Anglo-Saxon leechcraft : an historical sketch of early English medicine. Lecture memoranda British Medical Association Liverpool 1912.

  • British Medical Association.
Date:
1912
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

Credit: Anglo-Saxon leechcraft : an historical sketch of early English medicine. Lecture memoranda British Medical Association Liverpool 1912. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    CHAPTER IV Medicinale Anglicum O R The Leech Book of Bald The most important of the Anglo-Saxon manuscripts, from a medical point of view, is known as the Leech Book of Bald, and the allusions to King Alfred contained in it show that it was written either in the lifetime of that monarch or shortly after his death. Judging from the character of the caligraphy, authorities are of opinion that it was written in the former half of the tenth century. The book itself is a definite and complete work, consisting of one hundred and twenty-seven folios, written on vellum, and is divided into two parts, each with its proper colyphon at the end. The first consists of eighty-eight, and the second of sixty-six, chapters. This manuscript is thought to have probably once belonged to the famous Abbey of Glastonbury, for a catalogue of the books of that foundation snven bv Wanley contains the entry— Bald' the W J owner of Medicinale Anglicum, and when this the book book was re-bound in 1757, there was found inscribed on one of the fly-leaves the words Medicinale Anglicum, in almost illegible characters. The authorship of the work is largely a matter of conjecture, but the following crude verses are inscribed at the end of the second book:— Bald is the owner of this book, which he ordered Cild to write, Earnestly I pray here all men, in the name of Christ, That no treacherous person take this book from me, Neither by force, nor by theft, nor by any false statement. Why ? because the richest treasure is not so dear to me As my dear books, which the grace of Christ attends. Judging from these lines it would appear that Bald was probably an Anglo-Saxon leech, or, at least, B*