The Regiment of Healthe

With separate sections on medical astrology, temperaments, plague, an antidotary, surgical remedies, and an unfinished herbal. With a number of medical receipts, etc., by different and later hands.

pp.7-12: blank.

p.13: Medical astrology, temperatments, etc. Begins: "Almightie God ffather sonne and holie ghost three personnes / but one divine essence by his omipotent power…"

p.28: "…The 19 and 20 dayes / of August are dangerous dayes to take sicknes / or hurt."

pp.29-30: blank.

p.31: "A treatise of medicynes good against [th]e pestilence / devided into three partes … / … / Caput. 1. / It often falleth out [th]at throughe default of observing good ordre…"

p.33: "by God's grace he shall / be made hole and delivered of his sickness for ever."

p.34: "A medecyne for the Plague which King Henrye / the Eyght did use in [th]e first yeare of his raigne / … / Inprimis take a handfull of herbe grace…" Followed by other receipts against plague.

p.45: "A Treatise or worke called the Regiment of Healthe / devided into Eyght parts … / … / Galen that profound clarke and excellent learned physition…"

p.54: "who hath given to man remedyese for all sicnesses / and diseases."

p.55: "The Preface / of the author unto his booke of medicynes. // Now that I have written generallie of the fowre complexions / of man..."

l.11^v: "Of woundes in sondrie partes of mans / bodie how they may be cured. / / If a man be wounded by a speare … "

l.16^v: "An Antidotarieof Chyrurgerie which teachethe / to make medycynes for all sores and grevances / that belong to chyrurgerie … / … / …The whole worke is compiled / into sixe Chapters whereof / . The first teachethe Repercussiue Medycynes / … "

l.23: "And thus endeth the Antidotarie of Chirurgerie and of many excellent / Medycynes verie necesarie for chirurgeons and such as take cures in hand."

l.23^v: "Here followethe the making of diverse / salues for sores and woundes [etc.]."

l.71: Herbal: Absinthium - Eupatoria only. Begins: "Philosophers and Doctors who by their learninge studied many / things that belong to Physique…"

l.91: [Eupatorium] "Itt is hott in the first and drye in the second degree."

pp.91^v-102: Miscellaneous medical receipts, partly by the original compiler, and partly by other later 17th century hands.

pp.94^v, 95: Receipts by Dr. Mathias.

p.98: A special remedy for a consumption. Signed Ger[ard] Blackwall.

l.100: Receipts, including one "To cure ye spleene [etc.]" signed "From your servant Benj[amin] Ayloffe for Arthur Herris esquire at his chamber in Lincolnes Inne".

l.101: "A notable expedient of John Bennet a surgion at Maidston in Kent for an ague".

l.101^v: "Dr. Writs [?Richard Wright (1600-1657)] prescription for smale pox for Kate, Mr. Goldsmithes child", and a second prescription for the same dated 14 Xbr. 1654.

l.102: [By a different hand] "13 November 1682 Mr. Fosters prescription for K.D. by John Ewell apothecary at Towster". Another dated 16 November 1682.

p.102^v: Prescription "16th January 1682 Foster for K.D."

pp.103-104: blank.

pp.104^v-105: Medical and cookery receipts by a later hand.

p.105^v: Verses relating to Robert Carr, Earl of Somerset, and his marriage to the Countess of Essex in 1613, and obliquely referring to the Overbury poisoning case of 1615-1616. The first stanza runs: "The Summeres sunn is set / and it will shine no more / because it was his happles lucke / to marrie with a whore." The third stanza runs: "A Page a Knight a Vicounte and an Earle / From Scotland came and married with an Girle / Such foure to foure weare never seene before / A wife a witch a murtherer and a whore."

pp.106-113: Medical and cookery receipts, by the original hand and by some of the later hands.

p.108^v: "A diet drink for Mr. Harris". By the Ayloffe hand of l.100^v.

pp.7-60 + 113 ll.

Folio: 29.5 cm x 19.5 cm.

Original vellum covers loose. Pp.1-6 wanting; 4 ll. cut out after l.105; upper part of l.110 cut away; some margins frayed.

Though the title of this manuscript and those of the several parts - as also of the contents - have a strong resemblance to those of several English printed medical texts of the 16th century, it has not been possible to identify this manuscript with any specific work in spite of the parallels in books by Thomas Gale, Moulton and Gouerot. This manuscript seems to be a compilation and adaptation, and, judged by the form of secretary hand in which it is written, may have been put together at an earlier date than the 1625 which is found on the margin of l.58^v.

On the first leaf (no.7 in the pagination) is written "2 Aprilis 1640 Henricus Stapleton armiger et Joannes / Goldsmyth personaliter apparuere coram Eliz[abeth] Gold[smyth?] / in oppido St. Albans ad persuadendum de itinere / Londinensi in secunda hebdomada Paschalis die / Jovis sequenti." Henricus Stapleton may be Sir Henry Stapleton (1616-1679).

On p.21 the name "J. Goldsmith" appears three times, written by the same hand as in the inscription on p.7.

From the library of the late G.G. Smyth of Northfield House, Henlow, Bedfordshire.