Royal MS 12 E XXII

MEDICAL RECIPES and collections, a compilation made in England early in the 15th cent., partly based on standard collections, viz.:

1. 'Incipit liber de cura pauperum, id est speculum medicorum, a curiosis medicis appellatus': the Latin collection called 'Cum animaduerterem' (cf. Sloane MS. 420, f. 269, Harley MS. 2390, f. 125, and an Engl. version in Add. MS. 34111), but with additions, in Latin, French, and Engl., exceeding the original in bulk. These include references to P[etrus] de Musanda, f. 25, mag. G. de Monte pessulano [Gerardus de Solo ?], f. 25 b, mag. Bartholomeus [Salernitanus ?], f. 28 b, Salernitane mulieres, ib., mag. Johannes Ferrarius, ff. 39, 82, and elsewhere, mag. Johannes Cometus, ff. 82, 82b, Cophon, f. 83, and especially Johannes de Scardeburgh, ff. 67, 90 b, &c.- one of the cures by the last is upon 'dom. Robertus de Orston'. At f. 90 (an inserted leaf is a 'medicina dom. Henrici Regis Anglie ad extrahendum ferrum vel sagittas de corpore' [Henry V?]. Beg. 'Cum animaduertcrem autem plurimos medicos'. f. 18. A table of chapters precedes at f. 9.

2. Recipes.-(a) 'Ad faciendum capitellum'. f. 103 b;-

(b) 'Ad faciendum saponem Saracenicum'. f. 104 ;-(c) 'De emplastris diuersis'. Fr., Lat., and Engl. f. 104 b. One of the plasters (f. 105b) is assigned to a bishop of Lincoln.

3. Tractatus abbreuiatus et compendiosum (sic) de Ego Nicholaus': an abridged and supplemented edition of the Antidotarius of Nicholaus Praepositus. Beg. 'Athanasia id est inmortalis, non quia seruat'. The last of the additions (f. 121 b) 'probatur per G. Pykeryng'. f. 106. A table of tituli is given on f. 10 b.

4. 'Quedam medicine misse Cometisse de Northumbria [Maud, 2nd wife of Henry de Percy, 1st Earl ? she died in 1398], probate de expertis medicis in partibus transmarinis'; so the table of contents (III chapters) on f. 12 b. Engl., Lat., and Fr. The greater part, however, is now wanting by loss of nearly two quires after f. 121. What remains is ch. 59-64 at ff. 122, 123, ch.

65-75 at ff. 14b-17 b, ch. 76-111 at ff. 124-131 b.

5. 'Hic sunt medicine probate de diuersis medicis', including a remedy for the stone 'probata per medicum Ricardi regis secundi in ipso rege', and a plaster approved 'per plures medicos de ultra mare'. f. 132.

6. A few commonplaces, De humoribus, completionibus, urinis, &c. f. 135 b.

There are also miscellaneous recipes on ff. 1-10, among them a preventive against thirst 'secundum mag. Thomam de Huntway' (f. 3 b), and a remedy for stone in the bladder proved 'in uxore Willielmi Dymmok' (ib.).

Vellum; ff. 139. 7¹/₂ in. x 4³/₄ in. Early XV cent. Gatherings, i⁶, ii¹¹, iii, iv¹², v¹⁶, vi, vii¹⁴, viii¹¹, ix-xi⁸; after f. 121 uncertain. Sec. fol. 'for to hele' or 'loco uncto'. Initials in red. Belonged to John Theyer. Theyer sale-cat. no 237; CMA. 6624 ?