. Edwards (London: British Library, 2002), pp. 204-07 (pp. 219-22).

Laura Nuvoloni, 'The Harleian Medical Manuscripts', The Electronic British Library Journal (2008), art. 7, p. 18, with pl.[http://www.bl.uk/eblj/2008articles/article7.html], accessed 3 April 2009.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Agilon, Walter, writer on medicine, fl 13th century
Arderne, John, surgeon, 1307-1378
Balwyn, John, waxchandler, of Chester, fl 1496
Burscough, Robert, Church of England clergyman, 1650/51-1709
Elliott, Thomas, bookbinder, fl 1712-1763
Hutton, Richard
Isaac Judaeus
Knott, Samuel, Rector of Combe Raleigh Devon, 1661-1668, d 1687