Regimen Sanitatis Salernitanum

Regimen Sanitatis Salernitanum, in a shortened version of 844 lines. Followed by De veritate et conscientia and other verses in English, medical receipts, etc. The MS. appears originally to have been part of a larger volume.

Written by several hands. The `Regimen' is written in a clear book hand, in double column of 46 lines to a column. The poems are in less formal scripts, probably of a rather later period, but the receipts, etc. seem to be additions and are in a semi-current late 15th or early 16th century hand.

Contents

1. ff. 1r-7v Regimen Sanitatis Salernitanum

f. 1r Regimen universalis sanitatis. Regimen vniuersalis sanitatis. Anglorum regi scripsit scola tota salerni. Si vis incolumem si vis te viuere sanum ... f. 7v Ista super renes pecten pone fitque iuvamen. Explicit tractatus qui dicitur flos medicine.

On the Regimen Sanitatis Salernitanum, see Marilyn Nicoud, Les regimes de sante au Moyen Age: naissance et diffusion d'une ecriture medicale, XIIIe-XVe siecle, 2 vols (Ecole francaise de Rome, 2007).

2. f. 7v Verses on the Seven Virtues, in English

f. 7v Sapiencia. With sapyence tempre thi corage ... Iusticia ... Ffurst yn thi mesure looke theber no lak ... Prudencia ... Thingys passid remembre and well devide ... The othe of them that schall Comence appell of murder. Thow schalt say sothe of that thow schalt be axid. And no things but soth ...

3. ff. 8r-v De veritate et consciencia, English poem of 148 lines in 12 and 8 line stanzas

f. 8r Summe maner maters wolde I fayne meve And I wyst thes gentyllys all to paye ... f. 8v To do mercy lorde that day Ffor to thi courte Conscyens shall come. Explicit.

4. f. 8v Latin poem

f. 8v Non sis dando dolens. Sed vultus sit sine labe.

5. f. 8v Twelve lines of English verse

f. 8v Thus he sought in euery side ... Can tell where conscyens ys be come.

At the bottom of the column is: Crispini multos prostrauit anglica francos (presumably a reference to the Battle of Agincourt on St. Crispin's Day, 25 October, 1415).

6. f. 9r Receipts, in a later hand

f. 9r Medecyn. Pocio faciliter purgans ... Hippocras of Mr. Morgans devisyng. (This may be Philip Morgan [1454-1516] of Eton and King's College, Cambridge, M.D. in 1507).

7. f. 9r English poem of 32 lines

f. 9r When lyfe is moost loved And dethe is moost hated ... And pray to god upon erthe pat all hath made of nought that erthe out of erthe to blysse may be brought. Explicit

Middle 15th century

1 volume 9 ll. folio. 381/2 x 251/2 cm. On vellum. 18th cent. half calf binding. Some corners damaged.

The papers are available subject to the usual conditions of access to Archives and Manuscripts material, after the completion of a Reader's Undertaking.

Purchased 1909.

Catalogue description modified in 2014. For original description, see S.A.J. Moorat, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts on Medicine and Science in the Wellcome Historical Medical Library (London: Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, 1962-1973).

This material has been digitised and can be freely accessed online through Wellcome Collection catalogue.

Anglo-Saxon letter forms such as the thorn and yogh have been reproduced here in modern English.

On the first leaf is an inscription by a later 16th century owner, Gregor Fabig. On the fly-leaf at the beginning, written by Sir Thomas Phillipps in pencil, 'Ex libris Rev P. Bliss Oxon', i.e. Philip Bliss [1787-1837], Antiquary. Phillipps MS. No. 18134. Sold at Sotheby's (Phillipps Sale) 15/6/1896, Lot 965.