Royal MS 17 A III

TREATISES and collections on medical and astrological subjects, together with a charter of the London Weavers' Company, viz.:

1. Tract on urines, in twelve chapters. Imperf by loss of one leaf at beg. It seems to be the Latin original of an English tract contained in Sloane MSS. 706, ff. 4 b-20, 2527, ff. 295-306 b. A Latin form which differs only slightly is in Sloane MS. 282, f. 47. Beg. (near the end of cap. 1) '-entem ut non deficiat in bello'; ends 'ventum in ventre et in lateribus, &c.' f. 1.

2. 'Modus fleobotomie': a tract on bleeding. Beg. 'Cum necessitas cogit fleobotomare aliquando pro superfluitate . . . in tractatu meo manifeste inuenietur quo loco'; ends 'in sinistra parte corporis minue'. f. 11 b.

3. 'Here ben þe vertues of Rosemarye'; purporting to be taken from 'þe litil book þat þe scole of Sallerne wroat to þe cuntasse of Henowd and sche sente þe copie to hir douzter Philip þe quene of Yngelond'. Other copies are in Sloane MS. 3215, f. 24 b, and Add. MS. 29301, f. 94. Beg. 'Rosemaryne is boþe tre and herbe hoot and drie'; ends 'wasche him þerwiþ and he schal be hool'. f. 13.

4. 'Pillule magistri Bartholomei, quas ipse habuit a quodam Sarraceno Hispanie': recipe in Latin, for headaches, &c. f. 17.

5. Two notes in Latin on (a) the hours of the day assigned to each of the humours;-(b) 'Ierapigra Galieni'. f. 17 b.

6. Miscellaneous recipes in English. Beg. 'For a man þat pissiþ blood'. f. 18.

At f. 24 b seems to have been the beginning of art. 10, probably in the same hand as artt. 1-6, but ff. 24 b-31 have been made palimpsest and artt. 7, 8 added in another, art. 9 in a third hand.

7. Brief notes on simples. Beg. 'Oyle of rede ros is a principale thynge'. f. 24 b.

8. 'Hic incipit antidotarius Nicholai': one of the many forms of alphabetical antidotary bearing this name (cf 12 B. XII, art. 3, 12 E. VIII, art, 8, Harley MS. 5228, f. 55 b, &c.). Beg. 'Aurea Alexandrina ab Alexandro peritissimo'. The last article, Zinziber conditum, ends 'libidinem potenter excitat'. f. 24 b.

9. 'Lac puelle': used as a dye and as a medicine. Beg. 'Tak litarge of gold'. f. 30 b.

10. Nominale, or Latin-English vocabulary of nouns classified by subjects. Not identical with any of those printed by Wright-Wülcker, Anglo-Saxon and Old English Vocabularies, 1884; cf. also Add. MS. 37075, ff. 276, 309. With the possible exception of four names of plants on f. 24 b, all is erased till f. 31 b, which beg. 'Hoc pressorium a pressi[n]gbord'. The only headings which remain are 'Nomina rerum pertinencium aule' and 'Nomina diuersorum uestimentorum'. At the end of the latter are a few miscellaneous nouns beg. 'Hic et hec ligonista a diker', and ending 'hec hurrea hogguslous'. f. 31 b.

11. Medical notes and recipes in English. Among them are.-(a) 'To go invisible', with two other magical recipes. f. 44;-(b) Latin verses on the temperaments, beg. 'Inuidus ac tristis'. f. 47 b;-(c) 'þe virtues of watris'. f. 67 b ;-(d) Table of Arabic numerals, 100- 441. f. 72 b. Beg. 'For ache in wristis take mugwort'. f. 32 b.

12. Astrological notes and tables, viz.:-(a) Table of the regnant planets on each day of the week. f. 73 (b) Note in English on masculine and feminine planets. f. 73;-(c) Qualities of the planets' hours. Beg. 'Hora solis dura et grauis'. f. 73 b;- (d) Rules for nativities (cf. Sloane MS. 965, ff. 3-6). Beg. 'If þere be maad a questyoun of þe natiuite of a man'; end 'þe effectus of hem in erþe ben discryued'. f. 74;-(e) Qualities of the planets. Beg. 'Sol calidus et siccus aurei coloris'. f. 76; -(f) Note on 'The greet lordschip'. f. 76 b.

13. ' Here bigynneþ þe book of astronomye and of philosofie contryued and mad of þe wisist philosofris and astronomyers þat euere weren siþin þis world first bigan, þat is to seie of lond of Greek', &c.: an abridged form of a treatise contained in 17 A. XXXII, art. 1 (see below) and in Sloane MSS. 965, f. 145 b, 1609, f. 11, &c. Beg. 'First þis book telliþ how manye heuenes'; ends 'on þe moneday on þe same hour and so forþ of oþere, &c.' f. 76 b.

14. 'Hec sunt verba que retulit quidam senex et verba inuenta fuerunt in libris philosophorum que fuerunt extracta de libris Hermetis, et sunt verba aqua vite': on the virtues of spirits distilled from wine. Beg. 'Cum a primo tanquam ab optimo inuidiam constet esse relegatam'; end 'laborem uel dolorem'. f. 80 b.

15. 'Rescripta de simplici aqua vite et de composita et de perfectissima ad exemplar originalis extracta ex diuersorum dictis philosophorum medicine artis quod primo scripsit frater Thezericus ordinum (sic) predicatorum episcopus seruiens (sic, for Ceruiensis) in Romaniolam iuxta Bononiam' (so colophon, f. 86 b); cf 12 D. XII, art. 4 b, but there are various additions, including (f. 86) a recipe for 'oleum laterinum' (al. benedictum) and an appendix after the colophon. According to Quetif-Echard, Scriptt. Ord. Praed. i, p. 354, Theodericus Catalanus, a Dominican medical writer, is to be distinguished from Theodericus Borgognoni, Bishop of Cervia 1270-1298, who was also a Dominican, but the MSS. of this tract generally assign it to the bishop. Beg. 'Item scias quod triplex est aqua vite'. The appendix ends 'tres offas tinctas in aqua qualibet die f. 81 b.

16. 'Ad faciendam aquam ardentem': another recipe for spirits of wine. Beg. 'Accipe ollam semiplenam vini vel seruisie'. f. 87.

17. A few miscellaneous recipes in Latin. Beg. 'Cinoglossa commesta cardiacos sanat'. f. 89.

18. 'A greet astronomyer drowe out þis tretys of astronomye for lewide men schulden knowe hereby whanne it were good tyme to leten blood', &c.: prose translation of part of the tract known as Lunationes et somnia or Somnia Daniel (cf. a verse translation in 12 E. XVI, art. 9). The dreams are not included. Beg. 'þe first day of þe mone god made Adam. Whoso Pat day ony ping dooþ bigynne'; ends 'and al his likyng. Thus it cendiþ, blessid be god'. f. 91.

19. Miscellaneous recipes in Latin and English. Among the Latin are (f. 120) two charms against bleeding. Among the English are:-(a) 'Aqua vite þat is to seie water of lyf'. Beg. 'Fille þi viol ful of lyes of strong wiyn'. f. 99 b;-(b) 'Blak sope'. f. 106;-(c) 'Oyle of Excestre'. f. 111;-(d) 'Ad faciendum Brhkptt '. f. 123; -(e) To make mede'. f. 123 b;-(f) 'Ad faciendum sbppnfm' [saponem]. f. 124 b. Beg. 'Ad vocem clarificandam recipe succi liquoris dragaganti'. f. 95 b. At the end are added (f. 125 b) in another hand a note on three fatal days in the year and two other recipes.

20. Translation into English of an exemplification, 15 Oct. 39 Edw. III [1365], of a plea of QuoWarranto before Harry [Harvey] of Staunton and others at the Tower, Hilary, 14 Edw. II, against the Weavers' Gild of London. The proceedings, in the course of which they produced a charter of 31 Edw. I, confirming one of Henry II, and another charter of 14 Edw. II, are printed in Latin in Liber Custumarum (Munimenta Gildhallae, Rolls Series), ii, p. 416. f. 126.

21. Further recipes in English and Latin. Among them is a note (f. 146 b) on divination by numbers, beg. 'S4 64s s4r3 s4 m6l43r' [i.e. 'Si vis scire si mulier']. The collection beg. 'For to make Borace'. f. 133 b.

22. 'De virtutibus Balsami artificialis ut hic': several recipes. Beg. 'Balsamum curat tinnitum aurium'; ends 'aliqua alia medicina', followed by four verses beg- 'Balsamus est arbor, sunt balsama dicta liquores', and some additional recipes. f. 180 b.

23. 'Tractatum istum collegi de multis libris phisicalibus, viz. Aristotolis, Galieni, Ypocratis, &c.': a form of the tract De conferentibus et nocentibus (cf. 12 B. XII, art. 14, 12 B. XXV, art. 6, &c.). Beg. 'Confortant cerebro odorifera'; ends 'vomere post prandium'. f. 183 b.

24. 'Modus fleobotomie secundum antiquos'. Beg. Mense lanuarii bonum est abstinere'. A few miscellaneous notes are at the end. f. 185.

Vellum; ff. 186. 5¹/₂ in. x 3³/₄ in. End of XIV cent. Gatherings irregular: i¹⁵, ii¹⁴, iii²⁴, iv²⁰, vi¹⁰, (two cut out), vii²², viii²⁰, ix, x, xi¹⁶. Sec. fol. (now f. 1) '-entem ut non'. Initials in red. On f. 168 is written 'Thomas Crumwell', apparently mere scribbling in a 16th cent. hand. On f. 1 is a scrap of paper with the name 'Seton' (16th cent.). Belonged (f. 1) to John Theyer, 'Liber Iohannis Theyer de Cowpershill in comitatu ciuitatis Gloucestriae 27 Nov. anno dom. 1654 ex dono Iohannis Somner de Hellingley in com. Sussex generosi'. Theyer sale-cat. no. 277 (?); CMA. 6442 (?).