Mellon MS 8

 MEDICAL MISCELLANY, in Latin and English
 England, unsigned, about 1440

 8.1 Ramon Lull. De aquis medicinalibus, or Ars operativa.
 8.2 Anonymous. Twenty medicinal recipes, in Latin and English.
 8.3 Johannes Sandryve. Regimen speciale et conservacio oculorum.
 8.4 Anonymous. Two medicinal recipes, in Latin and English.

Parchment codex in Latin and English, 155 x 110, ff. 29 of 30 originally, the
last (blank?) cutaway, plus two parchment wrapper or guard leaves, one each
at beginning and end, modern pencil foliation. No signature letters, the
leaves of each quire numbered 1-10 in lower, outer margins, numbering partly
cut away by the binder. Collation: (2)^^10, (3)^^10-1, the last leaf cut
away. No catchwords except at the end of the first quire. Single column, 22
lines c. 110 x 70, with single bordering lines faintly ruled on one side of
each leaf with pen, pricking fully preserved. Written primarily in a good
English upright cursive (ff. 1-27) in dark brown to black inks; red for
rubrics, marginalia, and headings; f. 28 in another, similar, but more
condensed hand of the same period; marginal note on f. 27v in a
sixteenth-century chancery hand. Heavily abbreviated throughout, except in
the English passages. Parchment of good quality, except for the heavy wrapper
or guard leaves.

BINDING: Unsigned English (?) twentieth-century binding of black niger,
backstrip gilt with small tools and label.

PROVENANCE: No early ownership marks, except the arabic numeral 68 written in
ink in an early hand on f. 1, perhaps an early shelf mark; Denis Duveen, with
his bookplate and inked number 35; Mellon MS 84, acquired with the Duveen
collection. De Ricci-Bond 19 (84).

CONTENTS

First guard, recto: Medicinalia raymundi. | [space] undecim [written above
"octo," which has been canceled] liber [three words follow which have not
been interpreted; verso blank. This and the similar guard leaf at end, which
is entirely blank, are heavily soiled and were perhaps original wrappers for
this codex.]

f. 1r, headline: Prologus raymundi in tractatum suum de medicinis |
specialiter contramorbos qui antiquis incurabiles videbantur. | [f. 1r, 1:
"68" written to left] cUm [the first letter of "cUm" is a guide letter
written in a blank space left by the scribe for a large initial never
executed] ego raymundus dudum ellerde | existens rogatus affectuose a
quibusdam | caris amicis meis... [in the lower margin in red ink:] Prologus
egregij viri raymundi lulij de aquis medicina- | libus sive... una cum |
aquis medicinalibus arnoldi de villa nova. | [Ends f. 15r, 15:] Item hoc
sperma bibitum. alleviat membra hominis | [written at the end of the
following line:] aggravata. [written at the beginning ofthe same line:]
Explicit tractatulus raymundi | lullij de medicinis specialibus. Cuius
memoria in | benedictione. [ff. 15v-16v blank.]
 [8.1: Ramon Lull, Ars operativa, TK 296, etc. The text is similar to the
copy cited by Corbett I, p. 118.]


f. 17r, 1: Aqua mirabilis qua ferrum resolvit et cetera metalla. Mercurium |
congelat... [Ends f. 17v, 22:] Item cum calce sua et aere suo yma
fragilitate. Et | alias virtutes habet quam plures non dicendis. Explicit. |
[Purely medicinal in character, this recipe is not the same as the one with
similar incipit cited by TK 120 and DWS 480, which is for making gold; f.
18r, 1:] De retardanda senectute et iuventute conser- | vanda secundum
arnoldum catellanum [.] Eligendus est | locus in quo... [Ends f. 20v, 12:]
sensum augmentat. videlicet apprehensiam | sive fantasticam et rationalem et
memoriam. | [The section contains four rubrics describing treatments for
conserving the memory. Despite the heading, the text does not seem to be
related to Arnold of Villanova's work, De retardanda senectute, nor to his De
bonitate memoriae; f. 21r, 1:] Balsamum artificiale sic fit. Recipe
terbentine | partem .1.... [Ends f. 24r, 4:] Et ista vocata balsamum
artificiale. | [A series of ten recipes for making balm or cough syrup,
mostly employing turpentine; then, f. 24r, 4:] De aqua precio- | sissima seu
virtuosissima qua quasi omnes partes morbas | et languores corporis humani
mirabiliter sanat. | Recipe in nomine individue trinitatis gariofilis...
[Ends f. 25v, 11:] Et omnia ista sunt proba- | ta [.] Et lauda dominum semper
qui dedit tibi scire hoc secretum. | [A series offour recipes for making
medicinal waters, unidentified, though Bale cited a text by Guilhelmus
Botoner, Collectiones medicinales, lib. 1, which has the same opening words;
then, f. 25v, 13:] Compositio balsami artificialis et matris eius [.] Bawme |
artificialle and artificiall modyr of bawme. | in manye operacions havyng the
effecte and war- | kyng of bawme ryalle... [Ends f. 27r, 5:] It is gode agen
the crampe. the stoon | and agen pestelens... [This is followed by three
further Latin recipes for various balms, ending f. 27v, 16.]
 [8.2: Anonymous, Twenty medicinal recipes, in Latin and English, not
identified.]

f. 28r, headline: [In a different English hand, about 1475:] Incipit regimen
speciale et conservacio oculorum secundum magistrem | [f. 28r, 1:] Johannem
sandryve doctorem in theologia et in medicinis. | Caveatt a potuum et ciborum
excessibus... [Ends f. 28v, 3:] Explicit et cetera. |
 [8.3: Johannes Sandryve, Regimen speciale et conservacio oculorum, in Latin,
not otherwise identified.]


f. 28v, 4: Nota bonam medicinam probatam contra pestilenciam. Recipe .5.
flores | pimpernell .5. flores croci... [A note partly in English in the same
hand is in the left margin. Ends f. 28v, 7; then, f. 28v, 8:] Contra
infirmitatem malem que vocata infirmitas renamatua [?] | Take a pynte of
malsyn and putte therein ij peper | cornes broken to pwodyr [sic] and also
halfe a gud | sponefull of jusce of the grene leves of mary- | golde and let
the pacient drynke thereof | warmet by the the fyre ij or iij dayes fyrst and
laste | and by the grace of god they schal be hole x x [sic] | [Remainder of
f. 28v blank, f. 29r ruled but blank. A single line on f. 29v in Latin has
not been read. Final guard or wrapper leaf blank.]
  [8.4: Anonymous, Two medicinal recipes, in Latin and English, not
identified.]

SUMMARY: Both the fifteenth-century English writers of MS 8 were primarily
interested in medicinal cures, both wrote fluently in Latin and English, and
both may well have been physicians. Though the codex is exclusively medical
in content, the presence of the powerful names of Ramon Lull and Arnold of
Villanova suggests, as always, the supernatural and, in this context, cures
beyond the reach of straightforward medicine. After the Lull text was copied,
the volume was used as a medical commonplace book; preserved with it is a
slip of paper, 100 x 30, laid in loosely, containing a further recipe in
Latin, hastily jotted down in highly abbreviated form and not transcribed,
which is very possibly in the principal hand of the
manuscript.