File:"Chirurgia" by Henri de Mondeville (MS.564) Wellcome L0073933.jpg

Henri de Mondeville, "Chirurgia" (c.1475)

Inner page showing an illustration of a serpent / snake wrapped around a baby

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: 1 volume 201 ll. folio. 32 x 231/2 cm. 18th cent. panelled calf binding rebacked. A leaf has been cut out after fol. 9, and two leaves after fol. 142. Fol. 190 and fol. 191 were at one time pasted together, and have been damaged in separation with some loss of text: fol. 192 is also defective. There seems to have been some confusion in the re-binding of the last 10 ff. A few leaves with small defects, or stained. There is an original vellum fly-leaf at the end. (MS 564)

NOTE: 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 was the subject of an article by him in the British Medical Journal 1896, i, pp. 200-203 entitled 'On an unpublished anatomical treatise of the fourteenth century, and its relation to the 'Anatomy' of Thomas Vicary'.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.

SUMMARY: 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.

Written in a large clear gothic hand in double column of 34 lines to a column. Large ornamental initials in red and black on ff. 10v, 16v, 47v, 56v, 124v, 146, other capitals, paragraph marks and underlinings in red. The 16th cent. pagination is confused, and the MS. has been refoliated in pencil at the lower outer margin.

Fol. 10, col. 1 THe holi trinite that is heed and / welle of kunnynge. gheuere and / grauntere of grace to alle ... / ... / (line 11) ... The / which compilacioun of sirurgie I ha / ue compilid and drawen after the discrete / auctorite of my moost worschipful / maistris and predessessouris of the sa / me science. And specialy aftir the no / ble counseil of my worpi maistir / lamfranke ... / ... / ... In the gheer of oure / lord. m. CCClxxxxii ...

col. 2, line 32 HEre bigynnep the firste partie of / this compilacioun where I haue / ordeyned the anothomy of a man ... 55v, col. 2 ... by the / whiche that he mai defenden his surgerie. / And thus endith this chapitre afornseid etc.

56, col. 1 Now bigynneth this secunde partie / of this compilacioun ... / ... / (line 4) ... Where I / haue ordeyned the qualitees and the / diffinicioun of a surgian, With woun / dis and empostymes. dislocaciouns / and fracturis of bonys ... 124v, col. 1, line 5 Here endith the first distinccioun / of the firste partie. and thou schalt / haue here next folowinge the / secunde distinccioun of the secun / de partie.

128 (Chapter on head wounds: the rest of this 'distinccioun' is omitted) ... whanne the pye / ment is clarified /

146, col. 1 IN 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 ... / ... / (line 11) ... And this tretis is dra / wen out of latyne in to ynglisch / aftir a complicacioun of a worschip / ful doctour henricus de amandavil / la that was the kyngis chef maister / surgian of ffraunce ... 170v, col. 2 ... But if ther be a woun / de in siche drie bodies and mem / bris 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.

There are copious medical receipts and notes in the various blank spaces, and intervening leaves in the main text, by different late 15th cent. and 16th cent. hands.

Fol. 108, col. 2, 108v 'fflower unguentum': in English.

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

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

137v-138v Numeration from 1-1000 in English and Latin, and medical receipts in English. 39 Medical receipts by various 16th cent. hands.

139v-143 Blank. 143v-145v Notes on the Humours, Medical astrology, weights and measures, receipts, etc. by the earlier hand of Fol. 137v.

Ff. 171v-196 Medical receipts in English, contributed by several hands, including those of the writers of previous entries. [See below].

196v-200 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.].

190v Contains a receipt signed by John ? 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 ? 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.

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'. 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.

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

201 This is an original vellum fly-leaf. On the recto is a 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'.

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