Harley MS 3140, ff 273r-274v

Aegidius de Corbeil, De urinis. The verse summary by Giles of Corbeil (d. c. 1220/1224) of Theophilus's treatise on urines compiled to help students in the memorisation of the diagnostic tools of medical practice. Incipit: 'Dicitur urina quoniam fit renibus una', explicit: 'Fimbria monstretur quam non est tangere dignus / Explicit tractatus metricus magistri Egidii de urinis'. With one marginal note (f. 274r) in plummet by a 15th-century hand. Another copy of the text with commentary is included in Harley MS 3849 (ff. 2r-45r).

For the text, see L. Thorndike and P. Kibre, Catalogue of Incipits of Medieval Scientific Writings in Latin, The Mediaeval Academy of America Publication, 29 (London, 1963; with supplements in 1965 and 1968), p. 422d; its electronic edition (Ann Arbor, MI, 2000), no. 422D; H. Walther, Initia carminum ac versuum medii aevi posterioris Latinorum, 2nd edn (Göttingen, 1969), no. 4432. Edited by Venantius Mutius and printed for the first time at Padua by Cerdonis in 1483 together with a commentary by Gentile Gentili da Foligno (d. 1348): see HCR100; Arnold C. Klebs, Incunabula scientifica et medica (Bruges: 1938; repr. Hildesheim: 1963), p. 157, no. 464.1; GW 269; Fredrick R. Goff, Incunabula in American Libraries: A Third Census of Fifteenth-Century Books Recorded in North American Collections (New York: The Bibliographical Society of America, 1964), A93; ISTC ia00093000 (the British Library copy is IA. 30004). Reprinted together with Giles's verse on pulses at Venice by Bernardinus Venetus de Vitalibus for Hieronymus de Durantibus in 1494: see H *101; Klebs 1938, p. 157, no. 466.1; GW 270; Goff 1964, A94; ISTC ia00094000 (a British Library copy is IA.24313). For information on Giles and a French translation of the poem see C. Vieillard, L'urologie et les médecins urologues dans la médecine ancienne : Gilles de Corbeil: sa vie, ses oeuvres, son poème des urines (Paris, 1903).