Harley MS 1735, ff 36v-52v

John Crophill's autograph notebook with notes spanning the period 1456-1485: for notes relating to specific years (ff. 37v, 38, 40v, 46v, 47r, 50v), see Ayoub 1994. The contents of the notebook are as follows:

1. Latin expressions and their English equivalents (ff. 36v, 52v),

2. Lists of the names of his patients (ff. 36v, 37r, 38r 38v, 39r);

3. Lists of names, places and rents (ff. 37v, 50v);

4. Attributes of planets and names (ff. 39, 42v);

5. Texts relating to geomancy (with diagrams) and prognostications (ff. 39v, 44v-46: see L. E. Voigts and P. D. Kurtz, Scientific and Medical Writings in Old and Middle English: An Electronic Reference, CD-ROM, 2nd edn (Ann Arbor, MI, 2006), no. 8232.00);

6. Charm for childbirth; incipit: 'Sycut elizabet peperit johannem baptistam and sancta anna / peperit'. Followed by (f. 40r) notes regarding the birth of two children (ff. 40r, 52v);

7. Tables for onomancy (f. 40v);

8. A twelve-month regimen of health. The dietary is in prose and ascribed here to '[G]Alyn', i.e. Galen; however it is followed (f. 42r) by a verse close in praise of Hippocrates. Title 'Here begynnyt a rewle of þe xij synis', incipit: 'Alyn þe good leche seyth þat in þe month of / of janyuere hyte wyn', explicit: 'on þis maner he may be sekyre / of good heleythe'; verse close incipit: 'þis boke heyght ypoocras þe best / surgyon',explicit: 'þey halp many men wyt hare / lechyng'.

Similar texts in Additional MS 17866 (ff. 3r-4r, ascribed to Hippocrates) and 32622, Arundel MS 359 (ff. 15v-17v), Egerton MS 2724 (f. 9v) and Egerton MS 2852 (ff. 100v-101), Royal MS 17 C. xv (ff. 45r-46r), Sloane MS 372 (ff. 108r-110r), Sloane MS 389 (ff. 145r-146r), Sloane MS 405 (f. 62v), Sloane MS 442 (ff. 61v-63r), Sloane MS 521 (ff. 267v-268r), Sloane MS 540a (ff. 24r-25r), Sloane MS 610 (ff. 3r-4r), Sloane MS 809, Sloane MS 962 (f. 72v), Sloane MS 963 (ff. 3v-4r), Sloane MS 1315 (II, ff. 30v-32r), Sloane MS 1609 (f. 3v), Sloane MS 1964 (ff. 30r-31r), Sloane MS 2581 (ff. 3r-5r), Sloane MS 3160 (II, ff. 148r-148v and 151r-151v) and Sloane MS 3542 (ff. 65v-67r). Another copy of the verse close is Sloane MS 96 (f. 26v). A copy of the text and list of manuscripts in Braekman 1988, pp. 57-60. For the verse close, see A Manual of the Writings in Middle English 1050-1500, ed. by A. E. Hartung and G. R. Keiser, Science and Information (New Haven, 1998), p. 3840, no. [265], J. Boffey and A. S. G. Edwards, A New Index of Middle English Verse (London, 2005), no. 3577.55/1 (ff. 41r-42r);

9. A prayer followed by an acrostic puzzle and solution in Latin and Middle English (f. 42v; see J. Boffey and A. S. G. Edwards, A New Index of Middle English Verse (London, 2005), no. 981.5/1),

10. Notes relating to uroscopy. The notes are an incomplete adaptation of the '20 Colours' section of Doom of Urine. Title 'Os vater of þe welle', incipit: 'It betokynyt degestyun / and a bad lyuer & apostym', explicit: 'may outword þe .v. ore þe iiij day et cetera'. With 13 marginal pen drawings of urine flasks. Similar texts in Additional MS 30338 (f. 151v), Sloane MS 374 (f. 5v) and Sloane MS 382 (f. 19r) (ff. 43r-44r);

11. A list of supplies and expenses (f. 46v);

12. Notes on brewing and ale-pot verses (ff. 47, 48-49: see J. Boffey and A. S. G. Edwards 2005, no. 870.8/1);

13. Medical recipes relating to gout and warts; Incipit: 'Take bye or bore speramasete ij drams aquauyte a j dram / and iscop water'; title 'anontment fore þe gowlte', incipit: 'Take þe galle of a nox and grece of a fat / capon', edited in C. H. Talbot, Medicine in Medieval England (London, 1967), p. 191, and Robbins 1969, p. 170; title 'a water fore wartos', incipit: 'Take a nok apyl and water of a pond and stepe / hem togeder'. Followed (f. 47v) by two names (of patients?) written by Crophill and a recipe against the plague, written by a different hand, incipit: 'For a mann that ys infecth wyt pestelense / soor', explicit: 'and ley a oder plaster oder xij or [crossed out] ourys' (f. 47v);

14. A 6-line stanza on the days of the moon (f. 48; see Boffey and Edwards, 2005, no. 1171/1);

15. A list of authorities on urines comprising Isaac Judaeus, Hippocrates, Aegidius, Gilbertus Anglicus and Constantinus Africanus (f. 49v).

16. A formula to calculate the age of the moon on given date (ff. 50r-50v: see Voigts and Kurtz, no. 2349.00);

17. Verses on the herb rosemary; Title 'þe vertu of Rosemary', incipit: 'Take þe florus of Rose/mary', explicit: 'it is þe bettere fore þi gyenne'. Another copy in Sloane MS 3215 (ff. 17v-24v). Listed in C. Brown and R. H. Robbins, The Index of Middle English Verse (New York, 1943), no. 3754, its Supplement (New York, 1965), no. 3754; Boffey and Edwards 2005, no. 3754/5 (ff. 51r-52r);

18. Charm for wounds. The charms appears to be a prose version in Middle English of the 'Tres boni fratres'. Incipit: 'þe pouder of Rosemary bondon in a cloth / it dout', explicit: 'worchyp of / [god ?] […] amen Amen'. Followed by pen-trials and Latin/English equivalents, partly medical.