Cendratis, Ludovicus De ( -1480)

The manuscript consists of one work and is a book of notes relating to the nature and medical properties of plants, animals, the winds, seasons, fruits, etc., mostly in respect of diet. The text-which is in the form of short entries of four or five lines-is written in black and red, by a neat humanistic hand. It was produced in Verona.

Two pagination schemes are present which include an earlier pagination created by a sixteenth century hand-who also created the index-and a later foliation. The catalogue description is based on the foliation.

ff. 1v-2r The work begins with a colophon

f. 1v Mcccclxxiiii Codex Ludouici de Cendratis ciuis Veronensis: qui nullum aliud nouit imperium: nisi Serenissimum uenetorum Dominium cum turba natorum numero trigintaduorum ex unico Matrimonio…. f. 2r Opus naturae rerum compendiosum et eruditum: nec minus uarium quam ipsa natura.

The name 'Cendratis' seems to have been written over another name which has been erased (see f. 1v). Above the line a later hand has written 'Prius fuerat mei Antonii de ...' The rest has been rubbed out.

1. ff. 3r-102r Medical notes

f. 3r Ficus Nature calide et humide in 1° ... f. 102r Auicule et turdi Nature c[alide] et sicce in 2° ... Remotio nocumenti cum oleo amygdalorum.

ff. 103r-106v Index

f. 103r Tabula rerum omnium que/[in] hoc uolumine continentur…. f. 106v Finis tabule in qua omnia capita continentur que tractantur in hoc libro.

1474

1 volume 1 l. + 201 pp. + 4 ll. 8vo. 191/2 x 131/2 cm. On vellum: the added four leaves at the end are paper. Light blue morocco gilt binding by Charles Lewis [1786-1836].

Purchased at Sotheby's 24/11/1908, Lot 380.

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

Database description transcribed from 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).

On the first fly-leaf 'Opus Naturae. H. Drury. comp[aravit] C. Lewis'. The second fly-leaf contains a notice of the MS. and its contents by H[enry] Joseph Thomas Drury [1778-1841], scholar and book-collector. [See the Dictionary of National Biography]. On the verso of the first leaf 'Phillipps MS. 9341'. Pasted inside the upper cover is the Library Label of Robert [Reynolds] Steele [1860-1944] of Wandsworth Common. Sold at Sotheby's (Bibliotheca Phillippica) 9/6/1899, Lot 893.