Medical compendium

A medical compendium in 7 separate booklets

Contents

Booklet I (quires 1-6)

1. ff. 2r-23v Albucasis, Tacuinium sanitatis, end wanting

f. 2r Albucasus tacuinium sanitatis. Tacuinum sanitatis in medicina ad narrandum ... Composuit autem librum Elbucasem ... Tacuinium sanitatis de 6 rebus quae sunt necessarie ... f. 23v ... sed aer humidus conservat corpus humiditate et ...

2. ff. 24r-25v Incomplete alphabetical table to the above to 'R', in same hand

Booket II (quires 7-10)

1. ff. 26r-67v John de Sancto Amando, Super antidotarium Nicolai

f. 26r Johannes de Sancto Amando. Super antidotarium Nicolai. Operacio medicine secundum Johannitium ... f. 67v ... ad exteriora moveri. Expliciunt scripta Jo. de Sancto Amando super antidotario Nicholai

2. ff. 68r-69r Table of contents to the above, in the same hand

3. ff. 69v-73v Alphabetical list of simples in several fourteenth-century hands beginning with Argentum vivum and citing Circa instans (f. 69v) and Avicenna's Canon book III (f. 70r).

4. ff. 74r-v A list of simples from no. 1 above in a new hand

f. 74r Johannes de Sancto Amando tractat de istis simplicibus medicinis aliqualiter in antidotario nicholai ...

Booklet III (quires 11-12)

1. ff. 75r-90v Pontius de Sancto Egidio, Curae, end wanting

f. 75r Cure omnium egritudinum ... Contra melancholicam passionem in primis digeratur ... f. 90v ... in aliquo predictorum oleorum pannus lineus et ...

Booklet IV (quires 13-14)

1. ff. 91r-104r Anonymous, gloss on Philaretus's De pulsibus

f. 91r Intencionem habemus etc. Liber iste dividitur in iiiior partes ... f. 104r ... in corde motum naturalem. Qui scribsit liber sit sempter crimene liber. Expliciunt glosule supra philartum deo gracias.

2. ff. 104r-106v Anonymous, commentary on Hippocrates's Prognostics

f. 104r Liber iste dividitur in ii partes. In prohemium et tractatum. Secunda ibi. Oportet te esse sollicitum etc ...

Booklet V (quires 15-22)

1. f. 107r List of questions on the following text, in a later hand than the text

2. ff. 108r-178r Bernard de Gordon, De conservatione vite humane

f. 108r De conservatione vite humane. Incipit liber de conservatione vite humane. Homo enim est princeps et rex ... f. 178r ... deus qui incepit et complevit amen. Explicit liber de conservatione vite humane.

f. 178v blank

Booklet VI (quire 23)

1. ff. 179r-186v Experimenta Avicenne, end wanting

f. 179r Incipiunt experimenta avicenne. Fortior medicinarum ad allopiciam est ... f. 186v ... lxx grana piperis ...

Booklet VII (quire 24)

1. ff. 187r-193v Avenzoar, Taysir, book III, On fevers

f. 187r Inquit servus regis abenzohar. Hoc nomen fiber consueverunt medici ... f. 193v ... semper est fortitudo gloria eternitas et laus. Amen. Explicit liber febrium Taysir sapentis Avenzoar. Deo gracias.

ff. 194r-v blank

14th Century

194 folios, on vellum

ff. ii + 192 + i. f. ii is a medieval flyleaf about 330x230mm. Collation of ff. 2-194 1(8) wants 4, 5 after f. 4; 2(8) wants 3-6 after f. 9; 3(8) wants 3-6 after f. 13; 4(8) wants 3-6 after f. 17; 5(8) wants 3-6 after f. 21; 6(2); 7-9(12), 10(12) + 1 after 12; 11-14(8); 15(8) + 1; 16-21(8); 22(10); 23-24(8). Binding s. xviii leather stamped gold: rebaked. This manuscript is an assembly of a number of different booklets, details for each of these is below:

Booklet I: quires marked a-f.

Booklet II: In a hand similar to but probably later than those in Booklet I. Written space 245x170mm. 54 lines in double columns. Paragraph marks in red and blue. Heavily annotated in several hands.

Booklet III: Written space 250x150mm. 50 lines in double columns. 2-line initials in red and blue, blue with red ornament, red with violet ornament. At the top of f. 75r, a later hand has written: Incipiunt cure magistri poncii de sancto egidio.

Booklet IV: Written space 210x145mm. 51 lines in two columns. At the top of f. 91r in a later hand is written: Scripta super de pulsibus et prognosticorum.

Booklet V: Written space 250x165mm. 51 lines in double columns. Quires marked a-h. Two-line initials in red ornamented with violet and blue ornamented with red. Titles in red, paragraphs in red and blue. Chapter numbers at top of each page in red and blue.

Booklet VI: Written space 240x145mm. 67 lines in double columns. Initials blue with red ornament or red with blue, chapter titles in red.

Booklet VII: Written space 230x150mm. 46 lines in double columns. In a hand similar to that of Booklet III. Initials and titles as Booklet VI. Paragraph marks in red and blue. At the bottom of f. 193v in a later hand is written 'translatus ex lingua ebroca in latinam ad honorem catholice fidei et sanctimonie augmentum honorabilis patris et domini m. archiepiscopi brachar'.

Possibly written in southern France, maybe Montpellier.

Catalogue description modified in 2014. For original description, see Warren R. Dawson, Manuscripta medica. A descriptive catalogue of the manuscripts in the Library of the Medical Society of London (London, 1932).

Listed in the catalogue of the Augustinian convent of St. Martin, Louvain, compiled in 1639. On f. 1 is written in a fifteenth or sixteenth century hand 'Est liber hic sancti Martini louaniensis. Ex parte mag Goderidi de curia'. The book therefore was given to the University of Louvain by Master Godfrey, one of the Senate. From the Askew Library.