Medical miscellany in Middle English, containing the Booke of Ypocras and a collection of receipts (Leech-Books, II)

Medical miscellany in Middle English, containing the Booke of Ypocras and a collection of receipts (Leech-Books, II)

Contents

1. ff. 1r-5v Lessons from the Four Gospels, beginning wanting

f. 1r (red) Secundum lucam. In illo tempore missus est angelus (f. 1v) gabriel a deo in ciuitatem galilee cui nomen est nazareth ... f. 5v, line 9 (St. John, Ch. I) ... Et uidimus gloriam eius gloriam quasi unigeniti a patre Plenam gratie et ueritatis.

2. ff. 5v-21r Charms and medical receipts in Latin and English

f. 5v (red) Tak pouder of sandragon a nownce or a halfe of flex ... f. 21r ... For preuey euil that leuith with wommen ghif here to drinke mogwed with ale or soure wod. or wermod or the netle.

3. ff. 21v-40r Pseudo-Hippocrates, Booke of Ypocras

f. 21v (red) this is the bok that ypocras sent to the king his newuey ... f. 23v (end of introduction) fele thingis thow most lere. Now by ginne we a medecyn for the hed. Tak hulwort in eysel and do hit to his noseterlis ... f. 40r ... and that hit be sodyn ferst and kep hit for the nones.

4. f. 40v Three charms.

5. ff. 41r-66v Medical receipts in English

f. 41r Ffor to make chardequince ... f. 66v (red) Nunc scripsi totum pro christo da michi potum. now haw y vryt alle ghyf me drynk of gode ale.

6. ff. 67r-71v Blood-letting treatise in Latin and English

f. 67r De dieta ex fleobotimacione in singulis mensibus anni. Januarius in the moneth of januer ... f. 71v ... and the xxix day December.

7. ff. 72r-74v72 Latin charm against fever

f. 72r In nomine patris et filii et spiritus sancti amen. Omnipotens sempiterne deus qui fecisti miraculum bono petro apostolo ... f. 74v ... et ita die in diem per nouem.

8. ff. 75r-78v Prognostications according to the time of birth, extract (from February to May only)

f. 75r ... fader of a noy mannes child sall he be cleped many noyis and blames ... f. 78v and in the reght fote he sall suffer maladies. men sall putt blames.

Early 15th century

1 volume 78 ff. 16mo. 12 x 81 1/2 cm. On vellum. Modern vellum binding. The beginning and end are lost: the first and last leaves are damaged and the text badly rubbed. F. 20 is torn across and repaired. Written by several hands: the first 40 ff. in a clear gothic book hand, 16 lines to a page, mostly in a greenish ink, with capitals and paragraph marks in blue, headings in red. The introduction to the 'Book of Ypocras' (ff. 22v-23v) is written entirely in red. Ff. 41, 42 are in a less formal hand, 19 lines to a page: ff. 42-66 in a larger script, 13 lines to a page. A fourth hand, 15 lines to a page, is found on ff. 67-74. The last section (ff. 75-78) is written in a small semi-current informal hand, 19 lines to a page.

The papers are available subject to the usual conditions of access to Archives and Manuscripts material, after the completion of a Reader's Undertaking.

Purchased 1922.

This MS. seems to have been written in the North of England, perhaps in Northumbria, or in Scotland. In a charm on f. 6, St. 'Columquellus' [i.e. St. Columba] is invoked for the preservation of a house from fire.

Catalogue description modified in 2014. For original description, see S.A.J. Moorat, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts on Medicine and Science in the Wellcome Historical Medical Library (London: Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, 1962-1973).

ff. 16v, 17r have been photographed (see Wellcome Images L32995 and L32996).

Anglo Saxon letter forms in Moorat's catalogue description (such as contraction marks and Thorn and yogh symbols) have been replaced with Latin characters in this database description.

Attached is a letter to the unnamed owner of the MS. dated 13/3/1866, referring at length to its contents, etc., from the Very Rev. George William Kitchin [1827-1912], D.D., F.S.A. He dates it 1360-70, and considers it to be written in East Anglian dialect.