Receipt-Book, Italian: 16th-17th century

Collection of medical receipts in Italian and Latin: preceded by lists of Herbs and their qualities and uses. Written in a Venetian dialect, mainly by two compilers: the first probably about 1525, the second about 1650. With a few additions by 16th and 17th century hands. Ff. 96, 97, 101, 109, 111 are multilated: some leaves pasted down. The 44 unnumbered ll. contain an index to the whole volume by the later compiler. Ff. 1-41 is a full list of medicinal herbs and their qualities, in Latin: and ff. 42-53 another list of herbs in greater detail in Italian. The remainder of the volume especially after fol. 114, is written by the later hands, and consists entirely of receipts: one on fol. 207 is dated 1637.

c. 1525-c. 1650

1 volume 44 ll. + 271 ff. 16mo. 101/2 x 71/2 cm. 17th cent. calf binding, worn: both clasps wanting.

The papers are available subject to the usual conditions of access to Archives and Manuscripts material, after the completion of a Reader's Undertaking.

Purchased 1908.

Database description transcribed from S.A.J. Moorat, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts on Medicine and Science in the Wellcome Historical Medical Library (London: Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, 1962-1973).