Harley MS 978, ff 22r-37r

Medical miscellany including:

• Pseudo-Aristoteles, Epistula ad Alexandrum Magnum de corpore humano sanando (from the Secretum Secretorum), translated by John of Seville (ff. 22r-23r). Rubric in the margin: 'Epistula Aristotelis ad / Alexandrum macedonem / de conservacione / sanita/tis', incipit: 'Oportet te o Alexander cum a sompno / surrexeris modicum ambula/re', explicit: 'Hec omnia / desiccant corpus humanum et debilitant'. Another copy of the text is Harley MS 3719 (ff. 31v-32v); possibly a different translation in Harley MS 2558 (ff. 194r-195r). For the text see Williams 2003.
• Medical treatise (ff. 23r-25v); Rubric 'Item Avicenna de conservacione sanita/tis', incipit: 'Oportet quod conservator sanitatis / studeat', explicit: 'vasa seminaria a tes/ticulis'. The text includes descriptions of various maladies, the four humours, the four seasons and the four elements, followed by the explanation of various medical terms. For the article on the four elements 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. 1179k.01; its electronic edition (Ann Arbor, MI, 2000), no. 1179K.01. The text is followed by the Signs of Death (f. 25v); Incipit: 'Hiis signis moriens certis dinoscitur eger'; incipit: 'Par ces signes se mustera li malade ki tost murra'. See Dean and Boulton 1999, no. 435.
• Glossary of herbs (ff. 26r-27v). Rubric: 'Chaudes herbes', incipit: 'Artimesia', explicit: 'Unguentum album'. Followed by a list of spices, rubric 'Des especes', incipit: 'Gingivere', explicit: 'Turbit'. See Dean and Boulton 1999, no. 312.
• Pseudo-Hippocrates, Letter to Caesar (Regimen sanitatis), with an addition (ff. 27v-35v). A collection of vernacular medical recipes, most influential before 1300. Rubric: 'Pur fere syrup laxatif', incipit: 'Pernez cerlange / coupere, centoire / ysope', explicit: 'Cestes sunt les lettres p.g.c.p.e.v.o.x.a.g.z.'. Other copies of the text are Harley MS 2558 (ff. 175r-184v), Sloane MS 1611 (ff. 143r-147v), Sloane MS 2401 (ff. 88v-96v), Sloane MS 2412, Sloane MS 3126 (ff. 25-64v), and Sloane MS 3550 (ff. 217-219v). For list of manuscripts including the Middle English version, see description of Harley MS 3383 (ff. 85v-86r).The manuscript is listed in Dean and Boulton 1999, no. 406. Printed from this manuscript in Hunt 1990, pp. 107-24. The 'Six-Token List' section transcribed from this manuscript in Tavormina 2007, p. 640, with a full list of manuscripts including this text (pp. 633-34, 642).
• An anonymous ophthalmological recipe, incipit (f. 30): 'Ad clarificandum visum', see Lindberg 1975, no. 116.
• Medical recipes (ff. 35r-35v); incipit: 'Si pulvis auripigmenti citrum distemperetur / cum succo', explicit: 'splen ridere / facit, cogit amare iecur'. These include H. Walther, Initia carminum ac versuum Medii Aevi posterioris Latinorum (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 1969), no. 7108, and H. Walther, Proverbia sententiaeque latinitatis medii aevi. Lateinische Sprichworter und Sentenzen des Mittelalters in alphabetischer Anordnung, Carmina medii aevi posterioris latina, 2 (Göttingen, 1963-67), nos. 10190b, 3428.
• Pseudo-Aristoteles, Epistula ad Alexandrum Magnum de corpore humano sanando (from the Secretum Secretorum), translated by John of Seville, excerpts (ff. 35v-36v); Incipit: 'Domine regine dei gratia hyspanie / Johannis Hispaniensis salutem. Cum de utilititate / corporis olim tractemus', explicit: 'que omnino vitari non / possunt'. For the prologue see Thorndike and Kibre (1963, 1965, 1968), p. 463g.01, and (2000), no. 463b.01. The text is followed by several verses, incipit: 'Lumina mane manus surgens / gelida lavet unda', explicit: 'quia / non opus est homicidis'. Verses include Walther, Initia carminum 1969, no. 10472, and Walther, Proverbia 1963-67, nos. 14095, 605a, 22111a, 22101.
• Verses on the plant scabiosa (f. 37r); Incipit: 'Urbanus pro se nescit precium scabiose', explicit: 'Potata novies fit de languente boni spes'. See Walther, Initia carminum 1969, no. 19692. Preceded by a note 'Centum milia .xxvi. stadiorum a terra usque ad lunam. Et bis / tantum usque ad solem. Et totidem habebuntur usque ad thro/num dei'.