Oxford, Bodleian Library, Ashmole 1481
| England |
| Oxford |
| Bodleian Library |
| Ashmole 1481 |
| SC 7720-26, 7790-91, 8247-76 |
| s. xv |
| English |
| Scribal Dialect, ff. 4r-12r: Worcestershire. Linguistic Atlas Grid Reference: 391 260, LP 7680 (Benskin and McIntosh 1986, p. 250). Scribe of ff. 36r-41v: Lincolnshire. Linguistic Atlas Grid Reference: 496 353, LP 277 (Benskin et al 1986, p. 145). |
A rough book made up of various booklets regarding medicine. Only the English texts have been recorded here.
Item: 1| ff. 4v-12r |
| Medical Treatise |
| 'Brožer y preye že per charyte žat žou wryte me a fewe medicynes žat y my?t helpe pore folke žat fallež fallež into sykenesse'. |
| '1 ounce ožer two and ?ef hym and arere hym vp with vynegre deo gracias nunc scripsi totum pro christo da michi potum'. |
| A distinct booklet. |
Talbot 1967, p. 188.
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Item: 2| ff. 21r-23r |
| A Noble Tretis for Medicina Agenst the Pestilence (IPMEP 659) |
| 'Here begynnes a nobill tretys made of a nobill fisicyane john of burdeux for medecyne agayne že pestilence evill and it es departed in iiij partyse the first tellys how a manne sall kepe hym in tyme of pestilence'. |
| 'and thorghe že grace of god allmyghty and gude gouernaunce he sall be helped of žis sekenes and warriste for žer es no sekenes žan žer es helpe and remedy for it in kynd and it be done in tyme explicit tractatus optimus sub compendio editus per johannem burdeux peritum medicum contra morbum pestilencie'. |
| Translation. |
|
Item: 3| ff. 25r-25v |
| Treatise on Phlebotomy |
| 'Blod latyng clensythe mannus bledder and temperith že mavs it defy?th že mete opynže wepyngys it distroyth že mawe it clensythe it makyt že woyse clere it cleryth ži sythe it makyt ži body lyte'. |
| 'and žou schalt neuer haue že feuer nor les ži sy?th woso žat vse eche day iij leues of sawge with iij grenys of pyeny he žare not drede of že palsy nor of že fallyng gowte and he wyll it vse'. |
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Item: 4| ff. 26v-28r |
| Signs of the Zodiac and Relative Advice |
| 'Here it is to knowe žat žer ben vij planetis že first planete is že mone že qwyche haže a signe calde on lateyn cancrum a crab a fysche of že se'. |
| 'decembyre is že monže of že ?ere že qwyche haže že syngne icalde capricornum žat is to sey a gottys horne for in že monže esaw bowt hys fadyrs blyssyng for vntynge and vndir žis sygne do no medcyn to že knes for žis sygne answerže to že knes'. |
| 'Cognitio planetarum et xij signorum' |
| Medical advice relative to the signs of the zodiac. |
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Item: 5| ff. 28v-33r |
| Medical Recipes |
| 'Here is a drynke for že tysyke že stre?tnes of že longys icalde že tysyke and for že grewans in že brest take že rotes of radyche of fenel of parsely and do awey že perthe of že rotes and take mayde herbe icalde hayhone and howndys hore'. |
| 'and make žeroff a platrum and for že same take wotmell smallache and rose lewys crumys of lowney brede and sethe hit in milke and mak žerof a plaster'.' |
| Thirty-nine recipes. |
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Item: 6| f. 34v |
| Letter |
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| Draft of a letter from poor canons. Sender and recipient unknown. |
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Item: 7| f. 34v |
| Memorandum |
| 'Memorandum žat I t hade že iij day off october a swellyng like a geduryng off blode tyngullynge betwene že bely and že chare and so ageyne in likvise hit dude že xe day off že said month'. |
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Item: 8| f. 35r |
| A Noble Treatise for Medicina Agenst the Pestilence (IPMEP 659) |
| '?eff a mane fele prikynge or slakerynge of blode ine tyme of pestelens late hyme not ete nor drynke or be blede'. |
| 'and žerfore woso dredis hyme off the seknes do ine tyme etc with goddis helpe amen'. |
| 'A pestelenci angustia succurre nobis virgo maria amen'. |
| Extract from the longer version.
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Item: 9| f. 35v |
| Veins of the Human Body |
| 'Theys are the principale veynis off že bodye'. |
| 'of že fote and withine satius domestica and withowte satius saluatica'. |
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Item: 10| f. 35v |
| 'Dies caniculares' |
| 'And žer ben L dayeis withvtyn striffe/ and that hie latyne blede in žem gwardes his liffe'. |
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| Couplet with the gloss 'from seynt kenelmys day to seynt bartini'. Given here in full. |
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Item: 11| f. 35v |
| Medical note |
| 'And sum hold the opinyon that from že xvij day off september all veynys are clossyd till že xvij day of marche'. |
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Item: 12| ff. 36r-43v |
| Medical Recipes |
| 'mikill ius bot stampe ežžer be žselfe and so že ius togidre and lay že man vpryghte and helle into his noesethirles žat ye may drawe toward že brayne for oute of že brayne it commes'. |
| 'on že sore and it sall sle že fire ffor že dropcye take ?olke of an ey and also mikill as že quantite žerof of že ius of... |
| About seventy recipes. For ff. 44r-49r see Item 15.
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Item: 13| ff. 52r-53v |
| A Noble Tretis for Medicina Agenst the Pestilence (IPMEP 659) |
| 'Loo leef lordes and sires here begynnith a solemne doctrine an dopynly prewyd mad for trew medicyne for the pestilence by maister jon burgoyne or ellis cleped laberbe which by že grace of almy?ti gode certeynli curith and helpith the sike'. |
| 'že že sekenes hat envenemyd the liuer for to distroy hit and therefore the liuer putteth the mater vnto his clensynge'. |
| 'For the pestilens'. |
| Translation of the shorter version. According to Eldredge this portion of the manuscript has been misbound and the correct order is: ff. 52-83v, 44-51v, 84-101v.
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Item: 14| ff. 54r-63v |
| Herbal |
| 'To purge flevme and melencoly and colere to comfort membres'. |
| 'to moysten and to norschen and to clensen and wyth cold žinges to a kelen amen explicit'. |
| A translation of the Circa instans perhaps.
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Item: 15| ff. 64r-f. 83v and 44r-49r |
| Herbal, A-Z |
| Ciclaman id est therthe nott his rote is propirly ycalled so it haž gret vertues bože grene and drye but wel mo when it is grene and it schal be gedred in že ende of heruest'. |
| 'ižonkyd be god ower lord ihesu crist žat haž bro?t žis to ende amen explicit'. |
| Another translation of the Circa instans perhaps. Text misbound, ff. 64r-83v now appears before ff. 44r-49r.
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Item: 16| ff. 92r-94r |
| On the Properties of Things |
| 'Constantyn seyith that podagra is a sore euel in the feet'. |
| 'that brediže wynd and swellyng for ofte ventosites and wynd makež žis euel more greuous'. |
| Extract of the translation of De Proprietatibus Rerum by Bartholomaeus Anglicus. |
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Item: 17| ff. 94r-101v |
| The Gouernaile of Helth (IPMEP 407) |
| 'In this tretyce that is clepid gouernaile of helth somwhat is to be said with cristes helpe of somthynges that longen to bodely helthhad and to kepe or to bodely lust to be recouered'. |
| 'be holpen but the chaungyng into corrupcion neuer or seld and of...'. |
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Item: 18| f. 107v |
| Medical Recipes |
| 'Whoso haž ache in his hed make ley of verueyn or žar of betonye or of filles or of wemot and wasche žerwith ys hed and hit schal go awaye'. |
| 'and do žerof in žyn hole here and lye apon žyn ožer here and žou schalt be hol žer of'. |
| Inserted in the margin of a Latin herbal. |
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| Codex. |
| Parchment. Dimension vary from c. 240 x 140 mm to 250 x 165 mm. |
| c. 240-250 x 140-165 mm |
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Unascertainable.
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| Varies, but writing space for ff. 4r-12r is 240 x 150 mm. |
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Variety of cursives. Scribe of ff. 4r-12r: ascenders on top line elongated and slightly patterned.
Characteristics: small neat Anglicana script; sigma s in final position; 2-shaped r in medial position; ž; B-shaped w; single lobed a with pointed head; n with distinctive loop on final minim that loops up and over the letter; angular, 8-shaped g; long s in initial position; b with hooked ascender that meets the bowl; hooked ascender on l; double lobed a in initial position; backward e in final position. Body height: 1.5 mm.
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Some texts with red highlighting but usually no decoration.
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Not contemporary. Size: 260 x 175 mm. Cover of tan leather over pasteboard. Four bands across the spine.
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| Confused, c. 150 leaves. |
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| Good. Edges on some folios curled. |
| Unknown. |
| F. 4r - 'Thys ys my boke whoso euere sathe naye'.
Written to the side of a recipe on f. 33r - various names 'lemstere, master thomas, master clarke, master mathews, and master maycott of the charturous'. The names are bracketed and the word 'fesiscians' is written beside the bracket, below is written 'surgenns master roberd laurens in frydays stret jamys scotte thorne'. |
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Catalogued and encoded: Rebecca Farnham, University of Birmingham, August 2003.
- 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.
- Eljenholm-Nichols, A., Orr, M. T., Scott, K. L., and Dennison, L., ed, 2000. An Index of Images in English Manuscripts from the Time of Chaucer to Henry VIII c. 1380 - c. 1509: The Bodleian Library, Oxford, MSS Additional - Digby, vol. 1, Turnhout: Harvey Miller Publishers, p. 42, no. 76.
- Eldredge, L. M. 1992. The Index of Middle English Prose in the Ashmole Collection, Bodleian Library, Oxford. Handlist IX, Cambridge: D.S. Brewer, pp. 93-96.
- Madan, F., Craster, H. H., and Denholm-Young, N. 1937. A Summary Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, vol. 2, part 2, Oxford: Clarendon Press, p. 1142.
- Talbot, C. H. 1967. Medicine in Medieval England. London: Oldbourne.
- Ogden, M. S., ed, 1938. The Liber de Diversis Medicinis in the Thornton Manuscript, MS Lincoln Cathedral A.5.2, EETS, os, 207, London: Oxford University Press, pp. 51-54.
