Petrus Hispanus, Thesaurus pauperum, in Italian

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Petrus Hispanus, Thesaurus pauperum and Tractatus de febribus, in Italian translation, followed by a treatise on phlebotomy entitled Libro della flebotomia, also in Italian; on paper, dated Venice, 1451.
Contents
1. ff. 1r-32v, 32v-35r, 35r-47v: Petrus Hispanus, Thesaurus pauperum, followed by Tractatus de febribus and additional material, in Italian translation (by Zuhane de Luza?), with explicit dated Venice, 1 September 1451 (f. 47v).
The original Latin text is a late 13th-century collection of over a thousand therapeutical and pharmacological recipes for ailments from head to toe, mainly intended for the use of medical practitioners working outside of and separately from the academic world. The collection is traditionally attributed to a 'Petrus Hispanus' identified with Pope John XXI (d. 1277). In fact, the name 'Petrus Hispanus' may refer to a number of 13th-century individuals from Spain and Portugal writing treatises on logic, natural philosophy, theology, apologetics, astrology, alchemy and medicine. The medical works can be further divided into two categories: practical prescription books and commentaries on texts pertaining to the medical university curriculum. The Thesaurus pauperum belongs to the first category and has been attributed to a 'Petrus Hispanus Compostellanus', author of medical compilations and receptaries. An identification with a 'Petrus Hispanus medicus', who practised and taught medicine in Siena between 1245 and 1250, has also been proposed: see J. F. Meirinhos, 'Petrus Hispanus', in Medieval Science, Technology, and Medicine: An Encyclopedia, ed. T. Glick, S. J. Livesey and F. Wallis (New York: Routledge, 2005), pp. 389-92; A. M. S. A. Rodrigues, M. A. Costa and M. J. Maciel, 'Petrus Hispanus: un médecin portugais dans l'Europe de son temps', in A Igreja e o clero português no contexto europeu (Lisbon: Universidade Católica Portuguesa, 2005), pp. 153-67 (in particular pp. 153-5).
Listed in eTK, a digital resource based on Lynn Thorndike and Pearl Kibre, A Catalogue of Incipits of Medieval Scientific Writings in Latin (Cambridge, MA: Mediaeval Academy, 1963; with supplements in 1965 and 1968; online at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/indexcat/index.html), nos 58J, 85G, 484A, 698A, 1017B, 1051I, 1443K.
The text was widely popular in medieval and early modern times and survives - in full and in a number of adapted versions - in about 700 manuscripts in either Latin or vernacular translations, comprising Catalan, Castilian, Danish, English, French, German, Hebrew (several different translations), Italian (several different translations, including one in Sicilian dialect), Occitan, Scottish, Welsh and Russian (post medieval), but none in Portuguese. In fact, the collection was regarded as an 'open' text and people modified the original Latin text as well as its translations by adding or taking away portions as they pleased: see J. F. Meirinhos, 'O Tesouro dos pobres de Pedro Hispano, entre o século XIII e a edição de Scribonius em 1576', in Humanismo, Diáspora e Ciência (séculos XVI e XVII): Estudos, catálogo, exposição, Biblioteca Pública Municipal do Porto, ed. A. Andrade et al. (Porto: Universidade de Aveiro, Biblioteca Pública Municipal do Porto, 2013), pp. 327-49.
For a list of the Latin manuscripts, see J. F. Meirinhos, Bibliotheca Manuscripta Petri Hispani: os manuscriptos das obras atribuídas a Pedro Hispano (Lisbon: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, 2011); Institut de recherche et d'histoire des textes (IRHT-CNRS), 'Notice de Thesaurus pauperum, Petrus Hispanus (Jean XXI, pape, 121.-1277; r. from )', in P. Bourgain, F. Siri and D. Stutzmann, FAMA: Oeuvres latines médiévales à succès, 2015, available at http://fama.irht.cnrs.fr/oeuvre/268591 (accessed on 24 Aug. 2017).
The Italian translations are numerous and present a particularly complex tradition, as their texts are often interpolated and contaminated. Scholars have identified seven or possibly eight different translations so far, some complete and some relating to particular portions only: see S. Rapisarda, 'I volgarizzamenti del Thesaurus pauperum', in Actes du XXIIe Congrès International de Linguistique et de Philologie Romanes (Bruxelles, 23-29 juillet 1998), ed. A. Engelbert et al. (Tübingen: Niemayer, 2000), vol. 5, pp. 107-21; G. Zarra, 'Rimaneggiamenti e riscritture nei volgarizzamenti italiani del Thesaurus pauperum', in PhiN. Philologie im Netz, Beihefte 11/2016, pp. 23-35, with a list of manuscripts on pp. 33-5, freely available at http://www.fu-berlin.de/phin/bi.htm and http://www.phin.de/bi.htm.
The Latin text was printed in a large number of editions from the late 15th to the 17th century (more than 100). The first was printed by Thierry Martens at Antwerp and dated 22 May 1497 (ISTC ij00241000). It had been preceded by at least two editions of an Italian translation - traditionally, but mistakenly, attributed to Zucchero Bencivenni - published in Florence by Antonio di Bartolommeo Miscomini, about 1492 (ISTC ij00242000), and in Venice by Giovanni Ragazzo and Giovanni Maria di Occimiano on 27 March 1494 (ISTC ij00243000), with three more editions published by the end of the year 1500 (ISTC ij00244000, ij00245000, ij00246000).
For a modern edition of the original Latin text, see M. H. Da Rocha Pereira, Obras médicas de Pedro Hispano (Coimbra: Imprensa de Coimbra por ordem da Universidade de Coimbra, 1973), pp. 78-301 (Thesaurus pauperum), 302-23 (Tractatus de febribus), 324-67 (Appendix: Capita subditicia ex MS. Vat.lat. 5375).
For a short manuscript excerpt of the Latin text in the Wellcome Library, see MS. 335 (ff. 395-7); for a manuscript excerpt of a different Italian translation, see MS. 533, item 4.
The present Italian translation has been attributed to Zuane di Luza (Zuan da Lusa or Johannes de Luxa, chancellor of Kotor, Montenegro) by P. R. Robinson in Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts, c. 888-1600, in London Libraries (London: The British Library, 2003), p. 92, no. 268, followed by Meirinhos in Bibliotheca Manuscripta Petri Hispani …, p. 212, no. 336, on the basis of an article by C. Liguori, 'Il Tesoro dei poveri di Zuane di Luza', Medicina nei secoli, 16 (1979), pp. 339-45. Only a direct comparison with the text of the Tesoro dei poveri in Naples, Bibl. Statale Oratoriana dei Girolamini, MS. MCF. CF. 1.9, signed by Zuane, will confirm the identification.
Its text includes 49 chapters, with variants from the Latin text edited by Da Rocha Pereira as follows: additional chapters on 'tigna' (ch. 5), 'litargia' (ch. 7), 'scotomia' (ch. 11), 'Contra il mal de premiti' (ch. 24.2), 'Delle budella che escie fuora' (ch. 25), 'Della puza de tucti li membri' (ch. 32), and 'Contra la facinatione et malifitii' (ch. 36); absence of chapters 'De epilentia' (ch. VII in the Latin text), 'De gutta rosacea' (ch. X), 'De paralisi lingue' (ch. XIII), 'De pleuresi' (ch. XIX), 'De colica et iliaca passione' (ch. XXII), 'De tenasmone' (ch. XXIII), 'De exitu ani' (ch. XXVI), 'De icteritia' (ch. XXX), 'De passione virge' (ch. XXXVI), 'De crepatura' (ch. XLIX); multiple-part division of some chapters: 'De dolore oculorum' in three parts (chs 12-14), 'De opilatione lapidis vesice et renum' in two parts (chs 30-31), 'Ut mulier concipiat' in two parts (chs 43-44); transpositions of chapters 'De carbunculo o antraxe' (ch. 48) and 'De [g]uarir i creuati' (ch. 49).
There is no break in the present manuscript between the Thesaurus pauperum and the following Tractatus de febribus, as immediately apparent in the absence of a break in the sequence of chapter numbers. Nevertheless, scholars are still debating whether the two texts may actually be two separate treatises in view of the fact that the De febribus is not included in a significant number of manuscripts of the Thesaurus. Here, the text has 3 chapters only (chs 50-52), lacking the first two chapters in Da Rocha Pereira's edition, 'De febre effemera' (ch. I) and 'De fibre continua' (ch. II); moreover, chapters III and IV are in reverse order, presenting 'Della febbre cotidiana' (ch. IV, here ch. 50) before 'Della febbre terzana' (ch. III, here ch. 51).
The Capita subditicia in the present manuscript include 32 chapters (chs 53-84), considerably more than those published by Da Rocha Pereira from MS. Vat. lat. 5375. The additional chapters are as follows: 'Delle morsecature uenenose', 'Contra leuarole', 'Contro li forunculi', 'De aladire le fistole', 'Della rogna e della lepra e mal morbo', 'De curare le male postule', 'De curare le giandole', 'Delle veruche et porri', 'Delle combustioni del foco e dellacqua e olio', 'De foco sacro', 'Delle medixine che tira fore la saecta e spine', 'Delle beuande che se de dare all'impiagati', 'Delle medexime che perseuera contra la pestilenti', 'De cognoscere li signi mortali e li signi de la uita', 'De redure el uino uoltato', 'Contra la ebrieta', 'De non lassare ad fatigar incamino', 'De remouere la sete ad quilli che sonno affatigati per camino', 'Delle beuande per quilli che sonno feriti', 'Delle beuande per quilli che sonno infistulati', 'Delli siroppi digestive alteratiui della umuri [i.e. umori] et delle medixine solitiui', 'Ad purgare la melengonia', 'Ad purgar la colora terzana', 'Ad purgare la flema', 'Contra la febre cotidiana', 'Contra la febre terzana', 'Contro la febre quartana', 'Ad dezurire [sic for digerire] et disponere li humuri che sonno in li membri spirituali', 'Contra la dispessienzia', 'Della ponderosita del corpo', 'Contra la plereusis', 'Della fin del lu libro dello thesauro delli poueri'.
f. 1r-v: Prologue: Incipit: [Q]Visto libro se chiama tesauro di pouiri. / [A]L nome della sancta e diuina trinita patris et filii et spiritus sancti Amen luquale a creato tucte le cose excepto dio ...; f. 1v, col. 1, lines 19-25: Explicit: … della infermita de cauilli i quali alle uolte cazono del cauo e alle uolte se altera [followed by a sentence added by the translator or compiler of the text:] e sappi che quisto non e tucto lu libro dicto se non quello che me a meio piaxiuto de tuor del dicto libro.
ff. 1v, col. 1, line 26-2v, col. 2, line 15: Table of chapters: Capitolo primo delli cauilli che cazeno … Capitolo .83. pouere solitiue del corpi. / Capitolo .84. La fin dellu libro del thesauro de i pouiri.
f. 2v, col. 2, line 16: Thesaurus pauperum, Incipit: Capitolo primo de far uegniri li cauilli / [L]O primo capitolo si e contra li cauilli che cadeno del cauo ...
f. 32v, col. 1, line 20: Explicit: … [De [g]uarir i creuati] … sara tolto questa infermita zoe beuandolo ogni di da deziuno.
f. 32v, col. 1, line 21: Tractatus de febribus, Incipit: Capitolo .50. della febre cotidiana / [S]E tu uoli curar tosto la febre cotidiana ...
f. 35r, col. 2, line 22: Explicit: … [Capitolo .52. della febre quartana] … Et fa chello infirmo sia ben couerto et tu uederai miraculo.
f. 35r, col. 2, line 23: Capita subditicia, Incipit: Capitolo .53. delle morsecature uenenose / [A]D uoler curare le more cadune uenenose quisto e uno experimento secundo costantino et gilberto prendi una gallina …
f. 47v, col. 1, lines 15-21: Explicit: … Ma io te prego che tu intenebri tucti quilli liquali lizera per qualche impedimento et per qualche captiueria. El quale uiue con dio padre omnipotente per tucti i seculi delli seculi. / DEO GRATIAS. AMEN. / [colophon] [F]Inito libro Thesaurus pauperum sit laus et gloria christo fuit in ciuitate uenetiarum die primo mensis septembris anno. Domini nostri yhesu christi .1451.
2. ff. 47v-51v: Libro della flebotomia by an anonymous author, followed by a list of authorities mentioned in the text, in Italian.
The text in the present manuscript does not appear to correspond with any of those edited in P. Gil-Sotres, Scripta Minora de flebotomia en la tradición médica del siglo XIII (Santander-Pamplona: Eunsa, 1986).
It is divided into 26 chapters, followed by a list of favourable and unfavourable days for blood-letting (ff. 50v-51v).
f. 47v, col. 2: Incipit: [Q]Vi comenza el libro della flobotomia zio que e flobotomia et adque zioua. / [I]N la flobotomia zioe tor sangue et aurir le uene ...
f. 51v, col. 1, lines 21-24: Explicit: … Dicembrio adi 31. / Finito e lo libro della flobotomia sit sit [sic] semper laus et gloria christo. Amen.
f. 51v, col. 1, line 25: Incipit: Qui sonno scripti li nomi delli sauii docturi e delli philosophi. / Per uoler sauer de quanti libri e tracto questo libro et de quanti sauii filosofi experimentaturi e de quanti medixi ad maiestrati o doctori lezi …
f. 51v, col. 2, last line: Explicit: … adonqua douemo ben pregare l'altiximo dio che li perdone ad quilli che i quali sonno affatigati de insegnare ad nuj questa opera.

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