Royal MS 17 A VIII

MEDICAL COLLECTION in English, &c., viz.: 1. '[Here beginnes gode medicines for diuers euill þat men has, for god lechis has drawin þem out of many gode bokes Galien and] Asc[lopus, for þei were þe best lechis] Pat war [in þe werld, and wha so wil] do als þe boke wyll te[che he may be] syker to be hale of his yu[ill. medicine for] heued werk capitulum primum' (the bracketed words are taken from Sloane MS. 213, f. 138): a compilation in 151 chapters in Northern English. The Sloane MS. has many variations in the contents (cf also 17 A. XXXVI, art. 3, and other derivative texts there mentioned). Besides medicines there are recipes for poultry, horses, hair-dyes, fruit-preserving, &c., and at f. 47 charms for childbirth. Beg. 'Take leygh of ver[ueyne or of] wetoyn or of fill[es]'; ends 'ploms and grapes and other thynges'. An imperfect table of contents in a later hand is prefixed (f. 1). The first sixteen leaves are much mutilated by rats or mice. f. 3.

2. Additional recipes, &c., in French and Latin in the same hand. Beg. 'Istud vnguentum valet contra omnes languores. Parnes balsamite'. f. 72 b.

3. 'Nomina arbarum' (sc. herbarum): Latin names of herbs with English equivalents. Incomplete. Beg. 'Arthemasia mugwort'; ends 'lycoricia licorice, lenothites, mercurialis'. f. 75.

4. Miscellaneous 15th cent. and later additions in Engl. and French, including:-(a) 'A craft to mak an hors to seme restif'. f. 77 b ;-(b) 'A medicin to mak foxes go from o couuert to another'. f. 77 b;-(c) 'A craft to tak wilde swyn'. f. 78;-(d) 'A medicin to kepe corn from wilde swyne'. f. 78;-(e) 'To kepe shepe fro scabbe'. f. 81;-(f) Six recipes 'par meistre Iohan de Gloucestre'. f. 81 b;-(g) 'A medicine for all wondes, par monsire Joh. Fastolf'. f. 83 b;-(h) 'A trew medicine for all scabbes, wete or drye', by T. Holgill. f. 84 b.

On ff. 87, 87 b are memoranda of dimensions of timber and other farm notes.

Vellum; ff. 87. 6 in. x 4 in. End of XIV cent. Gatherings (beg. f. 3) of 8 leaves. Sec. fol. 'heued werk'. One illuminated initial torn off; others in red and blue. On f. 86 b is scribbled in late 15th cent. hands 'Liber cuiusdam monachi de Gallia' and 'Ioh. Rogerson iuniori constat codex iste'. Afterwards belonged (f. 17) to [John, Lord]Lumley. Lumley cat. f. 379 (?);not identified in the other old catalogues.