Receipt-Book, French: 17th century

Collection of medical receipts: in French.

c. 1675

1 volume 109 ff. + 18 bl. ll. + 5 ll. (last 3 bl.). folio. 311/2 × 21 cm. Original vellum binding. Some leaves have been torn out at the end, and some lower outer corners are defective.

Purchased 1936.

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).

Parts of the text are very faded, and many of the receipts have been crossed through, apparently to show that they have been copied into another book. These receipts have been written in a volume which seems to have been in the Library of the Abbey of Saint Cyran, and the pages torn out probably contained writings connected with this Abbey, of an earlier date. This is deduced from the inscriptions written on the inside of what is now the lower cover. These contain a list of the personnel of the Abbey, headed by the name of its famous Abbot, Jean Duvergier de Hauranne [1581-1643], the friend of Jansen, and a protagonist in the Port Royal controversies. This list was perhaps written c. 1640 or earlier.