Some medieval English medical recipes,
from British Library, Harley MS 2378
copyright Martha Carlin 2005
all rights reserved
not to be reproduced without permission.
A volume of 184 parchment folios containing medical recipes
and related materials, in English and Latin, in hands of the 14th-15th
cent. Many other recipes
from this manuscript are printed in G. Henslow, Medical Works of the Fourteenth
Century (London, 1899).
Among the medical recipes are the following, written on
folios14v-15v in a single hand of the late 14th - early 15th
century. These recipes are given in prose form in the manuscript
but, as they are written in rhymed couplets, I have transcribed them as
such below:
(f. 14v) For bolnyng [= swelling]
of the genitales of man.
[In left margin: For boling of
the pyntell' (=penis).]
A fayre medecyn tell' I can
bothe for zonge and for olde and for all' maner of brennyng'.
Leves of
lorere [=laurel] and rewe thou take,
and smale thou
brysse hem [=bruise them] and make.
Take three
handfull' of the tone
and of the
tother als mekyll' one [i.e., take 3 handfuls of the one, and as
much of the other].
And make a
playster ther of clene,
a bout the
genitales thou bynde be dene [=indeed].
And if this
helpe will' nought',
a nother
medecyn shall' be wrought.
Take the leves
of a rede dok
and tendrnus
amyds a way thou knoke.
Sethe them in
wyn hole in a panne
and lay them
about thi bollokes than.
Also take
garleke and comyn
(f. 15r) with ache [=smallage, parsley, or other celery-like
plant] and benys [=beans] sothen [=seethed] in wyn,
and bynde them
about thi ballokes fast,
and the boling
shall' swage [=be assuaged] in hast.
For boling of
knes.
If thi knees
be bolynde grete,
take the fayre
flour of whete,
and boyle it
in water till it drye be,
and in a
cloute [=rag] lay it to thi kne.
Folios 17r-61v consist of numerous medicinal recipes, mostly in
English, with a few in Latin, written in hands of perhaps the
early 15th century. At the end of this collection, on f. 61v, is
written, in a ?contemporary hand: "Secundum Dompnum Nicholaum de
Spaldyng quod s. d. c." (Nicholas Spaldyng is identified on f.
135v as the owner of this volume.) The following recipes are
transcribed from this collection:
(f. 17v) For to make her [=hair] growe.
Take lynsed and brenne [=burn] it and medle [=mix]
the poudre with oyle and a noynte the hed. Item take
verveyne and aloyne [=aloes] and seth hem wel
In lye and wasch' wel the hed ther with oft tyme.
(f. 18r) For man that may nouzt for castynge [=vomiting]
holde his mete [=solid food].
Take hulewort [=pennyroyal or wild thyme] and
horhoune and peper and seeth' hem wel in water and gyf hym ofte
to drynke and he shal sone hele.
(f. 18v) For the fever tercyane [=tertian
fever, one that comes every 3 days].
Take iij leves of weybrode after the sonne be y go
to grounde and sey iij pater nosters and take the juys and drynke it
with haliwater whan the evel the taketh [=when the sickness takes
thee].
(f. 19r) For the cancre in the teth' also.
Take oke appul [=oak galls] and drye it well'
and make pouder ther of and take that pouder and medled [sic]
with'
vynegre and make a plastre and leye up the
sore and it shal hole.
(f. 20r) An oynement for the crampe.
Take in the laste ende of may the juys of camamylle
and cattes grece [=rendered fat] of eche lyche moche [i.e.,
the
same amount of each] and fry it to gedur and
kepe it in a box and as the crampe the greveth' enoynte the same
place ther with.
(f. 38v) For to maken tethe whyte that ben blake or
zelwe.
Take flour of rye salt and hony and medle hem wel to
gedere and therwith' frote [=rub] wel the tethe, iche day ij or
iij
[=twice
or thrice] and after wasche hem wel with fayre water and that schal
don a wey al the blaknese and alle the
filthe.
(f. 39v) For stynkyng brethe that comes out of
mannes stomake.
Take ij handful of comyn and bet it in a brasyn
morter to poudre and sethe it in good wyne fro a potel [=half-gallon]
to a quart and lat the seke drynke ther of at morwe
and even as hot as he may suffre it and he schal ben hool with
innen xv dayes on warantize and ich day drynke a
pynt.
(f. 59v) For vermyne in a mannys ere.
Take the jus of lovache and put it in the ere
the space of a myle wey [i.e., for as long as it takes to walk a mile]
and it salle bryng out the worme quyke [=alive]
or dede certayne.