Manuscripts of the West Midlands Catalogue

Cambridge, University Library, Dd.vi.29

Country:	England
Settlement:	Cambridge
Repository:�	University Library
Idno:	Dd.vi.29
AltName:

Date and Language

Date:	s. xiv and s. xv
Language:�	English
Dialect:	Scribal Dialect: Herefordshire. Linguistic Atlas Grid Reference: 365 233, LP 7340 (McIntosh, Samuels, and Benskin 1986, p. 199).

Contents

A collection of medical tracts of various dates. Only the hand of ff. 110r-124v has been analysed.

Item: 1

Locus:	ff. 1r-13r
Title:	Almanac
Incipit:
Explicit:
Note:	An illuminated text in a fifteenth-century hand. There are columns for 4 cycles of oppositions and conjunctions, also the place of the Sun in the zodiac, times of rising, etc. for every day. The flyleaf contains a figure displaying the influences of the signs of the zodiac on the human body.
Bibliography:

Item: 2

Locus:	ff. 14r-16r
Title:	Recipes for gilding and colouring
Incipit:	'How �ou schalt temper �i colourus to lymninge and how �ou schal make a syse to kowche golt on bokus'.
Explicit:
Note:	In a fifteenth-century cursive hand. The text ends half way down the page and three other hands have entered three other short recipes.
Bibliography:

Item: 3

Locus:	ff. 17r-22r
Title:	Table of contents
Incipit:
Explicit:
Note:	Table of contents for item 7 written in a Textura hand.
Bibliography:

Item: 4

Locus:	f. 22v
Title:	Recipe for killing vermin
Incipit:
Explicit:
Note:	A later addition
Bibliography:

Item: 5

Locus:	ff. 23r-27r
Title:	Treatise on urines
Incipit:	'Her bygynus �e knowinge of xx colors of urines'.
Explicit:	'it signifie? �e flux of blod'.
Note:	A short treatise with fifteenth-century figures.
Bibliography:

Item: 6

Locus:	ff. 27r-29v
Title:	Medical tract
Incipit:	'Her begyns �e takyns �at ypocras �e leche wrot'.
Explicit:	'and also gif he loket hidoslich and terreth his clothus as man �at frentik hit betakyns �at he schal dye �e same day'.
Rubric:	'Hic explicit ypocras'.
Bibliography:

Item: 7

Locus:	ff. 29v-30r
Title:	Various recipes
Incipit:
Explicit:
Bibliography:

Item: 8

Locus:	ff. 31r-103r
Title:	A Book of Medical Recipes
Incipit:	'For �e heued ake'.
Explicit:	'and also of �e seed of �at herbe in vynter tyme deo gratias'.
Note:	A fourteenth-century book of medical recipes. Includes some charms. It suffers loss of ff. 35, 39, 51, 55, 136, possibly containing charms.
Bibliography:

Item: 9

Locus:	ff. 103r-106v
Title:	Various medical recipes
Incipit:	'For sore ynum a good med take weybrode'.
Explicit:	'Item for to make a serip for �e longes'.
Note:	Recipes added by later hands.
Bibliography:

Item: 10.1

Locus:	ff. 107r-115v
Title:	Treatise on urines
Incipit:	'Of the regions of �e uryne'.
Explicit:	'and git hit bryngyth not in perel'.
Note:	Fourteenth-century text.
Bibliography:

Item: 10.2

Locus:	ff. 116r-122v
Title:	Treatise on urine
Incipit:	'Condicions �at we ow to kepe in �e dome of ureyns'.
Explicit:	'and �erfor hit is ful perelus'.
Rubric:	'Indicium urinarium secundum magistrum galterium agilon'.
Bibliography:

Item: 11

Locus:	ff. 123r-v
Title:	A table of 30 eclipses
Incipit:
Explicit:
Note:	The table contains figures, times and durations of the 30 eclipses. The last date appearing on the table is 1443.
Bibliography:

Physical Description

Form:	Codex
Support:�	Parchment
Extent:	185 mm x 120 mm
Collation:	Collation from back pastedown, written in pencil - '1 flyleaf. 18 (wants 2, 6); 28 (wants 7, 8); 310; 4-68; 78 (wants 2, 4); 88 (wants 2, 4); 9-108; 11-126; 138; 148 (wants 1); 15-168; 1 flyleaf: i + 116 ff + 1 (out of 125; 2, 6, 15, 16, 57, 53, 59, 61 and 102 are lost as wel as un-numbered leaf immediately preceding 17)'.
Layout:	Pricking: various - round holes or slits. Writing space: ff. 1r-30v - 155 x 100 mm, c. 30 lines; ff. 31r-106r - 125 x 80 mm, 22 lines; ff. 107r-123v - 145 x 85 mm, 28 lines. Single columns.
Writing:	Item 1 - fifteenth-century hand; Item 2 - fifteenth-century cursive; Item 3 - Textura hand; Item 5 - Cursive hand; Item 8 - Textura Formata; Item 10 - Textura.
Decoration:	Item 5: Two-line blue initial with red penwork to begin text. Line fillers of red and blue horizontal lines. Glass vases/bottles with various coloured urines along left margin (f. 30r but under repagination would be f. 27r). Item 6: two-line blue lombardic H begins text. Two-line red paraphs. Blue and red line fillers. Final colophon in scroll banner. Item 8: Four-line initial in gold with penwork, now a faded mauve tinted with green begins text. Title of each recipe begins with a blue initial with the remainder in red. Item 10.2: Four-line blue initial C surrounded by red penwork box around. Rubric in red. Some words underlined in red. Red paraphs. Blue paraphs. Red and blue line fillers.
Binding:	Not medieval. Size: 200 x 135 mm. Five bands across the spine.
Foliation:	ff. 123
Additions:	Items 4 and 9 added by later hands.
Condition:	Good

History

Origin:	Unknown
Provenance:	Unknown

Record History

Catalogued and encoded: Rebecca Farnham, University of Birmingham, June 2004.

Bibliography

Hardwick, C. and Luard, R., ed, 1857. A Catalogue of the Manuscripts Preserved in the Library of the University of Cambridge, 6 vols, Cambridge: University Press, vol. 1, pp. 300-302.

McIntosh, A., Samuels, M. L. and Benskin, M. 1986. A Linguistic Atlas of Late Medieval English: County Dictionary, 4 vols, Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press, 4.