Harley MS 5401

Medical and Culinary Compendium; 2nd half of the 15th cent. Middle English and Latin. Partly copies. The MS. mainly contains medical and culinary treatises and recipes, which include: - a) John Arderne, Liber medicinarum (ff. 1-77v; item 1); - b) Treatise on uroscopy (ff. 94-94v; item 9); - c ) Thomas Awkbarow, Culinary recipes (ff. 95v-103; item 10); - d) Verses relating to Lydgate, Dietary (ff. 103-104; item 11). It also includes (ff. 78-79) an astrological text with table. The previous ownership, and the date and circumstances of the arrival of the MS. in the Harleian collection are unknown. The volume is mentioned in neither C. E. Wright and R. C. Wright, The Diary of Humfrey Wanley (London, 1966), nor C. E. Wright, Fontes Harleiani (London, 1972). Owned by Edward Harley (1689-1741), 2nd earl of Oxford and Mortimer, book collector and patron of the arts, and possibly by his father, Robert Harley (1661-1724), 1st earl of Oxford and Mortimer, politician. Bequeathed with the Harleian library to Edward's widow, 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 '143.D.1 / 5401' in dark brown ink followed by '2/III B' in pencil (f. i). The MS. is described in A Catalogue of the Harleian Manuscripts in the British Museum (London, 1808-1812), iii, p. 265. The cataloguing of the MS. was funded by the Wellcome Trust.

Paper and parchment (outer and middle leaves of each gathering); ff. 105, lacking single leaves after ff. 25, 70, 82, 92. Old pagination '1-149' (ff. 1-76), repeating no. 95 and corrected to '1-151' by a later hand which continues the pagination to p. 207 (f. 104), repeating no. 207: this pagination included the missing leaf after f. 92. Modern foliation in pencil ff. '1-105' (followed here; ff. 79, 83v, 92v, 95, 105v blank). circa 212 x 140mm (foredge restored with paper altering the present width of the leaves to circa 165mm). Gathering: i¹⁶, ii^14-1 (lacking eleventh), iii-v¹⁴, vi^14-2 (i cancelled, lacking fourteenth), vii¹⁰, viii^14-1 (lacking first). Inconsistently ruled in ink (for single bounding lines only) for single columns of 33-39 lines, text below top line. Written space circa 153-158 x 98-100mm. Written in grey ink in cursive English Secretary script (littera Cursiva currens) by different hands. Full page (f. 35v), half-page (ff. 35, 39) and marginal (ff. 1-67) drawings in brown ink, touched in red. Chapter initials (ff. 1-78, 2 lines; f. 84, 4 lines) in red. Rubrics underlined and sentence initials touched in red throughout. British Library binding with Harley arms and motto gilt-tooled at centre of covers.

Contents as follows:

1. ff. 1-77v. Johannis de Arderne (1307-circa 1378), Liber medicinarum sive receptorum liber medicinalium; 15th cent., second half. Latin. Copy. Rubric 'Contra cancrum', inc. 'Contra cancrum ubicumque fuerit experimentum', expl. 'aquam frigidam cum aceto mixtam'. With full page (f. 35v), half-page (ff. 35, 39) and marginal drawings (ff. 1-67) in brown and red ink. Another copy in Latin in Harley 3371 (ff. 22v-80, 107-109v). For the author, the text and its translations into Middle English, see J. Arderne, Treatises of fistula in ano, haemorrhoids and clysters …., ed. D'Arcy Power (London, 1910; Early English Text Society; 139), edition of a Middle English translation from Sloane 6; D'Arcy Power, 'A System of Surgery by Master John Arderne', British Journal of Surgery, 15, issue 57 (1927), pp. 1-9; J. M. Jones, 'Four Middle English Translations of John of Arderne', in Latin and Vernacular. Studies in Late-Medieval Texts and Manuscripts (Cambridge, 1989; York Manuscripts Conferences Proceedings Series, 1), pp. 61-89; 'John Arderne' in R. Sharpe, A Handlist of the Latin Writers of Great Britain and Ireland before 1540 (Turnhout, 1997), pp. 202-204, with no mention of the present manuscript; P. M. Jones 'Staying with the programme: illustrated manuscripts of John of Arderne, c.1380-c.1550', in English Manuscript Studies 1100-1700, x, Decoration and Illustration in Medieval English Manuscripts (London, 2002), pp. 204-236, with no mention of the present manuscript. Listed in L. Thorndike and P. Kibre, A Catalogue of Incipits of Medieval Scientific Writings in Latin, rev. ed. (London, 1963), p. 30m; its electronic version on CD-ROM ed. (Ann Arbor, MI, 2000=eTK), no. 30M; R. H. Robbins, 'Medical Manuscripts in Middle English', Speculum, 45, no. 3 (1970), pp. 403 n. 28, 406 n. 37. Followed by (f. 77v) three recipes in Latin.

2. ff. 77v, 79v-83. Medical recipes; 15th cent., second half. Middle English and Latin. Rubric 'For the malody calyd hymea', inc. 'Boyle otemele grotes / in water þat benes ar bolyd', expl. 'custodiantur renes a frigore'. The text includes (f. 81) a rat poison, the attributes of the months in verse (for which see C. Brown and R. H. Robbins, The Index of Middle English Verse. Supplement (New York, 1965), no. 1275) and notes on diet. It also includes (f. 80v) a recipe in Latin. Texts are 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), nos. 1312.00, 2434.00.

3. ff. 84-85v. Astrological text attributed to Sidrac; 15th cent., second half. Latin. Copy. Rubric 'In nomine trino hoc opus incipio / Sidrac in sua compilacione', inc. 'Sol in aquario mensis januaris signum habet aquarii', expl. 'ultima dies kalendis decembris'.

4. ff. 85v-86. Diagnosis and remedy to ailments of the head, breast, stomach and bladder; 15th cent., second half. Middle English. Rubric 'Fyrst þe signes of þe hede in seknys', inc. 'Whan a man has evyll in þe hede his brows begyn to fall fanton / and mist in his hede tongwongys', expl. 'he sall / haue þe stone'. Similar texts in Harley 1602 (ff. 11v-12), Lansdowne 388 (ff. 370v, 371-372), Sloane 706 (ff. 96v-97), Sloane 1388 (ff. 51v-52). Listed in eVK2, no. 7938.00.

5. f. 86. Elements and humours; 15th cent., second half. Middle English. Inc. 'The iiij elements of þis world of whom man was made / are þese Eyre Ffyre Erth and watyr'. Preceded by figure of division on planets and complexions. Listed in eVK2, no. 6823.00.

6. ff. 86-87. Pseudo-Hippocrates, Letter to Caesar (Regimen sanitatis) without prologue; 15th cent., second half. Middle English. Inc. 'Vere begyns þe vii / Ide of feuer', expl. 'and so flemme is dystroyd þat anoyethe'. The present manuscript is cited in W. L. Braekman, Studies on Alchemy, Diet, Medecine and Prognostication in Middle English (Brussels, 1988 for 1986; Scripta, Mediaeval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 22), p. 52 n. 1. For other copies and further bibliography, see description of Harley 3383 (ff. 85v-86).

7. f. 87. Short text on haematoscopy; 15th cent., second half. Middle English. Rubric 'For to know bloyd', inc. 'In sygne of deth how a man sall knaw throgh blode of / veyne', expl. 'of longe lyfe of man or woman'.

8. ff. 87-91v. Medical compendium relating to Master Pauline, mostly recipes (circa 63 recipes); 15th cent., second half. Middle English. Title 'La medycyne de maystre paulyne', prologue 'For all maner euyls dyssentory þt is a flux þt when þin gutts', inc. ‘Aloe3 V partie of þe receyte murre gum armoniak polipody… þs medycyne is callyd paulyne drynke'. Listed in eVK, no. 1830.00. Includes (ff. 87v-88) a recipe relating to uroscopy, rubric 'For to knaw vrynes', inc. 'Iff þu vryne of a seke man be trobely and itt haue holdende / cloddes'; similar texts in Harley 1602 (ff. 12-13) and Sloane 1388 (ff. 52-52v); listed in eVK2, no. 2680.00. Followed by (f. 92) two more recipes.

9. ff. 93-94v. Treatise on uroscopy; 15th cent., second half. Middle English. Imperfect. Rubric 'Here bygynnes the tretes of mennes waters and womans / with wt hs iij regyons', inc. 'In the bygynnyng þu sall tak hede / to fowre thyngs that longe to þe doom of vrynes', expl. 'or els aboute in þe partyes it / by tokyns'. Listed in eVK2, no. 2874.00.

10. ff. 95v-103. Thomas Awkbarow, 96 culinary recipes; 15th cent., second half. Middle English. Some recipes are unique to this manuscript. Rubric 'To make nowmbyls of muskyls', inc. 'Seth muskyls and then shop þam grete', expl. 'To make char de crabb … put it in cophyns / and serof it forth et bene facis. Quod dominus Thomas Awkbarow'. For the text see F. Furnivall, Early English Meals and Manners (London, 1868; rpt. 1931; Early English Text Society, 32); C. B. Hieatt, 'The Middle English Culinary Recipes in Ms. Harley 5401. An edition and Commentary', Medium Aevum, 65 (1996), pp. 54-71 (full edition). The text is dated to circa 1490 in C. B. Hieatt, T. Nutter and J. H. Holloway, Concordance of English Recipes: Thirteenth through Fifteenth Centuries (Tempe, Arizona, 2006; Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 312), p. xiv. Listed in eVK2, no. 4510.00.

11. ff. 103-104. Text relating to John Lydgate, Dietary, in verse; 15th cent., second half. Middle English. Rubric 'Bonum Concilium', inc. 'Couir allway from cold þi hede / ete no raw mete take gode hede þerto', expl. 'Guffer in tyme of right be balde'. For the text, see C. Brown and R. H. Robbins, The Index of Middle English Verse (New York, 1943), p. 351; C. Brown and R. H. Robbins, The Index of Middle English Verse. Supplement (New York, 1965), no. 824; J. Boffey and A. S. G. Edwards, A New Index of Middle English Verse (London, 2005), no. 824/23. Listed in eVK2, no. 1448.00. Followed by (f. 104v) a cookery recipe.

Astrology: Recipes: Medicine and Surgery: Cookery: Medical, astrological and culinary compendium: 15th cent., 2nd half: Enm. and Lat: Copy.

includes:

• ff. 1-77v John Arderne, surgeon: Liber medicinarum sive receptorum liber medicinalium by John Arderne: 15th cent., 2nd half: Lat: Copy.