Miscellany of practical medical works (Miscellanea Medica XXXV)

Contents

1. ff. 1r-6r Arnold of Villanova, Liber de medicinis digestivis

Incipit: 'Oximel simplex...'

Explicit: 'Pro quartana medicine'.

ff 6v-8v blank.

2. ff. 9r-24v Walter Agilon, Dosis medicinarum, 'Preface' and Compendium urinarum only.

Preface incipit f. 9r: 'Multi medicorum copiam librorum non habentes...'

Preface explicit f. 9v: '..quod dosis medicinarum appellauimus'.

Compendium urinarum incipit f. 10r: 'Cum secundum auctores. 20 colores sunt in vrinis...'

Compendium urinarum explicit f. 24v: '...significat magnum ventum in ventre et in lateribus etc.'.

3. ff. 25r-33v Theodoric of Cervia, De aqua vitae

Incipit: 'Hec sunt verba que retulit quidam senex. et verba inuenta fuerunt in libris philosophorum que fuerunt extracta de libris hermetis et sunt verba aque uite...'

Explicit: 'Ista sunt rescripta de simplici aque vite et de composita. et de perfectissima ad exempla originalia extracta ex dictis diuersorum philosophorum artis medicine. que primo scripsit frater thezericus [sic] ordinis predicatorum episcopus seruiens in Romaniolam iuxta Bononiam. Explicit.'

4. f. 33v Two receipts in English for plasters for sores.

5. f. 34r Alchemical receipt in Latin

ff. 34v-39r blank

6. f. 39v Two medical receipts in Latin, and two in English

7. ff. 40r-41v Arnold of Villanova, De conferentibus et nocentibus

Incipit: '[T]ractatum istum collegi de multis libris phisica libus videlicet Aristotilis, Galieni, Ypocratis etc. de comfortantibus cerebrum et alia membra que subscribuntur...'

Explicit: '...siue fortiter vomere post prandium'

8. ff. 41v-42v Modus fleobotomie secundum antiquos

Incipit: 'Mense Januarii bonum est abstinere a fleobotomia...'

Explicit: '...bonum est balneare et faustum siccum intrare etc.'

9. ff. 42v-44v Anonymous tract on phlebotomy

Incipit: 'Cum necessitas cogit fleobotomiam aliquando pro superfluitate humorum...'

Explicit: '...usque ad dictum festum sancti petri in sinistra parte corporis minuere'.

10. f. 45r-47r Sphere of Pythagoras, in French

Incipit: 'Pur connoistre le Roe en le cercle de calkelaion a commencement la a.b.c...'

Explicit: '...requirez en la Roe le nombre de. 22. si soit desuz et doncz vous avez le iugement.'

This is a very common onomancy for predicting whether a sick person will live or die, the outcome of a duel or battle, or anything else requiring a binary yes/no answer. To operate it you take the name of the person in question, take the numbers that correspond to the letters of their name, and add into a total. You add the number of the day of the moon on which they first fell sick, and the number corresponding to the planetary weekday. You divide this grand total by 30 and if the remainder is sought in the top of the 'Sphere' diagram the patient will live, if not, they will die. See e.g. Linda Ehrsam Voigts, 'The Latin and Middle English Prose Texts on the Sphere of Life and Death in Harley 3719', The Chaucer Review 21.2 (1986).

11. ff. 47v-49v Anonymous, De virtutibus balsami artificialis

Incipit: 'Balsamum curat tinnitum aurium...'

Explicit: '...quam balsamo precedente aut aliqua alia medicina'.

Below this are four lines in Latin on the balsam tree, and below a receipt in English for a metal polish.

12. ff. 50r-53r Anonymous work on astrology. The beginning is wanting, but the two chapters 'De tonitruis' and 'De ventis' are complete

Previous chapter ends: '...Theologi dicunt quod non quorum opiniones sunt sub silencio pretereunde'.

De tonitruis incipit f. 50r: '[I]n quocumque signo tonitruit siue in die siue in nocte verum erit quicoquid notandum eodem anno... '

De tonitruis explicit f. 50v: 'In hiis igitur canonum capitulis temporum et temporalium mutationes quam maxime considerauimus'.

De ventis incipit f. 51r: 'Ventus est aer commotus et agitatus...'

De ventis explicit f. 53r: '...si mane rutilat triste celum tempestas futura erit. et cum auster flauerit estus erit'.

Below is a table of numbers in ten lines

12. ff. 53v-54r On a balsam, in English, unfinished

Incipit: '53v The vertue and operation of this balsame. How this balsame may be vsed to the healthe and profite of the buyers...'

Explicit: 'Any person who by chaunce falleth and is bruised...'

ff. 54v-57v blank.

Mid 15th Century

1 volume 57 ll. (last 3 bl.). 8vo. 14 1/4 x 11 cm. On vellum. Modern half morocco binding. Slight damage, not affecting text on ff. 1, 3, 16, 21, 38, 39, 41, 47, 48. A new foliation has been added in pencil.

Purchased 1940.

Database description transcribed from 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).