Merton College MS. 324
Former shelfmark: O. 1. 2
MEDICA; S. XV
Contents
Language(s): Latin
On f. ii are medical recipes in hands of s. xv and xvi; f. iiv blank. On f. iiiv is a title ‘Liber Marbodi de lapidibus’, s. xvii in.
Followed by short notes fols. 1v-2: ‘Audi letando quid dicam uersificando ... si credis quod tenet usus’ (‘Versus de actibus et quantitate ponderum medicinalium’; WIC 1699, citing two German MSS); ‘De ponderibus et mensuris. Siclus et stater et denarius unum et idem sunt ...’ (eTK 1479I, citing only CCCC 481 [s. xiii], pp. 668–72); ‘De complexionibus humani corporis. Largus amans hilaris ridens rubeique coloris ... Humida geminus libra et aquarius feruet cancer aquatica scorpio piscis’ (‘De IV temperamentis’; WIC 10131, common in script and print).
Pr. Basel 1566, Strassburg 1597; A. Beccaria, I Codici di Medicina del Periodo Presalernitano (Rome, 1956), p. 411; eTK 0645G. The same dislocation occurs in the probable exemplar, Bodl. Libr., e Mus. 219.
Often printed; eTK 0284J, : M. H. Green, ‘The development of the Trotula’, Revue d’histoire des textes 26 (1996), 119–203; idem, ‘A handlist of the Latin and vernacular manuscripts of the so-called Trotula’, Scriptorium 50 (1996), 137–75, this copy at p. 162 (no. 79).
Ed. E. Montero Cartelle (Monografías de la Universidad de Santiago de Compostela 77: Santiago de Compostela, 1983).
eTK 0273EThe exemplar of this copy is Bodl. Libr., MS. e Mus. 219.
eTK 1374KBegins in tabular form, ‘Vrina calida intensa color rubeus ut crocus orientalis ... habet ypostasim in fundo
eTK 1607FThe complete work ed. K. Sudhoff, Archiv für die Geschichte der Medizin 19 (1927), 209–39; eTK 1205G, ; Sharpe, Handlist, p. 472.
Ed. Corpus Medicorum Latinorum 5 (2 vols, Berlin, 2nd edn, 1968), pp. 26–32; eTK 0817K, ; Hippocrates Latinus, pp. 150–2, not this copy.
eTK 1498F, ; Hippocrates Latinus, p. 165, not this copy. The work may end on f. 132v with ‘et adde mellis dissprimat xv. libris.’ Then ‘Item medicamenta ad sanitatem conseruanda’ followed by two columns of prose and verse, ‘Si uis ut homo per totum annum sanus et hilaris fiat’ and ‘Si uis incolumis si uis te uiuere sanum’ (eTK 1471F). Then ‘Item ad sanitatem conseruandam. Pono que utenda est per singulos menses exponimus atque ordinamus qualiter per unumquemque mensem et tempus ...’.
cf. eTK 0868J, ; Hippocrates Latinus, p. 165, treats this as part of art. 12, but gives variants of this incipit at pp. 125–8, as De Cibis, or Calendarium Dieteticum.
Unpr.; eTK 0269I, , Hippocrates Latinus, p. 230, both citing only Bodl. Libr., e Mus. 219, the exemplar of this copy.
Ed. P. Capparoni (Rome, 1928), as Alfanus, De Quattuor Humoribus.
eTK 1277HThorndike in Jnl. of the Hist. of Medicine 8 (1953), 263–83, at p. 275 n. 88.
Unpr.; eTK 0508F, ; Sharpe,Handlist, p. 767. One of two copies, the other, Bodl. Libr., e Mus. 219, f. 142rv, the exemplar of this one.
Pr. Basel 1541.
eTK 1343KThe complete work ed. K. Sudhoff, Archiv für die Geschichte der Medizin 19 (1927), 209–39; eTK 0614I, 0258D, 0258E, ; Sharpe, Handlist, pp. 468–70. On the identity of the author, ibid., pp. 468, 519.
Unpr.; eTK 1247I, one of three copies, all English. One of them, Bodl. Libr., e Mus. 219, fols. 117–22v, is the exemplar of this one.
capitula
Pr. with Isaac Iudaeus, Opera, Lyon 1515, II, fols. 186v-9v; eTK 0229E, 1034E, 1034F, variously ascribed.
Capitula f. 193rv
Ed. L. Choulant (Leipzig, 1832), pp. 28–123.
eTK 0610ABeg. as Mappae Clavicula: eTK 1470P, ; recipes for making colours, titles and incipits listed by L. Thorndike, ‘Some medieval texts on colours’, Ambix 7 (1959), 1–24, at pp. 6–7; M. Clarke, The Art of All Colours (London, 2001), no. 2740.
For arts 2–24 at least this is said to be a direct copy of Bodl. Libr., e Mus. 219 (Green, pp. 160–1, no. 73), written in England, s. xiii ex. The Bodl. MS begins impf., so might originally have contained art. 1 as well. After art. 23 it has three more arts not now in this one.
Physical Description
Collation
Layout
Frame-ruled with crayon; written in c. 46 long lines.
Hand(s)
A single scribe, writing proficient Low Countries hybrida.
Decoration
Red initials, paraphs and highlighting (including the punctuation).
Binding
s. xviii, marbled sides backed with calf, sewn on five bands. Fols. i and 236 are blank paper binding leaves. On fols. ii and 235 are the marks of five bosses. Parchment place-markers, cut mainly from a single MS, s. xiv, in a French cursive hand, project from the foredge.
History
Provenance and Acquisition
At the head of f. 235v is ‘Iste est liber fratris Iohannis Hatfeld’, s. xv, and ‘Jhon Emes’, s. xvi, the second repeated on f. iii. At the head of f. ii is an erased inscription, ‘Liber fratris Willelmi ?Giffard’, and ‘MS. 2256’. On f. iii is ‘Liber fratris Thome Emery de Gadesddene’, smudged. In the margin of f. 123v is ‘Nota bene quod Bryg’’. Hatfield (BRUO 885) was monk of St Albans, scholar at Gloucester College in 1454 and 1456, prior of Belvoir until at least 1480.
At the foot of f. 1 is ‘L. Coll. Merton ex dono Car. King Art. Mag. et Coll. ejusdem Socii.’ Charles King was fellow of Merton 1684–1715.
Inside the front board is ‘Q. 1. 17’, canc. and replaced with ‘O. 1. 2 (CCCXXIV)’ in red; the College bookplate.
Record Sources
Availability
For enquiries relating to this manuscript please contact Merton College Library.
Bibliography
Funding of Cataloguing
Conversion of the printed catalogue to TEI funded by the Warden and Fellows of Merton College .
Abbreviations
View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.
Last Substantive Revision
2018-08-01: First online publication