Oxford, Bodleian Library, Rawl. C. 81
England |
Oxford |
Bodleian Library |
Rawl. C. 81 |
SC 11946 |
s. xv |
English |
Two alternating hands in similar language (Scribe 2, ff. 9r-11v; 19r-v). Scribal Dialect: Worcestershire. Linguistic Atlas Grid Reference: 395 245, LP 7841 (McIntosh, Samuels and Benskin 1986, vol. 1, p. 151). |
A medical book that appears to have had a useful life until the eighteenth century. The manuscript carries internal evidence for early ownership at Pershore Abbey and later seventeenth-century ownership by a woman actively using the book for medical purposes.
Item: 1ff. 1r-5r |
Medical remedies |
'This ys the declaracion of xx manner of watyrs žat is in...' |
'že wol staunche že bledyng'. |
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Item: 2f. 1v |
The Golden Mean (IMEV 1295.5) |
'I eschewe to clymb to hye alofte lest for presumption i shuld not falle soffte'. |
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This two-line poem is written twice, the first time crammed in the footer and the second time by a later hand in a space above with modern spelling corrections: 'aloft' was corrected in 'aloaft' with an interlinear a added. F. 5v blank. |
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Item: 3ff. 6r-12v |
'De Urinis' |
'Here begynnyth a tretys in englyssh tong...' |
'and the contents that longeth to the dome of
urine'.'Explicit inspeccio urinarum'. |
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Item: 4ff. 12v-13r |
Medical treatise |
'For to rede & to understonde the wryting of leeches in
fisike'. |
'that longeth to the dome of urine'. |
Followed by a table of contents in the same hand on ff. 12v-13r. |
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Item: 5ff. 13v-16r |
A declaration |
'Here shewith'. |
Ends with a table. |
F. 16v-17v and verso originally blank, a later hand on f. 17v has transcribed the opening of the treatise appearing on f. 18r. |
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Item: 6ff. 18r-53r |
Herbal/Treatise of Macer (IPMEP 459) |
'Ingworte or moderworte is clepid arthemesid in latin'. |
'Here endith the laste boke of marcer'. |
'Here followeth the konnyng and sage clerk marcer'. |
A Latin herbal De Viribus Herbarum by Macer Floridus here translated by John Lelamour. |
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Item: 7ff. 53r-57r |
Herbal |
'Anyche is so callid for she helpith woundes'. |
'& hit wol helpe hym'. |
'And now foluen a fewe othere dyverse herbes with her vertues wich be not yfound in the bokes of macer'. |
Extension of the previous text. The remainder of ff. 57r-58r contains Latin and English recipes. |
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Item: 8f. 58v |
The thirty-two ominous days in the year |
'There be xxxii dayes in the yere'. |
'These dayes schal neuer comm to goede ende'. |
Ff. 59v and 60r are blank. F. 60v carries additions in a fifteenth/sixteenth-century hand whilst f. 61r-v carries additions by another fifteenthth/sixteenth-century hand. |
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Item: 9f. 63r-103v |
Medical Recipes |
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F. 61 is followed by two unfoliated leaves. The remainder of the manuscript appears to be a later seventeenth-century manuscript. F. 62r carries the inscription 'Daritie Hudson hir booke of resaytte for salfes and medessens; Septemner ... 23: 1629'. The remainder fo the manuscript appears to be by two hands of the seventeenth century. F. 103v blank. F. 105r medical recipe in an even later, eighteenth-century hand, + 2 paper flyleaves. |
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Codex |
Paper |
210 x 140 mm |
15, ff. 1r-5v, 1 possibly a singleton; 212, ff. 6r-16v, wants 12, signatures i-vi; 312 wants all - torn with stubs - 12 left blank, f. 17r; 412, wants 12, ff. 18r-28v; 510, ff. 29r-38v, catchwords; 610, ff. 39r-48v; 712, ff. 49r-60v.
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Pricking: at the four edges of the writing frame. Writing space: variable. Columns: mostly single apart from some lists which are double. Lines: c. 30. Ruling: writing frame in dry point.
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Scribe 1, the major hand, writing in a small and compact Secretary script occasionally influenced by Anglicana. Characteristics: long s in initial position; sigma s in final position; single, occasionally double compartment, a; dotted y; open B-shaped w; almost flat topped t; 2-shaped r in medial position; ž. Body height 1.5-2 mm;
Scribe 2 (ff. 8v-11v; 19r-v) - very similar characteristics to Scribe 1, but with a more rounded aspect and thicker backstrokes. Body height: 2-2.5 mm.
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None
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Not medieval. Size: 215 x 150 mm. White parchment over pasteboard. Inner pastedown paper with bookplate of Rawlinson. On facing flyleaf another bookplate of Rawlinson with 'Sigillum Univ. Oxon./ Diplomati RIC: RAWLINSON/ pro gradu/ Doctoris Legum/ Appensum' and drawing of a monk holding a book seated in a church and flanked by clerics/monks at sides and bottom. On edges of oval 'SIGLL . CANCELLARII ET VNIUERSITATIS OXONIENS'.
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ff. 5 (the last 2 are parchment) + 105 + 2 paper |
Flyleaves have been extensively written in. Initial 2 paper flyleaves are ruled across in red ink, second of the front parchment flyleaves has been written on in a sixteenth-century hand.
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Good. Wormholes in first 2 parchment flyleaves. |
Unknown |
On the verso of the first parchment flyleaf: 'De Pershore', possibly in an early fifteenth-century hand. Afterwards in a later hand, 'Hic liber fuit quondam R. R. de T.'. On f. 62r is a seventeenth-century inscription: ' hir booke of resaytte for salfes and medessens; Septemner ... 23: 1629'. |
Catalogued and encoded: Rebecca Farnham, University of Birmingham, August 2003 and Orietta DaRold, June 2005.
- McIntosh, A., Samuels, M. L. and Benskin, M. 1986. A Linguistic Atlas of Late Medieval English: General Introduction, Index of Sources, Dot Maps, 4 vols, Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press, 1.
- Macray, G. D. 1878. Catalogi Codicum Manuscriptorum Bibliothecae Bodleianae ... Ricardi Rawlinson, J. C.D., Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 26.
- Madan, F. 1895. A Summary Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 3, p. 206.