Harley MS 270, ff 123r-149v

Liber de simplici medicina or Circa instans attributed to Matthaeus Platearius.

Title (f. 123r) 'Incipit liber platearij de simplici medicina', prologue incipit: 'Circa instans negotium in simplicibus medicinis / nostrum versatur propositum'; table of contents for letters A and B, text incipit: 'Aloe calide et sicce con/plexionis est in secundo gradu. / Aloe ex succo', explicit: 'contra constipationem ventris', rubric 'Explicit liber de simplici medicina secundum / platearium'.

This copy is not listed among the 13th-century English manuscripts of the text in Latin in E. Garrido Anes, 'Geographical and Dialectical Distribution of Platearius' Liber de Simplici Medicina in England', International Journal of English Studies, 5.2 (2005), 93-105. For the text see L. Thorndike and P. Kibre, Catalogue of Incipits of Medieval Scientific Writings in Latin, rev. ed. The Mediaeval Academy of America Publication, 29 (London, 1963; with supplements in 1965 and 1968), p. 211c; its electronic version on CD-ROM ed. (Ann Arbor, MI, 2000), no. 211C.

The text is followed by a one-line (alchemical?) recipe, in Latin, 'Recipe roci uncia .i. salis gummis uncia .i. tempentur cum / lacte amigdaleo'.

Decoration:

1 foliate initial in colours (f. 123r). 1 red initial with pen-flourishing in blue and red extending into the lower margin (f. 123r). Initials in blue or red, with pen-flourishing in red, blue, or both. 2 pen-flourished decorations in the lower margin, the first incorporating a face (ff. 132v, 139v). Small simple initials in red or blue.