THE LATER SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY HERBALS
"Come into the fields then, and as you come along the
streets, cast your eyes upon the weeds as you call them that
grow by the walls and under the hedge-sides."--W. COLES,
_The Art of Simpling_, 1656.
The later seventeenth-century herbals are marked by a return to the
belief in the influence upon herbs of the heavenly bodies, but it is a
travesty rather than a reflection of the ancient astrological lore.
The most notable exponent of this debased lore was the infamous
Nicholas Culpeper, in whom, nevertheless, the poor people in the East
End seem to have had a boundless faith. It is impossible to look at
the portrait of that light-hearted rogue without realising that there
must have been something extraordinarily attractive about the man who
was the last to set up publicly as an astrologer and herb doctor. He
was the son of a clergyman who had a living somewhere in Surrey. After
a brief time at Cambridge he was apprenticed to an apothecary near St.
Helen's, Bishopsgate, and shortly afterwards set up for himself in Red
Lion Street, Spitalfields, as an astrologer and herbalist. Culpeper
was a staunch Roundhead and fought in at least one battle. All through
the war, however, he continued his practice and he acquired a great
popularity in the East End of London. In 1649 he issued his _Physical
Directory_, which was a translation of the _London Dispensatory_. This
drew down on him the fury of the College of Physicians, and the book
was virulently attacked in a broadside issued in 1652, entitled "A
farm in Spittlefields where all the knick-knacks of astrology are
exposed to open sale." By this time his works were enjoying an
enormous sale. No fewer than five editions of his _English Physician
Enlarged_ appeared before 1698, and it was reissued even as late as
1802 and again in 1809. There is a vivid description of Culpeper in
_The Gentleman's Magazine_ for May 1797:--
"He was of a middle stature, of a spare lean body, dark
complexion, brown hair, rather long visage, piercing quick
eyes, very active and nimble. Though of an excellent wit,
sharp fancy, admirable conception and of an active
understanding, yet occasionally inclined to melancholy,
which was such an extraordinary enemy to him that sometimes
wanting company he would seem like a dead man. He was very
eloquent, a good orator though very conceited and full of
jest, which was so inseparable to him that in his most
serious writings, he would mingle matters of levity and
extremely please himself in so doing. Though his family
possessed considerable property it appears he was
exceedingly restricted in his pecuniary concerns, which
probably was the cause of his early leaving the University,
as he observes; though his mother lived till he was
twenty-three years of age and left him well provided, yet he
was cheated or nearly spent all his fortune in the outset of
life. Another author observes it is most true that he was
always subject to a consumption of the purse,
notwithstanding the many ways he had to assist him. His
patrimony was also chiefly consumed at the University.
Indeed he had a spirit so far above the vulgar, that he
condemned and scorned riches any other way than to make them
serviceable to him. He was as free of his purse as of his
pen.... He acknowledged he had many pretended friends, but
he was rather prejudiced than bettered by them, for, when he
most stood in need of their friendship and assistance they
most of all deceived him."
Culpeper wrote a number of medical works which do not concern us here,
but his name will always be associated with his Herbal. His reason for
having written it he affirms to be that, of the operation of herbs by
the stars he found few authors had written, "and those as full of
nonsense and contradiction as an Egg is full of meat. This not being
pleasing and less profitable to me, I consulted with my two brothers
Dr. Reason and Dr. Experience and took a voyage to visit my Mother
Nature, by whose advice together with the help of Dr. Diligence I at
last obtained my desire and, being warned by Mr. Honesty (a stranger
in our days) to publish it to the world, I have done it." It is
impossible to read any part of this absurd book without a vision
arising of the old rogue standing at the street corner and not only
collecting but holding an interested crowd of the common folk by the
sort of arguments which they not only understand but appreciate. In
his preface he warns his readers against the false copies of his book
"that are printed of that letter the small Bibles are printed with ...
there being twenty or thirty gross errors in every sheet." He is
withering in his criticism of those who quote old authors as
authorities. "They say Reason makes a man differ from a beast; if that
be true, pray what are they that instead of Reason for their judgment
quote old authors?" In his preface, as throughout his book, he affirms
his belief in the connection between herbs and stars. Diseases, he
asserts, vary according to the motions of the stars, "and he that
would know the reason for the operation of the herbs must look up as
high as the stars. It is essential to find out what planet has caused
the disease and then by what planet the afflicted part of the body is
governed. In the treatment of the disease the influence of the planet
must be opposed by herbs under the influence of another planet, or in
some cases by sympathy, that is each planet curing its own disease."
Elsewhere he directs that plants must always be picked according to
the planet that is in the ascendant. Culpeper asserts that herbs
should be dried in the sun,[124] his ingenious reasoning being
this:--"For if the sun draw away the virtues of the herb it must needs
do the like by hay, which the experience of every farmer will explode
for a notable piece of nonsense." He also pours scorn on those who say
that the sap does not rise in the winter. Here his argument is even
more remarkable, and yet one cannot help realising how effectual it
would be with the class of folk with whom he dealt. "If the sap fall
into the roots in the fall of the leaf and lies there all the winter
then must the root grow all the winter, but the root grows not at all
in the winter as experience teaches, but only in the summer. If you
set an apple kernel in the spring you shall find the root to grow to a
pretty bigness in the summer and be not a whit bigger next spring.
What doth the sap do in the root all the winter that while? Pick
straws? 'Tis as rotten as a rotten post." He gives as his own version
of what happens to the sap that "when the sun declines from the tropic
of cancer, the sap begins to congeal both in root and branch. When he
touches the tropic of capricorn and ascends to uswards it begins to
wax thin again." One cannot help suspecting that Culpeper knew
perfectly well what nonsense he was talking, but that he also realised
how remunerative such nonsense was and how much his customers were
impressed by it. In his dissertation on wormwood one feels that he
was writing with his tongue in his cheek, especially in the
conclusion, which is as follows:--
"He that reads this and understands what he reads hath a
jewel of more worth than a diamond. He that understands it
not is as little fit to give physick. There lies a key in
these words, which will unlock (if it be turned by a wise
hand) the cabinet of physic. I have delivered it as plain as
I durst ... thus shall I live when I am dead. And thus I
leave it to the world, not caring a farthing whether they
like it or dislike it. The grave equals all men and
therefore shall equal me with all princes.... Then the ill
tongue of a prating fellow or one that hath more tongue than
wit or more proud than honest shall never trouble me. Wisdom
is justified of her children. And so much for wormwood."
[Illustration: NICHOLAS CULPEPER FROM "THE ENGLISH PHYSICIAN
ENLARGED"]
Less popular than Culpeper's numerous writings, but far more
attractive and altogether of a different stamp, are Coles's two books,
_Adam in Eden_ and _The Art of Simpling_. The title of the latter runs
thus:--
"The Art of Simpling. An Introduction to the Knowledge and
Gathering of Plants. Wherein the Definitions, Divisions,
Places, Descriptions, Differences, Names, Vertues, Times of
flourishing and gathering, Uses, Temperatures, Signatures
and Appropriations of Plants are methodically laid down.
London. Printed by J. G. for Nath. Brook at the Angell in
Cornhill. 1656."
The preface is quaint and so typical of the spirit of the later
seventeenth-century herbals that I transcribe a good deal of it:--
"What a rare happiness was it for Matthiolus that famous
Simpler, to live in those days wherein (as he himself
reports) so many Emperors, Kings, Arch-Dukes, Cardinalls and
Bishops did favour his Endeavour, and plentifully reward
him! Whereas in our times the Art of Simpling is so farre
from being rewarded, that it is grown contemptible and he is
accounted a simple fellow, that pretends to have any skill
therein. Truly it is to be lamented that the men of these
times which pretend to so much Light should goe the way to
put out their owne Eyes, by trampling upon that which should
preserve them, to the great discouragement of those that
have any mind to bend their Studies this way.
Notwithstanding, for the good of my Native Countrey, which
everyone is obliged to serve upon all occasions of advantage
and in pitty to such Mistakers, I have painfully endeavoured
plainly to demonstrate the way of attaining this necessary
Art, and the usefulnesse of it, in hopes that this Embryo
thrown thus into the wide world, will fall into the Lap of
some worthy persons that will cherish it, though I knew not
any to whose protection I might commend it. However I have
adventured it abroad, and to expresse my reall affection to
the publick good have in it communicated such Notions, as I
have gathered, either from the reading of Severall Authors,
or by conferring sometimes with Scholars, and sometimes with
Countrey people; To which I have added some Observations of
mine Owne, never before published: Most of which I am
confident are true, and if there be any that are not so, yet
they are pleasant."
There is something very attractive in the last inconsequent remark!
Coles deals mercilessly with old Culpeper. "Culpeper," he says, "(a
man now dead and therefore I shall speak of him as modestly as I can,
for were he alive I should be more straight with him), was a man very
ignorant in the forme of Simples. Many Books indeed he hath tumbled
over, and transcribed as much out of them as he thought would serve
his turne (though many times he were therein mistaken) but added very
little of his own." He even comments on the fact that either Culpeper
or his Printer cannot spell aright--"sure he or the Printer had not
learned to spell."
The Doctrine of Signatures he accepts unquestioningly. "Though Sin and
Sathan have plunged mankinde into an Ocean of Infirmities Yet the
mercy of God which is over all his Workes Maketh Grasse to grow upon
the Mountaines and Herbs for the use of Men and hath not onely stemped
upon them (as upon every man) a distinct forme, but also given them
particular signatures, whereby a Man may read even in legible
Characters the Use of them. Heart Trefoyle is so called not onely
because the Leafe is Triangular like the Heart of a Man, but also
because each leafe contains the perfect Icon of an Heart and that in
its proper colour viz a flesh colour. Hounds tongue hath a forme not
much different from its name which will tye the Tongues of Hounds so
that they shall not barke at you: if it be laid under the bottomes of
ones feet. Wallnuts bear the whole Signature of the Head, the
outwardmost green barke answerable to the thick skin whereunto the
head is covered, and a salt made of it is singularly good for wounds
in that part, as the Kernell is good for the braines, which it
resembles being environed with a shell which imitates the Scull, and
then it is wrapped up againe in a silken covering somewhat
representing the _Pia Mater_."
Of those plants that have no signatures he warns the reader not to
conclude hastily that therefore they have no use. "We must cast
ourselves," he says, "with great Courage and Industry (as some before
us have done) upon attempting the vertues of them, which are yet
undiscovered. For man was not brought into the world to live like an
idle Loyterer or Truant, but to exercise his minde in those things,
which are therefore in some measure obscure and intricate, yet not so
much as otherwise they would have been, it being easier to adde than
invent at first." He then gives his own curious but naïvely
interesting theory of plants "commonly accounted useless and
unprofitable." "They would not be without their use," he argues, "if
they were good for nothing else but to exercise the Industry of Man to
weed them out who, had he nothing to struggle with, the fire of his
Spirit would be halfe extinguished in the Flesh." After pointing out
that weeding them out is in itself excellent exercise, he
proceeds:--"But further why may not poysonous plants draw to them all
the maligne juice and nourishment that the other may be more pure and
refined, as well as Toads and other poysonous Serpents licke the
venome from the Earth?... So have I seen some people when they have
burned their fingers to goe and burne them again to fetch out the
fire. And why may not one poyson fetch out another as well as fire
fetch out fire?" "For should all things be known at once," he wisely
concludes, "Posterity would have nothing left wherewith to gratifie
themselves in their owne discoveries, which is a great encouragement
to active and quick Wits, to make them enquire into those things which
are hid from the eyes of those which are dull and stupid."
Coles's _Art of Simpling_ is the only herbal which devotes a chapter
to herbs useful for animals--"Plants as have operation upon the bodies
of Bruit Beasts." This chapter is full of curious folk lore. He gives
the old beliefs that a toad poisoned by a spider will cure itself with
a plantain leaf; that weasels when about to encounter a serpent eat
rue; that an ass when it feels melancholy eats asplenium; that wild
goats wounded by arrows cure themselves with dittany; that the swallow
uses celandine ("I would have this purposely planted for them," he
adds); that linnet and goldfinch (and have any birds brighter eyes?)
constantly repair their own and their young one's eyesight with
eyebright; that if loosestrife is thrown between two oxen when they
are fighting they will part presently, and being tied about their
necks it will keep them from fighting; that cocks which have been fed
on garlick are "most stout to fight and so are Horses"; that the
serpent so hates the ash tree "that she will not come nigh the shadow
of it, but she delights in Fennel very much, which she eates to cleer
her eyesight;" that, if a garden is infested with moles, garlic or
leeks will make them "leap out of the ground presently." Perhaps the
most remarkable effects of herbs are the two following. "Adders tongue
put into the left eare of any Horse will make him fall downe as if he
were dead, and when it is taken out againe, he becomes more lively
than he was before." And "if Asses chance to feed much upon Hemlock,
they will fall so fast asleep that they will seeme to be dead, in so
much that some thinking them to be dead indeed have flayed off their
skins, yet after the Hemlock had done operating they have stirred and
wakened out of their sleep, to the griefe and amazement of the
owners."
There is one chapter--"Of plants used in and against Witchcraft"--in
which, amongst other things, we learn that the ointment that witches
use is made of the fat of children, dug up from their graves, and
mixed with the juice of smallage, wolfsbane and cinquefoil and fine
wheat flour; that mistletoe, angelica, etc. were regarded as being of
such sovereign power against witches that they were worn round the
neck as amulets. Also, that in order to prevent witches from entering
their houses the common people used to gather elder leaves on the last
day of April and affix them to their doors and windows. "I doe not
desire any to pin their Faiths upon these reports," says Coles, "but
only let them know there are such which they may believe as they
please." "However," he concludes, "there is no question but very
wonderful effects may be wrought by the Vertues which are enveloped
within the compasse of the green mantles wherewith many Plants are
adorned."
Coles, nevertheless, treats with scorn, and by arguments peculiarly
his own, the old belief in the connection between the stars and herbs.
"It [the study of herbs] is a subject as antient as the Creation, yea
more antient than the Sunne or the Moon, or Starres, they being
created on the fourth day whereas Plants were the third. Thus did God
even at first confute the folly of those Astrologers who goe about to
maintaine that all vegetables in their growth are enslaved to a
necessary and unavoidable dependence on the influences of the starres;
whereas Plants were even when Planets were not." In another passage,
however, he writes, "Though I admit not of Master Culpeper's
Astrologicall way of every Planets Dominion over Plants, yet I
conceive that the Sunne and Moon have generall influence upon them,
the one for Heat the other for Moisture; wherein the being of Plants
consists."
The most attractive parts of the _Art of Simpling_ are the chapters
devoted to the "Joys of Gardening." Coles tells us that "A house,
though otherwise beautifull, if it hath no garden is more like a
prison than a house." Of what he has to say about gardens and the
happiness to be found in gardening I quote much because it is all so
pleasant.
"That there is no place more pleasant [than a garden] may appear from
God himselfe, who after he had made Man, planted the Garden of Eden,
and put him therein, that he might contemplate the many wonderful
Ornaments wherewith Omnipotency had bedecked his Mother Earth.... As
for recreation, if a man be wearied with over-much study (for study is
a weariness to the Flesh as Solomon by experience can tell you) there
is no better place in the world to recreate himself than a Garden,
there being no sence but may be delighted therein. If his sight be
obfuscated and dull, as it may easily be, with continuall poring,
there is no better way to relieve it, than to view the pleasant
greennesse of Herbes, which is the way that Painters use, when they
have almost spent their sight by their most earnest contemplation of
brighter objects: neither doe they onely feed the Eyes but comfort the
wearied Braine with fragrant smells. The Eares also (which are called
the Daughters of Musick, because they delight therein) have their
recreation by the pleasant noise of the warbling notes, which the
chaunting birds accent forth from amongst the murmuring Leaves...."
"Of the profits" [of a garden] he says, "First for household
occasions, for there is not a day passeth over our heads but we have
of one thing or other that groweth within their circumference. We
cannot make so much as a little good Pottage without Herbes, which
give an admirable relish and make them wholsome for our Bodies....
Besides this inestimable Profit there is another not much inferior to
it, and that is the wholsome exercise a man may use in it.... If
Gentlemen which have little else to doe, would be ruled by me, I
would advise them to spend their spare time in their gardens, either
in digging, setting, weeding or the like, then which there is no
better way in the world to preserve health. If a man want an Appetite
to his Victuals the Smell of the Earth new turned up by digging with a
spade will procure it,[125] and if he be inclined to a Consumption it
will recover him.
"Gentlewomen if the ground be not too wet may doe themselves much good
by kneeling upon a Cushion and weeding. And thus both sexes might
divert themselves from Idlenesse and evill company, which oftentimes
prove the ruine of many ingenious people. But perhaps they may think
it a disparagement to the condition they are in; truly none at all if
it were but put in practise. For we see that those fashions which
sometimes seem ridiculous if once taken up by the gentry cease to be
so." He quotes the Emperor Diocletian, who "left for a season the
whole Government of the Empire and forsaking the Court betook himself
to a meane House with a Garden adjoyning, wherein with his owne hands,
he both sowed set and weeded the Herbes of his Garden which kinde of
life so pleased him, that he was hardly intreated to resume the
Government of the Empire." "By this time," he concludes, "I hope you
will think it no dishonour to follow the steps of our grandsire Adam,
who is commonly pictured with a Spade in his hand, to march through
the Quarters of your Garden with the like Instrument, and there to
rectify all the disorders thereof, to procure as much as in you lyes
the recovery of the languishing Art of Simpling, which did it but
appeare in lively colours, I am almost perswaded it would so affect
you that you would be much taken with it. There is no better way to
understand the benefit of it, than by being acquainted with Herballs
and Herbarists and by putting this Gentle and ingenious Exercise in
practise, that so this part of knowledge as well as others, may
receive that esteem and advancement that is due to it, to the
banishment of Barbarisme and Ignorance which begin again to prevaile
against it."
The real descendants, so to speak, of the herbal are the quaint old
still-room books, many of which survive not only in museums and public
libraries, but also in country houses. These still-room books, which
are a modest branch of literature in themselves, are more nearly akin
to herbals than to cookery books, with which they are popularly
associated. For they are full of the old herb lore and of the uses of
herbs in homely medicines. It must be remembered that even as late as
the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries every woman was supposed to
have some knowledge of both the preparation and the medicinal use of
herbs and simples. When the herbal proper ceased and the first books
on botany began to make their appearance the old herb lore did not
fall into disuse, and the popularity of the still-room books in which
it was preserved may be gathered from the fact that one of the first
of these to be printed--_A Choice Manual of rare and select Secrets in
Physick & Chirurgerie Collected and practised by the Countesse of
Kent[126] (late dec'd)_--went through nineteen editions. There are
some old books which merely inspire awe, for one feels that they have
always lived in dignified seclusion on library shelves and have been
handled only by learned scholars. But there are others whose leaves
are so be-thumbed and torn that from constant association with human
beings they seem to have become almost human themselves. Of this type
are these old still-room books. They were an integral part of daily
life and their worn pages bear mute witness to the fact.
[Illustration: FRONTISPIECE OF "THE CURIOUS DESTILLATORY," BY
THOMAS SHIRLEY, M.D., PHYSICIAN IN ORDINARY TO HIS MAJESTY
(1677)]
One of the most interesting is the Fairfax still-room book.[127] Its
first owner was probably Mary Cholmeley, born during the closing
years of Elizabeth's reign, and married in 1626 to the Rev. the Hon.
Henry Fairfax (uncle of the great Parliamentarian General--Lord
Fairfax).[128] In common with the majority of MS. still-room books,
the Fairfax volume contains much that has no immediate connection with
a still-room, but is full of human interest. It is a curious medley of
culinary recipes, homely cures, housewifely arts such as bleaching,
dyeing, brewing and preserving, to say nothing of hastily scribbled
little notes regarding lost linen (including no fewer than "xxiii
handkerchares!") and the number of fowls, etc., in the poultry-yard.
This last entry, which runs all down one side of a page, is as
follows: "I Kapon, XVI Torkies, XVIII dowkes, IIII henes, II cokes, X
chekins, X giese, IV sowes."
But the most charming entry of all is: "A note of Mistress Barbara her
lessons on ye virginalle which she hath learned and can play them,"
followed by a list of songs, the majority of which have the entry "Mr.
Bird" beside them. William Bird was organist to Queen Elizabeth, and
he presumably was "Mistress Barbara's" music-master. She apparently
also had lessons from Dr. Bull, then at the height of his fame, for
his name appears in connection with some of the items. Amongst the
songs we find "My trew Love is to ye grene Wood gon," and there are
quite a number of dances--pavanes and courantes--which she played. One
feels very sure that "Mistress Barbara" was a fascinating person, but
she could not have been more lovable than her sister Mary, who married
Henry Fairfax. A love-letter, written in Charles I.'s reign, is
doubtless quite out of place in a book on old herbals, but I cannot
refrain from quoting the following, written by Mary to her husband
about six years after their marriage, because it very clearly reveals
the character of one of the many types of women who wrote these
still-room books.
"MY EVER DEAREST LOVE,
"I received a letter and horse from Long on Thursday (Jan.
31) and will use meine [endeavour] to send Procter's horse
to Denton. I did nott so much rejoys att thy safe passage as
at that Bleised and al suficiente gide whoss thou art, and
whom I know thou truely sarves yt hath for a small time
parted us, and I fearmly hope will give us a joyfull
meeting. Dear heart, take eassy jernays and preferr thy owne
heilth before all other worldly respects whatsoever.... I
pray y{u} beg a blessing for us all, for I must needs comitt
y{u} to his gracious protection yt will never fail us nor
forsake us. Thine ever,
"MARY FAIRFAX.
"_Ashton, February 2, 1632._"
I quote only three recipes from this attractive MS.: "A Bath for
Melancholy," "Balles for the face" and "For them theyr speech
faileth."
"To make a bath for Melancholy. Take Mallowes, pellitory of
the wall, of each three handfulls; Camomell flowers,
Mellilot flowers, of each one handfull; hollyhocks, two
handfulls; Isop one greate handfull, senerick seede one
ounce, and boil them in nine gallons of Water untill they
come to three, then put in a quart of new milke and go into
it bloud warme or somthing warmer."
"Balles for the face. Take greate Allecant reasons [raisins]
a quarter of a pounde, stone them but wash them not and
beate them in a morter very fine, take as many almonds, not
Jordans, but of ye comon sort and blanch them and drye them
in a cloth very well and beate them in a stone morter also
very fine, when you have done thus to them bothe, mingle
them bothe together and beate them againe, and putt to it
half a quarter of a pounde of browne leavened bread, wheaten
bread, and beate them altogeather and mingle them well
togeather and then take it and make it in little balles and
then wash yor face at night with one of them in fayre
water. Yf you will have this only to wash yor hands put in a
little Venice soape but putt none of that in for youre
face."
"For them theyr speech faileth. Take a handfull of ye cropps
of Rosemary, a handfull of sage and a handfull of Isop and
boile them in malmsey till it be soft, then put them into
Lynen clothes and laye about the nape of the neck and the
pulses of the armes as whott [hot] as it may be suffred
daily, as it shal be thought mete and it will help it by
God's grace. For the same. Take staves acre and beate it and
sowe it in a linnen cloth and make a bagg noe bigger than a
beane; if he can chow it in his mouth lett hym, if not then
lay it upon his tongue."
To the modern mind the medical recipes to be found in these still-room
books sound truly alarming, but in _The Lady Sedley her Receipt book_
they are not more so than the prescriptions which were contributed by
the most eminent physicians of that day. In his paper[129] on this MS.
Dr. Guthrie quotes many of these recipes, amongst them one from the
famous Dr. Stephens,[130] so frequently quoted by Sir Kenelm Digby and
in other still-room books of the period. In Lady Sedley's book his
recipe is introduced thus: "A copy to make the sovreigns't water that
ever was devised by man, which Dr. Stephens a physician of great
cuning and of long experience did use and therewith did cure many
great cases, and all was kept in secret until a little before his
death; when the Archbishop of Canterbury got it from him." Amongst the
other contributors to this MS. were no fewer than three of the doctors
who attended Charles II. in his last illness, and if they gave the
king even in a mild form medicines resembling those we find in this
book, Macaulay's description that "they tortured him for some hours
like an Indian at the stake" can hardly have been exaggerated. There
is a "Receipt for Convulsion Fitts" from Sir Edward Greaves (the first
physician to be created a baronet) consisting of peony roots, dead
man's skull, hoofs of asses, white amber and bezoar; and the famous
Dr. Sydenham contributed a "Prescription for the head" in which, not
content with the seventy-two ingredients of which Venice treacle
consisted, he added Wormwood, orange peel, angelica and nutmeg.
Another distinguished contributor to this MS. was the ill-fated Duke
of Monmouth. A prescription for stone from Judge Ellis consisted of
Venice turpentine distilled with various herbs and spices in small
ale. It was to be made only in June and taken "three days before the
full and three days before the change of the Moone" (incidentally a
survival of Saxon moon lore), but the Duke of Monmouth's prescription
for the same complaint is quite different and is compounded of ripe
haws and fennel roots distilled in white wine and taken with syrup of
elder. Lady Sedley, the first owner, and presumably author of the
book, was the wife of Sir Charles Sedley, one of Charles II.'s
intimate friends and notorious for his mad pranks. Between her husband
and her daughter her life must have been almost unbearable, and it is
not surprising that the unfortunate woman ended her days in a
mad-house.
Of the MS. still-room books in the British Museum undoubtedly the most
interesting is _Mary Doggett: Her Book of Receipts_, 1682.[131] On the
first page is affixed a note: "This Mary Doggett was the wife of
Doggett the Player who left a legacy of a yearly coat and badge to be
rowed for."[132] The MS. is beautifully written and contains an
astonishing amount of information on every housewifely art, from
washing "parti-coloured stockings" to making perfumes and "Sweete
Baggs." Indeed the reading of the headlines alone gives one some idea
of the multifarious duties of a mistress of a large house in those
days. We find--and I quote only a few--recipes "to make morello cherry
cakes," "apricock marmalett," "to preserve Cherrys white," "to candy
oranges or lemons or any kind of sucketts," "to preserve almonds," "to
preserve damsons," "orange butter," "pippin creame," "to make molds
for apricock Plumbs," "apricock wine," "to keep cherrys all the year,"
"to make cowslip wine," "cakes of clove gilly flowers," "curran wine,"
"grapes in jelly," "cleer cakes of goosberys," "fine cakes of lemons,"
"to preserve Rasps whole," "to make Lemon Creame," "lemon Syllibub,"
"orange biskett," "cheese caks of oranges," "to preserve pippins in
slices," "to make plumb biskett," "to pickle Quinces," "to preserve
Wallnutts," "to preserve double blew violetts for Salletts," "to candy
Double marygold, Roses, or any other flowers," "to make good sorrell
wine," "sweet powders for linnen," "to perfume gloves after the
Spanish maner," "to souse a pigg," "Almond milk," "to pickle
cucumbers," "drinks to cause sleep," "snaile broth," "plasters for
bruises," "to make pomades" and "past for the hands." The receipts for
"A Pomander," for "Balme water," "to dry roses for sweet powder," and
"a perfume for a sweet bagg" are particularly attractive, and I give
them below.
"A Pomander. Take a quarter of an ounce of Civitt, a quarter and a
half-quarter of an ounce of Ambergreese, not half a quarter of an
ounce of ye Spiritt of Roses, 7 ounces of Benjamin, allmost a pound of
Damask Rose buds cutt. Lay gumdragon in rose water and with it make up
your Pomander, with beads as big as nutmegs and color ym with Lamb
[_sic_] black; when you make ym up wash your hands wth oyle of Jasmin
to smooth ym, then make ym have a gloss, this quantity will make
seaven Braceletes."
"A receipt for Balme. Take 6 or 7 handfulls of balme, cut it a little,
put it in an Earthen pott wth a handfull of cowslip flowers, green or
dry, half an ounce of Mace, a little bruised pow[d]er in ym, 4 quarts
of strong ale, let ym stand a night to infuse: in ye morning put it
into your still, poure upon it a quart of brandy. Past up your Still;
you may draw about 2 quarts of water. Sweeten it with Sugar to your
Tast and tye up too pennyworth of Saffron in a ragg, put it into ye
water and let it lye till it be colored. Squeeze it out and bottle it
for your use."
"To dry Roses for sweet powder. Take your Roses after they have layen
2 or 3 days on a Table, then put them into a dish and sett ym on a
chafering dish of Charcole, keeping them stirred, and as you stir ym
strew in some powder of orris, and when you see them pretty dry put
them into a gally pot till you use them."
"A perfume for a sweet bagg. Take half a pound of Cypress Roots, a
pound of Orris, 3 quarters of a pound of Rhodium, a pound of Coriander
Seed, 3 quarter of a pound of Calamus, 3 orange stick wth cloves, 2
ounces of Benjamin, and an ounce of Storax and 4 pecks of Damask Rose
leaves, a peck of dryed sweet Marjerum, a pretty stick of Juniper
shaved very thin, some lemon pele dryed and a stick of Brasill; let
all these be powdered very grosely for ye first year and immediately
put into your baggs; the next year pound and work it and it will be
very good again."
The "Countesse of Kent's" still-room book, which was one of the first
to be published, contains more recipes against the Plague than most,
and with one of these we find the instruction that it must be taken
three times, "for the first helpeth not." Amongst much that is
gruesome there is a pleasant recipe entitled "A comfortable cordial to
cheer the heart," which runs thus: "Take one ounce of conserve of
gilliflowers, four grains of the best Musk, bruised as fine as flower,
then put it into a little tin pot and keep it till you have need to
make this cordial following: Viz.: Take the quantity of one Nutmeg out
of your tin pot, put to it one spoonful of cinnamon water, and one
spoonful of the sirrup of gillifloures, ambergreece, mix all these
together and drink them in the morning, fasting three or four hours,
this is most comfortable." The _chef d'[oe]uvre_ of the collection, at
least in the author's opinion, is one introduced with this flourish,
but it is too long for me to quote more than the comprehensive
title:--"The Countesse of Kent's powder, good against all malignant
and pestilent diseases, French Pox, Small Pox, Measles, Plague,
Pestilence, Malignant or Scarlet Feavers, good against melancholy,
dejection of Spirits, twenty or thirty grains thereof being exhibited
in a little warm Sack or Hartshorn Jelly to a Man and half as much or
twelve grains to a Childe."
Far more attractive than the volume which bears the "Countesse of
Kent's" name are the little-known books by Tryon. They are full of
discourses and sermons, introduced at the most unexpected moments.
Indeed, there are few subjects on which Tryon does not lecture his
readers, from giving servants extra work on Sundays by having "greasy
platters and Bloody-Bones more on Sunday than any other Day," to
sleeping in feather beds. It is interesting to find that women had
already taken to smoking in the seventeenth century, and Tryon
admonishes them thus:--"Nor is it become infrequent, for women also to
smoak Tobacco. Tobacco being an Herb of Mars and Saturn, it hath its
fiery Quality from Mars, and its Poysonous fulsome attractive Nature
from Saturn: the common use of it in Pipes is very injurious to all
sorts of people but more especially to the Female Sex." Tryon seems to
have been somewhat of a Socialist, and he takes great delight in
commiserating "Lords, Aldermen, the Rich and the Great," who are
driven to "heartily envying those Jolley Swains, who feed only with
Bread and Cheese, and trotting up to the knees in Dirt, do yet with
lusty limbs, and vigorous stomach, and merry Hearts, and undisturbed
Heads, whistle out more sollid joys than the others, with all their
Wealth and State can purchase."
The most famous of all still-room books was that written by Sir Kenelm
Digby, the friend of Kings and philosophers and himself a man of
science, a doctor, an occultist, a privateer and a herbalist. Indeed
it would be impossible to catalogue his activities, and he has always
been recognised as the type _par excellence_ of the gifted amateur.
Sir Kenelm was the elder son of the Digby who was one of the leaders
in the Gunpowder Plot. Himself a man of European reputation, he
numbered among his friends Bacon, Ben Jonson, Galileo, Descartes,
Harvey and Cromwell. Queen Marie de' Medici was only one of many women
who fell in love with him, but his one love was his wife, one of the
most beautiful women of her day--Venetia Anastasia Stanley,
immortalised by Van Dyck and Ben Jonson. Sir Kenelm Digby was the
intimate friend of Charles I. and Henrietta Maria, and after the
Restoration he was a prominent figure at the Court of Charles II. When
the Royal Society was inaugurated in 1663, he was one of the Council,
and his house in Covent Garden was a centre where all the wits,
occultists and men of letters forgathered. Aubrey tells us that after
the Restoration he lived "in the last faire house westward in the
north portico of Covent Garden where my lord Denzill Hollis lived
since. He had a laboratory there."[133] One reads so much of the
extravagances and excesses of Restoration days that it is all the
pleasanter to remember the people of whom little has been written, the
thousands of quiet folk who loved their homes and gardens and took
delight in simple pleasures. It is of these people Sir Kenelm Digby's
book reminds us, and even the names of his recipes are soothing
reading--syllabubs, hydromel, mead, quidannies, tansies,
slipp-coat-cheeses, manchets, and so forth. Moreover, there is no
savour of the shop in these recipes, the book being full rather of
flowers and herbs. It is also very leisurely, and in these days that,
too, is soothing. Time we frequently find measured thus:--"Whiles you
can say the Miserere Psalm very slowly" or "about an Ave Maria while."
It takes us back to a simple old world when great ladies not only
looked well to the ways of their households, but attended themselves
to the more important domestic matters. Sir Kenelm collected these
recipes assiduously from his friends, and each housekeeper's pride in
her speciality is very evident. To mention only a few of these, we
find:--"Scotch Ale from my Lady Holmeby," "A very pleasant drink of
Apples," "Master Webb's Ale and Bragot," "Apples in Gelly," "To make
Bisket," "Sir Paul Neal's way of making Cider," "My Lord of St.
Alban's Cresme Fouettee," "The Queen's Barley Cream," "To pickle
capons my Lady Portland's way," "Pickled Champignons," "A
Flomery-Caudle," "My Lord Hollis Hydromel," "Master Corsellises
Antwerp Meath," "My own considerations for making of Meathe," "Meathe
from the Muscovian Ambassadors Steward," "White Metheglin of my Lady
Hungerford's which is exceedingly praised," "My Lord of Denbigh's
Almond March-pane," "My Lord Lumley's Pease-pottage," "Pease of the
seed, buds of Tulips," "A soothing Quiddany or Gelly of the Cores of
Quinces," "Sack with clove gilly-flowers," "My Lord of Carlile's
Sack-posset," "To make a whip Syllabub," "Sucket of Mallow-stalks,"
"The Countess of Newport's Cherry Wine." We may forget the recipes
themselves, but the memory of them is associated with the fragrance of
gillifiowers, roses, cowslips, elder flowers, violets, thyme, marjoram
and the like. I give but these few below, and I wish there were space
for more; for not only are they excellent in themselves, but, in
common with all those in Sir Kenelm Digby's book, they give more,
perhaps, of the atmosphere of the old still-rooms than is to be found
in any other collection.
"Sweet meat of Apples. My Lady Barclay makes her fine
Apple-gelly with slices of John apples. Sometimes she
mingles a few pippins with the Johns to make the gelly. But
she liketh best the Johns single and the colour is paler.
You first fill the glass with slices round-wise cut, and
then the Gelly is poured in to fill up the vacuities. The
Gelly must be boiled to a good stiffness. Then when it is
ready to take from the fire, you put in some juyce of Lemon,
and of Orange too, if you like it, but these must not boil;
yet it must stand a while upon the fire stewing in good
heat, to have the juyces incorporate and penetrate well. You
must also put in some Ambergreece, which doth exceeding well
in this sweet-meat."
"Wheaten Flommery. In the West Country they make a kind of
Flommery of wheat flower, which they judge to be more harty
and pleasant then that of Oat-meal, thus; take half, or a
quarter of a bushel of good Bran of the best wheat (which
containeth the purest flower of it, though little, and is
used to make starch), and in a great wooden bowl or pail,
let it soak with cold water upon it three or four days. Then
strain out the milky water from it, and boil it up to a
gelly or like starch. Which you may season with Sugar and
Rose or Orange-flower-water and let it stand till it be
cold, and gellied. Then eat it with white or Rhenish-wine,
or Cream, or Milk, or Ale."
"A Flomery Caudle. When Flomery is made and cold, you may
make a pleasant and wholesome caudle of it by taking some
lumps and spoonfuls of it, and boil it with Ale and White
wine, then sweeten it to your taste with Sugar. There will
remain in the Caudle some lumps of the congealed flomery
which are not ungrateful."
"Conserve of Red Roses. Doctor Glisson makes his Conserve of
red Roses thus: Boil gently a pound of red Rose-leaves (well
picked, and the nails cut off) in about a pint and a half
(or a little more, as by discretion you shall judge fit,
after having done it once; the Doctor's Apothecary takes two
pints) of Spring water; till the water have drawn out all
the Tincture of the Roses into itself, and that the leaves
be very tender, and look pale like Linnen; which may be in a
good half hour, or an hour, keeping the pot covered whiles
it boileth. Then pour the tincted Liquor from the pale
leaves (strain it out, pressing it gently, so that you may
have Liquor enough to dissolve your Sugar) and set it upon
the fire by itself to boil, putting into it a pound of pure
double refined Sugar in small Powder; which as soon as it is
dissolved, put into it a second pound, then a third, lastly
a fourth, so that you have four pounds of sugar to every
pound of Rose-leaves. (The Apothecary useth to put all the
four pounds into the Liquor altogether at once.) Boil these
four pounds of Sugar with the tincted Liquor, till it be a
high Syrup, very near a candy height (as high as it can be
not to flake or candy). Then put the pale Rose-leaves into
this high Syrup, as it yet standeth upon the fire, or
immediately upon the taking it off the fire. But presently
take it from the fire, and stir them exceeding well
together, to mix them uniformly; then let them stand till
they be cold, then pot them up. If you put your Conserve
into pots whiles it is yet thoroughly warm, and leave them
uncovered some days, putting them in the hot Sun or stove,
there will grow a fine candy on the top, which will preserve
the conserve without paper upon it, from moulding, till you
break the candied crust to take out some of the conserve.
"The colour both of the Rose-leaves and the Syrup about
them, will be exceedingly beautiful and red, and the taste
excellent, and the whole very tender and smoothing, and
easie to digest in the stomack without clogging it, as doth
the ordinary rough conserve made of raw Roses beaten with
Sugar, which is very rough in the throat. The worst of it
is, that if you put not a Paper to lie always close upon the
top of the conserve, it will be apt to grow mouldy there on
the top; especially après que le pot est entamé."
Under another "conserve of red roses" we find this note:--"Doctor
Bacon useth to make a pleasant Julip of this Conserve of Roses, by
putting a good spoonful of it into a large drinking glass or cup; upon
which squeeze the juyce made of a Lemon, and slip in unto it a little
of the yellow rinde of the Lemon; work these well together with the
back of a spoon, putting water to it by little and little, till you
have filled up the glass with Spring water: so drink it. He sometimes
passeth it through an Hypocras bag and then it is a beautiful and
pleasant Liquor."
These still-room books are as much part of a vanished past as the old
herb-gardens, those quiet enclosures full of sunlight and delicious
scents, of bees and fairies, which we foolish moderns have allowed to
fall into disuse. The herb garden was always the special domain of the
housewife, and one likes to think of the many generations of fair
women who made these gardens their own, tending them with their own
hands, rejoicing in their beauty and peace and interpreting in humble,
human fashion something of the wonder and mystery of Nature in the
loveliness of a garden enclosed. For surely this was the charm of
these silent secluded places, so far removed from turmoil that from
them it was possible to look at the world with clear eyes and a mind
undisturbed by clamour. And what of the fairies in those gardens? We
live in such a hurrying, material age that even in our gardens we seem
to have forgotten the fairies, who surely have the first claim on
them. Does not every child know that fairies love thyme and foxgloves
and the lavish warm scent of the old cabbage rose? Surely the fairies
thronged to those old herb-gardens as to a familiar haunt. Can you not
see them dancing in the twilight?
The dark elves of Saxon days have well-nigh vanished with the bogs and
marshes and the death-like vapours which gave them birth. With the
passing of centuries the lesser elves have become tiny of stature and
friendly to man, warming themselves by our firesides and disporting
themselves in our gardens. Perhaps now they even look to us for
protection, lest in this age of materialism they be driven altogether
from the face of the earth. As early as the twelfth century we find
mention of creatures akin to the brownies, whom we all love; for the
serious Gervase of Tilbury tells us of these goblins, less than half
an inch high, having faces wrinkled with age, and dressed in patched
garments. These little creatures, he assures us, come and work at
night in the houses of mankind; but they had not lost their impish
ways and elvish tricks, "for at times when Englishmen ride abroad in
the darkness of night, an unseen Portunos [Brownie?] will join
company with the wayfarer; and after riding awhile by his side will at
length seize his reins and lead his horse into the slough wherein he
will stick and wallow while the Portunos departs with mocking
laughter, thus making sport of man's simplicity." Perhaps they still
make sport of our simplicity, but we shall be the losers if they
vanish altogether from the earth. If in impish mood they lead the
wayfarer into sloughs, do not the sheen-bright elves lighten some of
the darkest paths of pain which human beings are forced to tread? Are
not these Ariel-like creatures links between the flowers of earth
which they haunt and the stars of heaven whence they seem to derive
their radiance? The fairies have almost deserted us, but perhaps they
will one day come back to our gardens and teach us that there is
something true, though beyond what we can know, in the old
astrological lore of the close secret communion between stars and
flowers. Do not flowers seem to reflect in microscopic form those
glorious flowers which deck the firmament of heaven? In many flowers
there is something so star-like that almost unconsciously our minds
connect them with the luminaries in the great expanse above us, and
from this it seems but a short step to the belief that there is
between them a secret communion which is past our understanding.
"This is the enchantment, this the exaltation,
The all-compensating wonder,
Giving to common things wild kindred
With the gold-tesserate floors of Jove;
Linking such heights and such humilities,
Hand in hand in ordinal dances,
That I do think my tread,
Stirring the blossoms in the meadow-grass
Flickers the unwithering stars."[134]
Mystics of all ages and of all civilisations have felt this secret
bond between what are surely the most beautiful of God's
creations--flowers and stars; and its fascination is in no small part
due to the exquisite frailty and short-lived beauty of the flowers of
earth and the stupendous majesty of the flowers in the heavens, those
myriad worlds in whose existence a thousand years is but as a passing
dream.
Goddis grace shall euer endure.
(_Inscription at the end of "The vertuose boke Of
Dystyllacyon of the waters of all maner of Herbes." 1527._)
FOOTNOTES:
[124] John Archer (one of the Physicians in Ordinary to Charles II.)
also asserts in his _Compendious Herbal_ (1673) that "the Sun doth not
draw away the Vertues of Herbs, but adds to them." Archer gives full
astrological directions for the gathering of herbs:--
"I have mentioned in the ensuing Treatise of Herbs the Planet that
Rules every Herb for this end, that you may the better understand
their Nature and may gather them when they are in their full strength,
which is when the Planet is especially strong, and then in his own
Hour gather your Herb; therefore that you may know what hour belongs
to every Planet take notice that Astrologers do assign the seven days
of the week to the seven planets, as to the Sun or [~Sun~] Sunday; to
the Moon or [~Moon~] Monday; to Mars or [~Mars~] Tuesday; to Mercury
or [~Mercury~] Wednesday; to Jupiter or [~Jupiter~] Thursday; to Venus
or [~Venus~] Friday; to Saturn or [~Saturn~] Saturday. And know that
every Planet governs the first Hour after Sun Rise upon his day and
the next Planet to him takes the next Hour successively in this order,
[~Saturn~], [~Jupiter~], [~Mars~], [~Sun~], [~Venus~], [~Mercury~],
[~Moon~], [~Saturn~], [~Jupiter~]. So be it any day every Seventh Hour
comes to each Planet successively, as if the day be Thursday then the
first hour after Sun Rising is Jupiter's, the next [~Mars~], the next
[~Sun~], next [~Venus~]. So on till it come to [~Jupiter~] again. And
if you gather Herbs in their Planetary Hour you may expect to do
Wonders, otherwise not; to Astrologers I need say nothing; to others
this is as much as can easily be learnt."--_The Compendious Herbal_,
by John Archer, One of his Majesties Physicians in Ordinary.
[125] In this connection he quotes Dr. Pinck, Warden of New College,
Oxford, who, when he was "almost fourscore yeares old, would rise very
betimes in the morning and going into his Garden he would take a
Mattock or Spade, digging there an hour or two, which he found very
advantageous to his health."
[126] Published 1651. The earliest copy in the British Museum is the
second edition, 1653.
[127] See _Arcana Fairfaxiana_.
[128] Lord Fairfax had only a daughter (who married the Duke of
Buckingham), and the son of Henry and Mary Fairfax succeeded to the
title.
[129] Proceedings of the Royal Society of Medicine, 1913.
[130] Dr. Stephens was the author of the _Catalogue of the Oxford
Botanical Gardens_.
[131] Sloane 27466.
[132] The competition for "Doggett's Coat and badge" amongst Thames
Watermen still takes place every August.
[133] This house is to be seen in Hogarth's "Morning."
[134] Francis Thompson, _An Anthem of Earth_.
BIBLIOGRAPHIES
I
MANUSCRIPT HERBALS, TREATISES ON THE VIRTUES OF HERBS, ETC.
MANUSCRIPTS WRITTEN IN LATIN AFTER 1400 ARE NOT INCLUDED IN THIS LIST.
_9th (?) century._ Liber dialogorum Gregorii cum libro
medicinali in duabus partibus quarum altera tractat de
virtutibus herbarum et "Herbarium" vulgo dicitur altera de
virtutibus lapidum.
Hutton 76. Bodleian.
(This is the translation of Gregory's Dialogues made by
Bishop Werefirth of Worcester. The MS. formerly belonged to
Worcester Cathedral.)
_10th century (Lacnunga)._ Liber medicinalis de virtutibus
herbarum.
Harleian 585. British Museum.
_10th century._ S. Columbarii Epist. versibus Adonicis
scripta. Ad frontem prima paginæ hujus codicis scribuntur
manu contemporanea quæ dam de virtutibus herbarum et
versiculi nonnuli.
Harleian 3091. British Museum.
_10th century._ Leech Book of Bald.
Royal 12 D. British Museum.
_11th century._ Peri Didaxeon. (Saxon translation.)
Harleian 6258. British Museum.
_11th century._ Herbarium Apuleii Platonici quod accepit ab
Ascolapio.
Cott. Vit. C. III. British Museum.
_11th century._ Incipiunt Capites (capita) libri medicinalis.
Payne 62. Bodleian.
(This is a version of Herbarium Apuleii Platonici.)
_11th (?) century._ De herba Betonica. Apuleius or Antonius Musa.
CLXXXIX. Corpus Christi College, Oxford.
_11th century._ Herbarium Apuleius.
Ashmole 1431.
_11th (?) century._ Herbarium Apuleius.
CLXXX. Corpus Christi College, Oxford.
(This copy once belonged to John Holyngborne.)
_11th century._ Incipiunt nomina multarum rerum Anglice.
Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.
(In the list occurs Nomina herbarum.)
_12th (?) century._ Dioscorides de virtutibus herbarum.
Jesus College, Cambridge.
(Formerly at Durham.)
_12th century._ Exceptiones de libro Henrici de herbis variis.
Digby 13 (VIII). Bodleian.
(The above was compiled, according to Leland and others, by
Henry of Huntingdon.)
_12th century._ Herbarium Apuleius.
Harleian 4986. British Museum.
_12th century._ Herbarium Apuleius.
Harleian 5294. British Museum.
_12th century._ De virtutibus herbarum.
Sloane 1975. British Museum.
_Late 12th century._ Imago Medici Conjurantis Herbas.
Harleian 1585. British Museum.
_12th century._ De viribus herbarum.
Harleian 4346. British Museum.
(In verse, commonly ascribed to Macrus.)
_12th century._ Macer de viribus herbarum.
Sloane 84. British Museum.
_12th century._ De viribus herbarum. Liber Omad.
Digby 13 (VII). Bodleian.
(It is not known who Omad was.)
_12th century._ Macer de virtutibus herbarum.
Digby 4 (XI). Bodleian.
(The last folio is in thirteenth-century hand.)
_12th century._ Macer de virtutibus herbarum.
Library of Lincoln Cathedral.
_12th century._ Herbarium Apuleius.
Library of Eton College.
_12th or 13th century._ De negociis specierum. Inc. circa
instans negocium in simplicibus.
Trinity College, Cambridge.
_13th century._ Epistola antonii muse ad agrippam de herba
betonica.
Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.
_13th century._ Antonii Musæ libellus de virtutibus herbæ
betonicæ.
Ashmole 1462 (VIII). Oxford.
_13th century._ [Synopsis libelli Antonii Musæ.]
Ashmole 1462 (II).
_13th century._ Synopsis Herboralii Apuleii.
Ashmole 1462 (III).
_13th century._ Herboralium Apuleii Platonis.
Ashmole 1462 (IX).
(The names of the herbs are given in English in rubric by a
hand of the fourteenth century.)
_13th century._ Herbarium apuleii platonici.
Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.
_13th century._ Aemilii Macri de viribus Herbarum.
Royal 12 B. British Museum.
_13th century._ Aemilii Macri Carmen de viribus herbarum.
Ashmole (1398. II. v).
_13th century._ Liber Macri de viribus Herbarum.
Ee. VI. 39. II. Cambridge University Library.
_Late 13th century._ Aemilii Macri de Herbarum viribus.
(Formerly belonged to St. Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury.)
Royal 12 E. XXIII. (III). British Museum.
_Late 13th century._ Liber Macri de Naturis herbarum.
Kk. IV. 25. (XVI). Cambridge University Library.
_13th (?) century._ Liber Macri de viribus herbarum.
438 (III). Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.
_13th century._ De simplicibus medicinis.
505 (II. 2). Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.
_13th century._ Poema de virtutibus herbarum macro vulgo
adscriptum.
Arundel 283 (I). British Museum.
_13th century._ Aemilius Macri (Fragment).
Library of Lord Clifden, Lanhydrock, Cornwall.
_13th century._ Le livre de toutes herbes appele "Circa instans."
Sloane 1977. British Museum.
_13th century._ Le livre de toutes herbes appele "Circa instans."
Sloane 3525. British Museum.
Incipit [liber de simplicibus medicinis ordine alphabetico
qui appellatur] "Circa Instans" Platearii.
Ashmole 1428 (II).
_Late 13th century._ Circa Instans.
All Souls College, Oxford.
_13th century._ De medicinis simplicibus sive de virtutibus
Herbarum libellus.
Balliol College, Oxford.
_Late 13th century._ De simplicibus medicinis.
Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.
_13th-14th century._ Liber cogitanti michi de virtute
simplicium medianarum.
Trinity College, Cambridge.
_13th-14th century._ Herbarium.
Addit. 22636 (XIII). British Museum.
_13th-15th century._ [Lines on the virtues of the scabious
plant.]
Addit. 33381 (XXXVIII). British Museum.
_Late 13th century._ De collectione herbarum.
Arundel 369 (II). British Museum.
_13th century._ De Naturis Herbarum.
Royal 8c IX. (X). British Museum.
(From St. Mary's, Reading.)
_13th century._ De virtutibus herbarum rhythmice.
Sloane 146 (III). British Museum.
_13th century._ Præfatiuncula in totum præsens volumen.
_Inc._ In hoc continentur libri quattuor medicine Ypocrates
Platonis Apoliensis urbis de diversis herbis.
Ashmole 1462 (I).
_Late 13th century._ Hic sunt virtutes scabiose distincte.
Digby 86 (LXXXV). Bodleian.
_13th (?) century._ De proprietate herbarum.
Laud Latin 86 (XIII). Bodleian.
_13th-14th century._ Liber qui vocatur "Circa Instans."
Peterhouse College, Cambridge.
_13th-14th century._ Circa instans Platearii.
Trinity College, Cambridge.
_13th-14th century._ Versus de Ysope (Hyssop).
Harleian 524 (CLXI). British Museum.
_Circ. 1300._ De herba Basilisca seu Gentiana.
Harleian 2851 (XXIX). British Museum.
(Written in England.)
_13th century._ Beginning of a history of trees and plants
which ends abruptly on page 3.
Harleian 4751. British Museum.
_Late 13th-14th century._ [Verses--including 19 lines on
various herbs.]
Royal 12 c. VI. (VI). British Museum.
(Belonged to Bury St. Edmunds Abbey.)
_Circ. 1360-70._ Le liure de herberie en français qui est
apele "Circa Instans," translated from Johannes Platearius,
_De simplici medicina_.
Bodley 76 I. Bodleian.
_14th century._ MS. on the virtues of herbs.
Library of Eton College.
_14th century._ Macri p[oe]ma de Viribus herbarum;
præmittitur tabula.
Harleian 2558 (XXIV). British Museum.
_14th century._ De viribus herbarum p[oe]ma.
Sloane 420 (XL). British Museum.
_14th century._ De viribus herbarum.
Rawl. C. 630. British Museum.
_14th century._ Macer de virtutibus herbarum.
Sloane 340 (XV). British Museum.
_14th century._ De virtutibus herbarum.
Digby 95. Bodleian.
_Early 15th (?) century._ Macer. Of virtues of herbis.
Hutton 29. Bodleian.
_14th century._ Aemilii Macri de Herbarum viribus.
Royal 12 B. III (I). British Museum.
_14th century._ Aemilii Macri Carmen de viribus medicinalibus
herbarum cum nominibus earum Anglia explicatis.
Ashmole 1397 (E. XV). Oxford.
_14th century._ Macer de viribus herbarum.
Ff. VI. 53 (X). Cambridge University Library.
_14th century._ Macer de Herbarum viribus.
36 (I. i). Emmanuel College, Cambridge.
_Early 14th century._ Aemilius Macer. Carmen de viribus
herbarum.
Arundel 225 (II). British Museum.
_14th century._ De viribus herbarum.
Harleian 3353 (I). British Museum.
_14th century._ [De virtutibus Ros marine in English.]
759 (XI). Trinity College, Cambridge.
_14th century._ Herbal in alphabetical order with descriptions.
Arch. Selden 335. Bodleian.
_14th century._ On simples. Latin and English.
1398 (III). Trinity College, Cambridge.
_Late 14th century._ Herbarium.
C. XIII (IV). St. John's College, Oxford.
_14th century._ Here begynnyt a tretys of diverse herbis and
furst of Bytayne (Old English poem of 43 couplets).
Begins--
"To tellyn of bytayne I have grete mynde
And sythen of othur herbys os I fynde.
Furst at bytayne I wyl begynne
Yat many vertues berys wt inne."
Last line--
"Yche stounde whyle it mai on erthe be founde."
Ashmole 1397 (II-IV).
_Early 14th century._ Experimenta Alberti Magni de herbis
lapidibus et animalibus.
Addit. 32622. British Museum (III).
_14th century._ Secreta fratris Alberti de Colonia ordinis
fratrum predicatorum super naturis quarundum herbarum et
lapidum et animalium in diversis libris philosophorum
reperta et in unum collecta.
Digby 147 (XXIV). Bodleian.
_14th century._ Secreta fratris Alberti ordinis fratrum
predicatorum (i) de herbis xvi (ii) de lapidibus (iii) de
animalibus (xviii).
Digby 153 (IX). Bodleian.
_14th century._ Bartholomæus Anglicus de proprietatibus rerum.
Royal 12 E. III. British Museum.
_14th century._ Bartholomæi Mini de Senis Tractatus de herbis
figuris quam plurimis colorati[=o] instructus.
Egerton 747 I. British Museum.
_14th century._ ? Gardener. Of the virtues of the herb
rosemary, etc.
In the Earl of Ashburnham's library
at Ashburnham Place. 122 (2. II).
_14th century._ Diversitates herbarum omnium que ad
medicinas pertinent.
Addit. 29301 (III). British Museum.
(The above has fine pen-and-ink drawings of 68 English wild
plants, with their names written in English. The MS.
belonged to the Countess of Hainault, Philippa, Queen of
England, and, lastly, to Mr. Pettiford.)
_14th century._ Herbal.
Dd. VI. 29. VII. University Library, Cambridge.
_14th (?) century._ List of herbs: English names also given.
198 (III). Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.
(The above once belonged to John Argenteux, Provost of
King's.)
_14th (?) century._ A list of remedies with English equivalents
and marginal additions in another hand.
200. Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.
_14th century._ [Recipes in Physicke] Glossary containing
many herbs.
Pepys Library 1661. Magdalene College, Cambridge.
_14th century._ Here begynneth medecines gode for divers
euelys on mennes bodys be callen erchebysschopes auicenna
and ypocras Icoupo[=n] (? cophon) _i. e._ de and on hole
materie a[gh]en brou[gh]t and ferst of herbis.
Pepys Library 1661. Magdalene College, Cambridge.
(Various simples are described. After the "vertues of rose
maryne" a series of sections in verse written as prose
beginning "I wil [gh]ou tellyn by & bi as I fond wretyn in a
book. Þat in borwyng I be took of a gret ladyes prest þat of
gret name þe mest." The following sections are on centaurea,
solsequium, celidonia, pipernella, materfemia, mortagon,
pervinca, rosa, lilium, egrimonye. Ends "Oyle of mustard
seed is good for ache and for litarge and it is mad on þe
same maner.")
_Circ. 1400._ A treatise in rhyme on the virtues of herbs.
Sloane 147 (V). British Museum.
It begins--
"Of erbs xxiiij I woll you tell by and by
Als I fond wryten in a boke at I in boroyng toke
Of a gret ladys preste of gret name she barest
At Betony I wol begyn at many vertuos het within."
_14th century._ De virtutibus herbarum quarundam.
Ashmole 1397.
(On the medical uses of some herbs. Begins, "Bytayne and
wormewode is gode for woundes.")
_14th (?) century._ List of names of herbs in Latin and
English.
1377 II. Trinity College, Cambridge.
Begins, "Apium Commune Smalache."
_1352._ De preperacione herbarum. A treatise on the medicinal
qualities of and modes of preparing herbs, quoting Serapion.
A short list giving first the Latin and then the Irish name, etc.
23 F. 19. Royal Irish Academy.
_14th century._ Vocabulary of herbs in Latin and Welsh.
Addit. 14912. British Museum.
_14th century._ Meddygon myddfai or the Practice of Physic
of the Myddvai Doctors: a collection of Recipes for various
diseases and injuries, prognostics, charms, virtues of
herbs, etc., by the physicians of Myddvai co. Caermarthen.
Addit. 14912 (I). British Museum.
(In Welsh.)
_14th century._ Nomina herbarum. Latin and English.
Addit. 17866. British Museum.
_14th century._ De virtutibus herbæ.
Arundel 507. British Museum.
(The above once belonged to Richard Seybrok, a monk of
Durham.)
_14th-15th century._ Nomina quarundam ... plantarum arborum.
Harleian 210 (XI). British Museum.
(In French and English.)
_14th-15th century._ Names of herbs in Latin and English.
Harleian 2558 (I). British Museum.
_14th century._ Herbal. Latin and English.
(Directions in gathering herbs, flowers, roots, etc.)
Sloane 2584. British Museum.
_14th century._ Liber cinomorum (synonomorum) de nominibus
herbarum.
(Latin, French, English.)
Bodleian 761.
_1360-70._ Nomina herbarum. (Latin, French, English.)
Bodleian 761 (VI. B.).
Two texts from this MS. were published by E. Mannele
Thompson, _Chronicon Galpedi de Baker de Swynebroke_.
Clarendon Press, 1889. He gives a list of the contents of
this volume, calling this item fol. 158, "Medicinal notes
from Roger Bacon in Latin." Interpolated by
fifteenth-century writer in spaces left vacant by the
fourteenth-century scribe are many recipes and much
astrology.
_14th century._ Virtues of rosemary in prose and verse.
Digby 95 (VII). Bodleian.
_14th century._ Of the virtues of herbs.
Digby 95 (VIII). Bodleian.
_Late 14th century._ Herbarium Anglo-Latinum, with many
recipes interpolated in a later hand.
MS. Grearerd. Bodleian.
_Late 14th century._ Names of herbs in alphabetical order
with a few English interpolations. The MS. comes from
Llanthony Priory and was given by R. Marchall.
312 (X). Library of Lambeth Palace.
_14th century._ De simplici medicina John Platearius.
(This MS. is supposed to have belonged to the Countess of
Hainault and subsequently to Queen Philippa of Hainault.)
Addit. 29301 (IV). British Museum.
_14th century._ Nomina Herbarum Medicinalium, with some
English and French names.
Phillipps MS. 4047 (II) now in the
library of T. Fitzroy Fenwick, Esq.,
Thirlestaine House, Cheltenham.
_14th century._ Here ben the virtues of Rosemarye
(purporting to be taken from "the litel boke that the scole
of Sallerne wroat to the Cuntasse of Henowd and sche sente
the copie to hir dou[gh]ter Philip the quene of England").
_Inc._ "Rosemarye is boþe tre and herbe hoot and drie."
_Exp._ "Wasche him þerwiþ and he schal be hool."
Royal 17 A. III. (III). British Museum.
_1373._ Translation of Macer _De viribus herbarum_ by John
Lelamour, Schoolmaster of Hereford.
Sloane 5. British Museum.
_14th century._ Particulars of simples arranged under the
various months.
754. Trinity College, Cambridge.
_14th century._ A herbal in Latin and English beginning with
Allium.
(Given by Thomas Gale Dean of York.)
759 (VII). Trinity College, Cambridge.
_15th century._ Aemili Macri de virtutibus herbarum. The
names of the plants are explained in English in the margins,
and there are also some remedies in English.
Ashmole 1481 (III).
_15th century._ Macer. De Virtutibus Herbarum. The English
names of the herbs are also given. (Written by Nicholas
Kyrkeby of Saint Albans.)
VI. 15. Bishop Cosin's Library, Durham University.
_15th century._ Herbal in three books.
_Inc._ "Mogworte or brotheworte ys clepid archemisia ... and
this medicine ys a nobil medycyne."
_Ends_, "Here endeth the third part of Macer. And here
begynneth a fewe herbes which Macer foryete no[gh]t nor thei
ben nort founden in his book."
Addit. 37786 (II). British Museum.
_15th century._ The treatise of Macer intitled "De viribus
Herbarum," translated into English.
"Here followeth the cunnynge and sage clerk Macer tretynge
and opynly shewy{th} the vertuys worthy and Commendable
propyrtes of many & dyuerse herbys and her vertuys of the
whyche the firste is mugworte or modirworte."
Sloane 393. British Museum.
_15th century._ The vertuys of Erbys aftyr Galyon Ypocras
and Socrates.
Lansdowne 680 I. British Museum.
_15th century._ Here folwythe the vertu of Erbis. Isop is
hoot and drie in ij degreis so seith Ipocrace if a man
drynke it fastynge.
Ashmole 1477 (III-IV).
_15th century._ Aemilius Macer. Of the virtues of herbs.
English translation.
Sloane 140. British Museum.
_15th century._ Aemilius Macer. Of the virtues of herbs.
English translation.
Sloane 2269. British Museum.
_15th century._ Aemilius Macer. De virtutibus Herbarum.
English translation.
In the library of the Right Hon. Lord Amherst
of Hackney at Didlington Hall, Norfolk.
_15th century._ List of herbs in Latin and English.
Sloane 3548. British Museum.
_15th century._ Herbal.
_Inc._ "Of herbys now I
Will you telle by and by.
As I fynde wryten in a boke
That in borrowyng I betoke
Of a gret ladyes preste," etc.
_Expl._ "It dryveth away all foul moysteris
And distroyeth venym and wykyd humours
It distroyeth the morfew
And dispoyling to the leper."
Dd. X. 44 (VIII). Cambridge University Library.
_15th century._ An Herbary þe whiche ys draw out of Circa
Instans and hyt towcherþ schortlyche þ{e} principal vertuys
and þ{e} special effectes of herbis and droggis þ{t} be þ{e}
most comyne in use, and her dyvers grees of qualites or yher
complexions and her propur and most special kynd of
worcheyng.
(At the end of every alphabetical division of this work is
left a page or more, blank, for the purpose of inserting
additional matter. There are several additions by old hands.
Some additions on the margins have been torn off.)
Ashmole 1443 (IV).
_15th century._ Treatise on herbs. 169 chapters, with table
of Contents prefixed.
_Inc._ "Agnus castus is a herbe that men clep Tutsayne or
Park levis."
Arundel 272 (II). British Museum.
_15th century._ An Herbal. Arranged alphabetically to the
letter P.
_Inc._ "Agnus castus is an herbe," etc. Breaks off in
"pulegium rurale." (Other copies--both ending with S--are in
Addit. 4698, f. 16_b_, and Arundel 272, f. 36.)
Royal 18 A. VI. (VI). British Museum.
_15th century._ A treatise on the virtues of Herbs;
beginning "Agnus castus ys Anglice herbe that men cally the
tutsayne or ells parkelenus."
Ashmole 1432 (V. i).
_Mid 15th century._ Herbal with book of recipes.
_Inc._ "Agnus castus is an herbe."
Bodleian 463 (A).
_15th century._ Liber de Herbarum virtutibus.
_Inc._ "Agnus castus ys an herbe that cleepeth Toussane."
Laud Misc. 553 (i). Bodleian.
_15th century._ An Herbal with the properties of the
different herbs in alphabetical order, with a table
prefixed.
_Inc._ "Agnus castus ys an herbe that me clapys Tustans or
Porke levys."
329. Balliol College, Oxford.
_15th (?) century._ "An English Herbal."
Begins, "Agnus Castus," etc.
Harleian 3840 (II). British Museum.
_15th century._ A treatise on the virtues of herbs.
Begins, "A bed ymade of Agnus Castus."
Sloane 297 (XVIII). British Museum.
_15th century._ Latin-English dictionary of herbs.
_Inc._ "Alleluya Wodsoure stubwort."
_Expl._ "Quinquefolium fyveleved gras."
Dd. XI. 45 (XII). Cambridge University Library.
_15th century._ A book of the medical virtues of herbs,
described in alphabetical order.
_Inc._ "Anet ys an herbe that ys clepyt anet oþer dylle."
_Expl._ "doyth a way the fow[gh]e or the fragelys."
Ashmole 1447 (IV. i).
_15th century._ "Yes ben y{e} vertuse of betayn."
Ashmole 1438 (II. vii).
_15th century._ A treatise of the virtues of certain herbs.
Begins, "Betaigne is hot and drie in þre degrees, and so
seyth Ypocras, and it is an herbe of many faire vertues."
Ashmole 1438 (XXV).
_15th century._ Aemilius Macer. De virtutibus herbarum. (In
French, Latin and English.)
Digby 29 (XXXVII). Bodleian.
_15th century._ Of the virtues of herbs--seemingly out of
Macer. The following verse is prefixed:
"This booke ys drawe be fesyke
That Macer made for hem that ben seeke
The vertu of herbis h[=e]t descrieth ryght wel
And help of mannys helthe every del."
Sloane 963 (XVIII). British Museum.
_15th century._ Macer on the virtues of herbs.
_Inc._ "Mugworte or brotheworte is clepid Arthemisia."
_Exp._ "drynkys juse of thys erbe."
Ee. I. 15 (III_a_). University Library, Cambridge.
_15th century._ Macer. "Vertues worthe & commendable
propertees of many & diverse herbes." In three books.
Rawl. C. 81 (V). Bodleian.
_15th century._ Part of the poem De virtutibus Herbarum. The
English names of plants are occasionally given in the
margin. In the volume containing Froucestre's History of the
Monastery.
Library of Gloucester Cathedral.
_15th century._ A treatise of the medical properties of
herbs and other simples; arranged alphabetically, being a
translation from the treatise of Johannes Platearius, _De
medicinis simplicibus_.
Sloane 706 (IV). British Museum.
_15th century._ English Herbal, Secundum magistrum Gilbertum
Kemor, arranged alphabetically.
Sloane 770. British Museum.
_15th century._ Of the virtues of Rosmaryne.
_Inc._ "Rosmaryne is both tre and erbe."
Sloane 7 (VI). British Museum.
_15th century._ The virtues of Rosmaryn.
_Inc._ "Rosmaryn is bothe tre and herbe."
Sloan 962 (VI). British Museum.
_15th century._ These ben sum of þe vertues of Rosemary, as
the Clerke of Sallerne seyde and wrote tho the Cowntes of
Hynde, and sche sende hem tho here dow[gh]tur Phylype þ{t}
was weddyde tho þe Kyng of Engelond.
_Inc._ "Rosmary ys bothe tre and herbe."
Ashmole 1438 (II-XX).
_15th (?) century._ This is ye lityl boke of ye vertuys of
rosmaryn yt y{e} scole of Salerne gaderyd & compiled at
instance of ye Cowntese of Henowde.... I danyel bain
translatyd into vulgar ynglysch worde for werde as fonde in
latyn. (The translator adds that before 1432 Rosemary was
unknown in England and that it was first sent from the
Countess of Hainault to her daughter Queen Philippa.)
1037 (1) (XIV). Trinity College, Cambridge.
_15th or early 16th century._ The medical virtues of
Rosemary in prose. Begins, "Rosus marinus is called rose
mary, the virtue of this herbe is goode." Ends, "ne brennyng
of unkynd hete be at þi stomake ne at þ{e} hert." (At the
foot of page 3 is written "Robert Hychys is the ower of thys
boke.")
Ashmole 1379 (I).
_15th century._ Here is vertues and seltyng of Rosmary by
the ij doctours of fysyk followyng. per Galyen and Platery,
and a poem beginning "As in a booke wretyne y fownd Of wise
doctours in dyvers lond."
Ashmole 1379 (II).
_15th century._ Here follwyth y{e} wertues off ye rosses
mare.
_Inc._ "Take rosmare and bynd hem ynne a lynnene clothe."
_Exp._ "Allsso make a bathe off ye floure and y{t} wyll make
ye yonglyche."
Ashmole 1432 (V. iii).
_15th century._ The vertu of rose mary. Tak þe flower of þe
rose mary and bynd hem.
(The above is part of a series of herbal notes, etc.,
interspersed by a later hand in the course of and following
on a fifteenth-century book of medicine.)
Ashmole 1391 (VIII).
_15th century._ "Here men may see þe vertus of dyuerse
herbes, whiche ben hoot and whiche ben coold, and to how
many þinges they arne goode." (Other copies are in Sloane
393, f. 13; 1592, f. 39_b_; 3466, f. 78; Addit. 12056, f. 3;
Lansdowne MS. 680, f. 2 and 17 B., XLVIII, f. 2, where,
however, the arrangement is somewhat different. On page 2
there is the entry, "This is John Rice is boke, the which
cost him xxv d.")
_15th century._ "Here men may se the vertu of dyverse
herbes, and what thei be, and whiche ben hoote and which ben
colde. And for howgh many thynges they ben goode."
(This MS. ends abruptly in "Calamynte.")
Ashmole 1444 (I. iii).
_15th (?) century._ "The virtues of diuerse herbes which ben
hoote and which ben coolde." (With a large table of Contents
prefixed.)
Sloane 393 (I). British Museum.
_15th century._ Treatise on the virtues of herbs. Begins,
"Aristologia rotunda. The virtue of this herbe os Ypocras
says."
Sloane 962 (XII). British Museum.
_15th century._ An Herbary or alphabetical Materia Medica of
herbs & other drugs; beginning with Aloen, Aloes, Aurum, and
ending with Zelboarium.
_Inc._ "Aloen. To purge fleume and malancoly and colore."
_Exp._ "Zelboarium. To moysten and to norschen and to
clensen and wyth cold þinges to akelen. Amen."
Ashmole 1481 (II. ii).
_15th century._ An alphabeticall catalogue of Herbes.
_Inc._ "Aloen hath virtue to purge flewne."
Ee. I. 13 (I). Cambridge University Library.
_15th century._ A collection of remedies in English (with
additions in other handwritings). Begins with "Aloe" and
ends with "verveyn."
609 (II). Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.
_15th century._ In Latin and English. Herbal.
Aloe--Zucarium, with notes on Egrimonia, Acacia, in Latin,
and on Cassia lignea and Castorium in English.
43. Jesus College, Cambridge.
_15th century._ The makynge of oyles of divers herbys.
905 (II. 4). Trinity College, Cambridge.
_15th century._ These ben the precious watris & vertuous
for diverse ejvellys.
_Inc._ "Water of wormode is gode ... grete lordes among the
Saracens usen to drink hitt."
Addit. 37786 (I). British Museum.
_15th century._ Of the Herb Moon-wort.
_Inc._ "I schal you tel of an Erbe þat men cal Lunarie,
He ys clepit Asterion; wych ys an Erbe þat men
calleth Lunarie."
Harleian 2407 (IX). British Museum.
_15th century._ Virtues of the onion, garlic and pennyroyal.
Begins, "Here beeth þe vertues of the Oynoun."
Royal 17 B. XLVIII. (II). British Museum.
_15th century._ Miscellaneous recipes and extracts from
herbals.
Begins, "Rosa rebia [_sic_] ys an herbe that men clepyth
rede rosys."
Royal 18 A. VI. (VII). British Museum.
_15th (?) century._ A treatise of herbs and the several
medicaments compounded from them.
Begins, "The roose as saith the philosopher Plinius hath
doble verteus."
Sloane 67 (II). British Museum.
_15th century._ A treatise of herbs, alphabetically
arranged. (Imperfect.)
Begins, "Carabana id est wylde hempe."
Sloane 297 (I). British Museum.
_15th century._ A treatise of the temperature and virtues of
simples alphabetically arranged.
Sloane 965 (VII). British Museum.
_15th century._ "Here men may se the vertues of herbes."
Bodley 463 (B. iii).
_15th century._ Liber de herbarum virtutibus.
_Inc._ "Here may men se the vertu of herbes which ben hot
and which ben colde."
Laud Misc. 553 (II). Bodleian.
_15th century._ Vertues of Herbes.
_Inc._ Apium is an herbe that men call smallache or marche.
Addit. A. 106 (A. IV). Bodleian.
_15th century._ "Here begynnythe to mak waters of erbys
sondry and þer vertues and howe þei schalle be made in
stillatorie."
_Inc._ "In þe fyrst of dyl. The water is of gret vertue."
Ashmole 141 B (II. v).
_15th century._ Instructions for the proper time of
gathering simples by name.
_Inc._ "Medysines ben done, some by leves [som] bi sedis,
som by flowres and some bi fretes."
Ashmole 1481 (II. iii). Oxford.
_15th century._ The medical use "Of waters distilled from
Sundry plants & flowers."
(The above belonged to Richard Saunders, the Astrologer.)
Ashmole 1489 (II. ii).
_15th century._ Alphabetical Herbary.
_Inc._ "Agrymonia is an herbe."
Bodley 463 (B. ii).
_Late 15th century._ Virtues of herbs.
_Inc._ "Here a man maye see."
Selden, _supra_ 75 (E. VI). Bodleian.
_Late 15th century._ A treatise on the properties of plants,
fruits, meat and drinks as food and medicine. (In Welsh.)
Jesus College, Oxford.
_15th century._ Names of herbs.
(Given by Humphrey Moseley, 1649).
69. Emmanuel College, Cambridge.
_15th century._ Verses in English and Latin on herbs and
spices.
(Given by W. Moore.)
176 (I. 2). Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.
_15th century._ Recipes in English and Latin.
(Given by W. Moore.)
230 (II). Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.
_15th century._ Herbes for a saled.
(This once belonged to Nicholas Butler.)
414 (_d_). Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.
_15th century._ Collection of recipes in English, probably
all by John Ardern of Newark. Illustrated with rough
coloured drawings of herbs, instruments and patients. It
begins, "This is a mirrour of bloodletynge in þe weche þey
þt wolen beholden it diligently," etc. There is a recipe in
French for Greek fire. _Exp._ "tabula libri Sirurgice." Mag.
Joh. Arderne de Newerk.
(Given by Humphrey Moseley, 1649.)
69. Emmanuel College, Cambridge.
_15th century._ Here begynnythe an herball of namys &
vertues of diverse herbys aftyr letterys of the a, b, c,
etc.
905 (I). Trinity College, Cambridge.
_15th century._ Virtues of various plants.
905 (II. 4). Trinity College, Cambridge.
_15th century._ On the virtues of herbs.
_Inc._ "This booke is drawe be Fesyk. That Macer made for
hem þat been seck. Y{e} vertu of herbis it discryeth ryght
wel."
1637 (I. i). Trinity College, Cambridge.
_1485._ A collection of the Latin and English names of
plants with their descriptions and medical virtues.
National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth.
_15th century._ Alphabetical list of herbs. (Names partly in
Latin and partly in Irish.)
2306. Royal Irish Academy.
_15th century._ Alphabetical treatise on herbs and their
uses. In Latin and Irish.
1315. Trinity College, Dublin.
_15th-16th century._ List of plants used in medicine. (In
Latin and Irish.)
1334 (V). Trinity College, Dublin.
_15th century._ Vertues of rose maryne þat er contened &
compyled in þis space & ar gadirde out of bukes of gude
philosofirs & of oþer wyse clerkes.
V. IV. 1. Durham University, Bishop Cosins Library.
_Late 15th century._ Herbal in Welsh.
In Mr. Wynne's library at Peniarth, Merioneth.
_15th century._ The vertu of Rose-marry & other Secrets.
Harleian 1735 (XII). British Museum.
_15th century._ Verses on the virtues of Rosmaryne.
Sloane 3215. British Museum.
_15th century._ Vertues of the herb betayne.
Rawl. C. 211 (II). Bodleian.
_15th century._ Treatise on the vertues of herbs.
Addit. 12056. British Museum.
_15th century._ Treatise on the vertues of herbs & metals in
alphabetical order. In Irish.
Addit. 15403. British Museum.
_Late 15th century._ Herbal.
_Inc._ Agnus Castus is an herbe.
Harleian 3840 (III). British Museum.
_15th century._ A fragment of a treatise on the virtues of
herbs.
Sloane 7 (III). British Museum.
_15th century._ An alphabetical herbal.
Sloane 297 (VII). British Museum.
_15th century._ "Of the vyrtues of the Asche tree," etc.
Sloane 297 (XVII). British Museum.
_15th century._ The first part of an intended complete body
of Pharmacy in seven parts. The first part treats of herbs,
which are alphabetically arranged in 150 chapters.
Sloane 404 (I). British Museum.
_15th century._ On the virtues of herbs, with recipes for
various disorders. The last is a charm "for alle maner
woundys."
Sloane 540 (I). British Museum.
_15th century._ For to knowe the ix Sauge levys.
Sloane 706 (VIII). British Museum.
_15th century._ Treatise on the virtues of herbs
alphabetically arranged.
Sloane 1088 (I). British Museum.
_15th century._ Herbes necessarie for a Gardyn.
Sloane 120 (I). British Museum.
_15th century._ On the virtues of herbs.
Sloane 2403. British Museum.
_15th century._ Poem on the virtues of herbs.
Sloane 2457. British Museum.
_15th century._ Treatise on the virtues of herbs.
Sloane 2460. British Museum.
_Early 15th century._ A fewe othre dyverse herbes with her
vertues wich be not yfound in the bokes of Macer.
Rawl. C. 212 (II). Bodleian.
_15th (?) century._ A treatise on medicinal herbs. (In
Irish.)
Royal Irish Academy, 23 H 19.
_15th century._ A fragment of a treatise on the medicinal
properties of herbs. (In Irish.)
Royal Irish Academy, 2306.
_15th (?) century._ A treatise on herbs and their medicinal
qualities and the mode of preparing and administering them.
(In Irish.)
Royal Irish Academy, 2395.
_15th-16th century._ Alphabetical list of plants used in
medicine and the manner of preparing them. (In Latin and
Irish.)
1334 (II). Trinity College, Dublin.
_1415._ Alphabetical list of plants used in medicine. At the
end is the transcriber's name, "Aedh Buide O'Leigin," and
the date 1415. Also the name of the person from whom the
original MS. was purchased--"Tad hg O'Cuinn bachelor in
physic." (In Irish.)
1343 (II). Trinity College, Dublin.
_15th century._ A dictionary of herbs in Latin and English.
In the Marquis of Bath's library at Longleat, Wilts.
_15th century._ Treatise without title on the virtues of
herbs.
In Lord Leconfield's library
at Petworth House, Sussex.
_15th century._ Medicinal qualities of herbs.
Phillipps MS. 11077, now in the
library of T. Fitzroy Fenwick, Esq.,
Thirlestaine House, Cheltenham.
II
ENGLISH HERBALS
(Printed books)
The Herbals are listed according to authors, or, in the case of
anonymous works, according to the names by which they are usually
known, and all known editions are given. In cases where only one copy
of an edition is known the library where it is to be found is
indicated. Editions mentioned in Ames, Hazlitt, etc., but of which no
copies are now known, are listed, but in each case the fact that the
only mention of them is to be found in one of the above is stated. []
indicates books which are not strictly herbals, but whose omission
would make any bibliography of herbals incomplete.
_Bartholomæus Anglicus._
1495. [Bartholomæus Anglicus. De proprietatibus rerum.] The
seventeenth book of the above--containing nineteen
chapters--is on herbs. It was the first original work on
plants by an English writer to be printed, and the woodcut
at the beginning of the book was probably the first
botanical illustration to be printed in an English book.
There is the following note on a slip in the copy of this
edition in the British Museum. "This is generally considered
to be the finest copy known of a work which is certainly the
_chef d'[oe]uvre_ of Winkin de Worde's press. The paper on
which it is printed is said to be the first ever made in
England for the press. See Douce, ii. 278. Dibdin, _Typt.
Ant._ ii. 310."
1535. Bartholomeus de Proprietatibus Rerum. Londini in
Aedibus Thomæ Berthelete. Regii Impressoris.
1582. Batman uppon Barth[=o]lome His Booke De Proprietatibus
Rerum. Newly corrected, enlarged and amended: with such
Additions as are requisite unto every seuerall Booke: Taken
foorth of the most approved Authors, the like heretofore not
translated in English. Profitable for all Estates as well
for the benefite of the Mind as the Bodie. London. Imprinted
by Thomas East, dwelling by Paules Wharfe.
(For foreign editions, French, Dutch and Spanish
translations, see Bibliography of Foreign Printed Herbals,
p. 225.)
_Banckes's Herbal._
1525. ¶ Here begynnyth a new mater / the whiche sheweth and
| treateth of y{e} vertues & proprytes of her- | bes / the
whiche is called | an Herball | ['.'] | ¶ Cum gratia &
priuilegio | a rege indulto |
_Colophon._ ¶ Imprynted by me Rycharde Banckes / dwellynge
in | L[=o]d[=o] / a lytel fro y{e} Stockes in ye Pultry /
y{e} xxv day of | Marche. The yere of our Lorde, M.CCCCC. &
XXV. Black-letter 4to.
1526. Second edition of above. Only known copy is in the
Cambridge University Library. Title and colophon identical
except for slight differences in spelling.
¶ Here begynneth a newe marer / y{e} whiche sheweth and |
treateth of the vertues & propertes of her- | bes / the
whiche is callyd | an Herball | [.'.] | ¶ Cum priuilegio. |
_Colophon._ ¶ Imprynted by me Rycharde Banckes / dwellynge
in | L[=o]d[=o] / a lytell fro y{e} Stockes in y{e} Pultry /
ye xxv daye of June. The yere of our Lorde, M.CCCCC. & XXVI.
Black-letter 4to.
1530. (approximate date assigned in the catalogue of the
British Museum). A boke of | the propertyes | of herbes the
| whiche is | called an | Herbal | [~cross pattée~] |
_Colophon._ Imprynted at | London in Fletestrete at | the
sygne of the George by | me Robert Red- | man [.'.] |
[~cross pattée~] | Black-letter 8vo.
1532-1537 (approximate date assigned by Mr. H. M. Barlow).
"'A boke of the propertyes of herbes the which is called an
Herbal.' Contains k{4}. 'At the end, Imprynted at London by
me John Skot dwellynge in Fauster Lane.' This over his
device which is his cypher on a shield, hung on a rose-tree,
flowering above the shield, supported by two griffins: at
the bottom is a dog nearly couchant; I. S., the initials of
his name, one on each side of the trunk of the tree. In the
collection of Mr. Alchorne. Twelves."
The above is quoted from Herbert's edition of Ames, 1785. No
copy of the work can now be found in any of the chief
British libraries. Mr. Gordon Duff in his list of books
printed by John Skot mentions "The Book of Herbes. 12mo.
undated."
The following editions printed by Robert Wyer are all
undated. The dates assigned in the British Museum Catalogue
are 1530, 1535, 1540.
¶ If A newe Her- | ball of Macer, | Translated | out of
La- | ten in to | Englysshe.
_Colophon._ ¶ Imprynted by | me Robert wyer, | dwellynge in
saint Martyns pa | ryshe, at the sygne of saynt | Joh[=n]
Euangelyst | besyde Charyn | ge Crosse. | [~cross pattée~] |
Secretary type, 8vo.
¶ Hereafter folo | weth the know- | ledge, proper | ties,
and the | vertues of | Herbes.
_Colophon._ ¶ Imprynted by | me Robert Wyer, | dwellynge in
saynt Martyns pa- | rysshe, at the sygne of saynt | Joh[=n]
Euangelyst, | besyde Charyn | ge Crosse. | [~cross pattée~]
| Secretary type 8vo.
Macers | Herbal | Practy- | syd by | Doctor | Lynacro |
Translated out of laten, | into Englysshe, which | shewynge
theyr Ope- | raycions & Vertues, | set in the margent | of
this Boke, to | the extent you | myght knowe | theyr Ver- |
tues.
_Colophon._ Imprynted by | me Robert wyer | dwellynge in
seynt Martyns Pa- | rysshe at the sygne of seynt | Ioh[=n]
Euangelyst, besyde Charyn- | ge Crosse. Black-letter 8vo.
The only known copies of the two following editions are in
the Bodleian Library.
1541. A boke of | the propertyes | of herbes the whiche | is
called an Har | bal, MD. | XLI. |
_Colophon._ ¶ Imprynted at London | in Paules Churchyearde,
| at the Sygne of the may- | dens head by Tho- | mas Petyt.
| M.D.X.(I.) Black-letter 8vo.
1546. A boke of | the propertyes | of herbes the | whiche is
| called an | Herbal.
_Colophon._ Imprinted | at London in Fletstrete | at the
sygne of the George | nexte to seynt Dunstones churche | by
me Wyllyam Myddylton | in the yere of our Lorde |
M.CCCCC.XLVI. | The thyrde day | of July | Black-letter 8vo.
1548 (date assigned in the catalogue of the library of the
Manchester Medical Society. Only known copy.) ¶ A boke of |
the propertes | of herbes the | which is cal | led an her |
bal. | [~cross pattée~] |
_Colophon._ Imprynted at | London by | Johan Waley, |
dwellynge in | Foster Lane. | Black-letter 8vo.
1550 (date assigned in the British Museum Catalogue). A boke
of the | properties of Herbes called an her- | ball,
whereunto is added the tyme y{e} | herbes, floures and Sedes
shoulde | be gathered to be kept the whole ye- | re, with
the vertue of y{e} Herbes wh[=e] | they are stylled. Also a
generall rule | of al manner of Herbes drawen out | of an
auncient boke | of Physycke by | W. C. |
_Colophon._ Imprinted at London by Wyllyam | Copland. |
Black-letter 8vo.
1552 (date assigned in the British Museum Catalogue). A boke
of the | propreties of Herbes called an her | ball,
whereunto is added the time y{e} | herbes, floures and
Sedes shold | be gathered to be kept the whole | yere | wyth
the vertue of y{e} Her- | bes when they are stilled. Al- |
so a generall rule of all ma- | ner of Herbes drawen | out
of an auncyent | booke of Phisyck | by W. C. |
_Colophon._ ¶ Imprynted at London in the | Flete strete at
the sygne of | the Rose Garland by | me Wyllyam Copland. |
for John Wyght |. Black-letter 8vo.
The two following editions published by Anthony Kitson and
Richard Kele may be ascribed to Copland's press. No copies
exist in the chief British libraries. The titles are quoted
from Ames.
"A booke of the properties of Herbes, called an Herball.
Whereunto is added the tyme that Herbes, Floures and Seedes
should bee gathered to bee kept the whole yeare, wyth the
vertue of the Herbes when they are stylled. Also a generall
rule of all maner of Herbs, drawen out of an auncient booke
of Physicke by W. C. _Walter Carey._ Contains besides X{4}
in eights. For him."
1550 (date assigned by Mr. Gordon Duff, but in Ames 1552).
"The book of the properties of herbes, called an herball,
etc., drawn out of an ancient book of phisyck by W. C."
1550. A lytel | herball of the | properties of her- | bes
newely amended & corrected, | with certayne addicions at the
ende | of the boke, declaryng what herbes | hath influence
of certaine Sterres | and constellations, wherby may be |
chosen the beast & most luckye | tymes and dayes of their
mini- | stracion, accordynge to the | Moone being in the
sig- | nes of heauen, the | which is dayly | appoynted | in
the Almanacke, made & gathered | in the yere of our Lorde
god | M.D.L. the xii day of Fe- | bruary by Anthonye |
Askham Phi- | sycyon.
_Colophon._ Imprinted at | London in Flete- | strete at the
signe of the George | nexte to Saynte Dunstones | Churche by
Wylly- | am Powell. In the yeare of oure Lorde | M.D.L. the
twelfe day of Marche. Black-letter 8vo.
1550 A litle Her- | ball of the properties of Herbes, |
newly amended & corrected, wyth | certayne Additions at the
ende of | the boke, declaring what Herbes | hath influence
of certain Sterres | and constellations, whereby maye | be
chosen the best & most lucky | tymes & dayes of their
mini- | stracion, according to the Moone | beyng in the
signes of heau[=e] | the which is daily appo[=i] | ted in
the Almanacke, | made and gathe- | red in the yeare | of our
Lorde | God. | M.D.L. the xii daye of Febru | ary by Anthony
Askh[=a] | Physycyon |
_Colophon._ Imprynted at London, in | Paule's churchyarde,
at the signe of the Swanne, by | Ihon Kynge. | Black-letter
8{vo}.
1555-1561 (approximate date assigned by Mr. H. M. Barlow).
¶ A boke of the | propreties of Herbes called an her | ball,
whereunto is added the time y{e} | herbes, floures and Sedes
shold | be gathered to be kept the whole | yere, with the
vertue of y{e} Her | bes when they are stilled. Al- | so a
general rule of al ma- | ner of Herbes drawen out of an
auncient | boke of Phisyck | by W. C. |
_Colophon._ ¶ Imprinted at London by | Iohn kynge, for |
Abraham Wely |. Black-letter 8{vo}.
_The Grete Herball._
1516. The Grete Herball. Imprented at London in Southwark by
me Peter Treveris. MD XVI. the xx day of June.
(Mentioned by Ames. No copy of this edition in any of the
chief British libraries and no other record of it.)
1525(?). The Grete herball, which is translated out ye
Frensshe into Englysshe. With the Mark of Peter Treveris.
Undated.
(Mentioned by Hazlitt, who ascribes the date 1525-6. There
is no other record of this edition.)
1527. The grete herball. MDXXVII. 18 April.
(Mentioned by Ames as having been printed by Treveris for
Laurence Andrew. No copy of this edition in any of the chief
British libraries and no other record of it.)
1526. The grete herball | whiche geueth parfyt knowlege and
under- | standyng of all maner of herbes & there gracyous
vertues whiche god hath | ordeyned for our prosperous
welfare and helth, for they hele & cure all maner | of
dyseases and sekenesses that fall or mysfortune to all maner
of creatoures | of god created, practysed by many expert and
wyse maysters, as Auicenna and | other &c. Also it geueth
full parfyte understandynge of the booke lately pryn | ted
by me (Peter treueris) named the noble experiens of the
vertuous hand | warke of Surgery.
_Colophon._ ¶ Imprentyd at London in South- | warke by me
peter Treueris, dwel- | lynge in the sygne of the wodows. |
In the yere of our Lorde god. M.D. | XXVI. the xxvii day of
July. Black-letter folio.
1529. Second edition of the above also printed by Treveris.
Wording of the title is the same.
_Colophon_ differs from the first edition in that it does
not contain the printer's address.
¶ Imprynted at London in South | warke by me Peter Treueris.
In | the yere of our Lorde god. M.D.XXIX. | the xvii day of
Marce. Black-letter folio.
1539. The great herball | newly corrected. | The contents of
this boke. | A table after the Latyn names of all | herbes,
| A table after the Englyshe names of all | herbes. | The
propertees and qualytes of all | thynges in this booke, |
The descrypcyon of urynes, how a man | shall haue trewe
knowledge of all seke- | nesses. | An exposycyon of the
wordes obscure and | not well knowen. | A table, quyckly to
fynde Remedyes | for all dyseases. | God saue the Kynge. |
Londine in Edibus Thome Gybson. | Anno | M.D.XXXIX.
Black-letter folio.
This edition contains no cuts.
1550. Edition of "The Grete Herball" mentioned in Ames and
Pulteney. No copy of this edition in any of the chief
British libraries.
1561. The greate Herball, which | geueth parfyte knowledge &
un- | derstandinge of al maner of her | bes, and theyr
gracious vertues, whiche God hath ordeyned for | our
prosperous welfare and health, for they heale and cure all
ma- | ner of diseases and sekenesses, that fall or
mysfortune too all | maner of creatures of God created,
practysed by many | experte and wyse maysters, as Auicenna,
Pandecta, | and more other, &c. ¶ Newlye corrected and dili
| gently ouersene. | In the yeare of our Lord | God.
M.CCCCC.LXI.
_Colophon._ Imprynted at London in | Paules churcheyarde, at
the signe of the Swane, | by Jhon Kynge. In the yeare of our
| Lorde God. M.D.LXI. Black-letter folio.
_"The vertuose boke Of Distyllacyon of the waters of all maner of
Herbes."_
1527. [The vertuose boke of Distyllacyon of the waters of
all maner of Herbes / with the figures of the styllatoryes /
Fyrst made and compyled by the thyrte yeres study and labour
of the most conynge and famous mayster of phisyke / Master
Jherom bruynswyke And now newly Translate out of Duyche into
Englysshe. Not only to the synguler helpe and profyte of the
Surgyens / Physycyens / and Pothecaryes / But also of all
maner of people / Parfytely and in dewe tyme and ordre to
lerne to dystyll all maner of Herbes / To the Profyte / cure
/ and Remedy of all maner dysseases and Infirmytees Apparant
and not apparant. ¶ And ye shall understand that the waters
be better than the Herbes / as Auicenna testefyeth in his
fourthe Conon saynge that all maner medicynes ysed with
theyr substance / febleth and maketh aged / and weke.
¶ Cum gratia et preuilegio regali.
_Colophon._ Imprinted at London in the flete strete by me
Laurens Andrewe / in the sygne of the golden Crosse. In the
yere of our lorde M.CCCC.XXVII (_sic_) the xvii daye of
Apryll.
Goddis grace shall euer endure.
Second edition. Title identical with above.
_Colophon._ Imprynted at London in the flete strete by me
Laurens Andrewe / in the Sygne of the golden Crosse. In the
yere of our Lorde MCCCCCXXVII, the xviii daye of Apryll.
¶ Goddys grace shall euer endure.]
(This edition, although professedly printed one day later,
varies considerably from the preceding.)
_William Turner._
1538. [Libellus de | re herbaria novus | in quo herbarum
aliquot no- | mina greca, latina & Anglica | habes, vna cum
nomini- | bus officinarum, in | gratiam stu- | diose |
iuuentutis nunc pri- | mum in lucem | æditus. Londini apud
Ioannem Bydellum | Anno d[=n]i. 1538.]
1877. [Libellus de re herbaria novus by William Turner,
originally published in 1538. Reprinted in facsimile, with
notes, modern names, and A Life of the author, by Benjamin
Daydon Jackson, F.L.S. Privately printed. London, 1877.]
1544. Historia de Naturis Herbarum Scholiis et Notis
Vallata. Printed at Cologne.
(This book is mentioned by Bumaldus, but is not otherwise
known.)
1548. The na | mes of herbes in | Greke, Latin, Englishe, |
Duche, and Frenche wyth | the commune names | that Herbaries
| and Apoteca | ries use, | Gathered by Wil- | liam Tur |
ner.
_Colophon._ Imprinted | at London by John Day | and Wyllyam
Setes, dwel- | lynge in Sepulchres Parish | at the signe of
the Resur- | rection a litle aboue Hol- | bourne Conduite. |
Cum gratia & priuilegio | ad imprimendum solum.
1881. The names of Herbes by William Turner, A.D. 1548.
Edited (with an introduction, an index of English names, and
an identification of the plants enumerated by Turner) by
James Britten, F.L.S. London. Published for the English
Dialect Society, by N. Trübner & Co.
1551. A new Her- | ball, wherein are conteyned the names of
Herbes in Greke, La- | tin, Englysh, Duch, Frenche, and | in
the Potecaries and Herbari- | es Latin, with the properties
| degrees and naturall places of | the same, gathered & made
| by Wylliam Turner, | Phisicion unto the | Duke of So- |
mersettes | Grace. | Imprinted | at London by Steven |
Mierdman. | Anno 1551. | Cum Priuilegio ad imprimendum
solum. | And they are to be sold in Paules Churchyarde.
_Colophon._ Imprinted at London, By Steuen Myerdman, and
they are to be soolde in Paules | churchyarde at the sygne
of the sprede Egle by | John Gybken.
1562. The seconde parte of Vui- | liam Turners herball,
wherein are conteyned the | names of herbes in Greke, Latin,
Duche, Frenche, and in the | Apothecaries Latin, and somtyme
in Italiane, wyth the ver- | tues of the same herbes | with
diuerse confutationes of no small errours, that men of no
small learning haue committed in the intreatinge of herbes |
of late yeares |
Imprinted at Collen by Arnold Birckman | In the yeare of our
Lorde M.D. LXII. | Cum gratia et Priuilegio Reg. Maiest.
1568. The first and seconde partes of the Herbal of William
Turner Doctor in Phisick lately ouersene corrected and
enlarged with the Thirde parte / lately gathered / and nowe
set oute with the names of the herbes / in Greke Latin /
English / Duche / Frenche / and in the Apothecaries and
Herbaries Latin / with the properties / degrees / and
naturall places of the same.
God saue the Quene.
Imprinted at Collen by Arnold Birckman / In the yeare of our
Lorde M.D. LXVIII.
_Albertus Magnus._
1560 (?). [The boke | of secretes of Albartus Mag | nus, of
the vertues of | Herbes, stones and certaine beastes. | Also
a boke of the same au | thor, of the marvaylous thin | ges
of the world: and of | certaine effectes, cau | sed of
certayne | beastes.]
_Williyam Bullein._
1562. ¶ BVLLEINS | Bulwarke of def[=e]ce | againste all
Sicknes, Sornes, and woundes, that dooe | daily assaulte
mankinde, whiche Bulwarke is | kepte with Hillarius the
Gardiner, Health the | Phisician, with their Chyrurgian, to
helpe the | wounded soldiors. Gathered and pra- | ctised
fr[=o] the moste worthie learn- | ned, bothe old and newe:
to | the greate comforte of | mankinde: Doen | by Williyam |
Bulleyn, | and ended this Marche, | Anno Salutis. 1562 | ¶
Imprinted at London, by Jhon Kyngston.
1579. BVLLEINS | Bulwarke of Defence against | all
Sicknesse, Soarenesse | and VVoundes that | doe dayly
assaulte mankinde: Which Bulwarke is | kept with Hilarius
the Gardener, and Health | the Phisicion, with the
Chirurgian, to helpe the | Wounded Souldiours. Gathered and
practised from | the most worthy learned, both olde and new:
| to the great comfort of Mankinde: by | VVilliam Bullein,
Doctor of Phi- | sicke. 1562. Imprinted | At London by
Thomas Marshe, dwellinge | in Fleete streete neare unto
Saincte | Dunstanes Chur (_sic_)| 1579. | Eccle. 38.
Altissimus creauit de terra medicinam, & vir prudens non
abhorrebit illam.
_John Maplet._