Evidence for the Continued Use of Medieval Medical Prescriptions in the Sixteenth Century: A Fifteenth-Century Remedy Book and its Later Owner

This article examines a fifteenth-century remedy book, Oxford, Bodleian Library, Rawlinson c. 299, and describes its collection of 314 medieval medical prescriptions. The recipes are organised broadly from head to toe, and often several remedies are offered for the same complaint. Some individual recipes are transcribed with modern English translations. The few non-recipe texts are also noted. The difference between a remedy book and a leechbook is explained, and this manuscript is situated in relation to other known examples of late medieval medical anthologies. The particular feature that distinguishes Oxford, Bodleian Library, Rawlinson c. 299 from other similar volumes is the evidence that it continued to be used during the sixteenth century. This usage was of two kinds. Firstly, the London lawyer who owned it not only inscribed his name but annotated the original recipe collection in various ways, providing finding-aids that made it much more user-friendly. Secondly, he, and other members of his family, added another forty-three recipes to the original collection (some examples of these are also transcribed). These two layers of engagement with the manuscript are interrogated in detail in order to reveal what ailments may have troubled this family most, and to judge how much faith they placed in the old remedies contained in this old book. It is argued that the knowledge preserved in medieval books enjoyed a longevity that extended beyond the period of the manuscript book, and that manuscripts were read and valued long after the advent of printing.

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Public and Private: The Late Medieval Wall Paintings of Haddon Hall Chapel, Derbyshire

The Antiquaries Journal ◽

10.1017/s000358150000010x ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 86 ◽

pp. 179-205

Author(s):

Mellie Naydenova

Keyword(s):

Sixteenth Century ◽

Fifteenth Century ◽

Wall Paintings ◽

Public And Private ◽

Late Medieval ◽

Public Statement ◽

The Public ◽

Parish Church ◽

Public Persona ◽

Private Devotion

This paper focuses on the mural scheme executed in Haddon Hall Chapel shortly after 1427 for Sir Richard Vernon. It argues that at that time the chapel was also being used as a parish church, and that the paintings were therefore both an expression of private devotion and a public statement. This is reflected in their subject matter, which combines themes associated with popular beliefs, the public persona of the Hall's owner and the Vernon family's personal devotions. The remarkable inventiveness and complexity of the iconography is matched by the exceptionally sophisticated style of the paintings. Attention is also given to part of the decoration previously thought to be contemporary with this fifteenth-century scheme but for which an early sixteenth-century date is now proposed on the basis of stylistic and other evidence.

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A Neglected Eucharistic Controversy: The Afterlife of John Wyclif's Eucharistic Thought in Bohemia in the Early Fifteenth Century

Church History ◽

10.1017/s0009640714001711 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 84 (1) ◽

pp. 64-89 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Marcela K. Perett

Keyword(s):

Sixteenth Century ◽

Fifteenth Century ◽

Fourteenth Century ◽

Late Medieval ◽

European Culture ◽

Real Presence ◽

The Subject ◽

John Wyclif ◽

Full Century

The renewed interest in John Wyclif (d. 1384) has brought this late medieval figure back into the spotlight of historians, giving rise to numerous studies evaluating his thought and its implications in the context of late fourteenth century England. However, it is not possible fully to appreciate Wyclif's importance in late medieval European culture without understanding the legacy of his ideas on the continent. According to the accepted narrative, John Wyclif's thought was mediated to the continent through the scholarly contacts between the universities in Oxford and in Prague, and re-emerged in the Latin writings of Jan Hus. This article argues that John Wyclif's thought, especially his critique of the church's doctrine of transubstantiation, found a larger audience among the rural clerics and laity in Bohemia, whom it reached through Peter Payne, who simplified and disseminated the works of the Oxford master. Wyclif's critique of transubstantiation sparked a nationwide debate about the nature of the Eucharist, generating numerous treatises, both in Latin and in the vernacular, on the subject of Christ's presence in the sacrament of the mass. This debate anticipated, a full century earlier, the famous debate between Luther and Zwingli and the Eucharistic debates of the sixteenth century Reformation more generally. The proliferation of vernacular Eucharistic tractates in Bohemia shows that Wyclif's critique of transubstantiation could be answered in a number of different ways that included both real presence (however defined) and figurative theologies—a fact, which, in turn, explains the doctrinal diversity among the Lollards in England.

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THE TWENTY-FIVE JOYS OF OUR LADY AN ENGLISH MARIAN ROSARY OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY FROM BODLEIAN LIBRARY MS DON. D. 85

Traditio ◽

10.1017/tdo.2016.4 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 71 ◽

pp. 333-342 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

JOHN C. HIRSH

Keyword(s):

Fifteenth Century ◽

Middle English ◽

Critical Edition ◽

Medieval England ◽

Bodleian Library ◽

Limited Evidence ◽

Late Medieval ◽

English Prose ◽

Late Medieval England

“The Twenty-five Joys of Our Lady” is a study, examination, and critical edition of an unpublished fifteenth-century Middle English prose devotion preserved in Bodleian Library MS Don. d. 85. It is here associated with twenty-five “Joys of Our Lady” and presented as a vernacular Marian rosary, the first such to be identified in the period. The introduction to the edition considers early liturgical influences upon what became the tradition of Our Lady's Joys, their late-medieval development both across Europe and across England, and the circumstances that usually indicated fewer in number than is present in the devotion printed here. The introduction also concerns itself with the presence and practice of the rosary itself in late-medieval England and elsewhere and the limited evidence that has come down to us for its presence and circulation in England, including woodcut evidence in Caxton and allusions in other Latin devotions. It further indicates an ambiguity in this devotion's treatment of Christ's passion and concludes by considering the role and importance of joy as a pervasive, if often ignored, Christian attitude present in late-medieval English devotion.

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‘The Good Old Way’: Prayer Book Protestantism in the 1640s and 1650s

Studies in Church History ◽

10.1017/s0424208400015850 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 38 ◽

pp. 233-256

Author(s):

Judith Maltby

Keyword(s):

Seventeenth Century ◽

Civil War ◽

Sixteenth Century ◽

Church Of England ◽

Late Medieval ◽

Prayer Book ◽

Medieval Church ◽

Continued Use ◽

Common Prayer ◽

The Church

Between 1640 and 1642 the Church of England collapsed, its leaders reviled and discredited, its structures paralysed, its practices if not yet proscribed, at least inhibited. In the years that followed, yet worse was to befall it. And yet in every year of its persecution after 1646, new shoots sprang up out of the fallen timber: bereft of episcopal leadership, lacking any power of coercion, its observances illegal, anglicanism thrived. As memories of the 1630s faded and were overlaid by the tyrannies of the 1640s … the deeper rhythms of the Kalendar and the ingrained perfections of Cranmer’s liturgies bound a growing majority together.Professor John Morrill, quoted above, has rightly identified a set of historiographical contradictions about the Stuart Church in a series of important articles. Historians have until recently paid little attention to the positive and popular elements of conformity to the national Church of England in the period before the civil war. The lack of interest in conformity has led to a seventeenth-century version of the old Whig view of the late medieval Church: the Church of England is presented as a complacent, corrupt, and clericalist institution, ‘ripe’ – as the English Church in the early sixteenth century was ‘ripe’ – to be purified by reformers. However, if this was the case, how does one account for the durable commitment to the Prayer Book demonstrated during the 1640s and 1650s and the widespread – but not universal – support for the ‘return’ of the Church of England in 1660?This paper contributes to the larger exploration of the theme of ‘the Church and the book’ by addressing in particular the continued use by clergy and laity alike of one ‘book’ – the Book of Common Prayer – after its banning by Parliament during the years of civil war and the Commonwealth.

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Wangara, Akan and Portuguese in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. I. The matter of Bitu

The Journal of African History ◽

10.1017/s0021853700020958 ◽

1982 ◽

Vol 23 (3) ◽

pp. 333-349 ◽

Cited By ~ 11

Author(s):

Ivor Wilks

Keyword(s):

Seventeenth Century ◽

Sixteenth Century ◽

Early Modern ◽

Fifteenth Century ◽

Trade Agreements ◽

Late Medieval ◽

Modern Times ◽

The World ◽

Early Modern Times ◽

Late Fifteenth

In late medieval and early modern times West Africa was one of the principal suppliers of gold to the world bullion market. In this context the Matter of Bitu is one of much importance. Bitu lay on the frontiers of the Malian world and was one of its most flourishing gold marts. So much is clear from sixteenth- and seventeenth-century writings, both African and European. A review of this body of evidence indicates that the gold trade at Bitu was controlled by the Wangara, who played a central role in organizing trade between the Akan goldfields and the towns of the Western Sudan. It is shown that Bitu cannot be other than Bighu (Begho, Bew, etc.), the abandoned Wangara town lying on the northwestern fringes of the Akan forest country, which is known (from excavation) to have flourished in the relevant period. In the late fifteenth century the Portuguese established posts on the southern shores of the Akan country, so challenging the monopolistic position which the Wangara had hitherto enjoyed in the gold trade. The Portuguese sent envoys to Mali, presumably to negotiate trade agreements. The bid was apparently unsuccessful. The struggle for the Akan trade in the sixteenth century between Portuguese and Malian interests will be treated in the second part of this paper.

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A Curious Harpour in Helle : An Edition of the Commentary on the Orpheus Metre of De consolatione philosophiae in Manuscript Thott 304 2º

Fund og Forskning i Det Kongelige Biblioteks Samlinger ◽

10.7146/fof.v50i0.41245 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 50 ◽

Author(s):

Aapo Takala

Keyword(s):

Sixteenth Century ◽

Fifteenth Century ◽

Literary Culture ◽

Medieval England ◽

Late Medieval ◽

English Verse ◽

Master's Thesis ◽

Late Medieval England

Aapo Takala: A Curious Harpour in Helle. An Edition of the Commentary on the Orpheus Metre of De consolatione philosophiae in Manuscript Thott 304 2º The article presents an edition of the commentary on the Orpheus Metre in Ms. Thott 304 2º. The manuscript is located at the Royal Library in Copenhagen and it contains an English verse translation of Boethius’s De consolatione philosophiae and an accompanying prose commentary. The manuscript, the translation, and the commentary are rare examples of literary culture in late medieval England. The manuscript can be dated to the early fifteenth century and it probably is the copy made specifically for the patron of the translation, the noblewoman Elizabeth Berkeley. In the sixteenth century it was used as exemplar for a printed edition of the translation: the printer’s markings can still be seen in the manuscript. The commentary is the most comprehensive medieval English commentary on De consolatione philosophiae, and only extant in this manuscript and in the sixteenth-century printed edition. The manuscript has previously been studied in a handful of articles and one Master’s thesis. Thus far, there has been no extensive research on the commentary. In addition to the edition, the article includes a discussion of the manuscript’s background and an overview of previous research on it.

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A poem on the refortification of Dorylaion in 1175

BYZANTINA SYMMEIKTA ◽

10.12681/byzsym.1029 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 21 (1) ◽

pp. 137

Author(s):

Foteini SPINGOU

Keyword(s):

Sixteenth Century ◽

Fifteenth Century ◽

Asia Minor ◽

Original Text ◽

Bodleian Library ◽

Font Size ◽

Manuscript Tradition ◽

Court Literature ◽

History Of ◽

Metrical Analysis

In the summer/autumn of 1175, Manuel Komnenos (1143-1180) undertook the rebuilding of Dorylaion, one of the major aplekta in Asia Minor. For this occasion a poem was written. The strong acquaintance of the poet with the conventions of court literature, the occasional content of the poem and its panegyric character, suggest that the text was written for a small ceremony which took place at Dorylaion. The author is probably an anonymous professional court poet who accompanied Manuel in his expedition. The authorship is further discussed since the manuscript tradition might suggest that John Tzetzes was the author. After a close look at the language, style and metre of the poem, this identification is excluded. In 1908, Spyridon Lambros published the poem on the basis of manuscript Barocci 194 (fifteenth century) of the Bodleian Library. This study re-edits the poem on the basis of two more manuscripts: manuscript Parisinus Graecus 2644 (late thirteenth century) of the Bibliothèque Nationale and Auctarium T.1.10 of the Bodleian Library (sixteenth century). The history of each manuscript is analysed and the relation between them examined. It is established that the Auctarium is a direct copy from the Parisian manuscript. The metrical analysis of the poem follows and special textual problems are discussed. Finally, the translation of the original text is provided.

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Mac Giolla Phádraig Clerics 1394-1534 AD: Part I

10.48151/fitzpatrickclansociety00521 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 2 ◽

pp. 42-65

Author(s):

Mike Fitzpatrick

Keyword(s):

Sixteenth Century ◽

Fifteenth Century ◽

Fourteenth Century ◽

First Century ◽

Historical Records ◽

Late Medieval ◽

Twenty First Century ◽

Late Fifteenth ◽

The Relationship ◽

Century Science

Mac Giolla Phádraig Clerics 1394-1534 AD is a three-part series, which provides an account of all known individual Mac Giolla Phádraig clerics in the late medieval era and details their temporalities, occupations, familial associations, and broader networks. The ultimate goal of the series is the full contextualisation of all available historical records relating to Mac Giolla Phádraig clerics alongside the genealogical record that can be extracted by twenty-first century science – that being the science of Y-DNA. The Papal Registers, in particular, record numerous occurrences of Mac Giolla Phádraig clerics, predominantly in the dioceses of Cill Dalua (Killaloe) and Osraí (Ossory), from the late fourteenth to the early sixteenth century. Yet, no small intrigue surrounds their emergence. Part I of Mac Giolla Phádraig Clerics 1394-1534 AD examines the context surrounding the earliest appointments of Mac Giolla Phádraig clerics, which is in neither Cill Dalua nor Osraí but the diocese of Luimneach (Limerick). Once that context is understood, a pattern of associations emerges. A ‘coincidental’ twenty-first century surname match from the Fitzpatrick Y-DNA project leads to a review of the relationship between the FitzMaurice of Ciarraí (Kerry) clerics and Jordan Purcell, Bishop of Cork and Cloyne (1429-1472). The ‘coincidence’ then leads to an examination of a close Y-DNA match between men of the surnames Purcell and Hennessey. That match, coupled with the understanding that Nicholas Ó hAonghusa (O’Hennessey), elected Bishop of Lismore and Waterford (1480-1483) but with opposition, is considered a member of Purcell’s household, transforms the ‘coincidence’ into a curiosity. Part I morphs into a conversation, likely uncomfortable for some, relating to clerical concubinage, illegitimacy, and the ‘lubricity’ of the prioress and her nuns at the Augustinian nunnery of St Catherine's O’Conyll. The nunnery was located at Mainistir na gCailleach Dubh (Monasternagalliaghduff), which lay just a stone’s throw from where Bishop Jordan Purcell and Matthew Mac Giolla Phádraig, the first Mac Giolla Phádraig cleric recorded in the Papal Registers, emerged. Part I makes no judgments and draws no firm conclusions but prepares the reader for Part II by ending with some questions. Do the Mac Giolla Phádraig clerics of Osraí, who rose to prominence in the late-fifteenth century, have their origins in Deasmhumhain (Desmond)? Could the paternal lineages of Mac Giolla Phádraig clerics be, at least from the mid-fourteenth century, with the house of the Geraldine FitzMaurice clerics of Ciarraí? And, could some of the modern-day descendants of the Mac Giolla Phádraig clerics be those Costigans, FitzGeralds, and Fitzpatricks who are found under haplotype R-A1488?

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The One Who Comes After Me

Journal of the American Musicological Society ◽

10.1525/jams.2013.66.3.639 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 66 (3) ◽

pp. 639-708 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Michael Alan Anderson

Keyword(s):

Sixteenth Century ◽

Fifteenth Century ◽

John 1 ◽

Late Medieval ◽

Temporal Parameters ◽

The Past ◽

John The Baptist ◽

Vatican City ◽

The One ◽

The Relationship

Abstract Studies of the past two decades have shown that late medieval and Renaissance composers participated in a culture of symbolic representation by inscribing Christian figures and concepts into musical design. One figure who has been overlooked in this line of scholarship is John the Baptist, the precursor of Christ. This essay outlines the Baptist's historical impact on the conception of Christian temporality and proceeds to demonstrate some distinct experiments in fourteenth- and fifteenth-century music for John that express his predecessory character through emblematic manipulations of temporal parameters. By the sixteenth century, several inscriptions found in Vatican manuscripts reveal that the Baptist was associated with a particular musical craft that controls masterfully the unfolding of time: the art of canon. Drawing heavily on Scripture (especially John 1:15, 27, 30) to articulate the compositional conceits, the rubrics likened the leader (dux) and follower (comes) of a canon to the relationship between John (the forerunner saint) and Jesus. The analogy intensified around the papal chapel choirbook Vatican City, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Cappella Sistina 38.

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The archbishop’s dinner? Late medieval fish from Esztergom-Várhegy-Kőbánya, Hungary

Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences ◽

10.1007/s12520-021-01361-w ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (8) ◽

Author(s):

László Bartosiewicz ◽

Erika Gál

Keyword(s):

Sixteenth Century ◽

Fifteenth Century ◽

Relative Frequency ◽

High Status ◽

Late Medieval ◽

Wild Game ◽

The Poor ◽

Carnivorous Species ◽

Carp Fish ◽

High Relative Frequency

AbstractFourteenth–fifteenth century food refuse from the kitchen of the Esztergom archbishopric shows a significant diachronic increase in cyprinid bones, in particular those of carp. Meanwhile, contributions by large acipenserids and carnivorous species (catfish/wels, pike, percids) declined. Contemporaneous account books indirectly suggest that the archbishop’s kitchen must have increasingly relied on farmed carp fish. Sturgeons were a commodity sold by the archbishopric but rarely consumed. Expensive pikes were bought at low prices for the archbishop, possibly related to the small size of individuals found in the deposits. The poor representation of high-status fish is consonant with the scarcity of bones from large game in an assemblage dominated by domesticates. Wild game is represented by brown hare, partridge, and a variety of thrushes. These finds confirm that the foodways in the archbishop’s palace were more modest than expected on the basis of its social status. Increasing contributions by cyprinids and sterlet to the assemblage also coincide with the high relative frequency of their recipes in a sixteenth century cookbook.

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