Royal MS 12 B III

MEDICAL TRACTS and notes, in Latin and French, viz.: 1. Part of the metrical herbal De viribus herbarum of the Pseudo-Aemilius Macer, al. Macer Floridus, a work in Latin hexameters, ascribed by Choulant, Macer Floridus, &c. (Leipzig, 1832), to the 10th, by Renzi, Collectio Salernilana, i, p. 212, to the 12th century. The chapters found here are ed. Choulant i-iii, xxxvi v, vxiii, xxiii, and xxxv (incomplete). Beg. 'Henbarum quasdam dicturus carmine vires'. f. 3.

2. Recipes in French, incomplete at the end. Beg. 'Pour le mal du chief qui dure longuement prenez rue, yerre terrestre'. f. 6.

3. Extract from a Latin pharmacopoeia, containing a table of quantities of various simples to be used in compounding medicines. It occurs also in 12 D. XII, art. 2, and is possibly the work of Nicolaus Praepositus. Beg. 'Set quia sufficienter de dispensacione omnium confeccionum et emplaustorum diximus'. f. 9.

4. 'Thesaurus pauperum': the treatise on various maladies and their cure by Petrus Hispanus (Pedro Julião Rebello, afterwards Pope John XXI, 1276-1277). Printed at Antwerp, 1476 (so Brunet), Lyons, 1530, &c. The text varies greatly (cf. Add. MS. 25000). Beg. 'In nomine sancte et iudiuidue.... Opus supra vires aggre. dior'. f. 11. After the chapter on quartan fevers, which ends 'cor leonis comestum quartanas medetur', follow three sections which do not seem to belong to the treatise, though the first is included in the table of tituli at f. 66, viz.:- (a) 'Quid pro quo', a list of substituted simples, perhaps part of the Antidotary of Nicholas (see 12 E. VII, art. 3 c, and cf. Sloane MS. 3483, f. 26 b). Beg. 'Quoniam ea que sunt vtilia in curationibus'. f. 63;-(b) 'De quantitate medicinarum et acuminum' (cf. 12 E. VII, f. 26). f. 65;-(c) Ten hexameter verses on signs of death (Renzi, op. cit. v, Schola Salern. II. Beg. 'Prima tibi facies occurrit prima nocetur' (sic). f. 65 b.

Artt. 5, 6 are in an earlier (13th cent.) hand.

5. Tract 'de causis signis et curis egritudinum' by Platearius. This description is taken from the preface, which begins '[A]micum induit qui iustis amicorum precibus'. The title, in green ink, is illegible, except the initial H. Colophon, 'Laus tibi sit, Christe, quoniam liber explicit iste'. Printed, under the name of 'Practica Breuis Iohannis Platearii, with Serapion's works (Lyons, 1525) and elsewhere. The author, accord. ing to Renzi, op. cit. i, p. 180, is the second of three Johns and to be distinguished from two Matthews of the family; he flourished circ. 1070-1100 and is not the author of the pharmaceutical work 'Circa instans', which Renzi assigns to either Matthew II or John III. There is no ground for identifying him with Joh. de S. Paulo. f. 67.

6. The dietary (called Flos Dietarum in 12 E. V, art. 3) which beg. 'Corpus hominis constat ex iiii humoribus', and ends 'uentrem soluit'. Attributed in the table of contents of Sloane MS. 420 to Johannes de S. Paulo. f. 88.

7. Dictionary of materia medica (chiefly the names of simples, probably of French origin) called elsewhere 'Alphita' or 'Breue nominale physicorum'. Preface begins 'Presentis negocii propositum est tractare de speciebus'. Alphabetical (by first letters only), beg. 'Alphita, farina ordei idem'. Imperfect, ending with Squinantum. Printed in Renzi, iii, p. 271, from two Paris MSS. Other complete copies are in 12 D. XII, and in Sloane MSS. 521, f. 8, 3018, f. 1. In an early 14th cent. hand, initials in red and blue. f. 93.

8. Treatise on Surgery [by Rogerius Parmensis, fl. circ. 1180], in four books. The original form (cf. Sloane MS. 1615) without the additions of Roland, but the prefaces to libb. ii, iii are abridged. Imperfect, ending in lib. iii, cap. De intestinis. Printed at Venice, 1546, and in Renzi, ii, p. 426. Preface beg. 'Post mundi fabricam eiusque decorem'; text, 'Capud vulnerari diuersis modis contingit'. In 14th cent. hands, the first part written very large. f. 105.

On the fly-leaves and margins (f. 1 is ruled for music) are:-(a) Medical recipes, with a few astrological notes, passim, esp. ff. 90 b- 92 b, 132 b, 159 to end;-(b) Medical verses, including Renzi's (op. cit. v) lines 6-9, 2621-2, two variants de visui nocentibus, and the line on caraway (l. 925). ff. 1 b, 39, 132 b. With others not in the Schola Salernitana (ff. 1 b, 4 b, 150);-(d) An exorcismal prayer. f. 85;-(e) Table of doses, with other notes on the pharmacopocia. Beg. 'Dosis aloe ab aureo s.' f. 133;-(f) An astrological diagram of human anatomy. f. 163 b.

Vellum; ff. 166. 7¹/₂ in. x 5¹/₂ in. XIV cent. (artt. 5, 6, XIII cent.). Gatherings, artt. 1, 2, i, ii⁸; artt. 3, 4, i-iv⁸, v. vi², vii, viii⁸, ix⁴; artt.

5, 6, i⁸, ii⁴, iii⁸, iv⁶; art.7 (with fly-leaves), i¹², ii-vii⁸, viii¹², ix², x². Sec. fol. 'Plinius attollit' or (f. 12) '-laui infra'. Initials in red and blue. Names (as owners ?) occur of 'Ihon Maund (?) balyfe de Radetede [Radfield] de Dely[ngham, sc. Dullingham co. Camb.]'. f. 165 b;-'Tomas Co. . . . off Delyngham'. f. 166 b,- 'Iste liber constat Wiillmo Mayw'. f. 166 b;-'Iste liber tradatur domui aule de Merton Oxonie ex legato mag. Walteri Stanton'. f. 165 b. On f. 1 b is 'precium huius libri iii s.' Afterwards belonged to [John, Lord] Lumley, whose autogr. inscription is on f. 3. Lumley cat. f. 391 (?); cat. of 1666, f. 20 (?); CMA., one of the-numbers 8534- 8538.