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MS. Bodl. 591

Summary Catalogue no.: 2363

Medical treatises and recipes, etc., in English and Latin; England, 15th century, middle

Contents

1. (fol. 1)
A short manual of medicine
Incipit: Master I pray the for seint cherite

This incipit is from Langbaine's Catalogue of 1655, for only a small piece of fol. 1 now survives, and fol. 2-6 are imperfect: with recipes and astrological directions.

eVK2 0340.00
Language(s): Middle English

eVK2 7941.00, is a separate text, fols. 16v-24, on the Zodiac; eVK2 8027.00, fols. 24-26, another text on the Zodiac.

Language(s): Middle English
2. (fol. 26)
Urines
Rubric: A short tretise of vrynes
Incipit: Hho so woll know of erthe and heuyn
eVK2 1522.00
Language(s): Middle English

Some Latin notes on urines are on fols. 33-4.

Language(s): Latin
3. (fol. 34v)
A short Latin treatise on phlebotomy
Rubric: Inquisiciones venarum
Incipit: Sunt multe id est in flexo brachij tres
eTK 0746I (?)
Language(s): Latin
4. (fol. 37)
Directions about lucky days and the like, astrological directions, the four humours, etc., in English
Incipit: Man is made of iiij humours
eVK2 3498.00
Language(s): Middle English
5. (fols. 43, 110v, 111b)
Recipes in English.
Language(s): Middle English
6. (fol. 107v)
Treatise on midwifery
Rubric: A proscesse for wemen that ben in trauell of childryn
Incipit: Si manum proferat

Latin, with some English directions, including a charm.

Also in Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection, R486 .M43 1450 fols. 13v-14r (description by Katherine Hindley, 2015).

Language(s): Latin and Middle English
7. (fol. 154v)
Ps.-Albertus Magnus, Liber aggregationis

Here anonymous and without title

Incipit: Sicut dicit philosophus in pluribus omnis sciencia
Language(s): Latin
8. (fol. 157v)
Treatise on planting and grafting trees
Rubric: A schort tretice for a man to know wiche tymes of the yere is best to graffe or to plante treis
Incipit: Whan the mone is in Tawro
eVK2 2187.00
IMPEP 831 (this copy not listed)
Pr. from another copy, J. O. Halliwell, Early English Miscellanies: In Prose and Verse (1855), 66-72

Some leaves are lost after fol. 159.

Language(s): Middle English
9. (fol. 160)
Some names of plants in Latin and English, added in the 16th cent.
Language(s): Latin and Middle English

Physical Description

Form: codex
Support: paper
Extent: i + 163 leaves
Dimensions (leaf): 8.5 × 6 in.

Condition

Imperfect and mended.

History

Origin: 15th century, middle ; English

Provenance and Acquisition

The name 'Bullock' (16th cent.) is on fol. 112v.

MS. Langbaine 6 (p. 89) shows that this MS. was bequeathed to the Library by dr. Thomas Clayton, who died in 1647.

Record Sources

Description adapted (Oct. 2022) from the Summary Catalogue (1922) with additional reference to published literature as cited.
Summary Catalogue, vol. 2, part 1, p. 329
Summary Catalogue, vol. 2, part 1, p. 330

Abbreviations

View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.

Last Substantive Revision

2022-10: Description revised to incorporate all information in Summary Catalogue.