Liber cirurgium cauterium; medical recipes; Epistola Peri Hereseon; Tereoperica
Description
This 11th-century manuscript contains a collection of didactical
texts on practical and theoretical medicine. The format of this
volume suggests that it was used as a medical textbook. It includes
an illustrated account on cautery points, which was one of the
principal medieval treatments, and an anonymous medical
compilation, known as the Tereoperica ( Therapeutics ) . The
compiler of the Tereoperica has relied on various sources. These
include scholastic texts from Late Antiquity that were used for
education at the school of medicine at Ravenna and passed down
through Carolingian sources. The compiler, for example, has
included materials from De Medicina (On Medicine) by Cassius Felix
(fl. 447), the Etymologiae (Etymologies) of Isidore of Seville (b.
c. 560, d. 636), and the lectures of Agnellus of Ravenna (fl. after
550-before 751) concerning De Sectis (On Schools of Medicine) by
Galen (b. 129, d. c. 200). The Tereoperica circulated on the
Continent since the 9th century (for a 12th-century copy from
France, see Harley MS 4977, ff. 1r-72v). It was disseminated in
England in the 11th century, where it was partially translated and
adapted into Old English. The only extant copy of this translation,
known as Peri Didaxeon (Concerning the Schools of Medicine), can be
found in 12th-century manuscript Harley MS 6258B, ff. 51v-66v. The
Latin copy of the Tereoperica in Sloane MS 2839 may have been
written in England as well, as is suggested by the Anglo-Norman
recipes added to f. 78v and f. 112v. Contents: ff. 1v-3r:
Anonymous, Liber cirurgium cauterium Appollonii et Galieni de artis
medicine (The Book of Cautery Surgery of Appollonius and Galen, on
the Art of Medicine), including six cautery illustrations with
descriptive inscriptions sometimes partially erased : [ Ad dolorem
capitis et inflamacionem ] pectoris et minibus et tor [ tiones
geniculo ] rum et ped [ um incend ] itur sic (f. 1v); incenditur ad
interocellicos (f. 2r); ad splene (sic) incenditur (f. 2v) , ad
elefanticos incenditur sic and ad renum et coxarum dolores
incenditur sic (f. 3r). ff. 3v-4v: Added medical recipes written by
various late 12th-century hands, beginning: 'Nota quod aqua
catapucie bibita provocat vomitum'; ending: 'ad guttem ubicumque
fuerit'. They are followed by a 13th-century incantation. ff.
5v-6v: A list of contents of the Tereoperica . ff. 8r-110v:
Anonymous, Tereoperica : a collection of medical treatises on
various aspects of medicine. The treatise opens with the anonymous
Epistola Peri Hereseon ( ff. 7r-8r),a dialogue between a master and
a student on medical theory and practice, beginning: 'Post diluvium
per annos mille quingentos latuit medicina usque in tempus
Artaxersis regis Persarum'; the letter is followed by medical
recipes for diseases of the whole body (ff. 8r-70r), beginning:
'Capillorum defluxion contigit ex debilitate corporis'; the
anonymous Epistula Ypocratis de quattuor humoribus (Letter of
Hippocrates on the Four Humours) (ff. 70r-71v), beginning:
'Epistola Ypocratis et Galieni contemplantes quattuor esse humores
in corpore humano'; a series of remedies for various ailments,
disorders, injuries, with their symptoms (ff. 71v-87r), beginning:
'De subita inflatione. Reumatismus dicitur reumatici humoris';
Pseudo-Galen, Epistula de Febribus (Epistle on Fevers) (ff.
87r-87v), beginning: 'Galienus auctor veritatis dixit quod febres
sicut sunt diversi generis'; short texts for diagnosing and healing
different type of fevers (ff. 87v-91v); short texts for diagnosing
and healing various diseases (ff. 91v-106r); anonymous, Disputatio
Platonis et Aristotelis (Discussion of Plato and Aristotle) (ff.
106r-106v, f. 110r), a treatise related to the location of the soul
and the humours, beginning: 'Epistola conflictus duorum
philosophorum Platon et Aristotelis'; short texts on bloodletting
referring to the Egyptian days, the dies caniculares ( dog days )
and the lunar phases for bloodletting, embedded in the Disputatio
Platonis et Aristotelis, including a dietary calendar (ff.
108r-108v, f. 109v), (ff. 107r-110r); short texts related to
phlebotomy (ff. 110r-111v), describing the location of veins used
for bloodletting and when bloodletting should be performed,
beginning: 'Sunt venae tres'; Pseudo-Hippocrates, Epistula ad
Antiochum Regem, (Epistle to the King of Antioch) (ff. 111v-112v),
related to the division of the body and providing a diet according
to the four seasons, beginning: 'Convenit te regum peritissimum
esse et longam aetatem producere'. Decoration:Four full-page
drawings in brown ink with washes of green, brown and red, of
cautery figures (ff. 1v-3r): a surgeon heating cautery irons and a
naked man with cautery points (f. 1v); two naked men with cautery
points marked (f. 2r); a surgeon with cautery iron and a bowl, a
naked patient with cautery points (f. 2v); two naked patients with
cautery points (f. 3r). Large and small initials in brown, red, or
green, some with highlighting in green. Highlighting of letters in
green.
