Henri de Mondeville, Chirurgia, plus miscellaneous receipts

Chirurgia, preceded by a work on Anatomy based on Mondeville and Lanfranc of Milan: in an incomplete and abridged English translation, originally written in 1392, by an unknown surgeon who seems to have practised in London. With medical notes and miscellaneous receipts by several late 15th cent. and early 16th cent. hands, also in English.

Contents

ff. 1-9 blank

1. ff. 10r Prologue

Opens: 'The holi trinite that is heed and welle of knowynge...'

Ends: '...it schal ben bi hem benygly fulfillid'.

2. ff. 10r-55v First 'distinccioun'

Opens: 'Here bigunneth the firste partie of this compilacioun where I have ordeyned the anothomy of a man...

Ends: 'And thus endith this chapitre afornseid etc.'

3. ff. 56r-124v Second 'distinccioun'

Title: 'Now bigynneth the secunde partie of this compilacioun'

Incipit: 'Where I have ordeyned the qualitees and the diffinicioun of a surgian...'

Explicit: 'Here endith the first distinccioun of the firste partie. and thou schalt haue here next folowinge the secunde distinccioun of the secunde partie'

4. ff. 124v-128r Second 'distinccioun' of the second part, incomplete.

Incipit: 'In the secunde distinccioun of the secunde partie is ordeyned particuler woundis bigynnynge at the heed...'

Ends imperfectly: '...whanne the pyement is clarified...'

5. ff. 146r-170v A further section of this work

Opens: 'The name of the tri nite thre personys and oo[n] god fadir and sone and ho ly goost. I thinke with the grace of god to dra / we out the general rulis or surgerie that bee moost nedeful to a surgian...'

Ends: '...but if ther be a wounde in siche drie bodies and membris that gheuen superflue. Here ends the main work.'

It seems probable that this MS. is a copy from an incomplete or partly illegible original: there are several gaps in the text, and the last part ends in the middle of a sentence.

6. ff. 128v-130v Rough drawings in ink of urine flasks, with notes in English by a middle 16th cent. hand.

.7 ff. 131r-137r Alchemical, chemical and pharmaceutical notes in English by the same, or a similar hand.

8. ff. 137v-139r Numeration from 1-1000 in English and Latin, and medical receipts in English.

ff. 139v-143r blank

9. ff. 143v-145v Notes on the humours, medical astrology, weights and measures, receipts, etc. by the earlier hand of Fol. 137v.

10. ff. 171v-196r Medical receipts in English, contributed by several hands, including those of the writers of previous entries.

196v-200r blank

There are various names (of owners?) some of whom have made marginal notes, etc. Fol. 50v 'Mr. Owen [Middle 16th cent.]. 51 'Mr. Howlet [Middle 16th cent.]. 81v Husband, Westmy[n]ster, Jones, Holenshed [Early 16th cent.].

f. 190v Contains a receipt signed by John à Bryggs dated 'XXII daye of Jull' [on the 6th line, 'the iii yere'] for part payment of an account for xxvis. viiid. for 'howseh[o]ld stoffe' consisting of various pewter vessels, etc. by John Master. This is struck through, and below is a revised receipt, also signed by John à Bryggs, apparently for the whole amount due; and the witnesses are named as John Master, Christofer Briscoe [?] Nicholas Lynch and William Gesty. The date is presumably 1511, the third year of the reign of Henry VIII. This inscription is badly multilated owing to the fact that ff. 190 and 191 had been pasted together, and inexpertly separated.

f. 192 This leaf is badly defaced, and contains inscriptions and scribblings. Among those that can be decyphered are: 'Iste liber constat bere yt well in mynde John marster [sic] bothe gentill and kynde. A vinculo doloris Jesu hym bring in vita[m] iternam [sic] at his last endyng. Per me John Cure'. f. 201r this is repeated in a different and larger script, ending 'Be me John cure' but is partly defaced. Below at the side: 'This byll made the eight day off May in the XXti yere off owre' [1529]. The rest has not been written, but below this again: 'This byll made the eight day off May in the XVII yere of owre souerayne lorde Kynge Henry the eight [1526] witnesyth Item [?] that Wylliam Smythe off [sic] Thys[?]byll made the eight day of Juli [?] yn the tenth day off' [The rest has not been written]. The name 'John Blakhede' is found among the scribblings.

f. 193r Signature of Edward Clarke (late 16th cent.).

f. 201r Receipt for 'A purgation' in a late 15th cent. hand-found also among the interpolated receipts mentioned above. On the verso of this leaf is a three line inscription 'Argent, plumby, albut, clepengye [?] of cockesall [Coggeshall, Essex], h, b, Wyllyam Woodward surgeon of Kelden [Kelvedon, Essex] Upchere one, botethe [?] of tolson ii, harry baker iii, morgan iiii, beyond Colchester v myle fyve'.

J. F. Payne and later Richard Grothe note the hypothesis that this manuscript was perhaps owned and used by the physician Thomas Vicary (c. 1490-1561). A cross-examination with the handwriting in London Guildhall Library MS Additional 198, a document leasing Vicary's house, possibly written by Vicary himself, shows some similiarities with marginal notes in Wellcome 564, but there is no conclusive evidence that Vicary ever owned or used this manuscript

At Wellcome Collection:

Formerly pasted down on the verso of fol. 129, and on both sides of fol. 130 were three leaves of an apparently unrecorded anatomical fugitive sheet, c. 1540. (See Catalogue of Printed Books, Vol. I, No. 290.). This has now been removed and forms part of the Rare Books collection: a catalogue description can be seen here.

Inserted is an envelope containing holograph notes on the anatomical part of this MS. by Joseph Frank Payne [1840-1910] (13 ll.). This MS. was the subject of an article by him in the British Medical Journal 1896, i, pp. 200-203 entitled 'On an unpublished anatomical treatise of the fourteenth century, and its relation to the 'Anatomy' of Thomas Vicary'. Payne has also written a note on fol. 9v of the MS., with his signature, and address. This inscripton is found under the signature of H.W. Bailey of Thetford-a former owner (c. 1875). Book-plate of J. F. Payne.

Anglo Saxon letter forms in Moorat's catalogue description (such as contraction marks and Thorn and yogh symbols) have been replaced with Latin characters.