Durham University Library Archives & Special Collections Catalogue
Manuscript codex containing various short medical and astrological texts in Latin and English, made up of two parts written in England in the mid 15th century. It was owned by George Davenport (who may have assembled the parts into the volume as we now have it), by whom it was donated to Bishop Cosin's Library around 1670.
Parchment; ; matt for quires 1-4; quire 6 with hair-side outermost, otherwise not readily identifiable but probably irregular in quire 7; some flaying edges in (A). Staining from re-agents used to improve legibility in (A). First page of (B) unprotected for a time, to judge by soiling and staining.
Foliated i-viii, 1-37, ix-xvi, 38-59, xvii-xxiv.
Brown sprinkled calf, with double blind fillets edging sides and vertically approximately 20 mm in from spine, and with Hutchinson's roll B gilt on edges of boards: bound in Durham by Hutchinson, approximately 1665. End-papers (paper) mid 17th century?, with Cosin library book-plate and stamps. New spine leather and lettering, repaired late 20th century.
Inscriptions: on f.1r “Geo. Davenport. 1654”; Rud's ex-libris and shelf-numbers.
16, 28, 36, 48 wants 7 after f.26, 510
No evidence of line-pricking. Written space approximately 125 x 80 mm; framed in ink or, f.15 and 20 (outermost bifolium of quire 3), in red. 25-27 lines.
Written in anglicana, with single-compartment a and, from f.28v, secretary g, proficiently by one hand, perhaps also responsible for captions to drawings in item (3) in textura, and possibly for signed colophon to item (5), f.34v, in display textura.
Litterae notabiliores filled with yellow. Paraphs, double virgules, underlining and line-fillers, f.2r-37v, in red. Initials: (i) to items (5b) and (6) and to divisions of items (3)-(6), 2-line, red; (ii) to items (3) and (4), and cf. “I” to (5a), 3-line, red. Diagrams in item (4) include a little yellow wash. Drawings of seven zodiacal signs in item (3) in ink, tinted in blue, grey, red, buff and green. Running titles, 15th century, f.12r-18r; 16th/17th century, f.11v-12r.
Items (4)-(6) have marginal supplies and sidenotes in English and Latin by the main hand.; marginal additions comprising item (5c), probably also by the main hand. Latin sidenotes by a similar hand, probably also responsible for item (2), mid 15th century. Sidenotes, f.18r, 31v in secretary, second quarter of 16th century, Latin and English.
Written in England, mid 15th century, using initial x- for sh-, indicative of Norfolk origin; the display colophon to item (5), f.34v, signed “Thomas S”.
A short and apparently complete text describing the function of water and fire in generation and development of man. Somer may be John Somer O.F.M. ca.1400.
In lower half of f.1v and lower margins of f.1v-2r, in now darker ink, from reagent, as all f.1 and later margins.
On astronomical signs and and the seasons
The signs of the Zodiac arranged in 3 lines, ending Bonus, Malus and Indifferenter respectively.
Each of the four weeks of the moon is matched to one of the four humours
2 verse lines
3 verse lines
Also found in London, BL MSS Add.12195, Harley 2378, Sloane 3519; Royal Coll. of Physicians 384; Cambridge, Trinity Coll. R.14.52; Gonville and Caius Coll. MS 336; Glasgow UL Hunter 513; Caius apparently being a portion, according to Professor L.Voigts, from at least f.79v, of a commentary on Aegidius, perhaps by Henry Daniel (OP, end of 14th century). The Trinity MS is closer verbally to the Caius MS than the copy here. Seven principal sections, each for a zodiacal sign (Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Sagitarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, Piscis), and ending with a circle approximately 40 mm in diameter, containing a tinted drawing of it, with a note of its associated quality and planet.
Also found, with variations, in Gonville & Caius 336; New York, Columbia Univ. MS Plimpton 260; London, BL MSS Sloane 389, 3580A; London, University Coll. MS Angl.6; Oxford Bodleian Libr. MS Ashmole 189. Ed. L. Voigts in L. M. Matheson (ed.), Popular and Practical Science of Medieval England (1994), pp.123-39; pl.2a-c from Caius; Ashmole 189, collating Sloane 389, ed. W. L. Braekman, Studies, pp. 83-105. Three diagrams: two circular, 96 and 90 mm in diameter, f.8v and 9v, and one rectangular, filling f.10v.
lacks one leaf, apart from a stub with traces, after f. 26; Henry of Winchester was chancellor of Montpellier in 1239/40 and writings attributed to him are the earliest evidence of the school of medicine there, see Wickersheimer, p.119
Not directly connected with urines but remedies for troubles of the head and brain (e.g. A cure for akyng of the hed Recipe betonie Camamille...), drunkeness, the falling evil, etc. The colophon may therefore be misplaced
Medical recipe
Medical recipe
Medical recipe
Includes passages on the properties of the sun and the seven planets, concluding (f.36v-37v) with a zodiacal lunary which is said to differ from other English versions (Irma Taatvitsainen, Middle English Lunaries (Mémoires de la Soc. Néophil. de Helsinki 47, 1988), p. 82, 150.
612 wants 4 after f.40 + 1 leaf (f.40) after 12; 712 wants 3 after f.51 and 6 after f.53.
No evidence of line-pricking. Quire 6: written space approximately 125 x 80 mm; framed in soft brown, with lines for item (19) added; 28-31 lines, f.38-45. Quire 7: framed in ink, 100 mm wide, with lines for drawings of urine-bottles 83 mm apart; captions up to 140 mm apart.
(I) f.38-45, items (7)-(13) and (16)-(17), a small Secretary with unlooped d and 8-shaped g, presumably by Simon Whit who signed items (10) and (13) (f.42v, 45r).
(II) f.45v-46r and 47v, items (14)-(15) and (18), in a smaller Secretary with Secretary g.
(III) f.50r-59v, item (20), in Anglicana with Secretary w, and Anglicana formata.
(IV), item (19) added, inSecretary, neatly or, from f.49/7, very currently, end of 15th century.
In items (7)-(13) and (16)-(17) only. Text-capitals lined with red. Paraphs in red. Initials: (i) to division of item (9), 1-line, red; (ii) to items (7), (9) and (12), 2-line, red.
Written in England, mid 15th century, in part presumably by Simon Whit, see colophons to items (10) and (13), f.42v, 45r.
The two quires of (B) appear to have different origins; they were together when item (19) was added (at the end of the 15th century) at the end of quire 6 and the beginning of quire 7.
Various disorders bracketed with symptoms.
Ten rules for judging urines.
On the elements and complexions. One leaf is missing between f.40 and 41, making it unclear if this is one or two items.
Seven lines only.
On the influences of the seven planets, attributed to Ptolomy.
A circular diagram, 97 mm in diameter, well-drawn, comprising three concentric bands, with the title in red in the centre: the outer band divided into 20 segments, each with a legend, alternately black and red, concerning colour, e.g. “Rufus color vrine vt aurum purum”; the next consisting of drawings of 20 urine-bottles; and the inner band comprising 7 small circles, each containing a legend concerning digestive significances and linked by red lines to two or three bottles. Cf. that in Oxford Bodleian Lib. MS Ashmole 789, f. 364v, see L. MacKinney, Medical Illustrations in Medieval Manuscripts, (Berkeley 1965), pp. 11-12, 212, uncoloured fig.6, where the orientation of the legends is shifted anti-clockwise.
Text in two tapering triangles, presumably intended to frame a triangular diagram. (i) “Medicus considerat de causis longitudinis et breuitatis vite solum in hominibus ...”; (ii) “Sanitas est temperamentum perficiens res naturales secundum cursum nature ...”
Tabulation in 3 columns: from the commentary of Petrus Hispanus on Philaretus?
8 lines half width
5 lines full width
5 lines half width
Circular diagram, 58 mm in diameter, with introductory paragraph; the circle is divided into 12 segments, one for each zodiacal sign, with 7 (Aries -- Libra) associated with a planet (saturnus -- luna), and a legend in the outer part of each segment as described above.
Circular diagram, 89 mm in diameter, with explanatory paragraph below; the circle, which has at the centre the legend “Oppositus assumptus inter Arietem et Libram”, is divided into 12 segments, one for each zodiacal sign, labelled in the outermost ring either “Directe oritur” or “Indirecte oritur”, with 7 rings inside the names of the signs, one for each planet, and a figure in each segment of each ring.
A picture of a head, with this note below. The eyes, nose, mouth and left ear are labelled for their senses, with “Tactus” written three times beside the surface of the head; the dome of the cranium is divided and labelled with faculties (Sensus communis, ymaginacio, cogitacio, estimacio, and virtus mentis).
Latin version.
Added on a blank leaf and a supplementary leaf at the end of quire 6 and in space at the start of item (20). Includes examples of religious verses, the second “Rex aduenit iam celorum...” written in right margin, cropped. Incipit not in Bursill-Hall, but see C. Thurot, Notices et extraits (Acad. des Inscriptions 22, pt 2, 1868), pp. 453-9, citing the first half as printed in Wright & Halliwell, Reliquiae Antiquae, I, 30-32, from BL Cotton Cleopatra B.VI, f.241v; but the Cosin exposition and verses diverge after line 14 of f.48r.
20 urinary diagnostics and prescriptions. Each page, headed either “Circulus” or “Circulus ut antea”, has a drawing of a urine-bottle, labelled with a colour, in Latin and English, and with conditions diagnosed in English, and, at the foot of the page, a recipe in English. Much of each page is blank. Cf. Cosin MS V.iii.10, f.9r. Cambridge, Caius Coll.336, 451, Oxford Bodleian Lib. Hatton 29, etc. For similar examples see Jones, plate IV.
Bursill-Hall, R.L., A census of medieval latin grammatical manuscripts 
, (Stuttgart: Frommann-Holzboog, 1981)
Catalogi veteres librorum Ecclesiae cathedralis
dunelm. Catalogues of the library of Durham cathedral, at
various periods, from the conquest to the dissolution, including
catalogues of the library of the abbey of Hulne, and of the mss.
,
Surtees Society 7, (London: J.B. Nichols and Son, [1838]).
Jones, P. M., Medieval Medical Miniatures (London: Wellcome, 1984)
Thorndike, Lynn and Kibre, P., A catalogue of incipits of mediaeval scientific writings in Latin (Cambridge, Mass.: Medieval Academy of America, 1963)
Wickersheimer, E., Dictionnaire Biographique des Médecins en France au Moyen Age , nouv. éd., Suppl., (Geneva: Droz, 1979)