Dineley/Dyneley (or Dingley/Dyngley), Henry (& others)

Collection of medical receipts in English, with a few in Latin. Preceded by a Calendar, etc., and at the end part of an Armorial by an earlier hand. With additions to the Receipts by later hands. Written mainly in double column: the Calendar in red and black, and the Armorial partly emblazoned, with many blank or incomplete shields. There are numerous small pen-drawings of medical apparatus, etc.: Prelim. leaf 1v 'A trewe Est and Weste erecte dial'. 4v Shield with arms of Dineley, and date 1613. 14v Small sketch of parts of a fishing rod of the Author's invention. 15v 'A pype to heale thrustes of my owne invention'. Page 26 A surgical 'Tente'. There is a similar drawing on p. 29. 67 Surgical needle and thread. 68 Use of above in a leg wound. 71 Drawing of a 'pype' similar to that noted above. 79 Box for a lead plaster, and a mortar. 170 Drawing of a truss, and of a male figure wearing it. 283 A 'pype' to fumigate the ears. 311 Circular diagram connected with the making of 'aqua mirabilis'. 337 Leg showing bandage for a fractured tibia. The Calendar shows that the writer was a Roman Catholic, and this section is compiled by the earlier hand, as are all the preliminary leaves and the Armorial. The signature of 'Henry Dingley' appears on the verso of the first prelim. leaf. On the mutilated leaf mentioned above, is a note of weights and measures 'Wrytten this V day of Auguste anno christiano 1564'. The text ends 'Wheresoever ye see this carecter HD stand in the margent of this my boke agaynst any medycine, oyle, oyntment...within this boke that have I Henry dineley prouyd withowte dowte and no other have I myself prouyd'. The first two leaves beginning at the other end of the volume also contain inscriptions. On the verso of the first is a note beginning 'The yeare of oure lorde god 1564: was the coldest sprynge and the wyndyst that ever I h:d: dyd see.... This is followed by astrological predictions for the year. It ends with two lines in Italic hand signed Henry Dingley: 'Anno Domini 1592 Died all the Baye trees in Englande above ground but reuiued at the Rootes for the most parte whereof I had twooe in my gardeyn'. Below in a different script 'Anno Domini 1598 no fructe, Apples nor peares'. The end of this note has been obliterated in ink, but it is possibly also signed 'Henry Dingley'. At the head of the second leaf is an inscription in the older hand, 'Liber henrici Dineley. ex dono ffrancisci Dineley armigeri. Anno 1591 3 decembris'. This is repeated above the signature 'Frauncis Dyneley 1592'. Among scribbled Latin and French below those inscriptions is 'henry Dyneley of hanley chastell oweth this Booke. Per me Henry Dyneley'. In the text is a reference on p. 335 to 'my father anno 1548' and on p. 339 to 'my grandfather, my father and myself at Tewkesbury'. Many of the additions by a later hand bear the name of Dr. [John] Sadler [1615-1664]. The latest date in the text is 1633.

1564-1633

1 volume 16 ll. + 353 pp. + 4 bl. ll. + 24 ll. folio. 411/2 x 27 cm. Original stamped leather binding over wooden boards, much damaged and wormed: brass corner pieces, three wanting, and bosses. A large portion of the Armorial has been torn out, as well as some leaves in the unpaginated preliminary section; one of the leaves of which has the lower half torn away. The pagination is incorrect and pp. 112/3 has been torn out.

Date of acquisition, and provenance not known.

A Francis Dineley is recorded in the Visitation of Worcester as having died in 1624 aged 74. A Henry Dyngley is also mentioned there as having matriculated at St. Edmund Hall, Oxford, in January 1594/5 aged 13.

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).