Medieval Medical Recipes : Ecclesiastical law and penance

Medieval Medical Recipes

This is a composite manuscript, comprised of two Parts. The first Part was probably made in England in the second half of the 15th century and is a copy of the 'short' version of William Lyndwood's Constitutiones, i.e. without an accompanying commentary. The second Part was perhaps made in France in the second half of the 13th century or the early 14th century and contains a copy of one of the recensions of the Dominican Raymund of Peñafort's Summa de casibus poenitentiae, a guide for confessors on hearing confession and considering an appropriate penance. The manuscript was donated to Emmanuel College by Thomas Leigh (d. 1686), fellow of Emmanuel c. 1657-1665, who inscribed his name in the upper margin of f. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(9);return false;'>1:1r</a>. Although the date of Leigh's donation of this manuscript is not known, Leigh donated other manuscripts to Emmanuel in 1667 and it is presumed that MS 66 joined the Emmanuel library collection at the same time. The manuscript was probably composite by 1667, and was certainly composite by 1697 when it was described in Bernard, Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliæ et Hiberniæ (1697) as '"Provinciales Conftituiones Angliae cum Tabula, Chartaceus liber ; cui tamen alia quaedam adduntur in membranis optime descripta"'; Part 1 of the manuscript is written on paper, and Part 2 on well-made parchment, i.e., the 'membranis optime descripta' in Bernard's description. The closing flyleaves ff. <a href='' onclick='store.loadPage(320);return false;'>[v] verso-[vi] recto</a> in the volume have been used for notes and annotations, in this case to record medical recipes mostly in Latin, and one in Middle English, written by several 15th-century hands. References: <div style='list-style-type: disc;'><div style='display: list-item; margin-left: 20px;'>Bernard, Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliæ et Hiberniæ (c. 1697)</div></div> Dr Sarah Gilbert Project Cataloguer Cambridge University Library