Harley MS 4977, ff 1r-72v

Practica Petrocelli Salernitani or Tereoperica (from the title given in Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS lat. 11219, ff. 42r-103v) is an anonymous therapeutic manual in Latin that was put together from Latin sources (some of which can be traced to Greek originals) in late antiquity or the the early middle ages and was mistakenly attributed by De Renzi to Petrocellus of Salerno.

Another copy is Sloane MS 2839 (ff. 5v-110v). For the text, see S. De Renzi, Collectio Salernitana, ossia documenti inediti e trattati di medicina appartenenti alla scuola medica Salernitana, ed. by G. E. T. Henschel, C. Daremberg and S. De Renzi, 5 vols. (Naples, 1851-1859; new edn. Antonio Garzya, 5 vols., Naples, 2001), IV, pp. 185-291; C. Talbot, 'Some Notes on the Anglo-Saxon Medicine', Medical History, 9 (1965), 156-69 (pp. 168-69); F. E. Glaze, 'The Perforated Wall: The Ownership and Circulation of Medical Books in Europe, c. 800-1200' (unpublished doctoral dissertation, Duke University, 2000), pp. 40-43; F. E. Glaze, 'Master-Student Medical Dialogues: the Evidence of London, British Library, Sloane 2839', in Form and Content of Instruction in Anglo-Saxon England, in the Light of Contemporary Manuscript Evidence, ed. by M.A. D’Aronco, L. Lazzari and P. Lendinara, Texts et etudes du Moyen Âge, 39 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2006), pp 467-94.

The text comprises:

1. ff. 1r-3r: Epistola peri hereseon. Rubric (f. 1r): 'Incipit epistola pererision', table of contents relating to the therapeutic manual that follows, incipit: 'Epistola pereresion / id est quantis annis / latuit medicina / i. Ad capillorum defluxionem', explicit (f. 2r): 'cii. Ad articulorum dolorem grece / perniones· alii chimetla vocant'; rubric (f. 2r): 'Incipit epistula per / erision', incipit: 'Hoc est demons/tratio quantis / annis latu/it medicina. Cum deo adiuvan/te et de ipso certamen antiqui / auctores et peritissimi medi/ci sagaciter dixerunt. Post di/luvium per annos mille .d. la/tuit medicina usque in tempus / artersersis regis persarum', explicit (f. 3r): 'Quarta speties est cor ubi species corporis continentur'.

2. ff. 3r-72v: Practica Petrocelli. Imperfect at the end. The text is divided into two books beginning on ff. 3r, 57v. Table of contents for the first book (ff. 1r-2v, above), incipit (f. 3r): 'Propterea fili / karissime cum diuturno tempore de medicina tractassemus omnipo/tentis dei nutu admonitus placuit / … Ideo superficie cutis de/monstravimus initium . ad capillorum curam.', rubric 'Capitulum .i.', incipit: 'Capillorum de fluxio contigit ex debilitate corporis aut ma/cronosia laborantibus id est longa egritudine', explicit (f. 55v): 'et aceto in ungula vel plaga inicis', table of contents for the second book (ff. 57r-57v), incipit (f. 57r): 'Ad scotomaticis', explicit (f. 57v): 'Ad crapulam et crudelitatem', text incipit (f. 57v): 'Ad scotomaticis. Hij qui scotomum / patuntur hec signa habent', breaking at (f. 72v) '[A]d steotomas. Que dicitur duricia in similitudinem scrofarum emergentes / paulo pitiores et molliores qui cum digito fuerint impressi cadunt'.

Also includes, ff. 55v-56r: Epistola Ypocratis et Galieni. Title (f. 55v): '[E]pistola Ypogratis & gallieni. contemplantes .iiii. esse humores', incipit: 'In corpore humano aliud sanguinem flegma et fel rufum atque nigrum. Propter / quid homo sanus est et egrotans', explicit (f. 56r): 'Hoc sunt scotomatici, Epilemp/tici et manniaci. Paralitici. frenetici. litargici. colerici et his similia. Explicit'.