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Harley MS 4983

Record Id:

040-002050827

Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:

040-002050827

MDARK:

ark:/81055/vdc_100000000859.0x0001f6

LARK:

SLARK:

Format:

ISAD(G)

Reference (shelfmark):

Harley MS 4983

Title:

Nicolaus Salernitanus, Antidotarium

Scope & Content:

Nicolaus Salernitanus, Antidotarium. The manuscript is a copy of the Antidotary, a collection of pharmacopoeial remedies in alphabetical order written possibly in the mid-13th century by an anonymous doctor traditionally called Nicolaus Salernitanus or Nicholas of Salerno. Nicolaus derived his material from a collective oral tradition which had been put together in Salerno between 1160 and 1200.

Prologue incipit (f. 3r): 'Ego Nicolaus rogatus a qui/busdam in practica medicine / studere volentibus', explicit (f. 29r): 'Zangiber conditum … rene confortat et libidinem excitat', with appendix, incipit (f. 29r): 'Zanziber conditum. Recipe zanziber integri mondati librae .ii.', explicit (f. 29v): 'Unguentum ad omnes plagas … parum de melle', followed by an alphabetical table of contents (ff. 29v-30v), incipit: 'Aurea Alexandrine librae ii', explicit: 'Zangiber conditum quo modo sit'.

Other copies of the text iare Additional MS 22809 (ff. 230r-244v, with commentary by Johannes Platearius, imperfect), Arundel MS 115 (ff. 134v-143v; dated 1327, attributed to Nicholas de Ostresham), and Arundel MS 215 (ff. 242r-257v, preceded by table of contents), Egerton MS 747 (ff. 112r-124r), Harley MS 2378 (ff. 63r-110r) and Harley MS 3140 (ff. 255r-271r, with table of contents between prologue and incipit), Sloane MS 341 (ff. 115r-127v), Sloane MS 352 (ff. 1r-29v, imperfect), Sloane MS 1124 (ff. 58r-71r, preceded by table of contents), Sloane MS 1612 (ff. 366r-397r, imperfect), Sloane MS 2268 (ff. 2r-15r), Sloane MS 2527 (ff. 1r-21v), Sloane MS 3483 (ff. 1r-22v), Sloane MS and 3525 (ff. 222v-244v, in French, preceded by table of contents on ff. 220r-222v); excerpts in Royal MS 12 E. viii (ff. 110r-122r), and a fragment in Additional MS 24068 (f. 24v). A translation in Middle English in Harley MS 2374 (ff. 31r-64v, imperfect).

First printed by Nicolaus Jenson in Venice in 1471: see Fredrick R. Goff, Incunabula in American Libraries: A Third Census of Fifteenth-Century Books Recorded in North American Collections (New York: The Bibliographical Society of America, 1964), N160; HR 11764; William Osler, Incunabula medica: A Study of the Earliest Printed Medical Books, 1467-1480 (Oxford: Oxfor University Press, 1923), p. 43, no. 8; Arnold C. Klebs, Incunabula scientifica et medica (Bruges 1938; repr. Hildesheim 1963), p. 234, no. 703.1; ISTC in00160000. For the text see P. Dorveaux, L'antidotaire Nicolas. Deux traductions françaises de l'Antidotarium Nicolai. L'une du XIVè siècle suivie de quelques recettes de la même époque et d'un glossaire. L'autre du XVè siècle incomplète. Publiées d'après les manuscrits français 25327 et 14827 de la Bibliothèque nationale (Paris, 1896); W. S. Van den Berg, Eene Middelnederlandische Vertaling van het Antidotarium Nicolai: Mit den Latijnschen Tekst (Leiden, 1917), with reprint of the first printed edition; G. Sarton, Introduction to the History of Science (Baltimore, 1931), II, pp. 239-40; L. Thorndike and P. Kibre, Catalogue of Incipits of Medieval Scientific Writings in Latin, The Mediaeval Academy of America Publication, 29 (London, 1963; with supplements in 1965 and 1968), p. 1018d; its electronic edition (Ann Arbor, MI, 2000), p. 490B and 490C*; its electronic version on CD Rom (Ann Arbor, 2000) nos. 490B and 490C*; D. Goltz, Mittelalterliche Pharmazie und Medizin. Dargestellt an Geschichte und Inhalt des Antidotarium Nicolai. Mit einem Nachdruck der Druckfassung von 1471 (Stuttgart, 1976), with facsimile edition of the first printed edition; Kremers and Urdang's History of Pharmacy, ed. by G. Sonnedecker (Philadelphia, 1976), pp. 32, 501-02 n. 29; For Nicolaus, see F. M. Getz in Dizionario Biografico della Storia della Medicina e delle Scienze Naturali (Liber Amicorum), ed. by R. Porter (Rome, 1988), IV, p. 170; F. Wallis, 'Nicholas of Salerno' in Medieval Science, Technology, and Medicine. An Encyclopedia, ed. by T. Glick, S. J. Livesey and F. Wallis (New York, 2005).

Also includes medical recipes in Latin and Dutch added by later hands (14th and 15th century) at the end of the table of contents (f. 30v) and on the original flyleaves (ff. 1v, 2r, 31r, 31v, 32).

Decoration:

One large puzzle initial (f. 3r; 9 lines) in red and blue with contrasting penwork decoration alongating into the border. Initials (2 lines) in blue with red pen-flourishing or red with blue pen-flourishing extending into the borders, throughout the text; index initials in red or blue, the first with contrasting penwork decoration (ff. 29v-30v; 1 line).

Collection Area:

Western Manuscripts

Project / Collection:

Harley Collection
Harley Science Project

Hierarchy Tree:

[{ "id" : "040-002050827", "parent" : "#", "text" : "Harley MS 4983: Nicolaus Salernitanus, Antidotarium" , "li_attr" : {"class": "orderable"} }]

Hierarchy Record Ids:

032-002045828
040-002050827

Is part of:

Harley MS 1-7661 : Harley Manuscripts

Harley MS 4983 : Nicolaus Salernitanus, Antidotarium

Hierarchy:

032-002045828[4983]/040-002050827

Container:

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

Record Type (Level):

File

Extent:

1 volume

Digitised Content:

http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?ref=Harley_MS_4983 (digital images currently unavailable)

Thumbnail:

Languages:

Dutch
Latin

Scripts:

Latin

Start Date:

1250

End Date:

1299

Date Range:

2nd half of the 13th century

Era:

Access:

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User Conditions:

Physical Characteristics:

Materials: Parchment codex (palimpsest, the lower text being Latin in Caroline minuscule).

Dimensions: 250 x 170 mm (text space: (170 x 105 mm).

Foliation: ff. ii + 32 + ii (all unfoliated flyleaves are 18th-century paper leaves; ff. 1-2 and 31-32 are the original upper and lower flyleaves). Modern foliation in pencil ff. '1-32'.

Collation: i², ii-iii⁸, iv^8-2 (seventh-eighth cancelled).

Layout: Pricked on rectos and ruled (single bounding line) in ink for single column of 29 lines. Text written below top line.

Script: Gothic.

Binding: Harleian binding of mottled brown calf skin over pasteboards with blind-tooled decoration and spine in gilt-tooled compartments, attributable to Thomas Elliott: the rolls used for the blind-tooled decoration of the covers correspond to nos. 1 and 2 reproduced in H. M. Nixon, 'Harleian Bindings', Studies in the Book Trade in Honour of Graham Pollard, Bibliographical Society Publications, n.s., 18(Oxford, 1975), pl. 14. Title-label in red morocco reads 'nicolai / pract. med.'

Custodial History:

Origin:

France, N. or N.E.

Provenance:

Added medical recipes in Latin and Dutch, 14th and 15th century (ff. 1v, 2r, 30v-32r).

Johannes Trudelif, unidentified, owned in the 15th century: his note 'Iste liber est Johannis Trudelif' (f. 31v).

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.

Edward Harley bequeathed the library to his widow, Henrietta, née Cavendish 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. Harley shelfmarks '139.A.17' in brown ink, followed by '4983' in brown ink, and '1/III D' in pencil (f. ii recto).

Publications:

A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum, 4 vols (London: [n. pub.], 1808-12), III (1808) , no. 4983.

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. 332, 451.

Material Type:

Archives and Manuscripts

Legal Status:

Not Public Record(s)

Names:

Elliott, Thomas, bookbinder, fl 1712-1763
Nicolaus, Salernitanus
Trudelif, Johannes