Gilles de Corbeil, Carmina de judiciis urinarum

Gilles de Corbeil, Carmina de judiciis urinarum, plus various medical receipts in English

Contents

1. f. 1 r-v A fragment in English containing medical receipts, notes on the colours of urines, etc.

f. 1r Tak ve croppis of horehond and verotis of mylfoil and bray hem in a morter ... A whit water in man by toke nyp sykenes in pe reynys ... f. 1v ... whych cercle is ve hyest region. Explicit.

2. f. 2r-3v Diagrams of urine flasks with explanations in English

3. ff. 3v-6v Gilles de Corbeil, Carmina de judiciis urinarum

f. 3v Ad cognoscendam vrinam humanam ab urina mulieris ... thow shalt understonde that if ver be eny trowbul in manis uryn ... f. 6v Aut nimius coctus cursus labor immoderatus.

The poem is complete except for the 'Proemium' and the last three lines, according to the text as printed in C. Vieillard's L' Urologie et les Médecinsurologues, (Paris, 1903).

Early 15th Century

1 volume 6 ff. 4to. 21 x 14 cm. On vellum. 19th cent. half-calf binding, defective. The 'Proemium' is wanting, and the last three lines of the poem are missing. Inner margins are defective throughout, and the first 12 lines of the text of the poem are badly rubbed. Some leaves are wanting after the third leaf.

The English text is in a small semi-current hand in two columns 38 lines to a column, with paragraph marks in red. The Latin text is in a rounded gothic hand, 39 lines to a page, with headings in red..

The second and third leaves contain 20 crude pen-drawings of urine flasks, some roughly coloured, with Latin headings and English explanatory text. .

Purchased 1922.

A digitised copy is held by Wellcome Collection as part of The Medieval manuscripts digitisation project.

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).

Stated in a cutting from a bookseller's catalogue, pasted on the inside of the upper cover, to be from the library of James Orchard Halliwell-Phillipps [1820-1889].