Alphabetical glossary of drugs and their properties

Alphabetical glossary of drugs and their properties

A very neatly written manuscript in a bold uncial hand with marginalia. The first folio is a leaf taken from another manuscript to serve as a cover. This odd leaf is rubricated, but there are no rubrics in the main text, nor any illuminations, black ink only being employed. There is no title, nor any indication of the writer's identity, but the script, spelling and composition of the manuscript all point to the late fifteenth century as its date. (The Saxon forms of some of the letters are retained, especially r and f.) The volume contains two separate compositions, but the whole is the work of one scribe, the second composition follows the first without break. There are some few marginal annotations in an Elizabethan handwriting.

Contents

f. 1r-v pastedown, not part of original work

1. f. 2r- v An alphabetical list of drugs (plants and minerals) in Latin, with the English equivalents inserted in many cases

The beginning of this is lost; the surviving portion contains the letters S (part), T, V and Z.

2. ff. 2v-56v An alphabetical glossary of drugs (mostly plants) and their properties

This is preceded by an introductory paragraph beginning with the words, 'Phisik is a science pat techip to knowe seknessis in a manys body & to ordeyn medicynes to br$yge men to heele'. This is followed by a table of weights and measures, after which the body of the text begins. The alphabet from the letters A to T, the latter being incomplete.

c.1500

56 folios, on vellum 12mo. 15.8 × 11 cm. Modern binding. The volume is incomplete at both ends, several folios being lost from the commencing and terminal portions.

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This material has been digitised and can be freely accessed online through Wellcome Collection catalogue.

Catalogue description modified in 2014. For original description, see Warren R. Dawson, Manuscripta medica. A descriptive catalogue of the manuscripts in the Library of the Medical Society of London (London, 1932).